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Our next training academy will take place from the 27th to 30th May 2025, 9:30am to 4:30pm.

APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN

27th to 30th MAY 2025

Sessions take place every day between 9:30am and 4:30pm

The Blackburn Film Academy are back to give aspiring filmmakers the chance to work with us; the amazing professionals at the National Film & Television School and our friends at Blackburn Rovers Football Club.

If you are a budding filmmaker aged 14 to 19 and you live in the Blackburn with Darwen area we want you to apply! During the spring half term break we will deliver masterclasses and take you through the process of making short documentaries over the course of a week.

Based in the Blackburn Film Academy at Blackburn College we will take you through the process of planning, shooting and editing a series of short documentaries with Blackburn Rovers Football Club. The club are commemorating 30 years since they won the Premier League, and your films will help celebrate and document the people who were involved with this great era.

Following on from our successful training weeks in February and April we are super excited to welcome another team of creative young people from our region. Successful applicants will join us in to our film studio and editing suites to work alongside the professional team of filmmakers from the BFA and our partners from the world-leading National Film and Television School.

Our professional crew will include experienced and award-winning professionals including a Director, Producer and Director of Photography. In addition, you will be supported by the Development Manager from the NFTS and the Director of the BFA.

Meet the Crew

Director of Photography – Jenni Suitiala

Director – Ashok Prasad

Beena Khetani – Production Manager/Producer

Director of the Blackburn Film Academy – Rich McKenny

All places on the course are free to successful applicants and your completed films will be screened to family and friends at the Blackburn Festival of Film in July and potentially on the football club’s social media channels.

To apply for a place, you simply need to complete the form below. Don’t worry if you have no film making experience, we are looking for creative young people with the ambition and drive to work in our brilliant industry. If you believe that is you, we want to hear about it!

Please note: You must be able to attend every day of the programme.

In no more than 500 words tell us why you would love a place on our course.

Director of Photography – Jenni Suitiala

Jenni Suitiala is a Finnish director of photography based in the UK shooting narrative film as well as documentary. After studying cinematography in her home country she relocated to the UK in 2010 and worked her way up in the lighting department in TV dramas and features (Judy, Peaky Blinders, Dad’s Army, Utopia). Her films have screened on Oscar and Bafta qualifying festivals (Aesthetica, Iris Prize, Leeds International Festival) as well as Channel 4. She’s a member of illuminatrix rising and Bafta Connect.

IMDB

Director – Ashok Prasad

Ashok is an award-winning director, series producer and edit producer. He is excellent at observational filming, building relationships with contributors and at constructing narratives to make entertaining and dramatic films. He specialises in engaging and compelling narratives and has more than thirty credits on primetime factual programmes – mostly for the BBC and C4 but also for Discovery, Nat Geo and others. These include programmes for Cutting Edge, Dispatches, Everyman, Extraordinary People and This World.

Over the years, he has made many observational documentaries s but I also have a lot of experience in making specialist factual programmes and can bring my journalistic skills and obs doc talents to make the best out of any film whatever genre.

Ashok Prasad has directed documentaries for more than twenty five years for major UK and US channels. His credits includeThe Sun Says Sorry – And Other Tales of Forgiveness (BBC One), Has Political Correctness Gone Mad? (C4) and Rhythms of India (BBC Four).

IMBD

Beena Khetani – Production Manager/Producer

After 15+ years in Factual TV and Audio production as Self-shooting PD, Development Producer and Audio Producer, Beena is now a Talent Executive with BBC Studios’ Factual Unit.

Her TV experience is varied, working on content spanning a variety of genres; from Current Affairs to Children’s, Specialist Factual to Sport. In audio, she worked on programming for Radio 4, National Prison Radio, Jazz FM and made the odd podcasts. Beena now specialises in head hunting the very best editorial freelancers from across the UK and occasionally overseas – from Runners right through to Executive Producers. Her remit covers Observational Documentaries, Specialist Factual, Popular Factual, Current Affairs, Development and Factual Podcasts. Beena strives to create opportunities for those underrepresented in our industry and she is particularly passionate about growing talent in the North. Beena sits on the steering committee for the TV Talent North Facebook group.

IMBD

Director of the Blackburn Film Academy – Rich McKenny

Rich is and experienced live television camera operator and sports photographer. He has 12 years of experience working in film education that has seen numerous students go on to win awards and forge exciting careers in all departments of the film and television industry.

He started the Blackburn Film Academy (BFA) as a means to bring exciting filmmaking opportunities to the young people of Blackburn with Darwen and inspire them to pursue a career that might at first seem out of their reach.

Working out of Blackburn College’s amazing film studio and edit suites, with the support of Blackburn with Darwen Council and our friends at the National Film and Television School has allowed the BFA to deliver unbelievable training and experiences for the young people of our region.