We are delighted to announce that our brilliant final cohort – selected by an internal panel that included past FVU-commissioned artists Rene Matić and Maryam Tafakory – features Anna Engelhardt, Jameisha Prescod, Hantao Li, Lucy Rose Shaftain-Fenner, Morisha Moodley, and Mahdy Abo Bahat. 

Due to the high volume of applications (400+), and the exceptionally high quality of proposals received, we took the decision to double the number of commissions awarded, from three to six. The commissioned works explore a diverse range of themes and techniques, from analogue film to 3D animation, and will be presented in a series of solo exhibitions at a major contemporary art gallery in the South West starting February 2026.

About the artists

Anna Engelhardt
machinic.info

Anna Engelhardt is the alias of a video artist and writer. Her investigative practice follows the traces of material violence, focusing on what could be seen as the ‘ghost’ of information. Engelhardt has shown her work at transmediale, HKW, Berlin; ICA, London; Kyiv Biennial; Biennial TEA Tenerife; National Gallery of Art, Vilnius; BFI London Film Festival; Henie Onstad Triennial for Photography and New Media, Oslo; VO Curations, London. Her texts are an integral part of her practice, and have been published on e-flux, The Funambulist, NERO and Spector Books, among others.

Anna says, "I’m excited to join the FVU community, a group of artists whose work I’ve followed and admired for a long time. I’m grateful for the opportunity to develop new work and push my practice further through this commission."
 

Jameisha Prescod
jameishaprescod.com

Jameisha Prescod is an artist-filmmaker and writer from South London. Their work explores how culture, identity, black history and colonialism influence the way illnesses are experienced. Jameisha was included on the 2025 Forbes 30 Under 30 list for art and culture and has had work exhibited at the Venice Arte Biennale, London Film Festival and Unlimited Festival.

Jameisha says: "I am beyond excited to be selected for FVU New Takes. Visual art has granted me a unique language to explore diverse experiences of disability. I am incredibly grateful to FVU for supporting me to make new work that examines this further."


Hantao Li
hantaoli.com

Hantao Li is a visual artist and architectural designer, currently completing his master’s degree at the Architectural Association. Working across architecture and moving image, his practice explores the entangled realities of society, technology, and infrastructure through radical, speculative narratives. His work has been exhibited and screened at Simultan Festival, Beijing International Short Film Festival, UCCA, House of European Institutes, and Derby QUAD.

Hantao says, "I'm grateful to FVU for selecting me as part of the New Takes commission. It's an exciting opportunity that not only supports but also inspires me to push the boundaries of my early art practice."


Lucy Rose Shaftain-Fenner
lucyrose.info

Lucy Rose Shaftain-Fenner is a documentary filmmaker from Essex. Her practice explores themes including lived experiences, LGBTQIA+ rights and activism, empowerment, intersectional identities, queerness, neurodivergence and mental health. Her work has been seen at Norwich University of the Arts for Norwich Queer Fest, at TRANSlations Transgender Film Festival in Seattle and at Out on Film in Atlanta. Her work has also been seen in Queer Youth Art Collective’s group exhibition, ‘Dream This Silly’ at Queer Circle in London and in Dreamy Place’s Night Watch Queer Film Trail in Brighton.

Lucy says, "I'm looking forward to exploring shooting on analogue film for this new project, something I've not previously had the budget to explore. I've always loved the grain and warmth that film brings."


Morisha Moodley
morishamoodley.com

Morisha Moodley is a moving image artist who works across video, installation, and text, examining the entanglement of race, queerness, disability, and theology through these forms. Their work has been exhibited internationally, including at Hyde Park Art Center, London Short Film Festival, Kasseler Dokefest and Global Citizen. Amongst other awards, Morisha is a recipient of an AXS Film Fund grant (2025) and a Develop Your Creative Practice grant from Art Council England (2022).

Morisha says, "I’m grateful to the FVU team for showing faith in this project and providing a support system to help it bloom. Being part of New Takes will be an opportunity to experiment and expand; I hope to delve into new ways of making and to advance my pursuit of bringing together crip praxes with the moving image. It is incredible to be chosen for this programme which such phenomenal artists have been part of and I am excited for what it may bring."


Mahdy Abo Bahat
gravegood.com

Mahdy Abo Bahat is an Egyptian artist-filmmaker based between London and Cairo. His fixation with moving image stems from a need to document whilst witnessing the Egyptian upheaval in 2011. He is committed to crafting hauntologies that summon beings, worlds, and times deemed immemorial by the ruling discourse.Mahdy’s work has been shown in Cinema du Reel, Oberhausen International Short Film festival, 25FPS Film Festival, Experimental Film and Video Festival in Seoul and Documenta Madrid.

Mahdy says, “I am humbled to have been selected for FVU New Takes—especially at a time when there is almost no infrastructure for filmmakers that is not exploitative, conditional, colonial, or problematic, particularly for those seeking to reveal experiences and worlds beyond Europe and this island. I thank FVU for placing their trust in me, and I hope to offer a gaze that resonates with the dangerous historical conjuncture we are all living through today.”

About FVU New Takes

FVU New Takes is an opportunity for artists to test new ideas and thinking in moving image. The programme provides creative support for six UK based visual artists, who are within five years of beginning their professional artistic practice, to realise a new moving image work. Selected artists receive a £5,000 fee/budget to make their proposed piece, and final works will be launched on FVU Watch and the organisations’ digital channels. Selected artists also receive production and curatorial support from the FVU team, external mentoring, as well as having a new text commissioned about their work. 

The call for entries was open between Tuesday 3 September 2024 and 12 noon, Monday 14th October 2024.
 

Awarded artists receive
 

• • £5,000 fee/budget to make a new moving-image work.
• • The new moving image work premiered on FVU Watch (the FVU website’s online viewing platform) will remain on there and other FVU digital channels, as part of a growing archive of FVU commissioned work.
• • Production support / curatorial advice from the FVU team, delivered via regular meetings throughout the period of production.
• • 2 x mentoring sessions from an artist or other relevant expert of their choosing.
• • A text commissioned about their new moving-image work.

Selectors

The panel was comprised of:

Maryam Tafakory, artist and Jarman Award nominee 2024
Rene Matić, artist
Angelica Sule, FVU Director