FWOAN Interview with Ali & Lucy...

"For Want Of A Nail" producer Ali Causon and director Lucy Joan Barnes were recently interviewed as part of the FEEDBACK Female Film Festival, which took place last month in Los Angeles.

True to its name, the festival organisers provided video feedback from audience members for each screened film.

What motivated you to make this film?

Lucy (director): The script and it’s message, it was not trying to “sugarcoat” what having OCD is really like.. it was showing how intense it can be for the person who suffers from it.

Ali (producer): Although I was not looking for a script that specifically focused on mental health, after reading FWOAN just a couple of times, it felt like a natural follow up to my previous short about PTSD.  

From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this short?

Lucy: I believe it was about a year…

Ali: Writer Nick and I had been working together for a few months before mainly to find a director we wanted to work with. Lucy, Nick and I then ran a development workshop with volunteers from OCD Action and Actors to learn more about the condition.

Read the full interview with Ali & Lucy HERE.

LIMPA Selects FWOAN...

"For Want Of A Nail" has been officially selected by the London International Motion Picture Awards 2019. UPDATE: We have now progressed to 'Semi-Finalist'!

London International Motion Pictures Awards ( L I M P A) is an annual event held in London, United kingdom. It aims to disseminate film culture and the progress achieved in various branches of film art and to strength the relations among filmmakers throughout the world in general.

Find out more by visiting LIMPA's website HERE, and keep up to date with all things FWOAN by following us on social media such as our Facebook page HERE.

FWOAN at SMHAF2019...

The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival has selected "For Want Of A Nail".

The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival will take place across Scotland from 3rd-26th May 2019. Led by the Mental Health Foundation.  A significant event in Scotland’s cultural calendar, the festival takes a positive stance on mental health, celebrating artistic endeavour by those with experience of mental health issues and connecting audiences to creative and innovative work. Together with a wide range of mental health organisations, arts bodies, community groups and artists, we aim to challenge stigma and promote social change.

You can find out more by visiting their website HERE, and by following FWOAN on Facebook.

Oxford ISFF 2019...

The Oxford International Short Film Festival will be holding a special double screening of "For Want Of A Nail" in its full length form on Saturday 23rd March - and in addition to that, we've racked up another nomination for Best Editing.

The inaugural Oxford International Short Film Festival (OXISFF) celebrates the diversity and creativity of short films. OXISFF is located in the heart of the historic university city, on the same road where Inspector Morse, CS Lewis, and JRR Tolkien famously all enjoyed a tipple, a mere stone's throw from Hogwarts' Dining Hall.

The festival will be held in the beautiful grounds of St John's College at The University of Oxford in the newly refurbished auditorium.

On Saturday the 23rd of March FWOAN will be showing in Venue 3: Prestwich Room between 3pm and 4pm in the "Quirky" slot, and then again a little later in Venue 2: The Larkin Room between 5pm and 6pm also in the "Quirky" slot.

Find out more about the OISFF by going HERE, and be sure to follow FWOAN on Facebook.

Beeston Picks FWOAN...

"For Want Of A Nail" has been officially selected to be a part of the Beeston Film Festival in Nottingham. The festival takes play between Wednesday 13th and Sunday 17th of March 2019.

FWOAN will be screened on the 14th of March. Visit the festival website for tickets and venue info.

THE BIGGEST INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM FESTIVAL IN THE MIDLANDS is the Beeston Film Festival. It is now open for its FIFTH year and continues to grow and expand to provide an amazing platform for our community to celebrate film and filmmakers.

Find out more about the festival by visiting their website HERE. You can keep up to date with FWOAN by following us on Facebook.

FWOAN at IOFF...

The Independent Online Film Festival has officially selected "For Want Of A Nail"!

See the listing on their website HERE.

Find out more about the festival by visiting their Facebook page HERE and their website HERE.

First FWOAN News of 2019...

The Brighton Rocks International Film Festival has officially selected "For Want of a Nail".

To find out more you can visit their Facebook page HERE.

FWOAN for UK Offline Web Fest 2018...

"For Want of a Nail" has been officially selected for UK Offline Web Fest 2018.

Check out their Facebook page HERE.

FWOAN Wins at Mindfield...

Some more great news from the festival circuit - For Want Of A Nail has received a Platinum Award for Best Short Film at the Mindfield Film Festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

There are five categories of award for Best Short - Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze.

Find the full list of winners HERE.

FWOAN at Eurasia IMFF...

Been a short spell since the last bit of festival news, but here's a new update - For Want of a Nail has been selected as a semi-finalist at the Eurasia International Monthly Film Festival.

Eurasia International Monthly Film Festival is an independent festival for independent filmmakers. Our festival has emerged as the online festival and monthly film club. Currently it is an online festival with the annual gala screenings of the winning films. The mission of our festival is to introduce audience with the filmmakers from over the world and to open the new names.

Find out more by visiting their website HERE.

FWOAN at RedWood Film Festival...

More good festival news for "For Want Of A Nail": we've been officially selected by the RedWood Film Festival.

Check out their Facebook page HERE.

FWOAN at Feel The Reel IFF...

"For Want Of A Nail" has been officially selected by the Feel The Reel International Film Festival.

Feel The Reel is a monthly international film festival founded in Glasgow, United Kingdom. FTR is not only an online film festival, but also a festival with live screenings, our friends from Bucharest ShortCut Cinefest making this possible. Therefore, screenings will take place once a month and our winner will have the chance to be screened in the very heart of the dynamic and ever growing Bucharest, in Romania.

We are in the fiction category - and you can vote for us - just go to the website HERE and scroll down to the Audience Award / "Vote Fiction" section. Voting ends October 23rd.

UPDATE - we won the Best Editing award - congratulations to our editor Ryan Tian! See the full list of results HERE.

FWOAN Awarded...

The Berlin Flash Film Festival has awarded "For Want Of A Nail" for Outstanding Achievement.

"You, as filmmakers, demonstrated incredible potential. We felt it only suitable to award you Outstanding Achievement."

In other related news, we also got a Special Mention from the English Riviera Film Festival.

FWOAN at Ficsam 2018...

"For Want Of A Nail" has been officially selected to appear at the Ficsam Festival in Portugal.

Organized by the Association Collective Unconscious the 5th edition of the International Festival of Cinema and Mental Health | FICSAM will be held at the Faro Municipal Museum. This event aims, through the arts, including film, contribute to sensitize the general public on issues related to mental health of individuals, fight stigma and discrimination associated with this type of problem and help to promote human rights people with mental illness. The FICSAM takes place annually in parallel with the celebrations of the World Mental Health Day, 10 October.   Among the display of short and feature films of fiction, documentary, animation and video clips and films produced in national and international schools.

You can see the list of selected films HERE, and find out more about Ficsam at their website HERE.

FWOAN Nominated at Dublin IFF...

Super snazzy news from the Dublin International Film Festival (where we've been officially selected), as our Director - Lucy Joan Barnes - has been nominated for Best Director!

Check out the Dublin IFF website HERE.

Feedback for FWOAN...

"For Want Of A Nail" has been doing very well on the festival circuit and with that comes some feedback, so here's a selection of the kind words we've been receiving.

Loved it! Wonderful! I don’t have OCD, but I’m always trying to look for context and examples, to help me understand how my daughter is processing things and how OCD might be disrupting/interfering in her brain. The various visual treatments of Marty’s thoughts, in the multitude of ways that you showed them, did a fabulous job to help me. Thank you for that! It’s really hard, perhaps impossible, for those with OCD to shut off the thoughts. That’s so clear in the film. Well done.

Chris Baler, Producer of 2017 Documentary Short "Unstuck: An OCD Kids Movie"

For Want of a Nail is a great short film. The Writing is awesome and the directing brought it together quite nicely. The Acting was very natural and I could feel the emotions in the characters. The Cinematography was very well done. The Editing was smooth and true to the genre. The Sound Design / Score was perfect for the genre as well. The Visual FX were very well done throughout. I loved it!

Mindfield Film Festival, Alburquerque

WOWOWOW!  I am so impressed with the final product! It's excellent in every way! Bravo and THANK YOU for making it!

OCD Help For All

Absolutely spot on. Well done for this , very informative.

Ash Curry, Advocate for OCD Action and NHS Speaker

I have a friend who has bad OCD. Now I have a better understanding of how his obsessions affect him. Really good informative film. Very informative.

Keith, Mental Health News Hub

We loved your film and are extremely honoured to have such high quality work as part of our festival.

Changing Face International Film Festival

You can also read a review of the film by The Independent Critic HERE.

FWOAN Wins at Changing Face IFF...

More decidedly groovy film fest news just in from Sydney, Austrailia - "For Want Of A Nail" has won Best Short Drama at the Changing Face International Film Festival in the monthly competition for September 2018!

Check out the full list of Changing Face winners for September 2018 at the fest's website HERE.

FWOAN at Berlin Flash FF...

So not one, but two festival announcements today! "For Want Of A Nail" has been selected to appear at the October 2018 monthly screenings for the Berlin Flash Film Festival!

Berlin Flash Film Festival's monthly screenings are held at the Apollo Theater in the SI Centrum.  On the last day of each month, a select group of guest judges and industry professionals gather for a late night screening to view our monthly category winners. Each monthly category winner is judged based on several factors spanning from story to sound. Surrounded with endless amounts of flavored popcorn, beanbags, blankets, chairs, pillows, score cards, and miniature pencils, our monthly screenings create three elements: a welcoming environment, a sense of community, and a cheeky indie flavor. These three elements best reflect our mission and annual festival.  Our monthly screening events mark an important step for our winners to progress as semi-finalists to our annual festival, Berlin Flash Film Festival.

Check out the website HERE.

FWOAN Selected for Lift-Off...

"For Want Of A Nail" has been officially selected for the Lift-Off Sessions October 2018.

The Lift-Off Sessions is a monthly online showcase, dedicated to screening the best and latest indie shorts to as wide an audience as possible. Lift-Off Global Network are committed to introducing new audiences to the indie film market.

Their official website is HERE.

FWOAN Selected for Overcome FF...

The film festival announcements just keep on coming for "For Want Of A Nail", our short film about OCD. Today's news is that we've been officially selected for the Overcome Film Festival 2018.

The Overcome Film Festival especially encourages and welcomes the entries of filmmakers all over the world who wants to share their experiences in overcoming adversity or any other factor that has contributed to their growth as a person and motivated them to celebrate their existence. It is the focus of the film festival to give survivors a voice and a venue to share their life experiences and provide hope to others regardless of where they come from in the world.

Prior to this whole #FWOAN project I had not spoken at all about my experiences with OCD. Oakhill Productions' call for short scripts coincided with a time when I was recognising that my compulsive routines (which I'd also kept hidden away) were gaining more power as well as complexity. To claw some of that power back from my OCD I wrote "For Want Of A Nail" (our official website is HERE). That act was something in itself, but having my script chosen, and then to be very involved in the whole production, provided certain challenges that are hard to explain, but which I had to tackle. Dealing with your OCD isn't a simple thing, of course, and there's plenty more to wrap my head around, but FWOAN has provided challenges and opportunities that have all been for the better and I'm very proud of the final product.

Check out their Facebook page HERE and their official website HERE.