MPB Filmmaker of the Year: Celebrating the best

Posted on Jun 20, 2025 by Pro Moviemaker

Meet the talented winners from our third Filmmaker of the Year competition

The entries have poured in, our expert judges have watched every film and debated into the night, and now it’s time to reveal the winners of the MPB-backed Filmmaker of the Year contest.

This year’s entries have been truly inspiring. The awards are not about big-budget TV or feature film productions, but celebrating the talent and creativity of commercial and emerging filmmakers – the cinematographers, editors, camera operators, colourists and sound designers who power the international filmmaking industry with original, professional work.

From promotional videos and documentaries to music videos, social media content, weddings, event coverage and more, these films showcase the backbone of the independent production world. Some entrants are seasoned professionals, others are promising newcomers, but every winner stood out for their creativity, craft and passion.

The judges selected winners across a range of categories, and it was a tough call. From these, one filmmaker was chosen as the overall Pro Moviemaker Filmmaker of the Year.

We are proud to announce that this year’s title goes to Dominic Danson – a talented UK-based filmmaker whose stunning YouTube series earned him the top honour. Danson’s work stood out for its polish, storytelling skill and interviewing flair, as well as technical skill in lighting. His entry also won the YouTube category.

So, let’s meet the winners in each individual category – starting with our overall winner.

YouTuber

The ever-growing video outlet

YouTube leads as the top platform for delivering video content, with the best creators producing engaging and well-shot videos for their own or a client’s channels.

The category winner, and overall MPB Filmmaker of the Year, is Dominic Danson for his Forty Minutes With show that just oozes class. It is a long-form talk show filmed in broadcast quality and on Netflix-approved cameras.

“We produced the show in part to demonstrate that there’s a better way for TV-scale content to get made,” reveals Danson. “Smaller crews working with leaner budgets can use modern cameras, lenses and storage to get the same output as a traditionally high-end piece. Our first four episodes received some great feedback and we”re looking to make more. While the channel is small, the principles of what it stands for could pave the way to a new kind of content production: broadcast-grade, podcast speed and indie budgets.”

Student

The stars of tomorrow

Ambitious American filmmaker DK Greenley wrote, directed, produced and voice acted in this commercial for Zico coconut water entitled Crack Life Open while a graduate student at film school.

It was filmed on a self-financed budget of $2000 and carefully shot under union rules of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists as part of his filmmaking course. Greenley used an international crew in both production and post-production work.

“Making it was fantastic, and the union even asked for a link to it as they wanted to share my student commercial production with their sitting SAG commercial committee members,” he says.

“My hope is that this will fuel my foray into writing, directing and producing brand commercials in the US and around the world!”

Aerial

The view from on high

This award is ideal for filmmakers who use aerial camerawork either as the sole content of a film or just a part of it. It celebrates those who know it’s not as simple as just putting a drone up for an establishing shot.

The winner uses incredible shots from an FPV drone to really bring the story of a high-end gym alive.

Inspired by viral fly-though FPV drone shots, Brit John Owen used the technique to add to the production values of his work to showcase the latest gym chains.

The drone flies through classes of people on stationary bikes, through busy weights rooms and even into changing rooms to bring an exciting, new aesthetic to a corporate film. This unique look is difficult to achieve, yet Owen’s crew pull it off so well.

A blonde woman talking man sits in a purple

Two people sit on a sofa with large drinks in their hands. One of them has tissue up their nose and is dressed in a onesie

A orange and black gym with a man sitting on an arm machine

Social media

Art made for sharing

Video dominates social media, but with so much content only the best and most engaging stories go viral.

That’s what happened when Melissa Del Gratta recorded the incredible story of a YouTube engineering and aviation influencer called Xyla Foxlin, who talks struggling with mental health concerns linked to her choice of birth control. She gets reported to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), diagnosed with hysteria and grounded – maybe for life.

Her experience raises questions about access to professional mental health support for pilots, and how the FAA’s policies push pilots in need of mental health support into the shadow – and out of the cockpit for life. This issue doesn’t just impact pilots, it’s something that affects anyone relying on air travel.

This short documentary was produced entirely by a small team from Long Haul Films, and it’s already had a huge impact. It racked up more than 300,000 views and 5000 comments in its first week on YouTube. It’s now close to half a million views and more than 7000 comments.

It has raised more than $10,000 in donations and inspired hundreds of people to sign up to volunteer with the Pilot Mental Health Campaign, an organisation Foxlin is working with to help change the way the FAA legislates mental health for pilots.

Action & sports

For the quick movers

This category focuses on attention-grabbing footage used to tell incredible stories. The winner is Matt Green, who filmed Talk to Frank, collaborating with his friend Maleek Kuba-Kuba.

“I’ve had the fortune to get to know Maleek from just after he first started to get in the outdoors and hearing his story about Frank. I knew it would make a great short film,” says Green. The hero of the piece is Frank, a cocker spaniel from Manchester and Maleek’s dog.

“After a breakthrough on how to get the perspective just right – thanks to my wife and business partner Ellie – we got the grant funding and some additional support to make the film happen. Maleek wasn’t in a great place – having just finished a four-year sentence, he found himself transitioning from one prison to another in the Covid-19 lockdown and a debilitating depression.”

But with Frank at his side, he forced himself out of the house to go on walks, which led to running, then mountain running at Pen-y ghent. Maleek now sees the mountains as his spiritual home, tackling routes higher and further than he has ever been before.

The film has had ten film festival selections worldwide, a testament to Green’s storytelling skills.

Open

A showcase for real creativity

Anything goes in this category, and the winner is an incredible film shot by Ellie Green. It is an intimate profile of Renee McGregor, a world-renowned sports nutritionist and eating disorder specialist.

She is also an ultra runner and trustee of Black Trail Runners, an organisation battling for representation and redefining success – both in the mountains where she runs and in life.

Unfiltered is a raw and brutally honest portrayal of trauma turned into triumph. It captures McGregor’s lifelong search for safety, acceptance and belonging in a world, and a sport, that has often told her she doesn’t fit in.

The film follows her as she prepares for the most significant race of her career. The crew is granted unrestricted access to her friends, family and clients, exposing the emotional and physical challenges she faces while balancing training, career and advocacy work.

It shines a light on the racism, stereotypes and daily struggles of being a woman of colour in a predominantly white sport. McGregor’s openness and vulnerability stand at the heart of this story. It is a testament to a deeply hurt person’s ability to rise, heal and inspire.

A young woman holding a bottle of wine leaning under the wing of a plane

A man with a grey hoodie stands at a window drinking from a blue mug

Two people run up a mountain in silhouette

Lighting

Creating with light and shade

Mastery of light – whether through artificial lights or a careful combination of ambient and practical – is what this award is all about. We look for lighting that creates a certain feel, and Mike Fox delivered just that in his extended teaser for his scripted film Loveday Brooke: Lady Detective.

Set in Victorian London, the film stars Arianna Fox as a 16-year-old wannabe sleuth out to find answers to unsolved mysteries. As she encounters ruffians, enemies and diabolical elites, she uncovers a complex untwisting of connected murders and unreported missing people. All lit with skill and expertise on a low budget.

Sound

For incredible audio

Sound recording and design is crucial in any film, but when you have to create the audio for a full-length documentary shot on location in Africa, it takes on a new level of complexity.

Yet, Tom Martienssen masters the sound in his film Rhino, the result of a deeply personal journey that took him from the front lines of war reporting to the heart of Kenya’s conservation efforts.

“Over the course of four years, I have lived and worked alongside the courageous rangers who protect some of the world’s most endangered creatures, finding in their fight a renewed sense of purpose,” he begins.

“Rhino is not just a documentary, it’s a celebration of resilience and hope. A story about the power of indigenous communities told through the eyes of those who shaped the land. This film is a testament to the extraordinary efforts of Kiloku, Rita and all those on the front lines of conservation.”

Martienssen says that, with each scene being real and undirected, he worked hard to bring a cinematic quality that could capture the raw beauty and urgency of their mission. This includes visuals and a soundscape that keep audiences connected.

“We are aiming to create a new standard of ethical storytelling – not parachuting in, but living and breathing the story side by side with our characters. I sold my house and became a Kenyan resident,” he reveals.

“I hope to contribute to the growing global awareness of the importance of protecting biodiversity – with dedication, humanity can win the war for our planet’s future.”

Event

Highlights of live shows

This category is for the polished edits of any event that uses great camerawork and tight editing to tell a wider and more engaging tale than live streaming.

And this year’s winner is a film called Julian Spalding Presents Francis Davison Incredible Art, shot by Jonny Lewis. For Lewis, last year’s overall winner of Filmmaker of the Year, it’s his second win in the 2025 contest alongside his gong for editing.

This short film is from a live event at the Goldmark Gallery – featuring art critic, writer, broadcaster and curator Julian Spalding giving a talk on the artwork of Francis Davison.

“These scraps of paper, magically transformed, have their place among the genuinely profound art of our times. For, to appropriate a line from TS Eliot’s The Waste Land, each one of them is a fragment shored against our ruin,” says Spalding.

The shy and introverted Davison never sought the limelight. He lived to create the work, sustained by the love of his wife Margaret Mellis and the frugal life they scratched for their Suffolk smallholding.

Though much admired by artist friends in private, it was not until Spalding championed Davison’s work that the art establishment began to take notice. In 1983, Davison received a major show at London’s Hayward Gallery, which captivated and influenced many – including a young Damien Hirst.

Davison died only a year after the Hayward exhibition, and Spalding watched helplessly as the ailing Davison destroyed many of his collages in that final year of his life. This action and the quasi-anonymity of the Hayward show may have contributed to the fact that his brief moment of recognition perished with the artist himself.

The winning entry showcases a rare opportunity to see the creations of an artist who many believe should now be at the forefront of 20th-century European art history.

A woman listens at a door while an older woman in a period maid costume stands with her arms crossed next to her

A savannah landscape with an elephant walking through the grass

An old man stands in the middle of an art gallery while other men sit around the outskirts

Visual effects

Creating on-screen magic

Visual effects can include practical and green-screen work all the way through to VFX and virtual production with LED panels. This category is open to anything from old-school in-camera ingenuity to cutting-edge techniques.

In a sign of the times, Steven Smith managed to make a stunning promotional reel featuring a McLaren sports car all on his computer.

“I was inspired one day when I saw a McLaren speeding on the streets of Dallas, Texas. So that evening, I stayed up until 3am creating this piece of art,” he says.

Using Unreal Engine 5, Cinema 4D and DaVinci Resolve, he created visual effects with proper lighting technique and camera positions to make the renders look both realistic and impactful.

Commercial & corporate

The cream of professional work

One of the most hotly contested classes is commercial & corporate, where films can be branded content, promotional videos or adverts commissioned by clients or charities. The best tell truly engaging stories in a stylish way that inspires an audience.

And that’s certainly the case for category winner Florian Thess, whose work for Brompton Technology is simply incredible – as you might expect for an organisation that has received an Emmy Award.

Brompton is a manufacturer of LED processing systems, driving some of the biggest shows for artists like Adele and Ed Sheeran, plus offering virtual production shoots powering The Mandalorian, The Batman and Barbie.

With permission to use short clips of these films in his advert, Thess was always on to a winner. But his job was to create an advert to sell a processing unit, not just rely on clips from blockbuster movies.

“A bit of hardware isn’t that exciting because it sits in a rack somewhere and is barely seen by anyone,” he explains. “I was tasked to create a brand film to tell a story about our products and the company around it, in a way that is exciting and entertaining.”

He decided to focus on the products’ uniqueness and precision of engineering. “The visuals had to reflect the values of the company, so I decided to create all product scenes in 3D, giving each piece of technology a distinct home.

“It was also important to capture the different locations we have a presence in – UK, China and the US – and capture the unique atmosphere in each respective office. This was also the very first time using AI voiceover in an actual production.”

That’s a lot of tech to pull together, but of course it’s what makes Brompton great. The resulting film is slick, impactful and gets the message across in a visually stunning way.

Future filmmaker

For tomorrow’s superstars

This is where the next generation steps into the spotlight. This category celebrates emerging creatives – aspiring pros and filmmakers in their first two years – already making waves. It’s an open-format category, so anything goes, and this year’s entries proved just how bold and inventive fresh talent can be.

The winner is a film called Mia’s Bridge – Some Dreams Live Forever, written, produced and edited by Mike Fox. This gripping drama blends cinematic action with a compelling story, unforgettable characters and a powerful message. With a diverse cast and crew, the film champions unity, resilience and hope – all set against the pulse of an action-packed narrative.

Fox’s work doesn’t just show promise, it delivers on it. This film is proof that new voices can reshape the industry with courage, craft and vision.

Music video

Adding so much to the song

Music videos are where talent can really shine, with so many creative options for filmmakers. Though the award isn’t about judging the music, it’s about how the video adds to the whole creative package.

This year’s winning entry comes from British-Indian filmmaker Aron Randhawa, who created a surreal and dreamlike world for Tara Lily’s Speak in the Dark using a mix of in-camera techniques and virtual production to add real polish.

“This passion project was my first music video and was produced with a £5000 budget,” shares Randhawa. “The song is about speaking our truth and not holding on to secrets, otherwise darkness can consume us. The experience has made me fall in love with the art of music video creation, and I’m excited to grow in this space.”

Editing

For the post master general

Filmmakers know that it’s in the edit that the visuals and audio come together to create something special. From the cuts, sound design and graphics, they all add to the mix. And when you are under massive time pressure to get it all out, that takes real skill.

The winner of this category is Jonny Lewis, who edits the longest-running rugby TV show in the US, which covers the country’s professional Major League Rugby. And he does it thousands of miles away from the action, in the UK.

As the 2024 Pro Moviemaker Filmmaker of the Year winner, Lewis puts together game highlights, in-depth analysis and interviews with some of the biggest names in the sport – content that’s broadcast on a number of TV networks and YouTube. It’s a slick TV production, all edited in Final Cut Pro on Lewis’ Macbook Pro laptop, often against tight deadlines.

Cinematography

Creating magic on the screen

This award celebrates outstanding cinematography, where resourcefulness beats budget. It’s about creating films that look like they had large crews and deep pockets, but are powered by lean teams, smart choices and bold vision.

We home in on how filmmakers cleverly deploy lenses, lighting, camera angles and editing for crafting visually striking content. This category rewards the ability to create stylish, cinematic imagery without the Hollywood price tag, and Corry Raymond’s winning entry Out of These Waters is packed with shots good enough for any big-budget production.

The film is a modern retelling of The Little Mermaid. It follows mermaid Ariel who washes up on the banks of the Thames in London. Told entirely from her perspective, the film begins as a classic ‘fish out of water’ tale, but evolves into a powerful metaphor for the refugee experience as Ariel is slowly absorbed into systems of care, processed and misunderstood. “No one in the film speaks real English; instead, we use a fictional language that sounds like English but isn’t, placing the audience directly into Ariel’s confusion and sense of alienation,” explains Raymond.

Stylistically inspired by Under the Skin – a film directed by Jonathan Glazer – the film uses hidden cameras, location filming and interaction with non-actors to capture the world through what Glazer calls ‘an alien lens’ – seeing our society as strange, disconnected and indifferent.

Shot in colour with a minimalist, observational style, the film explores themes of identity, belonging and what it means to be human in a western society. The final image – a shoreline littered with the lifeless bodies of mermaids – draws direct reference to real-world refugee tragedies, reframing ancient myth as a contemporary, human crisis. It’s a visually stunning piece of work and a worthy winner.

A woman sitting on a rock in a deep blue, dramatic landscape. She wears a black robe and has no shoes

A group of men wearing black t-shirts and ID badges walk out of a building

A blonde woman with a silver mermaid tail lays on a stoney beach

Wedding

The romance of the big day

A stylish film in a stunning location, shot in a cinematic, widescreen format made Drew Johnstone’s romantic masterpiece a clear winner.

“What an exciting wedding this was. The couple travelled from Australia back to Scotland to have the celebration for their big day. The bride thought about all the details and how the day should flow. It was full of joy and romantic vibes,” says Johnstone of Jst Married Wedding Films.

A few day later, he met back up with the couple in the Heart of Glencoe.
The couple wanted to show off the cinematic, earthly tones of the Highlands to friends and family back home half a world away. The mix of locations – Cameron House, Dumbarton Church, Boturich Castle and Glencoe – made this adventure an exciting challenge for a solo videographer.

“I find a big part of my films is a sense of place, with elegant moments to tell the story, thus creating a cinematic film.”

Livestreamed event

The theatre of the unscripted

Livestreamed video has exploded across sectors, but behind every slick production is a team working under pressure, with workflows more aligned to live TV. Yet great camerawork shines through in the winning entry from director Graham Essenhigh of Bubble Production, which specialises in multicam outside broadcasts.

Operating across the UK and beyond, Bubble has carved out a reputation for delivering complex, multicamera live broadcasts. Whether it’s classical music concerts, pop gigs, conferences or BBC coverage of Remembrance Sunday from Whitehall, the Bubble crew are seasoned pros in fast-paced environments.

Their latest high-octane challenge was what won them the award. It was livestreaming the adrenaline-fuelled Arenacross World Tour, an event that kicked off in Birmingham and wrapped up in Abu Dhabi. It’s off-road motorcycle racing meets arena spectacle – complete with pyrotechnics, dancers, presenters and a roaring crowd.

At the Wembley round in London, director Graham Essenhigh oversaw a nine-camera set-up including fixed positions, a wireless roaming cam and a pole cam – all managed by a compact crew of eight. “Each lap of the track takes the racer just 20 seconds,” he comments. “Switching shots to keep up with the leaders is intense.”

Inside the production truck, Blackmagic gear powers the entire pipeline – from Ursa Broadcast G2 and Micro Studio cameras to 8K Atem switchers. Two outputs are mixed simultaneously: one for the in-arena Jumbotron screen, and another for the pay-per-view live stream, with signals distributed via a bonded internet system for maximum reliability.

“It’s a massive operation,” explains Essenhigh. “We’re live mixing the pundit segments, adverts and a constantly moving race – all under pressure. But our team is tight-knit. When something goes wrong, it’s our job to correct it fast and keep the illusion alive.”

Documentary

Compelling true stories

The documentary class is always one of the most popular, which makes it incredibly tough to win. We had plenty of great entries this year, but the winner is Pete Sheath, who used many cinematic techniques in his mini documentary Tethered.

“I’ve been working on it for the past two years. The documentary is all about Eros, a blind runner from Cyprus who has found a partner in Sarah, his guide runner,” says Sheath. They’re both training to tackle the Copthorne Races – a 50km ultra-marathon trail run through the Surrey Hills in England – having tried and failed twice.

“This race has become something of a demon that haunts Eros and fills him with dread when he attempts other trail events. But his incredible grit, determination and strength of character pushes him further than ever before,” Sheath adds. “Together, Eros and Sarah can take on anything and are completely united in the pursuit of this goal.”

The film shows them in training, attempting the race and highlights the challenges they will have to overcome to finish the Copthorne Races. As if running completely blind isn’t hard enough, it also includes crossing stepping stones over a river. And it’s all beautifully captured in Sheath’s film with great action, amazing drone footage and incredible use of light.

A bride and a groom stand at a wedding alter. The bride holds a piece of paper in her hands and reads from it

A woman with pink braided hair holds two flaming torches and spins them on a dirt stage

An aerial view of a couple walking down a brown path in-between orange trees

This article was first published in the July/August 2025 issue of Pro Moviemaker

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