Start your filmmaking journey today

Applications are currently CLOSED. The next BFA x NFTS training week will take place in October half term 2025.

APPLICATIONS ARE NOW CLOSED

The Blackburn Film Academy gives aspiring filmmakers the chance to work with us – the talented professionals at the National Film and Television School – and, in our most recent academy, our friends at Blackburn Rovers Football Club.

We offer budding filmmakers aged 14 to 19, living in the Blackburn with Darwen area, the opportunity to take part in masterclasses and training sessions that guide them through the process of making films, documentaries, and – in October – music videos, all in the space of one week.

Most recently, we hosted a team of talented young filmmakers at Blackburn College. As part of the Blackburn Film Academy, they planned, shot, and edited a series of short documentaries in partnership with Blackburn Rovers Football Club. The club is commemorating 30 years since winning the Premier League, and these films helped celebrate and document the people involved in that historic era.

This followed our successful training weeks in February and April, when we welcomed selected applicants into our film studios and editing suites. They worked alongside professional filmmakers from the BFA and our partners at the world-leading National Film and Television School to create their own short films.

Our professional crew typically includes experienced and award-winning Directors, Producers, and Cinematographers. Each week is overseen by the Development Manager from the NFTS and the Director of the BFA.

Watch this space for details about our next programme in October!

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.

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.

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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).

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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.

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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.