Grant awarded to: James Davies
Ymddiried’s Contribution: £6,500 over 2 years
I was fortunate enough to receive financial support from Ymddiried: Media Grants Cymru to study MA Screenwriting at The National Film & Television School from 2022 to 2024. For my first year, I received £3,000 and for my second year, I received £3,500. These funds helped cover my travel, food expenses, and bills (Beaconsfield is not a cheap area to live!). It has always been an ambition of mine to get a place at the highly competitive NFTS and without the financial support I received.
In my first year, I had the opportunity to develop my voice as a writer, experimenting in various areas of entertainment. We worked on radio plays, theatre, short films, animation, TV, and feature films, all with the aim of getting out of our comfort zones and discovering what kinds of stories make us tick. We also had amazing access to some of the industry’s top writers and filmmakers. We had masterclasses with Louis Theroux, Alex Garland, Danny Boyle, Denis Villeneuve, and even had one-to-one sessions with writers like Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Martin McDonagh. By the end of the first year, I had a feature film script; professional theatre production; and various spec treatments already under my belt.
In my second year, I was able to take everything I had learned in the previous year and apply it to my final portfolio pieces, which consisted of two original TV pilots and bibles, and a grad feature script. Our entire screenwriting cohort had the opportunity to go on a week-long writer’s retreat to Cornwall, which was an amazing opportunity to workshop our final projects as well as have the time and space to execute them. Towards the end of the year, our cohort had a month-long programme of “meet the industry” sessions, where we had one to one meetings with the UK’s top production companies and agencies. This was a truly invaluable experience which has given us links to individuals and companies that we would never have otherwise had access to. At the end of our two-year course, we put on a graduation show at the renowned Soho Theatre in London, where we showcased our work to an audience of industry members.
Now having graduated NFTS, I am in development with a production company on an original Welsh TV series, co-writing a feature film that is set to shoot in 2025, and I have just returned from the incredible opportunity to attend the 2024 Cannes Film Festival after an animation that I wrote, “Bunnyhood”, recently won 3rd prize at the La Cinef. Without Ymddireied’s support over the last two years, none of this would have been possible and I am extremely thankful for their funding and support.
