Last weekend marked the 14th Deaffest, the UK’s leading Deaf-led Film and Arts Festival! This year’s nominated films are all available to be watched for free through the Deaffest Online Cinema, which you can access through their website until the 14th May.
If you are unfamiliar with the event, it is a 3-day festival which is held in Wolverhampton and showcases Deaf films and art from around the world.
Find out more about the event here: Deaffest 2022
The winners of the Deaffest 2022 Film & TV Awards include:
Best Film: Here/Not Here
Designed to be performed as a theatre production as well as film, this genre-defying film creates a completely unique style for its communication. By combining BSL with hip hop music, dance, and sport, the director Bim Ajadi attempts to create a film that appeals to both the Deaf and the hearing without any interpretation.
Best UK Short Film: Louder Is Not Always Clearer
Another adaptation of a theatre production, this short film is the artist Jonny Cotsen’s expression of his own life story, and the struggles with isolation of an extraverted Deaf person.
Best Documentary: Summer in Lockdown
This BSLZone documentary showcases the Deaf community and their varied experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically the lockdown of Summer 2020.
Best Director: Aimee Campbell-Nottage
For Magic Hands: Black History
Best Actress: Natasha ‘Raffie’ Julien
For Lost, Taken, Murdered
Best Actor: Jonny Cotsen
For Louder is Not Always Clearer
Best TV Programme: This is Deaf
For the episode LGBTQIA+ Life
Best Artistic Short Film: Magic Hands: Black History
Directed by Aimee Campbell-Nottage
Best Screenwriter: Natasha Ofili
For The Mutli
Best Presenter: Nadeem Islam
For BBC See Hear on Tour
For the full list of nominations, check out the official Deaffest website.