The Film London Jarman award, which celebrates British artists creating groundbreaking work with moving images, has announced its shortlist for the 2026 edition. The £10,000 prize has been streamlined to just four nominees: Sadia Pineda Hameed, Ilona Sagar, Rhea Storr and Alia Syed. Despite the reduced number, the range of subjects tackled by these artist film-makers remains vast, encompassing carnival ritual, asbestos poisoning and the traditional South Asian sport kabaddi.
Inspired by the Past, Visionary for the Future
Whether drawing from an 18th-century portrait or a radical 1960s radio documentary, each nominee has looked to history to create visions of the future. Their works are deeply rooted in personal and collective experiences, offering poetic and experimental perspectives.
Sadia Pineda Hameed: A Family Migration Story
Filipino Pakistani artist Hameed, based in the Ebbw valley, Wales, presents Anak Where Did We Stay? (2025), a five-channel work blending family camcorder footage with archive material documenting Beatlemania and protests against Enoch Powell. The film incorporates aeroplane and road travel to narrate her mother’s migration from the Philippines to Britain, engaging in dialogue with Joshua Reynolds’ famous 1776 painting Portrait of Omai, which depicted the first Pacific Islander to visit Britain.
Ilona Sagar: Asbestos and Illness
Sagar’s 2022 film The Body Blow takes its name from an innovative 1962 radio ballad by folk singers Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger, along with producer Charles Parker. While that original work combined folk songs with recordings of polio survivors, Sagar’s two-channel film examines asbestos and mesothelioma-related illnesses in Barking and Dagenham.
Rhea Storr: Silent Carnivals
Storr explores her Bahamian-British ethnicity in New Territories (Spectacle Is King) (2025). Focusing on a summer of carnivals across the UK, the film deliberately lacks sound, drawing viewers to study the contrast between vibrant costumes—dancers in blue facepaint and outfits incorporating stilts—and the mundane British high streets they parade through. The work responds to Isaac Julien’s seminal 1984 documentary Territories, which used the Notting Hill carnival as a basis to explore the Black experience in Britain.
Alia Syed: Forty Years of Experimental Film
Syed, born in Swansea and now working between London and Glasgow, brings 40 years of experimental filmmaking. Her 2019 work Snow is a video diary using footage originally shot by her father on a snowy day during the winter of 1995–96. At the time, the artist and her father were not on speaking terms, adding a layer of personal history to the piece.
Jury Statement and Legacy
In a joint statement, the jury—including last year’s shortlisted artist Hope Pearl Strickland—said: “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. They present skilfully nuanced arguments, approaching their varied subject matters with poetic sensitivity and experimentation.”
Named after radical film-maker Derek Jarman, the prize is known for spotting talent in the UK art scene. Now in its 19th year, previous shortlisted artists include Heather Phillipson, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Monster Chetwynd, Luke Fowler, Imran Perretta, Charlotte Prodger, Laure Prouvost, Sin Wai Kin and Project Art Works—all of whom went on to be shortlisted for or win the Turner prize. Last year’s prize was split between Onyeka Igwe and Morgan Quaintance.
Exhibition and Ceremony
The winner will be announced on 24 November 2026 at a ceremony in London. Works from the four shortlisted artists will be displayed across the UK beforehand, as well as at the Whitechapel Gallery in London from 17 November to 13 December.
