Hope is Lost is crossing the Atlantic — US Premiere at the 50th Cleveland International Film Festival
When I started making Hope is Lost in my spare bedroom, surrounded by bits of recycled cardboard, wire and fabric, I never imagined I'd be writing this.
Five years later, the film that began in the corner of my apartment is crossing an ocean.
I am beyond thrilled to share that Hope is Lost will have its US premiere at the 50th Cleveland International Film Festival, one of the longest-running and largest Academy Award-qualifying film festivals in the United States. To say I'm humbled would be an understatement. I'm excited, grateful, and honestly still a little in disbelief.
What makes this extra special?
This isn't just any festival. CIFF has been championing independent film and diverse voices since 1977. It draws over 30,000 attendees and this year it's celebrating a major milestone — its 50th anniversary. The fact that Hope is Lost gets to be part of that milestone feels significant in a way I'm still processing.
To have a film that started so small, built almost entirely from recycled materials, animated frame by painstaking frame, screen in front of a US audience for the first time is something I genuinely couldn't have pictured when I was on hour six of moving a paper hand two millimetres at a time.
The journey so far…
Hope is Lost had its world premiere at the 69th BFI London Film Festival in 2025, and earlier this year won the Crédit Mutuel Anjou Audience Award at Festival Premiers Plans d'Angers in France. Every stop on this journey has meant the world to me, but there's something about a US premiere that feels like a new chapter entirely.
Come and see it!!
If you're in Cleveland or anywhere nearby, I would love for you to come and experience the film on the big screen. There are two screenings:
🎬 Sunday 12th April 👉🏾 Shorts Program 7, 7:45pm at Playhouse Square
🎬 Monday 13th April 👉🏾 4:40pm at Cedar Lee Theatre
Tickets go on sale to the general public on 18th March at clevelandfilm.org.
A note of gratitude:
None of this happens without the people who believed in the film, who sat with it, who watched it and felt something. Thank you. Genuinely.
Here's to Cleveland. Here's to fifty years of CIFF. And here's to Hope is Lost’s continued journey and success around the globe. 💃🏾
Stay blessed. Stay Creative. 🙌🏾
— Eno 😎
Behind the scenes - Set building and Tests (Picture Credit Eno Enefiok)
Behind the scenes - Set building and Tests (Picture Credit Eno Enefiok)