The UKABIF annual awards for brain injury filmmakers and neurorehabilitation innovators are open!
Roll up, roll up! The UKABIF annual awards for brain injury filmmakers and neurorehabilitation innovators are open!
Can you film how you feel about brain injury in just 3 minutes and share it with the world to help survivors?
Or have you found a new way to aid neurorehabilitation in the community, schools, hospitals or prisons?
If so, you may want to enter the UKABIF (United Kingdom Brain Injury Forum) 2021 awards, the film award winner will receive £500 and the winning innovator will be given a package of support to help take their idea forward.
That includes access, via the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Brain Injury MedTech Co-operative (MIC|) network, to:
- Research design.
- Business support.
- A patient advisory group.
- Help to make further funding bids.
- Mentoring from 2019 winner, Dr Penny Traynor. [1]
The winners in both categories will also be invited to attend for free UKABIF’s conference in 2022.
Of the film award, UKABIF’s Executive Director, Chloe Hayward, said, “Whatever your experience of brain injury, we want to hear from you!
“You might be a parent whose child has struggled at school following an acquired brain injury.
“You may have endured a sports-related brain injury and found it difficult to get your condition recognised.
“Or you may work with people with ABI [acquired brain injury] who want to help others understand their conditions.
All of these stories help us to make it easier for everyone to understand this hidden condition. 
Three-minute videos can be captured using any recording device, including phones.
The X-plus Factor
For the Mike Barnes Award for Innovation 2021, projects need more than just an X factor to shine.
“We are looking for projects that have originality, viability, feasibility and desirability,” Chloe said.
“We are encouraging entries from professionals from all disciplines involved in the management of acquired brain injury [ABI].”
And that includes:
- Brain injury survivors and/or their families
- Carers
- Students
- Care providers
- Social care workers
- Voluntary organisations
- Personal injury lawyers
That’s (not) all folks!
Cartoons and other forms of animation made it to the finals of the previous UKABIF Film Awards.
Bristol’s Sacha Paynter’s film, ‘Talking Benefits’ arose from her experiences of caring for her parents, both of whom had a brain injury at different times in her life.
Sacha’s father had a brain aneurysm when she was in her teens, and her mother had a stroke in recent years.
In the film, Sacha explains why early access to neurorehabilitation is “essential”. [2]
And last year’s award winner, Andrea Kusec,also used animation in her film ‘Metaphors’ to show how widely varied brain injuries, their effects and neurorehabilitation needs can be.[3]
Entrants don’t have to be a UKABIF member to enter the awards, which are being sponsored this year by Elysium Neurological.
The deadline for entries is 30 September 2021. Further details here: UKABIF Film Award 2021 and here: Mike Barnes Award for Innovation 2021
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References
Further reading
ArtistAnanya Rao Middleton: Vividly depicting the lived experience of brain injury.