Contact: Head of AFU, Emma Williamson, emma.williamson@abingdon.org.uk
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 films under the guidance of industry professionals.
The Unit is based at Abingdon School near Oxford, and has produced over 250 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, Best Fiction and Best Animation at the Future Film Festival in London, Best Film by Young Animators at Bradford International Animation Festival, and the National Young Filmmaker’s Award at the Leeds Student Film Festival. In addition, an AFU documentary, Gravel and Stones, achieved a commercial home release in France.
The Unit was formed in 2003 by the renowned documentary maker Michael Grigsby, and Abingdon’s then Head of Drama, Jeremy Taylor. Visiting tutors have included Jonas Mortensen, Mikkel Eriksen, Larry Sider, Nikolaj Larsen, Colin O’Toole, Duncan Pickstock, Rebekah Tolley, Bronwen Parker-Rhodes, Arvid Eriksson, Matt Copson, Mads Junker, Michael Bicarregui, Joanna Harrison, and Geoff Dunbar.
Under Grigsby’s leadership, the AFU forged a way of working that encourages students to adopt the highest standards, and 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.
After Grigsby’s death in 2013, the AFU celebrated his legacy by establishing the annual Michael Grigsby Awards. The Awards celebrate young filmmakers whose work shows the “spirit of Grigsby” – carefully-produced, sensitive short films that listen and give voice to their subjects.
Now, more then twenty years after its foundation, the AFU continues to thrive under the leadership of Emma Williamson and Michael Bicarregui.
