Pictured (left-right): Top row - Alex Fish, Lucy M Mainstone, Cristián Saavedra, Liam Martin; Middle row - Jashan Walton, Katrina Lehismäe, Keeley Lane, Lorraine Molloy; Bottom row - Michael Kendrick Williams, Nick J Winchester, Olivia Hird, Vicky Morton
We are thrilled to announce the cohort and Guest Mentor Alex Thomas for this year’s expanded Filmmaker Challenge, supported by Principal Sponsor Prime Video Pathway.
Returning for its largest edition to date, the 2026 Filmmaker Challenge expands beyond Sheffield for the first time, supporting twice as many filmmakers across three regions in the UK. Twelve filmmakers from Yorkshire, Cornwall and Wales - four selected from each region - will each create a 3 minute non-fiction film in and around one of the three locations, under the guidance of experienced mentors, and supported with dedicated equipment and industry access to this year's festival.
For the first time, selected filmmakers will be invited to take part in a three-day residential workshop in May, exploring aspects of the filmmaking journey from idea development to distribution strategies.
We are delighted to announce Alex Thomas, BAFTA Breakthrough and double Grierson Award-winning director, as our Guest Mentor this year. Alex will mentor the cohort of talents to develop their short films, from inception of their ideas in response to the 2026 theme Realities in Motion, to providing feedback during production and editing via filmmaker 1-2-1s, to the shorts’ showcase at the 33rd edition of Sheffield DocFest.
Working to a tight deadline, the filmmakers will create their films over five days, with filming taking place in a single day. The finished documentaries will be presented at a public screening at Sheffield DocFest on Saturday 13 June alongside the Guest Mentor and festival representatives.
Meet the cohort
Yorkshire
Olivia Hird
Olivia Hird is a self-shooting filmmaker, facilitator, and researcher, bridging creative and care-based approaches, working across nonfiction film and mental health.
Trained in visual anthropology, Olivia's research is guided by personal stories that explore how people relate to place, time, and themselves. Her parallel work as a Mental Health Recovery Specialist supports a sensitive, trauma-informed approach to contributor ethics and relationships. Olivia’s latest commission, Intermittent & Continuous (2025), premiered at the BAFTA-qualifying Bolton Film Festival, and Intertidal (2024) screened at the Freiburger Film Forum and the NAFA International Ethnographic Film Festival.
Olivia has worked on features, shorts and broadcast. Experience includes work with RSA Films, Dartmouth Films, Whalebone Films, BBC, Channel 4, ITV and Channel 5. Her work as a director-producer includes partnerships with Samaritans, NHS, Age UK and Cambridge University. Beyond film production, Olivia has taught Ethnographic Documentary Filmmaking at the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology (2025), worked as Production Manager for Open City Documentary Festival (UCL), co-facilitated participatory visual storytelling workshops with Yarrow Films and participated in the HOME Artist Film Lab (2022) and HOME Artist Lab (2024).
Keeley Lane
Keeley Lane is a Yorkshire-based Producer Director working across documentary, current affairs and observational storytelling. With a background in journalism, her work is rooted in building trust and gaining access within complex and often sensitive environments, with a focus on behaviour, accountability and the systems that shape people’s lives.
She has directed, shot and edit produced films for BBC, ITV, C4, C5 amongst others, often working closely with contributors navigating difficult or high-stakes situations. Her work spans embedded access, investigative development and character-led storytelling, and she is drawn to stories that move beyond headlines to explore the underlying forces shaping people’s choices and circumstances. She loves that film making lets me into the best and worst of what it is to be human. Her work is grounded in care, curiosity and editorial rigour.
Alongside directing, she has a strong background in development, shaping ideas from early concept through to pitch as well as having a passion and experience in scripted work on stage and screen. She has recently completed TRC/ScreenSkills Series Producer Programme and worked as a Series Producer for the first time last year, supported by 4Skills.
Katrina Lehismäe
Katrina Lehismäe is director and producer focussing on socially engaged, character-driven storytelling. Having built a strong foundation in British television, she recently made her feature debut with ‘Lost Stars of the Horoscope’. Since its World Premiere at the FIAPF-accredited Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, the documentary has gained significant international traction, including selection for the Visions du Réel Film-Market and a high-profile screening at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. Anchored by her award-winning short, The Passing (PÖFF Shorts Audience Award), Lehismäe’s work continues to dissect the friction between personal identity and shifting geopolitical landscapes.
Jashan Walton
Jashan Walton is an Indian-British visual artist working across film, photography and installation. His practice is centred on acts of creation within the historical and contemporary lives of people of colour in the UK. He traces how cities shape diasporic communities and how these communities in turn reshape, remix and remould urban space, with a particular focus on the formation of musical scenes.
He explores how cultural production is seen and valued, attending to the biases and omissions that shape its histories. By working with overlooked communities and lived experience, he brings attention to forms of creativity that are often marginalised or misread.
Formally, Jashan works with archive and montage to unsettle dominant ways of seeing. By playing and interrogating the medium, he seeks to surface hidden histories and open them to reinterpretation.
His approach is collaborative and research-driven, grounded in building relationships with contributors and working within communities. This allows the work to remain accountable to lived experience rather than imposed narratives.
His latest film, Ultra Violet Neon Planet screened at the BFI Southbank as part of the British Lives screening at the most recent London Short Film Festival as well as Berlin British Shorts, Womex, Institute of Contemporary Arts, UNERHÖRT! and Sound Watch Berlin. His other works in film photography and installation have been shown at Sheffield DocFest, Site Gallery and Tate Liverpool. He has also collaborated with record labels including Warp Records, Sony Music India and Young, producing photography and commercial work with artists such as Jamie xx, Skrillex and Daytimers.
Cornwall
Alex Fish
Alex Fish wants to see societal and environmental change! His vision for 99p Films is to use the power of documentary films to create awareness, inspire positive solution based alternatives and help communities, direct action groups and public bodies facilitate that transition. 'Social Cinema' is 99p's signature formula incorporating breathwork, documentary films, audience led discussions and a communal feast. All of which create an enjoyable and social experience filled with wellness and human connection. Having shown over 100 different films, spanning from Marine conservation & Temperate rainforests to the refugee crises and economic models like Modern Monetary Theory. 99p has established itself as a unique exhibitor of impact based docs in the South West. Alex and his team now wish to make their own films, telling the stories that have not yet been captured in a creative, entertaining and educational way. He's so excited with this Sheffield Doc Challenge and can't wait to take the next steps and develop his own filmmaker journey.
Lucy M Mainstone
Lucy M Mainstone began her career working in talent management with actors and VO artists in London before moving into HETV casting in Vancouver, working on The Good Doctor for ABC, and Warner Brothers titles including The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Riverdale and DC's Legends of Tomorrow. Since moving home to Cornwall she's worked in factual TV as a Researcher on Simon Reeve's Return to Cornwall for the BBC and Cornwall Air 999 for Discovery, as well as numerous development projects, with Beagle Media. The BFI Network scripted short Bare Roots marked her first Producer role in 2025, directed by Ellen McDougall and starring Linda Bassett and Charlotte Ritchie, which has begun a promising festival run, with selections in multiple BIFA and BAFTA qualifying festivals.
Nick J Winchester
Nick J Winchester works across documentary forms and most recently made a multichannel video installation mixing traditional documentary methods with 3D scanning and game engine technology to create a true simulated environment that explored the temporality and visibility of environmental change caused by extraction.
He captured a post-mining landscape over a year-long period, drawn by an unresolved feeling that nascent lithium extraction is skewing people’s memory of what mining was—and is—in Cornwall.
Nick began his career in journalism, interning and working for various news outlets, and later as a reporter along the US-Mexico border and in Lebanon.
He spent some time working in documentary distribution, managing news and shorts from independent filmmakers and international broadcasters, including Al Jazeera, ABC Australia and PBS NewsHour. Nick has also worked on music promos and live shows, which have been broadcast by KEXP, CBS This Morning and Amazon Music UK. And, as a video producer and editor, he has created comms content and commercial campaigns.
Lorraine Molloy
After leaving primary teaching, Lorraine moved into television production work at Meridian (ITV) Southampton, launching a career across Channel 4, BBC, ITV and Channel 5. As a director she self-shot intimate birth documentaries in Scotland and Birmingham, skills she later used filming for Medical Aid Films in Somalia - work requiring the exact sensitivity and trust-building she's known for. Once she became a parent, Lorraine focused on edit producing and working as a chaperone and tutor on scripted productions. Those teaching skills came in useful!
Now based in Cornwall, she is working with writers as part of the BFI Network South West Peninsula Producers across Devon and Cornwall.
Wales
Michael Kendrick Williams
Michael Kendrick Williams is a BAFTA Cymru award-winning Welsh filmmaker whose work blends cinematic documentary craft with journalistic instincts. As a director, producer and editor, he has built a distinctive body of work for BBC Wales, BBC Network and S4C, often focusing on intimate human stories within sport, culture, identity and rural communities.His credits include the BAFTA Cymru-winning bilingual documentary Britannia’s Burning: Fire on the Bridge / Britannia: Tân ar y Bont, the BBC Wales and BBC Network film Wrexham: Hollywood or Bust, and Legends of Welsh Sport: Nicky Grist. He is also the creator, director, series producer and editor of Pen Petrol, a Welsh-language documentary/entertainment series exploring car culture with humour and emotional depth. In the last year, Mike has directed, produced and edited the RTS Cymru Award-winning Seren Jones: Yn Fyw Yn y Dŵr for S4C, the sports documentary Joey for S4C, and directed Y Wal: Brasil for S4C. His films often seek out big, compelling characters, using bold visuals, archive, humour and personal testimony to uncover larger stories about community, ambition and belonging.Before moving into television documentary, Michael trained and worked as a journalist, later bringing that curiosity and narrative discipline into filmmaking. He has also created many digital shorts, campaign films and factual online content reaching large audiences. His work is rooted in Wales but shaped by universal themes of identity, resilience, creativity and the emotional lives behind public stories.
Liam Martin
Liam Martin is a documentary filmmaker based in Cardiff, Wales. His work uses intimate, character-led storytelling to reveal fresh perspectives on identity, belonging, mental health, and our relationship with both the natural and built environment. His films have screened at international festivals, in galleries and museums, and through platforms including Vice and The Guardian. His shorts span a restless range of subject matter. Kernow takes an empathetic look at the resurgence of Cornish identity and was nominated for Best Single Documentary at the 2019 Celtic Media Festival. Lochgoilhead Forever draws wry humour and emotional weight from his own messy family dynamics and the complicated work of accepting a difficult parent for who they are. A film about the life and death of professional skateboarder Ben Raemers, distributed by Vice in 2021, has since passed 1.5 million views and prompted a deeply felt response from the skate community. His latest short, Island Vigil, begins as a portrait of solitary fieldwork before becoming something harder to name — an accidental document of the early spread of avian flu, and a quiet reckoning with ecological grief. While currently developing ideas for a first feature, Liam is also still drawn to the economical possibilities of short form.
Vicky Morton
Vicky Morton is a Welsh documentary filmmaker drawn to stories that sit just outside the mainstream. Their work explores identity, subculture, and the overlap between personal experience and wider social realities, often focusing on voices that aren’t always centred.
They started out working in fiction, particularly in camera roles, before moving into documentary directing over the past few years. That shift has shaped a visually led and instinctive approach to storytelling, often working across directing, shooting, and editing to create films that feel both personal and formally considered.
Vicky is co-founder of Red Mountain Films, a small independent company with a focus on underrepresented voices. Alongside developing original work, they aim to create opportunities for emerging Welsh talent, particularly those from marginalised backgrounds, by building inclusive crews and working environments as a natural part of their process.
As part of this, Vicky consciously decided to push more LGBTQ+-led ideas within their work, which led to their recent film, Wear I Am, supported by the Iris Prize Documentary Fund.
They are particularly interested in pushing the documentary form, moving away from traditional talking heads in favour of more immersive, visually driven storytelling. Wear I Am reflects this approach, using visual metaphor and a more subjective style to explore lived experience and allow space for interpretation. As a queer filmmaker from Wales, Vicky’s perspective is shaped by both place and identity. They are committed to collaborative work; on Wear I Am, a trans-centred film, they built a predominantly trans and queer crew - an approach they will continue in new projects.
They are now focused on developing their directing practice further and making bolder, formally inventive documentaries that connect with audiences on an emotional level.
Cristián Saavedra
Cristián Saavedra is a Chilean-Welsh filmmaker and screenwriter whose work blends documentary storytelling with a distinctive sensorial approach rooted in pop culture. With a background spanning journalism, music and television, he brings a strong focus on sound, rhythm and perception to his films, exploring themes of identity, accessibility and inclusion through an audience-facing lens. His work operates at the intersection of popular culture and human experience, using familiar cultural language as an entry point into more complex emotional and social narratives. This approach allows his films to function both as engaging, accessible works and as reflections on perception, belonging and lived experience.
Since relocating to the UK in 2021, Saavedra has developed projects across film. His short documentary Everything is Waves, commissioned by Screen Alliance Wales, has screened across the UK, winning Best Short Documentary at the Buntingford Film Festival and receiving further nominations at international festivals.
He is currently developing his first feature documentary, If the Scatman Can Do It, So Can You, supported by Ffilm Cymru Wales. The project reflects his wider creative direction: combining bold, pop-driven storytelling with personal and socially relevant themes.
Saavedra has been part of BFI and Ffilm Cymru Wales delegations at international festivals including International Film Festival Rotterdam, Sheffield DocFest and International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. As a visually impaired filmmaker, he integrates accessibility into the creative process itself, and has contributed to industry conversations and panels on inclusive storytelling, advocating for accessibility as a creative and technological driver within contemporary filmmaking.
Meet our Guest Mentor - Alex Thomas
Alex Thomas is a BAFTA Breakthrough and double Grierson Award-winning director known for crafting visually distinctive, emotionally driven documentaries that explore complex social issues through intimate, character-led storytelling.
His Sky Original Bibaa & Nicole: Murder in the Park is a landmark British documentary series, praised for its emotional depth, access and uncompromising ethical approach. The series helped reframe the true crime genre while contributing to national conversations around policing, race and accountability. It won RTS and Broadcast Awards, received two Grierson Awards, and is BAFTA-nominated.
Alex is currently directing a major authored feature documentary for the BBC on the life and legacy of Damilola Taylor, featuring John Boyega. The film continues his focus on powerful human stories while examining the wider systems that shape them, reinforcing his reputation for sensitive, socially resonant filmmaking with both cinematic ambition and editorial integrity.
His wider credits include the Emmy-nominated Erased: WW2’s Heroes of Colour (with Idris Elba), Yorkshire Cop: Police, Racism and Me (Channel 4), and Broadcast-nominated Britain’s Secret War Babies (Channel 4)
Originally trained as an architect, Alex turned to filmmaking while working in Colombia, where he helped construct a school in a cartel-controlled region and began documenting the surrounding communities. This formative experience shaped his global perspective and continues to inform his calm, empathetic approach to storytelling in sensitive environments.
Alongside directing, he mentors emerging filmmakers through initiatives including We Are Parable, championing new voices and helping to ensure the next generation of storytellers reflects the world we live in. He also co-leads the production company Milk First with broadcaster Ayo Akinwolere, focused on telling stories from global majority perspectives and amplifying unheard voices.
Alex Thomas said: "Coming back to Sheffield as a mentor feels like a real full-circle moment for me. I grew up just down the road in Swinton, and I know first-hand how much untapped talent exists outside of London. This challenge is about backing those voices – giving filmmakers the confidence, space and support to tell stories that matter. I’m excited to be part of that journey.”
Principal Sponsor Prime Video Pathway
