LFA students look ahead with Pinewood Studios’ Futures Festival

25 February 2026

Recently, LFA’s BA (Hons) Filmmaking students traded the LFA studios for one of the most famous film studios on the planet: Pinewood Studios.

Home to James Bond, Star Wars, Alien, and Harry Potter, Pinewood is synonymous with world-class filmmaking and has been behind some of the most iconic franchises of the past half a century. Typically exclusive to only the most prestigious of film shoots, Pinewood opens its doors once a year for the Futures Festival: a celebration of the next generation of filmmakers from across the UK and beyond. For one weekend, the studio invites students and educators into its hallowed halls to see where the magic happens and inspire them to follow suit in their careers.

Students stood beside a life-sized Lightning McQueen car replica

Live demonstrations on legendary soundstages

The biggest highlight of the day for our students was getting to explore some of Pinewood’s largest and most famous soundstages. Throughout the day, LFA students wandered around the legendary 007 Stage, as well as the Richard Attenborough Stage and the Underwater Stage – enjoying live stunt demonstrations in each. Controlled explosions and carefully planned vehicular stunts were on the agenda, and LFA students got to experience these firsthand from viewing platforms.

Students enjoying fake snow in winter studio set

Throughout the day, our students also got to speak with numerous industry professionals who are at the top of their game in disciplines like stunt coordination, assistant directing, and on-set management.

First year BA (Hons) Filmmaking student Roxanne Sanner El Barouki hugely enjoyed the experience:

Visiting Pinewood Studios was a rare opportunity; stepping into spaces where so many well-known films have been made gave us a real sense of the industry’s scale and craft. The Futures Festival added to this with the chance to meet and hear from professionals across a wide range of disciplines. There was a lot happening throughout the day, it was easy to find something engaging regardless of your area of interest.

Roxanne Sanner El Barouki

Students looking at giant screen in studio

Workshops and soundscapes

The tour of Pinewood Studios was shaped by regular live displays of talent from seasoned industry professionals. Iver Make Up Academy showcased the subtleties and extravagances of makeup in filmmaking, the Greens Team had a tree installation that highlighted the nuances of production design across landscapes from all four seasons, and Cineco hosted several sessions on prop-making and set painting. Friends of LFA, Imaginarium Studios, were also on set, demonstrating their cutting-edge performance capture and virtual production technology to our students. Our students also attended a live sound mixing demonstration in Pinewood’s Post Production Theatre, illustrating the extensive care that goes into sound work at the iconic British studio. Joseph Coyte, another first year BA (Hons) Filmmaking student, shared:

I thought it was a brilliant experience. It’s a part of cinema history, and I think it’s important for us as a community of filmmakers to not only see that history but know the next steps that our careers could involve. Plus, seeing R2-D2 in real life is hard to beat.

Roxanne Sanner El Barouki

Studio pictures

Looking ahead

Events like Pinewood’s Futures Festival provide further guidance to LFA students on the pathways that are available to them once they graduate. Over 50 industry organisations exhibited at the festival, sharing with our students the wealth of options they have in disciplines like VFX, prop making, editing, and VFX. We at LFA were thrilled to see our students have such a great time at the festival, and we look forward to returning next year with our next cohort of BA (Hons) Filmmaking students.