Homespun Yarns Reveals 2016 Winner

Homespun Yarns, a film competition set up by Stitch editing which seeks to nurture young talent and support the best creative ideas, regardless of budget, has annouced this year's winner.

At an awards-ceremony-cum-party held at the end of last week, Thomas Ralph [pictured], a creative researcher at production company Caviar, was awarded first prize.

This year the Homespun partnered with Wave Music and invited filmmakers to submit their ideas for a short film inspired by Lyves’ haunting alternative electro soul track, Darkest Hour.

The competition encourages participants to submit a brief for a chance to realise their idea with a £1,500 budget and gain experience working alongside a Homespun expert.

With a record number of entries for the competition, four directors were shortlisted and received funding [Lee Thomas, Thomas James, Jonathan Augustavo, and evenutal winner, Thomas Ralph] – one more than the competition usually recognises.

When it came down to the final vote on the finished films, it was Ralph’s powerfully current entry on Britain’s youth [below] that won the hearts of Homespun Yarns' voting audience, winning him £500 and two tickets to the UKMVAs.

On receiving the award, Thomas said; "I’m sure I speak on behalf of all the four finalists when I say that having the opportunity to openly interpret Lyves haunting track as well as collaborate with Homespun’s talented roster (big shout out to Paul O’Reilly) has been a unique experience all of us have thrived under. To win it, well that’s just the icing on the cake. Having received such humbling feedback and responses from the kids and families portrayed in the piece; I’ve learnt as a filmmaker that when you explore something as honestly as you can, film is the most powerful of artistic mediums.”

You can view each of the shortlisted films on the Homepsun YouTube channel.