Interview With British Urban Film Festival Founder Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe

The British Urban Film Festival (B.U.F.F) was founded in 2005 by Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe, to embrace diversity within the film industry and provide a platform for voices traditionally marginalised in mainstream cinema, priding itself on facilitating storytelling for the curators as well as making film accessible to a wider audience.

The festival has grown from screening films over one evening to a week-long celebration, with events across an array of venues in the capital, showcasing shorts and features of different genres from all over the globe. The festival has gained sponsorship from the likes of BBC Films, Trace Urban and Colourful Radio, to name a few. 2017 looks like it will have even more in store as its social media profiles buzz with excitement, eagerly anticipating the next installment.

BUFF was the first UK film festival to facilitate its own festival content on the BBC i-player in April 2012.

This proved so successful, they did so again in 2014 in conjunction with Channel 4, providing free access across the UK. This reinforced their ethos that film needs to be made more accessible across the board, as well as adding a whole other dimension to the festival.

The festival launched its own awards and honours system to celebrate people working in every aspect of film. Emmanuel himself was then honoured by the Creativity Hub Magazine for his dedication to the film industry in the tenth year of the festival. We wanted to speak to the man himself to talk everything BUFF and find out what’s in store for 2017.

Holly Wyatt for Film Inquiry: Please tell us more about BUFF?

Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe: BUFF is the colloquial name for the British Urban Film Festival – an organisation which I founded in the summer of 2005. The festival forms part of an infrastructure which creates its own platforms to showcase writers, actors, and directors who predominantly hail from working class and B.A.M.E backgrounds. For the last 12 years, the festival has filled a vacuum within UK film and television in making urban independent and urban mainstream cinema accessible to the largest audience reach possible.

How has the festival evolved since 2005?

Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe: The festival has evolved enormously, as it was launched at a time when diversity was not the issue which it now is today. Consequently, whilst every film and TV institution has had to play catch up with the changing demographics of the UK, BUFF has remained consistent in its purpose, and our festival continues to be visible and credible – not just in London but across the UK and globally.

What sort of film genres are you hoping to see submitted this year?

Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe: BUFF encourages all types of genre to be submitted, as we have a remit to be as diverse as possible. In recent years we have screened coming-of-age dramas (Calloused Hands), Nigerian crime (Woolwich Boys), mockumentaries (Bloody Lip), Greek tragedy (David is Dying), and comedy (Huge).

How does a filmmaker become eligible for a BUFF award nomination?

Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe: BUFF’s long history meant that we could tap into 10 years of archive and nominees to choose from when the BUFF Awards were first launched in 2015. The awards now take place annually (during the festival), which means that any festival films which are selected can only be eligible for nomination the following year. Not all festival films get shortlisted; however any scriptwriters whose work is showcased at the festival are actually awarded.

What are this year’s submission dates and festival programming dates?

Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe: Early bird submissions come with a fee of £17 until 23:59 on Friday 5 May. Late submissions come with a fee of £50 from Saturday 6 May until 17:00, Monday 5 June. Films and scripts can be submitted via the BUFF website, Film Freeway or Withoutabox. The dates for BUFF 2017 will be announced later in the year.

Get involved and check out BUFF’s digital home, as well as their YouTube, Twitter and Instagram.