Nine filmmakers from Wales will get the space to breathe, build and create through Ffilm Cymru Wales’ new talent development lab Space / Lle.
In partnership with Culture Connect Wales and LIM | Less Is More, Space / Lle lab supports people who identify as part of the global majority and who are aspiring to - or already have some experience of - writing, directing or producing cinematic feature film.
Following a competitive application process, the selected participants are embarking on a residential creative retreat in the Gower Peninsula, south Wales, led by LIM | Less Is More, the European film development programme. Tutors Nayeem Mahbub and Patricia Drati will help the filmmakers explore their ideas, hone their storytelling skills and nurture creative approaches to film development in an inspiring environment that champions the principles of care, wellbeing and creative freedom. The paid retreat will be followed by mentoring, masterclasses and career building sessions throughout the year.
The nine filmmakers selected to participate are:
Ndidi John
Project: Coma
Ndidi is a multidisciplinary writer, director, and creative activist whose work centres the human condition and psychological terrain of lived experience. Ndidi’s work spans stage and screen. Her experience includes writing for Bad Wolf and her play Routes is currently on the national curriculum in schools across the UK. She is co-writer and co-director of This is How It Feels, premiering at the Wales Millennium Centre in April 2025.
Yassa Khan
Project: Daffodil
Yassa is a Welsh-Pakistani filmmaker, whose work blends heartfelt narratives, grand themes, and visually striking, often kaleidoscopic imagery. His first short documentary Cosmoto, about Zambian anti-poaching rangers, gained recognition on the festival circuit. His feature documentary Overheated, a climate-focused film featuring Billie Eilish, Vivienne Westwood, and YungBlud, was released in partnership with WeTransfer and screened globally.
Mahesh Madhu Naidu
Project: Rent a Family
Mahesh is a filmmaker born in India, raised in Congo, and now based in Wales. His cross-cultural upbringing shapes the stories he tells, blending humour, heart, and chaos to explore identity, connection, and the beautifully absurd side of being human. His early work includes No Evom, a drama that he released on Amazon Prime. He went on to make Lazy Bones, which won a Cannes Film Award. Most recently, he directed Quackers for BBC iPlayer.
Janet Marrett
Project: Ablution
Janet is a writer-director, founder of Mediathirsty, and member of Directors UK and BAFTA Connect. In 2023, she completed BFI NETWORK supported short Returned, starring Michelle Greenidge with Max Fincham & Jeffery Kissoon. Her first three indie shorts, Kindred, Clearing and Asunder all screened internationally, winning several awards, including in Cannes Court Métrage, BAFTA-qualifying Aesthetica and British Urban Festivals, Toronto Black, Halifax Black and Houston International Film Festivals.
Darragh Mortell
Project: Sitters
Darragh is an award-winning writer and director. His first short film Peep Dish won the Best Experimental Film award at the London Independent Film Festival and his second, Donald Mohammed Trump, starring Asim Chaudhry received a screening at BFI as well as glowing write ups in the Guardian and Huffington Post. He is an alum of the BBC Writers Room, and has been a part of writers rooms for Bad Wolf, Zodiak and recently had a comedy script turned into a BBC3 comedy pilot.
Tina Pasotra
Tina is a filmmaker, director and artist based in Cardiff. She was recently awarded the Film Fellowship through The Arts Foundation Future Award. Tina’s first film commission, But Where Are You From? for C4/Random Acts in association with Big Dance Shorts India was featured at the Science Museum’s Illuminating India event and has screened at festivals across the UK and India. She directed and co-wrote her debut narrative short film I Choose in 2020, which was nominated for Best Short Film BAFTA Cymru 2021 and selected for Network@LFF’s flagship talent development programme at the heart of the BFI London Film Festival. Tina then completed a trainee director scheme at Bad Wolf, shadowing BAFTA-winning director Farren Blackburn for the Sky One series A Discovery of Witches.
Gavin Porter
Project: It Takes a Village
Gavin is a filmmaker, documentarian and theatre-maker from Butetown, Cardiff. He is a Visiting Professor at the University of South Wales, a Clore Fellow and a BAFTA Cymru award winner. Most recently, Gavin created, wrote, and directed Circle of Fifths, a theatre piece that explores the connections between grief, loss, and music while celebrating the tradition of Butetown funerals. Circle of Fifths toured across Wales and London. Gavin has directed, produced, and contributed to documentaries for television, including Glenn Webbe - Rugby Rebel, Steve Robinson - Cinderella Man, Black Welsh Music, and A Killing in Tiger Bay.
Miranda Shamiso
Project: Folkore
Miranda is a British-Zimbabwean actor and BAFTA Cymru member working in film, TV and theatre. Her TV and film credits include Ted Lasso (Apple TV), The Winter King (ITV, MGM) and H Is For Hawk (Plan B, Film4). Miranda was selected for this year's ARISE programme, a year-long artist development scheme run by Fio and Wales Millennium Centre, and last year was selected for CULT Cymru’s Mentoring 4 Creatives programme where she was mentored by BAFTA winner Rakie Ayola.
Zina Wegrzynski
Project: Fate & Fury
Zina is a writer and development executive. A passionate genre creative, her supernatural series about a teenage psychic with anxiety, Love at Second Sight, was optioned by Eleven and selected for the Brit List 2022/23. She also had a sci-fi thriller in development with New Pictures and a dark comedy drama with Bad Wolf, where she was both a development executive and Writer in Residence. An experienced script editor, she worked in children’s programs before developing and script editing The A List (BBC/Netflix). Now she works as a freelance development executive, shepherding projects for companies like Little Door and Turnover Films as well as teaching courses on script reading for NFTS Cymru.
Kimberley Warner, Ffilm Cymru Wales’ Head of Production, says: “We’re excited to be able to offer these talented filmmakers the time and financial support that they deserve. Participants will get access to high level figures in the film sector who can help their careers to soar and will also be encouraged to apply for further investment from Ffilm Cymru, working closely with our production team.
“Unique directorial and authorial voices are the lifeblood of our industry; they have the potential to take Wales to the world, winning awards on a global stage; and to attract more production and investment back to Wales, ultimately creating hundreds of roles for cast, crew and beyond. We can’t wait to see the outcomes of this year’s inspiring and innovative programme. Watch this Space!”
Fadhili Maghiya, CEO at Culture Connect Wales, says “The last few years has seen a great number of talents from ethnic minority communities getting into TV and Film and this programme will certainly elevate their development. The programme will offer a range of tools and support systems to these talents, and we hope it will help to diversify the sector and stories we tell. We look forward to witnessing their growth and am sure we have potential BAFTA and Oscar winners in this cohort.”
Antoine Le Bos, Artistic Director Le Groupe Ouest & LIM says: “Once again, our LIM team is excited to meet a new group of talented filmmakers from Wales and help them play with possibilities, explore, generate new ideas and use limitations to put creativity further while testing our evolving tools and methods.”
Space / Lle is made possible with support from the Welsh Government via Creative Wales, BFI NETWORK and Arts Council of Wales.