National Lottery Game Changer: Krizzah Policarpio

Since the first draw in 1994, The National Lottery has raised over £49bn to bring positive change to communities across the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man. Thanks to the players of The National Lottery, good causes have been awarded over 690,000 individual grants to strengthen local communities, power sports teams, support environmental projects, unleash creative talent, empower the elderly and unlock young people's potential.

To mark The National Lottery's 30th birthday, they're launching a campaign celebrating the game-changing impact that they have collectively delivered, to help inspire the next generation of good causes and players.

As Into Film is one of the organisations awarded National Lottery good cause funding (through the BFI), this week we're highlighting five of our own inspiring young game-changers, whose remarkable achievements would not have been possible without the work that National Lottery funding allows us to do.

Krizzah Policarpio

Based in Northern Ireland, Krizzah was a Ones to Watch winner at the Into Film Awards in 2018, and by then had already accomplished a great deal. In fact, she began her journey with Into Film aged just 13.

"When I walked into Ashfield High's Into Film Club aged 13, I had no idea it would have such an impact on my life", explained Krizzah. 

Over the years, Into Film has facilitated numerous industry professionals to visit schools across the UK, with the aim of inspiring the next generation. "It was extraordinarily empowering to meet women like the writer of Milo, Heather Imani and the editor of Empire Magazine, Helen O'Hara", said Krizzah. "As the film industry has always been male-dominated, it was astounding to hear from women who made it in the industry. Their encouragement to strive and flourish in the industry despite being a woman gave me the confidence to mentor younger pupils interested in filmmaking, helping them to plan, script, storyboard and shoot their own short films."

Krizzah soon became a member of Into Film's Youth Advisory Council, a group of passionate young people who help us shape our work. She took this further, eventually joining our ScreenWorks programme as a freelance assistant.

Alongside this freelance role, Krizzah was also hired to produce a Northern Ireland Screen-funded short film, and worked as a production trainee with HBO in the summer of 2019.

Soon after, she was selected for the regional BFI Film Academy, which enabled her to tackle varying roles in film production and gain invaluable practical techniques, as well as knowledge and confidence in editing raw images and footage. This led Krizzah to participate in the BFI Film Academy's Craft Residential with the National Film and Television School in England for two weeks.

As a result of BFI Mentorship, Krizzah was one of nine young people chosen as an Ambassador for Northern Ireland to visit Los Angeles and represent young filmmakers there.

More recently, Krizzah has gone on to work as a Production Secretary with Black Dog Television, working on TV programmes for CBBC, as well as having worked for Rare TV's Digging for Britain series.

We're proud that, as a direct result of the BFI, awarding National Lottery good cause funding (as well as other key funders), Into Film have been able to support Krizzah to forge a career in the screen industries.

Thank you to the BFI, everyone who plays the National Lottery, and to the National Lottery themselves, for their continued support, allowing Into Film to discover, support and develop game changers like Krizzah.