One to Watch: Into Film Award winner Krizzah lives up to her potential

At each year's Into Film Awards, we partner with the BFI Film Academy to search far and wide for three Ones to Watch who have already accomplished a great deal and look set to make a significant impact in the film industry. 

There's no one that these two points apply to more than 2018's winner's Krizzah Policarpio. Below, she details her incredibly inspiring and eclectic journey, including her experience of the Awards itself and her BFI Mentorship that came with winning.

When I walked into Ashfield High's Into Film Club aged 13, I had no idea it would have such an impact on my life. It did not take long for our tiny film club to be turned into a safe space to discuss issues that affect teenagers like racism, bullying and sectarianism, through the use of film. It had such a lovely atmosphere to it thanks to our teachers that I kept returning week after week.

Through Into Film, we had industry professionals visit our school to give us an insight on the world of film. It was extraordinarily empowering to meet women like the writer of Milo, Heather Imani and the editor of Empire Magazine, Helen O'Hara. As the film industry has always been male-dominated, it was astounding to hear from women who made it in the industry. Their encouragement to strive and flourish in the industry despite being a woman gave me the confidence to mentor younger pupils interested in filmmaking, helping them to plan, script, storyboard and shoot their own short films. However, I never thought that within two years of joining my film club, I would be chosen over hundreds of young people to become a member of the Into Film Youth Advisory Council (YAC) - the only member from Northern Ireland.

A year after joining the YAC I was selected for the regional BFI Film Academy, which enabled me to tackle varying roles in film production and gain invaluable practical techniques, as well as knowledge and confidence in editing raw images and footage. This led me to participate in the BFI Film Academy's Craft Residential with the National Film and Television School in England for two weeks.

Every year, Into Film hold their annual Into Film Awards to give recognition to those who have stood out and worked hard to achieve their full potential within their film club, as a young filmmaker or as a teacher. To my shock, I was chosen as one of three Ones to Watch winners for the 2018 Into Film Awards with the great opportunity to join a BFI mentorship scheme where I was mentored by the director for feature documentary Bam Bam, Alex Shipman. Alex is such a lovely woman who taught me so much about the amount of work that goes into the pre-production side that I didn't understand before. She gave me an insight into how to budget, get funding and the roles that come with being a producer. Because of her, I was more comfortable and confident stepping out of education and striving towards moving directly into film. Within the same year, I was also one of nine young people chosen as an Ambassador for Northern Ireland to visit Los Angeles and represent young filmmakers there.

After this, Sean Boyle took me under his wing as his freelance assistant. Sean is Into Film's Delivery Coordinator for their new initiative, ScreenWorks. I gained such valuable experience there from overseeing some of the ScreenWorks Programmes and by assisting in whatever way I could in the workshops.

Alongside my freelance role, I was also hired to produce a Northern Ireland Screen funded short film between October 2018 - April 2019 and worked as a production trainee with HBO between June - July 2019 through Northern Ireland Screen's Craft and Technical Skills 2019 scheme.

I gained so much through Into Film - friends, opportunities, contacts, knowledge, skills, qualities and a more open perspective of the world around me. As a result of my experience, I was able to get a few runner jobs and was involved as a volunteer for local film events. Into Film sparked my interest in film and gave me the confidence to pursue my ambition of working in the industry. I hope to continue taking on more production roles in the future after this.

The Into Film Awards takes place every March and the 6 December deadline for the 2020 Awards is fast approaching so get sending your submissions soon! For full category details and entry criteria visit the Into Film Awards page.