Jenny Gage is a photographer and filmmaker whose directorial debut, All This Panic, has been gaining consistent acclaim since its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. Working alongside her partner Tom Betterton, the pair initially established themselves as fashion photographers, before deciding to pursue an interest in storytelling and move into the world of filmmaking. With Betterton as producer and herself as director, , together they followed seven teenage girls over the course of three years for All This Panic, capturing the minutiae of their lives, their struggles with social drama, mental health…

BFI’s LGBT showcase, Flare concluded its festivities last night, after a busy and exciting ten days that felt like some of the festival’s most active and exciting yet. The festival screened new and intriguing films, as well as hosting events with filmmakers and actors. From their expansive offering, here are some titles that we thought might pique your interest.

This spring, the Flatpack Film Festival will return to Birmingham for its 11th year. For years, the festival has been attracting people from far and wide for its “magnificently eclectic” films, performances and installations. Overtaking venues all across Birmingham. The festival embraces animation, documentary, ground-breaking shorts, and really, any kind of film you could think of.

A crucial event for LGBT communities, the BFI Flare Film Festival returns this year with a plethora of groundbreaking and captivating works from a diverse multitude of filmmakers from across the globe. The BFI’s annual showcase of LGBT cinema, Flare has encouraged fresh stories, different approaches and new filmmakers for over 30 years.

Our annual round-up of the best romantic projects in town. To read complete pitches and to contact any of the writers, please email Andy.

Now in it’s 10th year, Film London’s Microwave scheme commissions two £100k budgeted features each year. We spoke with two SP members with projects selected for the scheme. The first was with director Ryan Vernava, and below is our second, with writer and director Alex Winckler. Alex is involved in Microwave with two producers, Maria Forsstrom and Jude Goldstrei. Their film, Smalltown Boy is “a rite of passage story about a different type of skinhead.”

Now in it’s 10th year, Film London’s Microwave scheme commissions two £100k budgeted features each year. Before this though, 12 participating project teams are selected, given extensive development support, mentoring and training; and then, in a way, pitted against each other as they pitch their projects along several phases of the shortlisting process, until the final two are selected. Though, on the surface, this might seems a little like an independent film version of The Apprentice, in reality it’s not quite so…

In January, documentary vanguard and equality champion Alma Har’el joined us for the first Film of the Month competition of the new year. Read about her career here, including her wonderful two hybrid doc features, her music video work and her time spent establishing gender bias advocacy group Free The Bid. Her poetic words on this month’s three short films in the competition that received the most number of member votes, below.

In this guest blog, SP member Brendan Cleaves talks about his process, struggles and successes raising funds for his short film Roger via Kickstarter. Some vital, honest input on the ups and downs of short film production, and some insightful tips for those looking to crowdfund.

Our final Film of the Month judge for 2016 was Indieflix Founder and CEO, Scilla Andreen. Read more about her work and platform, here, before taking in her comments on the three very strong finalists for the December competition.