Directing student Camille Hamadé has been awarded the BAFTA-Yugo Short Film Commissioning Grant.
The Commissioning Grant provides a cash award to support further development of a short film project. In addition to the award, the winner will have opportunities to work with expert advisors, and receive overall creative and strategic feedback throughout the life of the project. Submissions for the award were open exclusively to participants of BAFTA’s various Learning, Inclusion, and Talent initiatives.
Hamadé was awarded the $12,000 grant to help with the production of his Columbia short film, To Fade Away, which takes an original approach to sustainability and related topics. Based on a true story, the film follows Lebanese scientist Hassan Kamel Al-Sabbah in 1935 New York as he struggles to fund his solar energy project. The project is directed by Hamadé, and co-written with fellow Film student Chad B. Hamilton.
Camille Hamadé is a French-Lebanese writer and director currently based in New York and completing his MFA in Directing at Columbia University. Camille dabbled in business and economics before receiving his Bachelors in Filmmaking in London, where he then worked as a freelancer on a variety of productions, from shorts to features as well as documentaries to advertisements. His short films have participated in several film festivals, with Strain (2016) selected to screen at Pinewood Studios UK and NewFilmmakers New York, and Pendulum (2017) nominated as Finalist for Best Short Film as part of the USA Film Festival’s International Competition and shortlisted for Promofest’s Short Of The Year. He is currently working on his thesis productions while also developing feature and episodic screenplays and projects.
