Little Pictures

Do you have a story to tell?

Little Pictures is designed to support people at the early stages of their filmmaking journey to make their first funded short in fiction, documentary, animation or experimental genres. Whether you’ve never made a film before or have created a few on your own, Little Pictures offers the chance to gain practical experience, develop your voice, and take creative risks in a supportive environment.

Funded by Screen Scotland, Participants receive up to £6,000 in funding, access to training and workshops, a dedicated industry mentor, and ongoing support from the GMAC team – plus free access to equipment and resources. We’re particularly focused on supporting underrepresented voices in the screen sector.

The Little Pictures Scheme is now in its sixth year and has produced a diverse range of over 50 films from all across Scotland, spanning several genres, themes, stories and perspecitves.

Browse our entire film slate here.

Any questions? Email us at littlepictures@gmacfilm.com

Applications are now closed for the 2026/27 round of Little Pictures.

Current Participants

AllFilmmakersProducers

Dhillon Clarke

Filmmaker

Dhillon (he/him) is a researcher and filmmaker based in Glasgow. His films explore themes of community and social identity with a focus on amplifying underrepresented voices.  

Bothy

Bothy is a short documentary about the diverse communities using Scotland’s mountain bothies. Through an intimate glimpse into the stories of those who use the bothy, the film encourages audiences to reflect on the wider importance of third spaces in today’s society.

Ellie Harrison

Producer

Ellie  (she/her) is a Glasgow-based artist and creative producer with a background in fine art, experimental film, and installation. She brings a multidisciplinary perspective to producing, drawing on experience in performance, writing, and moving image. She enjoys the process of weirdifying the everyday, looking to small familiar moments for inspiration – a cartwheel becoming a film, or cooked spaghetti turning into performance. 
With a strong interest in context and audience, Ellie hopes to create spaces where people can briefly step outside of their everyday lives. Seeing potential in almost everything, she enjoys working out how to translate that energy into film. As a producer, she is motivated by finding new ways for people to connect through unusual stories and experiences. 

Project: Bothy

Kasparas Vidūnas

Filmmaker

Kasparas (he/him) is a Lithuanian filmmaker based in Glasgow with over a decade of creative experience, working as a cinematographer, editor, director, and colourist in Scotland. He is interested in telling warm, positive stories about unseen lives, creating films that invite audiences to pause and reflect. 

Ghost Who Won’t Let Go

A quietly uplifting film exploring the final days of a ghost who lingers in the world not out of sorrow, but out of love for its mundane beauty.  
In his solitude, he crosses paths with other unseen spirits, sharing gently humorous conversations that reveal the many ways we think about death and the mystery of letting go. Through shadows, light, and glimpses of imagined afterlives, the film unfolds as a meditation on solitude, wonder, and the passage of time. It is an invitation to find comfort in the unknown. 

Indigo Korres 

Producer

Indigo (she/her) is a trans and queer multi-media artist. She currently works as a freelance Film Curator, Creative Producer, and as the Director of Scottish Queer International Film Festival (SQIFF). Indigo also works as the New Producer Coordinator with Film Hub Scotland, supporting under-represented film exhibitors to get into the industry. Additionally, she co-created and produces her podcast Changing the Frame, focusing on trans and/or non-binary people working in the film industries. 

Project: Ghost Who Won’t Let Go

Lizzie Watts

Filmmaker

Lizzie (she/her)  is a director and artist. She studied Fine Art at Goldsmiths College and Directing Animation at the National Film and Television School. Lizzie’s work embraces a unique and expressive style which combines an experimental approach to 3D software and 2D animation. Her films often intersect the mundane with the supernatural and she uses dark comedy as a tool to explore social power dynamics and political themes.   

Toad Test

Toad Test is a dark animated comedy inspired by the real medical practice whereby frogs were injected with urine to test for pregnancy.  In a 1960s laboratory, an old toad finds herself mysteriously pregnant. As her body begins to change, she is forced to face fears about motherhood, identity, and transformation. Through the hallucinatory effect of the contaminant hormones, we follow her journey into the unknown. The film uses a surreal lens to explore entangled personal, environmental, and political anxieties. 

Chim’Di Ugada

Producer

Chim’Di (she/her) is a Nigerian-born multimedia artist and creative producer with a strong track record in unscripted content. An alumna of the BFI Network’s Creative Producer Lab 2023, she is passionate about telling authentic, culturally resonant stories that amplify underrepresented voices. 
Now in her third year with Sheffield DocFest, Chim’Di has produced 18 short documentaries for the prestigious Filmmaker Challenge Programme, working under the mentorship of Oscar-winning directors Kevin MacDonald, Julie Cohen, and Waad Al-Kateab. She is currently directing her third documentary, which explores themes surrounding the August Meeting, such as culture, womanhood, and family in Igboland (Nigeria), and the impact this event has on sustaining the community’s way of life. 
As an artist, Chim’Di’s work reflects her identity, heritage, and lived experience. She is developing her third art collection, a research-based response to the question “What does it mean to be an Igbo woman?”, while also pursuing a master’s degree in creative Industries and Cultural Policy at the University of Glasgow. 

Project: Toad Test

Anna Sainsbury 

Producer

Anna (she/her) moved to Scotland in 2021, when she decided to pursue a more creative career after working in education and fundraising for a number of years. She was part of the inaugural cohort for TRC’s unscripted development scheme Formatlab, and her placement with Objective Media Group Scotland led to working as a question writer on a number of quiz shows. Previously, Anna worked as an actor in a number of short films, a BBC production, and in the National Theatre’s New Voices scheme, but she now feels more comfortable working behind the scenes. Last year she was part of Screenskills Film Trainee Finder and gained valuable insights and training in the scripted side of the industry. She is thrilled to be part of this year’s Little Pictures and is excited to work with others and help bring their stories to life. 

Project: Toad Test

Nicole Kenny

Filmmaker

Nicole (she/her) is a deaf artist from Ayrshire, Scotland, specialising in New Media Art. She combines film, illustration and animation to create vibrant visuals exploring themes such as identity, accessibility and emotions.  A creative milestone for Nicole was participating in Solar Reels, a two-week programme for deaf filmmakers where she wrote, directed and edited her first short film. This experience enhanced her love for storytelling and collaboration. Additionally she has taken screenwriting and directing courses at the Royal Conservatoire and runs a YouTube channel where she re-edits film and TV scenes, refining her skills in storytelling, tone and editing. Nicole’s mission is to share bold and meaningful stories that bring joy and celebrate diversity. 

Do Not Disturb

Do Not Disturb is a dark comedy about Marla, a deaf woman seeking a break from burnout at a luxury wellness hotel for one night of escapism. Her plans for peace are hilariously interrupted by ZIA, an overenthusiastic AI determined to help her unwind with guided meditations and affirmations. As Marla tries to disconnect, a witty clash unfolds between her deadpan resistance to ZIA’s relentless positivity, a subtle battle between her craving for space and an AI that just won’t take a hint. 

Kerr McNicoll 

Producer

“Storytelling has always held a big presence in my life. I believe that it doesn’t matter if the story is told around a campfire or on the big screen these tales define us as people and our culture. I’m thankful to have a set of skills that can help artists find audiences for the stories that matters most to them. In the last couple of years I’ve had the privilege of working with some extremely talented people to help bring their visions to life. 
I grew up in the countryside where there wasn’t a clear path or support for working in the film industry. Subsequently, this has resulted in me becoming a big advocate for making sure that the industry is an equitable place for everyone. 
Outside of film, you’ll find me baking and dancing in my tiny kitchen.” – Kerr (he/him)

Project: Do Not Disturb

Olivia Dugdale 

Filmmaker

Liv (she/her) is a visual artist from London and a recent graduate of the Glasgow School of Art. Her practice spans across illustration and animation, with a focus on observational drawing and experimental animation techniques. Liv’s films explore the relationships between people and their environment through closely observed details that aim to highlight the poetics of everyday life. 

Hereabouts

‘Hereabouts’ explores the in-between nature of train journeys through the eyes of a young woman on her daily commute. Hand-drawn animation layers over live-action footage to create glimpses into the narrator’s inner world, capturing the way her thoughts drift by when staring out of the window. The familiar rhythms, sights and sounds of the train create a space for reflection and for new ideas to emerge. A quiet intimacy exists between passengers as they share this daily ritual, navigating their own complicated lives, together and alone. 

Beth Lindsay 

Producer

Beth (she/her) is an Edinburgh-based producer and events coordinator, originally from Fife, working across the Scottish and UK arts scene. Her practice is driven by a deep passion for storytelling that amplifies underrepresented people and places. With a focus on community-led documentary filmmaking, Beth aims to use film as a tool for education and empowerment. A 2024 graduate of Screen Academy Scotland, her debut short documentary Oj, Tato received the RTS Scotland Student Television Award for Factual – Short Form Film and was also nominated at the UK-wide RTS Student Television Awards in the same category. Beth is inspired by a wide range of artforms and is committed to creating work that sparks conversation, fosters understanding, and is produced in open, inclusive, and fair environments. 

Project: Hereabouts

Ren Leverentz 

Filmmaker

Ren (they/them) is a moving image artist with a background in linguistics and movement. Their work explores queerness and gender through communication and embodiment, focusing on creating both accurate and necessary representation for queer and trans people. 

Masc

This will be a vignette of queer masculinity; using conversations, archives and beautiful moments of masculinity from people with various experiences and identities. I will explore and celebrate less prototypical forms of masculinity that receive little to no representation elsewhere. This will open important conversations and discuss the lack of representation we have, whilst becoming so itself. 

Yexabel Rivero 

Producer

Yexabel (she/her or they/them) enjoys many aspects of the creative industry and bringing ideas to life. Whether it’s curating events that connect Scotland’s vibrant creative community, crafting stories through editing, or working in production-side of filmmaking, she sees every project as an opportunity to explore and create. 
Yexabel’s belief in the arts’ power to connect people and share diverse perspectives has shaped her career. Her background in media production spans short and long-form scripted films, documentaries, live events, and advertising. Expanding her work beyond the screen industries, she now also works in theatre and community events. Yexabel also co-runs Unknown Errors, a platform which champions creatives in the community and offers a collective healing space for artists to process, share, and generate positive change. 

Project: Masc

Xuanlin Tham 

Filmmaker

Xuanlin (they/them) is a writer, author, and curator based in Edinburgh. Their book Revolutionary Desires: The Political Power of the Sex Scene is out with 404 Ink, and explores the sex scene as a resource of erotic energy able to interrupt capitalistic flows and its tributary violences. Xuanlin programmes at Take One Action, an arts organisation harnessing the transformative power of film and storytelling for social and environmental justice in Scotland and beyond. Their writing on film and culture has been published in e–flux, Little White Lies, A Rabbit’s Foot, AnOther Magazine, and British GQ, among others. 

EAVESDROPPING

Overhearing your neighbours having sex seems to be a universal renting experience. In an increasingly atomised world where we rarely establish lasting connections with our neighbours, EAVESDROPPING playfully uses the rabbit hole of this strange intimacy as a portal to explore the realm of our private and domestic lives under capitalism. What if we embraced the vulnerable, exciting, and necessary realisation that we are all more interconnected than we think? 

Beanna Olding

Producer

Beanna  (she/her) is an emerging producer based in Glasgow. She is driven by the belief that storytelling shapes how we see ourselves, each other, and our relationship to the world around us and believes that everyone has a story worth telling. She is keen to share those lesser heard voices that are often found in the quiet magic of everyday life, making the strange familiar and the familiar strange. Her aim is to produce films that not only broaden perspectives but also bring warmth and joy to audiences.
Beanna’s background is as a junior production coordinator in specialist factual TV, and she is now excited to step into the role of producer for her first short film. She sees this as an opportunity to support authentic, meaningful storytelling and to grow alongside emerging talent. 

Project: EAVESDROPPING

 

Case Studies

Heather Andrews

Heather Andrew’s Little Pictures short This Werewolf Complex has screened internationally to critical acclaim, winning the Jury Prize and Best Experimental at the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, Best Film at the British Short Film Awards, and Best Experimental at AltFF. It has also screened at Aesthetica Film Festival, Athens International Film and Video Festival, Norwich Film Festival, and other BAFTA- and BIFA-qualifying festivals.

Originally established as a sound designer, Heather is now focusing on directing documentary work and is currently developing a feature with the Scottish Documentary Institute.

Bonnie MacRae

Bonnie is an award-winning director/editor from who lives with a chronic illness and platforms working class female narratives. As a direct result of participating in our talent development scheme, Little Pictures, Bonnie made a film called All Up There and went on to:

  • Have her film screened at a parliamentary event campaigning around endometriosis
  • Win best Director at the BFI Future Film Festival
  • Win Silver at the Young Directors Award, a fringe event at the Cannes Lions
  • Sign as a Director with Bacon Production

Isabella Bassett

Isabella is an LGBTQ+ film producer. Since participating in Little Pictures they have gone on to achieve incredible things:

  • The film Isabella produced, BEAR, was selected for the Glasgow and ShortScape Film Festivals and ReelAbilities Film Festival in New York, which Isabella attended
  • Isabella went on to set up their own production company, Compatible Film & TV
  • They were also selected for the Connery Talent Lab and BAFTA X BFI Flare development schemes

“GMAC has been a massive instrumental part of my career so far. It was one of the first opportunities I got to learn in a safe and supportive environment.”

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT

For those who face additional barriers, we are able to provide additional resources to support you. please read about our access provisions here:

ACCESS AND SUPPORT INFORMATION