The 2026 Film London Jarman award shortlist has been announced, featuring four British artist film-makers: Sadia Pineda Hameed, Ilona Sagar, Rhea Storr, and Alia Syed. The £10,000 prize recognizes groundbreaking work in moving images, and this year's nominees draw inspiration from historical sources to create visions of the future.
Shortlisted Artists and Their Works
Filipino Pakistani artist Sadia Pineda Hameed, based in the Ebbw valley, Wales, presents Anak Where Did We Stay?, a five-channel film blending family camcorder footage with archive material on Beatlemania and protests against Enoch Powell. The work also incorporates travel imagery to narrate her mother's migration from the Philippines to Britain, engaging in dialogue with Joshua Reynolds' 1776 painting Portrait of Omai.
Alia Syed, born in Swansea and working between London and Glasgow, has 40 years of experimental film-making. Her 2019 work Snow is a video diary using footage shot by her father during a snowy day in 1995/6, when they were not on speaking terms.
Rhea Storr's 2025 film New Territories (Spectacle Is King) explores her Bahamian-British ethnicity through a summer of UK carnivals. The silent film contrasts vibrant costumes with mundane high streets, responding to Isaac Julien's 1984 documentary Territories on the Notting Hill carnival and Black British experience.
Ilona Sagar's 2022 film The Body Blow takes its name from a 1962 radio ballad by Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger, and Charles Parker. Her two-channel work examines asbestos and mesothelioma illnesses in Barking and Dagenham.
Jury Statement
The jury, including last year's shortlisted artist Hope Pearl Strickland, stated: "The shortlisted artists possess a confident and singular way of seeing the world, transporting the viewer through their compelling and elegantly crafted films. Their outstanding works are deeply grounded in lived experience and in-depth research."
Named after radical film-maker Derek Jarman, the prize is in its 19th year. Previous shortlisted artists include Heather Phillipson, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, and Charlotte Prodger, many of whom were also Turner prize nominees or winners. Last year's prize was shared between Onyeka Igwe and Morgan Quaintance.
The winner will be announced on 24 November 2026 at a London ceremony. Works by the four shortlisted artists will be displayed across the UK and at the Whitechapel Gallery in London from 17 November to 13 December.
