Ben Lankester
Director / Writer
Film, TV & Theatre
Ben Lankester is a multi-award-winning writer and director who has spent the last decade working within film, commercials, music and television.
Ben recently completed the BIFA-nominated ‘Delivery’, a short film about a newly-qualified midwife on an understaffed and under-resourced NHS maternity ward. Co-produced by his partner Bophanie Lun and developed with and starring a practising midwife in the lead role, ‘Delivery’ has gone on to win multiple awards on the 2024/2025 festival circuit, including Best Short Film at the British Short Film Awards, Best Debut Short at Tirana International Film Festival, Best British Film at Norwich International Film Festival, and Best UK Short at Manchester International Film Festival.
This short film served as a proof of concept for Ben’s debut narrative feature, ‘Delivery’, which is currently in development with Portobello Productions and Executive Producer Jack Sidey.
Previously, Ben and Bophanie’s auto-fiction fundraising short ‘Who’s Counting?’—made in partnership with UK pregnancy charity Tommy’s and inspired by their own experience of the trauma of recurrent miscarriage—won Best Video Campaign and the Chair Award at The Drum Awards for Social Purpose, received a Silver at CICLOPE International Festival of Craft, and was a finalist at the British Short Film Awards. The film led to Tommy’s creating the ‘Record of Loss’, the first attempt to count the number of miscarriages in the UK.
Ben also works as a Story and Edit Consultant across fiction and documentary features, most recently on the Grierson and Emmy Award nominee ‘Name Me Lawand’.
In Development
| Production | Company | Notes |
|---|---|---|
DELIVERY (feature film) | Portobello Productions | Executive Producer: Jack Sidey |
Short Films
| Production | Company | Notes |
|---|---|---|
EXPERIENCE 2024 | Kingdom Born | Starring Karen Bengo Written & Directed by Ben Lankester *Official selection - HollyShorts London Film Festival 2025 *Shortlisted - 1.4 Awards 2025 *Nominee - Kinsale Shark Awards 2024 *Winner - Best ‘Short’ Short, Performance Short Film Competition 2024 *Winner - Best Super Short Film, Big Fridge International Film Festival 2025 |
DELIVERY 2024 | Glass Onion Films Kingdom Born | Starring Rosie Chappel Written & Directed by Ben Lankester Producers: Bophanie Lun & Joe Binks *Nominee - Best British Short Film, British Independent Film Awards 2024 *Winner - Best Short Film & Best Actress, The British Short Film Awards 2024 *Winner - Best Drama (Short Film) & Best Director (Short Film), UK Film Awards 2024 *Winner - Best Debut Short, Tirana International Film Festival 2024 *Winner - Best British Film, Norwich International Film Festival 2024 *Winner - Best UK Short, Manchester International Film Festival 2025 *Winner - Best Drama, Sunderland Shorts Film Festival 2025 *Winner - Jury Prize for Best Drama & the Audience Award, This is England Film Festival 2024 *Winner - Direction & Women’s Voices, Beeston International Film Festival 2025 *Winner - Audience Award, North East International Film Festival 2024 *Winner - Best Director, Brighton Rocks International Film Festival 2025 |
WHO'S COUNTING? 2021 | Kingdom Born | Written & Directed by Ben Lankester Creative Producer: Bophanie Lun Producers: Kate Miller & Lauren Tyson *Official Selection 2022 - Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Wimbledon International Short Film Festival, CINECITY Brighton, Beeston Film Festival, Derby Film Festival, Oxford International Film Festival, Sunderland Shorts Film Festival, Southampton Film Week, From the Silver Screen Presents: Film on Film, London Lift-Off Film Festival, Boundless Film Festival, I Will Tell International Film Festival, London Arthouse Film Festival *Winner - Best Video Campaign & the Chair Award, The Drum Awards for Social Purpose 2022 *Winner, Silver - Ciclope International Festival of Craft 2022 *Winner - Best Drama, Performance Short Film Competition 2022 *Winner - Best Short Film, London Independent Film Awards 2022 *Winner - Best Short Film, Manchester Lift-Off Festival 2022 |