Cherish Oteka is a documentary filmmaker who is passionate about telling universal stories through the lens of often erased communities. They have worked with a range of well-known brands and broadcasters including BBC One, Tate, Stonewall, SBTV, London Live, BBC Digital and The Guardian. Cherish has been selected on well-respected talent schemes including London Film Festivals’ NETWORK@LFF, Sheffield Documentary Festival Doc/Next and The Grierson Trusts’ Doc Lab. In 2016, Cherish won UKTV’s Rising Star Award. The following year they also won the Best Documentary Award at the Movie Screen and Video Awards. In 2022 Cherish won a BAFTA for Best Short Film in the 2022 BAFTA Film Awards and was recently named a Breakthrough Creator by Vimeo.
Cherish Oteka
Fellow in 2024 for Short Documentary Film
As someone whose career has largely involved responding to external briefs, the fellowship allowed me to step outside the constant rhythm of working to someone else’s direction and gave me the rare opportunity to explore what it means to make work on my own terms.
Read Cherish Oteka's testimonial