2021 ​"FOCUS ON YOUTH":
FEATURED EMERGING ARTIST

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Proud Sponsors of Focus on Youth 2021

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Filmmaker:
Ava Bounds
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Photo Credit: A P Wilding

Based in Yorkshire in the UK, fifteen-year-old Ava Bounds is already an accomplished, award-winning filmmaker, having won several awards at international film festivals. She was shortlisted for the IMDb New Filmmaker 2020 award and is the winner of the BAFTA-qualifying Bolton Film Festival Youth Award (UK).

Coming from a creative British-American family, Ava’s talents span acting, music, visual arts and dance. She is a trained Method actor and began her professional acting career in London at the age of twelve, working with director Sam Mendes in the Olivier award-winning West End hit, ‘The Ferryman,’ for which she played the role of Nunu Carney. Ava has also won numerous classical singing festivals throughout Northern England and composes music for piano.

A highly focused artist, Ava has set her sights on becoming an ‘auteur’ filmmaker, assuming the positions of writer, director and editor. Her first short film, PLAYERS, was shot during the COVID lockdown in April 2020 and won numerous awards at global film festivals. Film festival judges applauded this life-affirming micro short which critics described as “a natural successor to David Lynch.”

She later showed her versatility with two more short films. Tackling the subject of schizophrenia, her film BETH is the true story of an escaped asylum patient in Victorian England and has already bagged two awards and nominations. Ava followed this with the lighthearted HELLO FRISCO, a surrealistic road movie following four young girls on a mission to save the life of an abandoned baby.

Often working from creative mind-pops, Ava is a natural advocate of the Theatre of Cruelty. She loves nothing more than to startle her viewers’ senses with use of light, sound, dreamlike sequences and shocking endings.

​Ava is now setting her sights on creating her first feature film before her high school graduation.

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Watch Ava Bound's Short Film PLAYERS Below

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Ava talks about her process, her creative style and her future plans.

​What makes your films unique?

I’m passionate about making films that are notoriously weird and have surprising twists at the end of them. I love creating historical films because emotions seemed to be more raw, amplified and organic back then. Of course, no one had phones!
 
What was the initial inspiration behind your film?

I created my short film Players out of boredom due to the coronavirus. One day, I was messing around with Siri on my phone, and it sparked an idea of combining digital voices and a Victorian world. I rounded up some neighbors and a few period props and created a peculiar and wacky, dystopian film. 

​What were some of the obstacles or difficulties you encountered while filming Players?
 
The coronavirus created many obstacles, but my neighbors came to my rescue, and we filmed it at my house.
 
Has your acting experience helped you develop as a filmmaker in any way?

My previous acting experience helps me to speak the actors’ language and see situations from their point of view. But I prefer directing to acting. 

Any future plans you'd like to share?

​In the near future, I hope to make my first feature film and eventually become a full-time auteur!

During Production
Photo Courtesy: Ava Bounds

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