The Arts Foundation announce the four Shortlisted Artists of the Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2026 for Film.
The Film Award supports exceptional early-stage career filmmakers, highlighting emotive and inventive storytellers working in non-fiction. Meet the Shortlist:
Dorothy Allen-Pickard works across narrative, documentary and theatrical modes of filmmaking, and her collaborative approach is often inspired by her protagonists’ lived experiences. Currently, her projects focus on state systems of control and the possibilities of collective resistance.
Myrid Carten is an artist filmmaker based between the UK & Ireland. Using documentary and fiction, and often a playful combination of both, Myrid’s work interrogates both the struggle for intimacy and the ways we are compromised by our pasts.
Jessi Gutch is a writer/director, who makes films whilst also trying not to die of an incurable ovarian cancer called Sertoli-Leydig. She is interested in reflexive films about big political ideas that don’t take themselves too seriously.
Alice Russell is a documentary filmmaker who works with outlaws and romantic rebels, outsiders who are agents of change.
With thanks to our independent Jury members: Asif Kapadia, Director, writer, and producer; Danny Leigh, Chief Film Critic, Financial Times; and Lindsay Poulton, Editorial Director, Film & TV and Head of Documentaries, The Guardian, who said:
“It’s been a great pleasure to join the jury of the Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2026 for Film. Independent documentary is a powerful artform as well as a tool for truth, empathy and dialogue, but independent filmmaking is increasingly at risk. Despite the challenging landscape, I was really encouraged by the range and extraordinary artistry of filmmakers across the UK. All the shortlisted filmmakers demonstrate a clear artistic purpose and such a confident command of their craft. Dorothy Allen-Pickard brings a remarkable clarity of vision to her filmmaking, while creating generous space for her collaborators and subjects to shape the work alongside her. Myrid Carten’s moving and captivating work carries a strong sense of momentum and creative ambition. Alice Russell has found a distinctive voice through her impactful first feature, and Jessi Gutch’s filmmaking style is grounded and inventive.”
The Arts Foundation has a long history of supporting film, and Mary Jane Edwards, Director of The Arts Foundation, says:
“The four shortlisted non-fiction filmmakers represent the calibre and ambition of non-fiction film today, creating work that expands our understanding of lived experience, interrogating the world around us and bringing vital, often unheard stories into public view. Documentary and non-fiction work is notoriously difficult to finance, and we are proud to champion these incredible storytellers and the power of cinema as a tool for insight and change.”
The winning Fellow, receiving £20,000, will be revealed at an Award Ceremony on 2 February 2026, with all Shortlisted Artists awarded £1,000 towards their artistic practice.
The Arts Foundation is a registered charity that supports individual artists and creatives in the UK with unconditional financial Fellowships of £20,000 through the Arts Foundation Futures Awards. Since it was founded in 1993, the Arts Foundation has awarded over £2 million to the most promising artists in the UK at a pivotal moment in their careers to enable them to concentrate on their creative development, experiment, and realise their artistic potential.