Leaning Into Autumn – Time to Rest, Reflect, and wRITE 🍂

Hello RPeaPod,

You’re probably sick of hearing about the festival by now (I promise this is the last time I mention it… until next year 😅). But honestly, after months of intensity, it feels good to close Filmfreeway, pause and step into autumn. The air’s colder, the evenings getting a little darker, and the rhythm slower and I think that’s exactly what we need right now!

Following the festival we really do switch off over here, and it’s well needed. Of course there’s the invoices to pay, reports to write and data to consolidate. But I really do tell my team to rest and reflect before we start the big job of building again, burnout is so common within the industry and an element of running a festival that is less talked about, along with the pressures of rejection from hundreds of people each year…more to explore in a future newsletter…

It’s October now and this season is perfect for reflecting and writing. Every year, I see so many scripts and shorts, while programming and sitting on the awards commitee at BIFA, lose their heart because they’re trying to do too much…too many themes, too many characters, and, quite frankly, they’re just too bloody long too.

The films we actually loved most at the festival this year weren’t the biggest or flashiest that you’d usually see on a Cannes screen or at Sundance, they came from real experiences. Stories that had been reflected on, lived through, shaped into characters born from the writers themselves or people they loved. That’s the kind of clarity this time of year can give us space for.

Of course, it’s festival rush season again with everyone hosting massive fortnightly long events, soon enough you’ll probably all be freezing your bum off on a red carpet at LFF soon and wondering (as always) perhaps whether the women in film events popping up across the capital are really about building a community or building the organisers own profile. It’s an authenticity challenge, and one I think about a lot.

So, instead of chasing noise this season, I’m leaning into quiet…and not just because my children catch every plague in existence (thanks nursery) But leaning into carving out time to write, to rest, to reflect…because come January, I want your stories ready to pitch, apply, and fund with clarity. And more importantly, we want to flood the industry in 2026 with scripts that are sharp, authentic, and deeply ours…and hopefully some shorts for me to programme too.

If you’re feeling the pull to do the same, I’d love to spend time with you with what I’m personally calling Evolvember BUT my development team are not allowing me, but we’re taking our popular development programme Evolve online for November! Because we honestly truly loved hosting our writers residency at the festival last month.

Join us for a month of writing, reflection, personal development and community. We’ll be providing guided sessions, bespoke worksheets, twice weekly whatsapp prompts (so the vibes aren’t dead) and excitingly two live workshops and writing sprints hosted by me and Pearl.

It’s basically a bite sized focused edition of our full development programme for writers looking to enhance their skills and finesse their latest project, and for newcomers to dive into the world of filmmaking with the right tools, all from the comfort of your own home and with a like minded community.

If you don’t have a script, you are not left out, it’s the perfect place to workshop some ideas and perhaps leave the month with the structure to build a story. Or maybe you’ve been stuck in re-write hell or edit burnout and need a boost to finally get things finished.

The two live workshops + writing sprints are on Sun 9th Nov 11am and Sun 23rd Nov 11am (2hr 30 mins)

We’re also offering a discount for those who book early, as I want to make it possible for more of us to do this work together without the barrier of cost so pop in WINTERWARMER20 More details here.

And if nothing else: make yourself a hot drink, light a candle, and give yourself permission to slow down. Sometimes, less really is more. We’re all people behind these scripts, stories and production schedules, that connection is what makes it all real and all worth it. The big race to be the first, the best, or consistently be churning out work can be exhausting.

Happy October,

Love Caris x

(and the team who won’t let her run with Evolvember)