I’m Ashley Panton, a London-based Black queer filmmaker, and this October my queer horror short THE HOLD will screen in the international competition at the Iris Prize, one of the world’s biggest LGBTQ+ short-film prizes, where the winner receives a £40,000 production award. Being selected is a huge honour, not only because of what Iris represents in queer cinema, but also because I’m one of the relatively few Black British filmmakers to have had a film nominated in the international competition in its 20-year history.
It feels even more significant when I think about where I started. I’m a self-taught filmmaker, and for a long time, I figured things out as I went along. I studied Art and Design at Leeds University and began making simple shorts with no dialogue through the Leeds University Union Filmmaking Society.
I later made a couple of dance films and wrote several short film scripts. I came close a few times, but struggled to gain support from funding bodies. With THE HOLD, I decided I needed to find another way. I partnered with producer Andin Ngwa and small production company Dolphragon, and together we launched a crowdfunding campaign in March 2023, raising most of the budget ourselves.
THE HOLD became the first proper narrative short film I had written with dialogue and the first time I saw my words come to life on the big screen.
The film is a mash-up of the ‘queer hook-up’ and ‘haunted house’ genres. It follows Nathan (played by Ashley Byam), a commitment-phobe who brings Adrian (played by Jacob Garvey) home after a night out, only to find himself trying to stay awake to hide his horrific night terrors from him.
On the surface, it is a horror story about a man terrified of falling asleep. Underneath that, I wanted to make a film about intimacy, vulnerability and the fear of allowing another person to really see you. Hook-up culture can make sex feel transactional, while genuine emotional connection can feel more frightening. Horror felt like the perfect genre to push those anxieties to the extreme.
It was also important to me that the film centred two Black queer men. Growing up, I rarely saw queer Black men at the centre of stories, let alone horror films, as complicated romantic leads rather than supporting characters. I wanted THE HOLD to help expand what Black queer stories on screen can look like.
We shot the film over two days in King’s Cross with a talented cast and crew. Our location was on the top floor of a property guardianship, formerly an old hospital, with a dodgy lift that made getting everyone and everything up there an added challenge. The schedule was intense, but there was a real sense of everyone pulling together to make it work.
THE HOLD then had its world premiere in March 2025 at BFI Flare, which was a dream come true. Flare has long been one of my favourite festivals to attend, so watching my own film there was special. Since then, it has been selected for more than 15 festivals around the world. This month alone, it has six screenings, including the Iris Prize and Greenwich Film Festival, where it is nominated for Best London Film.
The Iris Prize selection feels like the biggest milestone so far, but I still see THE HOLD as just the beginning. I would love to develop it into a feature film and explore the world, relationships and fears of a Black queer man living in London on a larger scale.
I’m also developing another horror project, DOG WALKER, a social horror film about unconscious racial bias and who gets to claim ownership over certain spaces. Horror is where I increasingly feel most at home creatively, using genre to explore identity, race, queerness and social issues while making films that are entertaining and cinematic.
Getting to the Iris Prize with THE HOLD feels like proof that there can be a way forward, even without traditional support. Sometimes, you have to stop waiting for permission, back yourself and find a way to get the film made. More than anything, it has given me the confidence to keep making bold genre films and telling stories I want to put out into the world.
The Hold Screening: Tue, Oct 13th, 12:00 PM @ Cineworld 14
Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2026 12–18 October 2026 in Cardiff | 13 – 31 October 2026 | Online (UK Only)
Iris Prize: https://irisprize2026.eventive.org/All_films/6a73213536d58e9a5ab44057
Greenwich Film Festival: https://greenwichfilmfestival.co.uk/gff2026-schedule
The Hold Instagram page (@thehold_film): https://www.instagram.com/thehold_film/
Ashley Panton Instagram (@ashley_panton): https://www.instagram.com/ashley_panton/
