Written & directed by Josie Charles and Phoebe Brooks
Produced by Lily Donnelly and Amy George
A young working-class Welsh woman meets her wealthy English boyfriend’s eccentric family for the first time on Christmas Eve.
She’s thrown straight into the family’s traditional Christmas game, and struggles to keep up with its in-jokes and strange rules. But as she improves, she begins to uncover a dark secret in the family’s past.
ABOUT THE FILM
The Forfeit won Best Screenplay and Best Score at our film festival earlier this year, as well as being nominated for Best Director, Best Cinematography, and in the Best Sponsored Short category. Other notable awards are winning Best Director (Thriller) at the London Director Awards 2023 and Best UK-Made Short at The Gogs International Short Film Festival. The film was recognised as a finalist at the 2022 British Short Film Awards in the categories of Best Director, Best Production Design, and Best Sound Design. It also received praise and nominations from London Film Week, Underwire Festival, the BIFA qualifying Beeston Film Festival and Scream Queen Film Festival. Notable festivals selections include British Shorts Berlin 2023, Final Girls Berlin Film Festival, Brighton Rocks Film Festival 2023, Bute Street Film Festival, and more.
The film was recently release on Omeleto - a direct result of their screeners seeing the film as our festival.
ABOUT THE FILMmakerS
Josie is a director from Somerset, now based in London. Her previous shorts have screened at festivals including Underwire, London Film Week & Bolton Film Festival. In 2023 she was selected for the Directors UK ‘Inspire’ scheme, to be mentored by BAFTA-winning director Tom George. Her most recent short ‘Dead Cat Film’ features Hugh Bonneville (Notting Hill) & Will Gao (Heartstopper). www.josiecharles.com
Phoebe Brooks has directed short films, music videos, and commercials for global brands and charities, including Formula 1, Tinder, Samaritans and the NSPCC. Her short films have won multiple awards at international festivals, and she was recently selected as part of the BFI Flare x BAFTA Mentoring scheme for 2023. She is currently developing her debut feature. www.pbrooks501.com
READ OUR INTERVIEW WITH Josie & Phoebe
Welcome to our Short of the Week series. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself/yourselves and your filmmaking backgrounds?
PB: I made terrible videos with my mum’s camcorder from age 11. Like, really bad. And I just kept doing that and never really decided to do anything else. I’m often like - why did I let an 11 year old decide what my career would be? But it’s too late now.
JC: I originally trained as an actor, and my first short film was meant to be good showreel material - I was just co-writing and acting. But my co-writer promoted me to co-director when it was clear I would need to have a say in all aspects of it… and I haven’t looked back!
Tell us about the genesis of The Forfeit. You also co-wrote the script. What's your process for developing and writing together?
JC: Phoebe and I both come from families who love games and are very competitive about them.
PB: This film literally came about because me and Josie got too aggressively competitive at a party playing this game, and we realised no one else in the room cared at all, and it made us want to make a film about how weird we were.
What were some of the main obstacles you experienced when making The Forfeit and how did you overcome them?
PB: The pandemic was the big one. We shot this at the start of one of the lockdowns, and it was the most stressful thing that’s ever happened to me.
JC: Yeah we realised that with 8 principal cast members and a number of locations we’d designed a very impractical shoot for ourselves under COVID regulations.
How did your process work as co-directors? Did you delegate and each take aspects of directing duties, or did you work as a unified team on all aspects?
JC: I think because we’d co-written the script we were always pretty aligned on the characters and performances - we knew who those people were and how each moment should feel.
PB: I completely agree with what Josie said.
Tell us about the journey of getting your film to audiences.
PB: We submitted to a load of festivals, and got into some! It’s been an absolute joy travelling to different countries and seeing it with so many different kinds of audiences.
JC: Yeah it was your classic cocktail of some lovely acceptances with many other rejections. But we’ve been really lucky with the selections we’ve had, and because it’s a comedy there is nothing like hearing the audience’s reaction in person!
What do you think is the biggest challenge short filmmakers face in the early stages of their career when trying to break into the industry?
PB: It’s really, really hard. I think making shorts is so soul crushing. There’s so little funding, and so few opportunities.
JC: Funding is the big one. Even the funding that is available is tied up in long application processes, which feels a bit antithetical to the creative process. But I don’t think funding is ever easy to come by (unless you’re literally Steven Spielberg).
What advice or hacks would you give to other short filmmakers?
JC: Because funding is limited, I always tell people to design shorts based on the resources they have. Like, if you can’t afford multiple locations, write something in one location, ideally a place you have access to for free. If you know amazing actors who will help you out, write them a part! One of my most recent shorts is all shot on camcorder because the writer/performer told me she wanted to make something for under £500.
PB: In terms of hacks… find people who will help you do it. You can’t do this alone - The Forfeit was only possible because of all the amazing people who gave us their time and talents to make it happen. Also work with Josie Charles, she’s pretty good.
Any film recommendations that we should add to our watchlist?
PB: I just watched Valerie and her Week of Wonders. Completely batshit Czech film from the ‘70s. Zero plot, just vampires and vibes. Incredible film.
JC: I’m so basic with films, I don’t have a good niche recommendations like Phoebe.
PB: Harsh but fair.