Two students from Abingdon School will walk the red carpet next month after their short film ‘Blindside’ was nominated for the top award at London’s BFI (British Film Institute) Future Film Festival.
John Cheung, 18, and Aim Wonghirundacha, 17, will be heading to London from February 20 to 22 after their picture was chosen for ‘best film’ in the fiction category.
They will be among more than 1,000 young film-makers aged 15 to 25 with the chance to show off their work to industry experts and special guests.
“It feels great, the film has far succeeded our expectations,” said John.
“We have a film society in our school called the Abingdon Film Unit, and it was our first year joining last year so this was our first film.
“And as this is our first film that we’ve made, we’re just very happy to have been selected.”
‘Blindside’ – which is around 10 minutes long – follows the story of a boarding school student who finds himself alone and isolated in this dark thriller.
It was filmed at Abingdon School last year, and draws influence from John and Aim’s own experiences as boarding students.
John said: “It’s mainly because Aim and I are both overseas full-time boarders, so we often stay in school during the weekends when everyone is gone.
“We noticed how empty and deserted the school looked during the weekend, and we were particularly inspired by how creepy and unsettling it was.
“So this inspired us to make something dark and thrilling based on the idea of a vacant school.”
Following the success of their first picture, both are now looking to carry on their film-making exploits.
Aim said: “I’ll probably continue it as a hobby in the future, and at university as well.
“I really like the creative process, coming up with a story, actually making it, and writing the script.”
John added: “We have an idea for our next film, we’ve got the script written down and we’ll probably film it in the next few weeks.”
To watch ‘Blindside’, go to youtube.com/watch?v=JPqZiUOHSlM.
