Creative Director Clare reflects on BAFTA win.

Having recently won the BAFTA Cymru Breakthrough Award, Creative Director Clare Sturges describes what her film brand Brightest Films stands for:

“Industry recognition is so important as I take my next steps. That's why winning this award means a lot to me. What I'd like now more than anything is to have opportunities to continue working: to produce quality, moving, thought-provoking films that reveal hidden stories and give real people – our everyday heroes – the spotlight.

“What makes Brightest unique is the thinking behind the brand… I believe that in Western culture we have an unhealthy obsession with fame, youth, wealth and status, and it can lead to a crisis of identity. Stars and celebrities don’t really have much to do with most people’s real experiences, but we compare ourselves with their glittering lives so that ours come up lacking.

“I see the work of Brightest Films as looking around us and spotting the people and the stories that will inspire emotion; reveal the intimate detail of lives that are unfamiliar; encourage people to think differently and question stereotypes, prejudices and assumptions. I’m not interested in celebrities for celebrity’s sake or reality stars.

“I believe that ordinary people have extraordinary stories to tell and that life’s true stars are among us – our next door neighbour, our cousin, our friend – people leading apparently unremarkable lives doing remarkable things. They are our everyday heroes and they are people I think audiences will relate to and want to get to know.”

Brightest Creative Director Clare Sturges won the BAFTA Cymru Breakthrough Award 2015 for her challenging film Sexwork, Love & Mr Right. She is the first female director to win the award.

On receiving the gong at a star-studded ceremony on Sunday 29th September at St David’s Hall, Cardiff, Clare said: “As the first female director to win this award, I’d like to say… The only thing that separates women directors from any other directors in this industry is opportunity. You can’t win a BAFTA Cymru Breakthrough Award if the doors are simply not open. I hope to have the opportunity to show you that my best work is yet to come.”

Watch the BAFTA Cymru Awards 2015.

Read a BBC Wales report on Clare’s latest project with Brightest Films.