We Are Parable has named its 2026 Momentum cohort, selecting 30 UK-based Black filmmakers from more than 700 applications for the fourth edition of the Channel 4 and Sony Pictures Television-backed national development programme.
A dedicated alumni strand is also launching designed to extend its support beyond the initial programme period.
More than half of the cohort selected (55%) are based outside London, with filmmakers representing Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Leicester, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Southampton, Telford and Wolverhampton. Women make up 52% of the cohort.
Spanning writers, directors, producers, documentary filmmakers, animators and multidisciplinary creatives working across film, television and digital storytelling, the cohort includes Emmy-nominated animation director Alex Zepherin-Pinnock; Hayden McLean, whose short The Last Dance screened at more than 40 international festivals; and Ryan Walker-Edwards, whose MAN>CODE screened at BFI Flare and received an RTS nomination.
Since launching in 2021, Momentum has supported 140 Black filmmakers, with alumni going on to secure festival selections, funding support, broadcast opportunities, development placements and wider industry recognition across the UK screen sector.
Alongside the 2026 cohort programme, We Are Parable will launch a new series of alumni-focused activity, including masterclasses, networking events and further professional development opportunities, extending Momentum’s support beyond the initial programme period.
Anthony Andrews, co-founder and creative director of We Are Parable, said: “What has always made Momentum important to us is that it responds to the full reality of building a career in this industry. Talent is not the issue. The question is whether filmmakers have the access, support, confidence and relationships needed to keep moving forward, particularly at a time when emerging filmmakers are navigating rising production costs, shrinking commissioning opportunities and increasingly competitive access to development funding. We’ve seen previous cohorts use the programme to develop new work, raise finance, screen at festivals and build lasting creative networks. This new cohort represents the next stage of that journey.”
Momentum is funded by Channel 4’s development programme 4Skills and run in association with Channel 4’s Creative Equity team and Sony Pictures Television, with financial support from the Sony Pictures Television Creative Diversity Fund.
Neila Butt, Creative Equity Lead at Channel 4 said: “Momentum continues to be a vital platform for supporting and elevating Black British creatives. This collaboration between Channel 4’s 4Skills and its Creative Equity team with We Are Parable and SPT continues to make a real difference in supporting emerging talent, ensuring the Black British filmmakers of tomorrow receive the guidance, opportunities and wellbeing support they need to thrive.”
Hannah Smith and Gemma Isaac, Co-Chair, SPT Creative Diversity Fund, said, “Momentum has proven to be an invaluable resource for previous cohorts and an important first step for many finding their way into the industry, so it’s fantastic to see the programme return in 2026. We look forward to continuing our partnership with We Are Parable and Channel 4 on this important initiative, and to supporting Momentum alumni as they build the skills, connections, and confidence to thrive in the industry.”
The new cohort will take part in sessions with established screen industry professionals, with mentors drawn from across Channel 4, Sony Pictures Television and We Are Parable’s wider network.
Mentors include Greenacre Films’ Nadine Marsh-Edwards (producer Riches, Been So Long), BAFTA-nominated producer Danielle Goff (Lunar Pictures), HETV and independent film producer Stella Nwimo (Top Boy, Gangs of London), BAFTA-nominated producer Victoria Thomas, producer/writer Tolu Stedford (Story Compound), BIFA-nominated writer-director Warda Mohamed, and filmmaker Rashida Seriki, recently featured in Elle’s Women in Film and Television Power List 2025, among others.
The programme combines practical and creative development, offering participants direct access to working practitioners, decision-makers and industry insight across film and television.
Alongside mentorship and industry access, Momentum’s dedicated mental health and wellbeing strand — delivered with a psychological therapist and focused on industry-specific pressures including precarity, rejection and informal network dependency — remains central to the programme’s wider approach to supporting sustainable creative careers.
“Our Momentum participants consistently highlight how vital these wellbeing sessions are to their development,” Andrews added. “For us, support cannot just mean access to a room or an introduction. It also means helping filmmakers understand how to sustain themselves within the industry once they are there.”
The cohort will also benefit from wider cultural and industry access opportunities through partnerships with SXSW London and Adidas, designed to support network-building, industry access and professional visibility.
2026 Momentum Cohort:
Adeyinka Akinrinade
Adeyinka is an actor and creative producer working across British TV, theatre and film. Her credits include the British Urban Film Festival, BFI-funded The Lost Land Girl, and screen roles in Riches (ITV/Amazon Prime), Champion (BBC/Netflix), Top Boy and Silent Witness. She has several short films under her belt and is about to launch her production company, with ambitions to move into features and TV series.
Leesha Williams
Leesha (she/her) is a queer Black photographer and filmmaker whose work explores identity, memory, motherhood and representation through honest, documentary-led storytelling. With over 10 years of experience, her practice blends digital footage, archival materials and Super 8 film. Currently a professional wedding filmmaker now shifting toward personal artistic projects focused on Black motherhood, queerness and reclaiming space through storytelling.
Alex Zepherin-Pinnock
Alex is the founder of Don Dada Studio and an animation director with over a decade of experience, collaborating with the BBC, Tate Britain, Disney and more. Don Dada Studio’s animations for The Guardian’s Give Me Shelter received an Emmy nomination. Alex is now running an animation service studio and now transitioning to creating original IP.
Alicia Quayson
Alicia is a London-based writer and director crafting bold stories rooted in the British diaspora experience. Her award-winning short Motherland established her voice; her debut narrative short Bless You is in post-production. Alicia is currently in post-production on her debut narrative short.
Aminah Alhamdu
Aminah is a writer, curator and filmmaker of Ghanaian origin and British-American nationality. She has created short films backed by Rural Media and BFI Network, and written four pilots and a feature script.
Andrew Boateng
Andrew is a writer, director and creator working in sci-fi, comedy and social realism. An Edinburgh TV Festival New Voice Award winner, he has worked with Archery Pictures, Firebird and Bullion Productions, with short films recognised at BAFTA/BIFA-qualifying festivals.
Bukola Bakinson
Bukola is a London-based documentary filmmaker whose RTS award-winning No Comprendo examined access to justice. Her current project From Detention to Despair explores authority, care and justice in contemporary education.
Cherish Anyanwu
Cherish is a multi-disciplinary creative, DJ, producer and emerging filmmaker whose work explores music, identity, healing and ancestral themes, centring female-led narratives.
Elisha Ricketts
Elisha is a South London–based writer, presenter and filmmaker. She wrote, directed, narrated and starred in her debut short Survival Mode, exploring trauma, resilience and reclaiming narrative.
Hayden McLean
Hayden is a British-Jamaican actor, writer and filmmaker. His debut short The Last Dance premiered in 2025 and screened at over 40 festivals worldwide, winning multiple awards and qualifying for BAFTA and BIFA. Hayden is about to world premiere his second short film, and in development with his debut feature, a second feature, and a limited series adaptation of his directorial debut.
Imoje Aikhoje
Imoje is a London-based documentary filmmaker and development producer, Netflix Documentary Talent Fund alumnus, and founder of Strayborn Ltd, with over ten years of experience across documentary film and factual television.
Janet Nagudi
Janet is a Ugandan British filmmaker, writer and artist whose work imagines bold, Afrofuturistic visions for the Black Diaspora and Pan-African community. Her first film was made in Birmingham featuring local cast, crew, musicians and businesses.
Jason C. Nwachukwu
Jason is a filmmaker based between Bristol and London whose work explores family, identity and human connection through an observational lens, searching for beauty in the ordinary.
Where they are now Making short films recognised at UK festivals, and looking to keep developing while working toward his first feature.
John Kamara
John Kamara is a London-based filmmaker, writer and content creator. He independently produces, directs and distributes his own web series on YouTube, including DEBT, a three-part comedy about a bailiff drowning in his own debt.
Josiane Kameni
JOSY K. is a UK-based writer and emerging storyteller creating emotionally powerful narratives rooted in identity, resilience, womanhood, migration and healing. She is developing The SEL Collection, a body of literary and screen adaptation projects.
Justin Uzomba
Justin Smith Uzomba is a Hackney-born writer-director who spent a decade in music as Mikill Pane, touring with Ed Sheeran and Mac Miller. His short F.I.T.D. received high praise from Barry Jenkins. He is represented by Imagine Talent. Having written and directed two short films, co-written a C4 YouTube comedy series and directed Nike SNKRS content — building his screen career.
Kodjo Tsakpo
Kodjo is a television drama director with credits across most UK continuing dramas. His directing career launched in 2018 via the BBC New Directors Scheme at BBC Doctors.
Korrie Powell
Korrie is a London-based film director and writer whose work draws from the nuanced textures of everyday Black life. He has five years of experience across advertising and commercial filmmaking.
Martin Blackburn
Martin is a documentary, commercial and branded filmmaker currently independently co-producing his debut feature documentary about Raphael, a music curator who built a global audience through his mixes. Now Directing his debut feature documentary alongside freelance projects.
Mevis Birungi
Mevis is a Ugandan-born British actor, writer, director and editor. Her credits include His House (Netflix), Nakato (BBC Arts, BFI Network), and editing work on BBC and Sky Kids animation.
Michael Akuagwu
Michael is a London-born multimedia artist who started with surrealist composite photography and has expanded into film and mixed media, exploring stories within Black British art and design.
Nana-Kofi Kufuor
Nana-Kofi is a British Ghanaian playwright and TV writer from Stockport. He won the Channel 4/New Writing North award for his series Dana, has worked in Sky writers’ rooms, and contributed to Hollyoaks and Waterloo Road.
Omari Swanston-Jeffers
Omari is an artist, educator and director whose practice spans dance, screen, stage and poetry. He holds a First Class BA in Creative Writing and a Master’s in Education, and founded Ol’ Man Swanny in 2023.
Ornella Mutoni
Ornella is a documentary director and producer working across documentary, short film and broadcast television. Her directorial debut, The Things We Don’t Say, screened at Aesthetica, New York African Film Festival and Palm Springs ShortFest, was distributed by The Guardian, and earned her a 2025 Amnesty Media Awards nomination. She is currently developing her first feature, The Silence We Carry.
Ryan Walker-Edwards
Ryan is a Birmingham-born writer, actor and director with Jamaican heritage whose work explores class, sexuality and race in Afro-Caribbean communities. His short MAN>CODE screened at BFI Flare, Chicago IIFF and over thirty festivals, earning an RTS nomination. His work is gaining visibility and he has secured new commissions.
Shauna Paul
Shauna is a director and video editor from North London specialising in documentary and campaign work, with a raw and emotive visual style.
Simone Stewart
Simone is a Wolverhampton-born video journalist, producer and filmmaker. She has worked at BBC News and ITV Sport, and is currently supporting the UK’s first independent Windrush Commissioner. Simone has just finished filming short films for World Afro Day, and is transitioning from broadcast journalism into personal filmmaking.
Tayo Ibikunle
Ibitayo ‘Tsaint’ Ibikunle is a Nigerian-born filmmaker, cinematographer and creative producer, UK Endorsed Global Talent. His credits include BBC Africa Eye’s award-winning Disciples: The Cult of TB Joshua, and his feature 60 Days is in production.
Tkay Boateng
Tkay Sophia Boateng is an emerging producer with four years of experience at Whisper and IMG across the UEFA Champions League and Wimbledon. Her short Boys & Girls was nominated at Cannes; Castle in the Dark reached the semi-finals at Rhode Island IIFF.
Winnie Imara
Winnie is a producer-writer from North London and a recent NFTS graduate. Her work has been selected for BIFA-qualifying festivals, and she has produced projects for BBC, Somesuch, Black Girl Fest Studios and Spotify.
Jon Creamer
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