Beach Toys

A proud black man's stag holiday turns dire when a drunken prank leaves him stranded alone in the Mediterranean sea atop an inflatable pink flamingo.

Fiction

Team

Rhys Aaron Lewis, Writer/Director

Rhys is a writer-director from London. He began his career as visual anthropologist, graduating with an MA from the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology, which has informed his unique perspective and approach to filmmaking. He has an interest in films which blur the line between fiction and documentary. In 2023 he was one of just six directors selected to take part in the Prime Video Directors Workshop, facilitated by Amazon Prime and the National Film and Television School. During this programme he wrote and directed the coming-of-age comedy film, Run Like We, starring El Anthony (Casualty, Deceit, Trial of Christine Keeler) and Nathan Vidal (Bridgerton, Small Axe), set for release in May 2024. His previous comedy shorts, Ghost Train and Bottlejob, respectively premiered on short film platform Omeleto and were awarded at the British Short Film Awards. Rhys is also an established documentary filmmaker, who currently freelances at the BBC as a Producer Director. His 2019 film Northern Ballers was selected for funding by BFI Doc Society under their Made of Truth Scheme and screened at the BAFTA qualifying Aesthetica, Bolton and Soul Film Festivals, and was awarded Best Documentary at Sheffield Short Film Festival.

Olivia Song, Producer

Olivia is a Chinese-born, UK-based Producer with a background in teaching who has recently re-trained at the National Film and Television School. She has produced multiple short films as well as gaining other credits in a variety of production roles and the films she has produced have been selected and screened at BAFTA and BIFA qualifying festivals. Since leaving NFTS, she worked as a producer on an Amazon Prime/ NFTS production Run Like We, starring El Anthony (Casualty, Deceit, Trial of Christine Keeler) and Nathan Vidal (Bridgerton, Small Axe), set for release and festival runs from May 2024. Olivia has extensive knowledge of finding locations, organising the logistics of a shoot, booking talent and crew and managing the finances of a production. She has four short films doing festival runs this year and is currently developing two other short films and a feature which will be filmed in Italy, Ireland and the UK.

Bernardo Angeletti, Producer

Bernardo was born in 1991 in Assisi. He grew up in different countries but mainly in Perugia, where he earned his bachelor’s in Media Studies at Perugia’s University. His directorial debut is a short called Luigi in 2014, which was selected to be presented at the Perso Film Festival. Upon graduation, he moved to the European Film College in Denmark, where he produced and directed several short films while studying. Afterwards, he worked on a feature film called The Great Director, written and directed by Chris Waitt. Since his return to Italy, Bernardo has collaborated as a freelancer for different companies, such as BBC, FRIENDZ, CONSLANCIO, ALICE TV and many more, spacing through TV programs, commercials and short films. Besides, since 2017 Bernardo is vice-president of Metanoia, a cultural association dealing with the dissemination of culture by creating events related to cinema and photography. He is a recent graduate of the National Film and Television School.