Always on
This project successfully funded on 8th July 2025, you can still support them with a donation.
Ministry of Existence - Short Film
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Aim: Help fund Ministry of Existence, a bold short film on identity and control. Support us in bringing this powerful vision to life.
We are raising funds to bring Ministry of Existence – a powerful short film created as part of our MA with Screen Academy Scotland – to life. Your support will help us tell a bold, imaginative story that explores identity, control, and human resilience. With your contribution, we can cover essential production costs including location, equipment, design, and post-production, ensuring our vision reaches the screen with the quality and impact it deserves.
In a not-too-distant future where all British citizens must defend their right to exist at the age of twenty-five, starving artist John Doe, having neglected to make an appointment with the Ministry of Existence, has just a single day to prepare his defence and argue his case before a government panel, or be permanently relegated to a second class citizen.
Ministry of Existence is brought to life by a passionate team of students and graduates from Screen Academy Scotland and Edinburgh Napier University. Our core crew, including experienced department heads, have successfully collaborated on multiple short films over the past year. Now, we’re joining forces once again to create our most ambitious project yet – our final graduation film.
Hasan Firat (Director) studied Radio, Television, and Cinema in his hometown and is currently pursuing MA Film, specialising in Directing, at Screen Academy Scotland/Edinburgh Napier University. He has been working as a filmmaker for over eight years and has four short films and a TV Series pilot. Moreover, he has created a lot of social media content independently and worked on various projects as a first assistant director, camera assistant and runner. Hasan is interested in sharing something from himself honestly and telling the stories of flawed little people, complicated to understand but easy to judge. The feeling that life goes on with a weak smile after the tragedies created by psychological, socio-economic and political issues is the emotion he emphasizes the most both in his life and his craft. Hasan approaches the film from a very personal perspective and aims to explore existence in a materialistic world through John Doe’s grim and pessimistic but funny story.
Antoaneta Ninovska (Producer) is currently studying Producing at MA level, with a background in film, media, and the visual arts. Her journey started in art school and evolved through roles in casting, coordination, and creative development. She illustrated two drama books by Oscar-stage actor Dimiter D. Marinov, now housed in the U.S. National Library. Her work spans editorial at ELLE Magazine, production at NOVA Broadcasting, and curating the Masters of Photography series, featuring legends like Vivian Maier, Arnold Newman, and Mary Ellen Mark. From sketching pages to running sets, Antoaneta blends artistic vision with sharp production instincts. In 2025, her focus on bold, intimate storytelling was recognised when her graduation documentary won Best Picture at the Royal Television Society Awards, along with an individual award for sound.
This project felt like a natural extension of everything she’s been working toward. Beyond the creative trust she’s built with the team, the story feels like hers to tell. It explores the tension between art and acceptance, and questions what it really means to belong - as an artist, and as a person. For Antoaneta, it's a chance to peel back those layers and ask: What is the role of the artist in society? What are we really seeking when we try to be understood? This film is her way of starting that conversation.
Ryan Hunt (Director of Photography) is the Director of Photography (DP) for Ministry of Existence. He is currently completing a Master’s in Cinematography at Edinburgh Napier University, where he has been developing his craft through both academic study and practical filmmaking. With a background in short films and an eye for visual storytelling, Ryan is particularly drawn to the satirical, tightly controlled world of Ministry of Existence. His cinematographic approach emphasises a sense of order and pressure – using cool lighting, sharp compositions, and restrained movement to reflect the story’s institutional ridgity. What excites Ryan most is the opportunity to collaborate with a passionate creative team and explore contrasting visual environments – from sterile bureaucratic interiors to expressive, abstract spaces. His goal is to craft a strong visual identity that supports the film’s themes while offering moments of striking contrast and emotional resonance.
George Felipé Palmer (Sound Recordist and Designer) is a sound recordist and sound designer based in Edinburgh/Glasgow. Coming from a background as a musician and poet, sound, its creation and manipulation has always been a part of his creative identity. He takes joy in crafting unique worlds layered with meaning and texture which serve as an extension of the emotion and feeling of a film. He is drawn to the creative opportunity of sound designing a dystopian, futuristic world like Ministry of Existence. He looks forward to continuing his creative relationship with Director Hasan and Producer Antoaneta following their successful collaboration on previous short Passport.
Ethan Lennon (Editor) is a soon to be graduate from BA Film at Edinburgh Napier. Coming from a background in writing, his main focus is now in editing, crafting engaging and absorbing visual stories that audiences can connect to. Having always been a passionate storyteller, he uses editing as a way to allow audiences to connect and empathise with characters, their journeys, and their struggles. Having previously edited his two graduation films, Guttin Quines and Familiar Strangers, he is keen to continue his development as an editor and his collaboration with filmmakers across Scotland through his work in this project.
Sam Cochrane (Writer) is a screenwriter, part-time bartender, and amateur idiot currently studying at Edinburgh Napier University. Originally from semi-rural Perthshire (Scotland's least exciting county), they began prose-writing towards the end of Secondary School, something they continued to pursue as a hobby as they went on to successfully fail a Computer Science degree and successfully pass an English and Film degree. Eventually they fell sideways into screenwriting after learning that this was a thing real people could actually do, and that scripts didn't just fall fully-formed from trees every August during pilots season. They tend to bring a "weird abstract nihilism" to screenplays that often leaves producers looking mildly concerned. They enjoy writing strange scenarios with confused and hapless protagonists, and they have a masochistic tendency to come up with the most complicated & time-consuming to execute script ideas possible.
Gordon Todd (Writer) is an MA screenwriting student based in Edinburgh. He began writing scripts while attending Strathclyde University, where he attained a Bachelor’s degree in English and Creative Writing with Spanish with International study. During his time there, he wrote and directed five short films, culminating in being awarded the Rose Cooper and Beatrice Colin prizes for a TV-pilot script. Since then, he has gained experience in script supervision/continuity. Gordon’s scripts often feature tongue-in-cheek dialogue juxtaposed with serious situations; lighthearted in tone with dark subject matter. His writing preference is dark comedy, Weegie crime comedy, and drama - with the odd dip into dystopia.
Personally, I always find myself caught between missed opportunities or things I forgot to do when I'm trying to achieve something, whether it's mastering an art, finding the right person, making money, trying not to be homeless, or any goals you can think of. However, despite all my efforts, where I am now sometimes makes me feel inadequate. Because nothing I do is enough to qualify me as someone on paper. I don’t have my money in the bank account, successful films in the box office, an acceptable background or a long-term relationship.
Becoming a successful person requires many years of working without being seen and without getting any results. However, there is naturally no guarantee that your efforts will lead you to the desired result at the end of the day. Any action that does not yield tangible results appears as a long and aimless gap in the eyes of your environment, society, a job interviewer, or an official appointment where you must justify your existence.
Ministry of Existence is a sad joke about the shallow and materialistic values of society that have never changed throughout history.
Making a film is an expensive process and we would really appreciate your support. Your donations will go a long way in supporting our search for locations, casting of actors, catering for cast and crew, production design materials, and a whole lot more.
Here is a breakdown of our expected budget and where funds will be allocated.
We are incredibly grateful for each donation, which will take us closer to reaching our goal. You can also support our project by sharing this page and our social media posts. If you would like to get involved in our project or support us further, please get in touch.
Follow us on Instagram @ministryofexistencefilm. Thanks for your support!