In conversation… 2024’s BAFTA Breakthroughs UK reflect

Over the years many talented creatives have been welcomed into the BAFTA fold as part of our flagship Breakthrough UK programme, supported by Netflix. As we near the end of their year on the cohort we gathered some of the 2024 cohort’s reflections on the programme, the industry and the power of storytelling.

Cobbie Yates (costume designer, Layla), Fred Hoffman (art director,Paper Trail), Poulomi Basu (immersive filmmaker, Maya: Birth of a Superhero) and Shahnaz Dulaimy (editor, Top Boy) share their thoughts…

Shahnaz Dulaimy
I come from Iraq, so going from Baghdad to BAFTA has been one hell of a ride. It’s given me the confidence to go up to people and ask for tips and see what I can learn from their successes.

Fred Hoffman
It’s been an insane year. To go from developing a garage project in my mum’s spare bedroom with my brother to having this kind of institutional backing from BAFTA is a really disorientating change in my life. Working on games is always a very concerted group effort: often, individual recognition isn’t something that happens. So I think getting into Breakthrough has made me feel like I deserve to be here in a way I didn’t necessarily feel before. It’s been huge for my imposter syndrome.

Poulomi Basu
I’m multidisciplinary, so I’m a bit of an outlier in all the worlds. I think it is really positive that this left-field way of thinking and working and expression through gaming and immersive filmmaking has been welcomed in BAFTA. I’m the first person with an immersive film that has participated, so I think this is also a good thing beyond myself. But for me personally? It’s just surreal.

Cobbie Yates
If you’re telling stories about different cultures, you can’t get close to that by skimming it. And I think as the budgets come down, it’s harder to tell an authentic story without spending money to build the world. That’s also where we’re exploiting our creators, because we’re relying on the fact that they are going to put their whole heart into it, which is great, but that’s not sustainable. We need to be uplifting and supporting them – and paying them. Yes, they’ve made a beautiful film, but are they actually going to be able to eat? There’s a system in place to support us, so it should support us.

Fred Hoffman
There’s so much creativity, flexibility and disregard for status quo happening in the indie game space at the moment, that I think what I’d like to see is more signal boosting for strange things.

Shahnaz Dulaimy
What makes Top Boy special is its authentic storytelling. It represents the characters’ struggles and choices with nuance, and it shows the human side of situations that are often sensationalised in mainstream media. What I’ve learned working on this project is to find all of these nuances of the performances. I was not afraid to go up to the team and say: “Does this feel right for the character that you have been living with for the last decade?” I’ve learned to trust my instincts.

Poulomi Basu
I think the games world does have a particular type of audience which is still very white and male. I’ve had so much hate online. Maya is about periods, and without a tampon you literally cannot move ahead with the play. I only realised that people hate women’s blood when I made this piece, especially within the gaming community. So we need to focus on greater diversity and representation within games – not only of people, but subject matter. Right now, audiences might see one or two pieces like this as anomalies.

Cobbie Yates
The backdrop of Layla is a celebration of the queer creative spirit, and how we can make so little feel so huge. You’ll see someone in the most outrageous outfit walking through Tower Hamlets, and that bold, unapologetic strength is what we wanted to hit viewers with. Equally, outside of the main characters, (we were) looking at queerness as a whole, placing it into all facets of the outer world and everyday life. I’m so proud of that.

• Cobbie Yates, Fred Hoffman, Poulomi Basu and Shahnaz Dulaimy are all participants in 2024’s BAFTA Breakthrough UK, supported by Netflix. The initiative showcases and supports the next generation of creatives in film, games and TV, helping leverage early success into sustainable careers.The 2025 BAFTA Breakthrough UK cohort will be announced in November, keep an eye on our programme page to be the first to know who has been selected.