Recruitment opens for ‘Future’ Ffilm School

Running from January to June 2026 in the Dyfi area, the programme includes two residential weeks in Elenydd (the Cambrian Mountains). Applications to ‘conspire’ are open until the end of November.

Founded by filmmaker James R Price — whose work has appeared on the BBC, Channel 4 and at the Tate Galleries — Ffilm School tackles inequalities in who gets to make documentaries.

“Only about ten per cent of UK filmmakers come from low-income, low-asset households,” says James. “Add to that the way filmmaking clusters around Cardiff and London, and the employment crisis hitting doc-making hard, and it’s clear something needs to change.”

With £550 per week for the two residential weeks, Ffilm School challenges the unpaid-labour culture in screen jobs. James’s research at Aberystwyth University reimagines documentary education, partly inspired by the Well-being of Future Generations Act.

“What happens if we put wellbeing at the centre of doc-making? Most courses promise the ‘skills to succeed in industry’ — but those jobs often don’t exist. We’re motivated by Ffilm Cymru Wales’ Film for Everyone plan, so we’re prioritising applicants from low-income households, Cymraeg speakers, the Global Majority, and Disabled or neurodiverse people — the people who rarely get the chance to tell their own stories.”

The course’s residentials take place at Bwlch Corog, land cared for by Coetir Anian, and neighbouring Cefn Coch Farm. Coetir Anian’s patrons include actor and former Aberystwyth Mayor Sue Jones-Davies and former Welsh Government Minister Jane Davidson, architect of the Well-being of Future Generations Act. The charity is restoring peatland and Celtic rainforest to the Cambrian Mountains.

This focus drew the attention of CORE₂, a UK Government programme exploring land-based routes to net zero by 2050, which now funds Ffilm School through its arts strand.

“The Ffilm School ethos is to learn through making,” says James. “We’re using low-impact, cheap-but-good filmmaking to help local people explore how environmental change affects their communities — and how they can shape it.”

So if you live in the area and keep seeing ‘FfS-Dyfi’, that’s Ffilm School.
“It totally chimes with how I feel about the state of doc filmmaking,” laughs James. “FfS — we can do this better!”