Picturehouse Create 2026: LFA Students Experience Four Days of Industry Masterclasses

13 May 2026

Second-year LFA BA (Hons) Filmmaking students recently attended Picturehouse Create 2026, as an extension of their studies. Run by the prolific cinema chain and independent film distributor, Picturehouse Create was launched in 2025 and sees their flagship London cinema, Picturehouse Central, transformed into a hub of networking, masterclasses, and preview screenings. LFA students attended the inaugural Picturehouse Create last year.

Panellists talking on stage in cinema screen

First draft

One of the key events from the first full day of Picturehouse Create was a talk with Black Doves screenwriter Joe Barton, hosted by Script Apart podcaster Al Horner. The session was overflowing with helpful advice for screenwriters, with Barton shedding light on how he approached writing his surprise smash-hit Netflix series, compared to some of his previous work.

Barton shared:

You can either build from a plot or a character, and I do find it easier if you start with a character. Generally, that’s been my process. When I did ‘The Lazarus Project’, which is a time travel thing, I found that really difficult to do, because I had the idea, but then I was trying to find the characters. Whereas if you start with this connection of a fictitious person that you want to follow, and if you come up with an interesting enough character, then you can put them through anything and it’ll be interesting.

Joe Barton

Two men sitting on stage, talking

Producing panel

Another highlight from the four-day festivities was Picturehouse’s ‘Produced By’ panel, which highlighted the current landscape of filmmaking in the UK and focused on the producer’s perspective. Panellists included Trainspotting and 28 Years Later producer Andrew Macdonald, My Father’s Shadow producers Rachel Dargavel and Lucy Drury, and Pillion producer Tobi Kyremateng.

Macdonald discussed how important he feels it is to maintain the right perspective as a film producer:

I think a lot of people think there’s a ‘right of entitlement’ to make a film for whatever reason, but the audience is what really tells us about it. As a producer, you have to think about those things. You’re young, you’re ambitious, but you have to really understand how festivals work, and how everybody else has done it.

Andrew Macdonald

Busy cafe filled with students

Drury also shared with LFA students insight on the realities of being a producer, and the importance of communication skills and how they're inherent to the role regardless of the scale of the project:

I think it’s all about conversations, because producing can be quite a solitary thing, even if you are in a team or you have a company, ultimately you’re responsible for everything and everyone that’s on that project.

Lucy Drury

Black Mirror insights

The busiest day of Picturehouse Create concluded with a screening of ‘Eulogy’ from Black Mirror season 7, followed by a masterclass with the mastermind behind the show, Charlie Brooker. Brooker’s eclectic career prior to entering the film and TV space made for fascinating conversation, as he discussed his time as a video game journalist and shared how he designed the logo for popular second-hand tech chain CEX.

Man and woman on stage chatting

Brooker gave some sage advice on developing a productive relationship with feedback, and knowing how to action screenplay suggestions with nuance:

I’ve been really lucky in that all of the feedback I’ve gotten has been smart feedback. Occasionally you just want to go, ‘No,’ but most of the time there’s something there. Sometimes you’ll get a note that says, ‘We don’t like this character,’ or, ‘Is this necessary?’ But you don’t necessarily have to take that note completely, it’s not necessarily an instruction. It’s a bit like you’re the doctor, and they’re the patient. They come in and say, ‘My leg hurts,’ it doesn’t mean you have to saw their leg off. It might be something else, and your job is to diagnose what it is that they’re actually complaining about and try and fix that.

Charlie Brooker

The Picturehouse Create experience

Our second-year BA students got the most out of the opportunities and events afforded by Picturehouse Create, and they each were able to explore the sessions that interested them the most on each day.

BA student Aiden Nelson particularly enjoyed a session on production design, with industry panellists outlining how they set about crafting the culture and aesthetic of film and TV worlds through production design:

They talked about how production designers are kind of anthropologists. They don't only create the world, but they research the world they need to create and research what they wear. A production designer basically has to get the psychology behind a culture or an individual and build the world around it. It was such an amazing masterclass.

Aiden Nelson

Four students smiling to camera

A big thanks to Picturehouse for putting on another excellent series of industry events, all of which proved invaluable to our students as they continue to build their filmmaking networks beyond LFA. We look forward to seeing what Picturehouse Create brings next year.