The Abingdon Film Unit (AFU) is a small organisation that enables secondary school pupils between the ages of 13 and 18 to make their own short documentary or animated films under the guidance of a team of industry professionals led by the renowned documentary maker Michael Grigsby.

Based at Abingdon School, a boys’ independent school near Oxford, the Unit was formed in 2003 by Grigsby and a teacher at the school, Jeremy Taylor. Together with visiting tutors Jonas Mortensen (cinematography), Mikkel Eriksen (sound design), Arvid Eriksson (editing) and animators Joanna Harrison and Geoff Dunbar, they have developed a way of working with the students that encourages them to adopt the highest standards, and to develop their ideas through a process of careful research and reflection that seeks to clarify at every stage the aims and intentions of their films.

To date, the Unit has produced 75 films, many of which have been screened at festivals throughout the UK and abroad, and won a number of awards. Festivals include Raindance, the London International Documentary Festival and the British Film Festival in Dinard, France. Awards include Best Documentary and Best Animation at the Future Film Festival in London and the National Young Filmmaker’s Award at the Leeds Student Film Festival. In addition, an AFU film, Gravel and Stones, has achieved recognition in the form of a commercial dvd release in France.