Neon Films

Nick Bentham was a producer on the sci-fi thriller Moon, starring Sam Rockwell and Kevin Spacey. Following a Sundance premiere the film was released internationally by Sony Pictures Classics, and has proved both a critical and commercial success, picking up the top prizes at Edinburgh and the BIFA’s as well as a BAFTA. Prior to this Nicky teamed up with Kurt Engfehr (producer Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11) to produce the BAFTA nominated feature documentary Taking Liberties, which examined how the war on terror has affected civil liberties.

Nicky started her film career in her native Sydney, before relocating to the UK in 2001 to pursue film production roles and, eventually producing opportunities. Nicky has worked in various production capacities on independent films with the likes of Ingenious Film Partners, Scion Films, EMI Music Publishing, Swipe Films, Liberty Films, Revolver Entertainment, Scottish Screen and the UK Film Council.

Nicky has recently been appointed by the BFI as the Executive Producer on a new shorts scheme for 2012, designed to showcase a new generation of outstanding UK filmmaking talent. Nicky established Neon Films in 2008 to develop and produce a diverse slate of quality films for international audiences. She has focused on assembling a raft of commercially viable, artistically outstanding film projects and is collaborating with some of the best new and established talent in the UK, with finance from the British Film Institute and the private sector. The company likes to focus on highly creative ideas, delivered with a fresh perspective and is especially experienced in working with new talent. She is currently financing a romantic drama, The Silent Storm, which stars Noomi Rapace and is Executive Produced by Barbara Broccoli.

www.neon-films.co.uk

Agile Films

Kristian joined Agile Films in the summer of 2009 to oversee the establishment of the company’s feature film department. He had previously spent three years as Sales Manager at ContentFilm International, where he worked on films by major directors, including Paul Verhoeven, Peter Greenaway, Andrea Arnold and Mike Judge. He started his career in the Television department of the William Morris Agency in London.

www.agilefilms.com

Hotshot Films

Brendan’s first feature film as lead producer Jump has just screened in the Contemporary World Cinema Section of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival (2012). The film was financed by Northern Ireland Screen, The Irish Film Board, BBC Northern Ireland, Limelight and Hotshot Films, and is a co-production between Hotshot Films and Blinder Films. Jump is directed by Kieron J Walsh and stars Martin McCann, Nichola Burley, Richard Dormer, Ciaran McMenamin, Charlene McKenna, Valene Kane and Lalor Roddy. Brendan was also the Irish producer of The Secret Life of Words (2005) starring Tim Robbins, Julie Christie and Sarah Polley.

The company combines a mix of film and documentary projects. Recent documentary credits include Men of Arlington (Dublin International Film Festival 2011) and Calvet (Sheffield Doc Fest/Miami Int Film Festival 2011).

www.hotshotfilms.com

Wellington Films

Wellington Films is the production company founded in 2000 by producers Rachel Robey and Alastair Clark with the mission of producing British feature films which find an audience both in the UK and overseas.

Their BAFTA nominated debut feature, London to Brighton earned them the Best Achievement in Production award at the 2006 British Independent Film Awards and a nomination at the London Critics Circle Film Awards for British Film Producers of the Year. It was released to widespread critical acclaim by Vertigo Films, earning director Paul Andrew Williams a BAFTA nomination for the Carl Foreman Award, and has since been named by TimeOut London as one of the top 100 British films of all time.

Other production credits include Better Things, the critically acclaimed debut feature film by Duane Hopkins (Cannes Film Festival – Critics Week 2008), Alexis Dos Santos’ Unmade Beds, (Sundance Film Festival – World Cinema section 2009, Berlin International Film Festival – Generations 2009) and Justin Molotnikov’s Crying with Laughter (Best Film at BAFTA Scotland 2009).

Wellington’s latest production is a documentary feature film A Man’s Story which chronicles twelve years in the life of British designer and fashion icon Ozwald Boateng. The film was released theatrically in the UK in January 2012 and is released in the US in Autumn 2012.

www.wellingtonfilms.co.uk

Black Milk

Rachel Connors is an Australian-British feature film and documentary producer.
Rachel co-founded and acted as Head of Development at digital feature film studio, Slingshot where she acted as a producer on four of its feature films Sugarhouse, The Tormented, Faintheart and French Film. She has also produced a number of music documentaries with artists including animated group Gorillaz, Faithless, Razorlight, The Magic Numbers and more. Rachel’s films have premiered at international festivals including Berlin International Film Festival, Edinburgh International Film Festival, South by South West and many more. Rachel was awarded Trailblazer status by Edinburgh Film Festival in 2008.

Cat Cooper

Elfin Production

Cat Cooper is a producer and executive producer who founded Elfin Productions in 2008.

Recently, Cat has raised finance for co-production Driven, sold by PBS International, and Film & Music Entertainment co-production Street Kids United; produced Little Stars of Bethlehem, narrated by Stephen Fry; line produced Oscar shortlisted Love at First Sight; and secured co-development funding with US producer Ilyssa Goodman.

She is also a graduate of BFI’s Guiding Lights 2011/12, with Tim Bevan, Working Title Films as her mentor.

www.elfinproductions.com

Jane Dauncey

Machine Productions

Jane Dauncey is an experienced drama producer – her credits include Stella for Sky One, Casualty as series producer, Roman Mysteries, In The Company of Strangers, and the Movie of Me – and she was the original producer on the CBBC stalwart, The Story of Tracy Beaker.

She’s been a director of Machine Productions for the past four years, making Zig Zag Love for BBC Scotland and Scottish Screen, with Robert Carlyle, Joe McFadden, and Mark Lewis Jones, director, Gilles Mackinnon.

Machine recently produced a 26 part drama series for CITV, Tati’s Hotel, which was co-produced with Canada.

www.machineproductions.co.uk

John Giwa-Amu

Red and Black Films

John Giwa-Amu set up Red and Black Films with business partner Caradog James after winning the BBC Talent Award for his short film, Barrie the Barber. Their first feature Little White Lies, produced by John and directed by Caradog, received six BAFTA Cymru nominations, winning two and saw Caradog nominated as Best New Director at The British Independent Film Awards. Their second feature The Machine, starring Toby Stephens (Die Another Day) and Caity Lotz (Mad Men, The Pact), is currently in post production and being sold internationally by Content Media Corp.

www.redandblackfilms.com

Emily Leo

Wigwam Films

Began her career on the sets of high end music videos before getting a Development Internship at international sales company Capitol Films, and then being promoted as an Acquisitions and Development Executive. Four years later she joined Paul Webster at Shine Pictures (formerly Kudos Film and TV) as his Creative Executive. Whilst at Shine Emily worked on Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Brighton Rock, and helped develop several projects for Shine’s joint venture with New Regency, including ‘The Gray Man’ (Blacklist 2011) which has Brad Pitt attached to star, and James Gray attached to direct. Earlier this year Emily produced the short film Worm, which is currently doing the festival circuit. In August 2012, Emily set up independent production company Wigwam Films.

Jonathan Taylor

Dan Films

Producer Jonathan Taylor has worked with Dan Films Limited since 2002 having started his career at The Film Consortium. Jonathan has assisted on over 15 feature films including most recently acting as Associate Producer on Christopher Smith’s Triangle. In addition Jonathan has produced a number of short films including The Sofa, which premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival and El Hoppo!, which was nominated for best short at the Rushes Soho Short Film Festival.

www.danfilms.com

Ivana MacKinnon

Joining start-up company Celador Films in June 2002, Ivana became Head of Development in April 2005, and Head of Creative Affairs in July 2008. She was responsible for sourcing and developing feature film projects, running development and working as Associate Producer on The Descent, Eden Lake and Slumdog Millionaire.

In 2008 Ivana produced two features. The Descent 2, the sequel to Celador’s smash hit horror, directed by Jon Harris, was released by Pathe in the UK and Lionsgate in the US in 2009.

The Scouting Book for Boys, a Celador co-production with Film4 and Screen East, was written by Jack Thorne, directed by Tom Harper and stars Thomas Turgoose and Holliday Grainger. It premiered at the San Sebastian film festival, won ‘Best Newcomer’ at the London Film Festival, and was released in the UK in 2010.
Ivana joined Christian Colson as Head of Creative Affairs at Cloud Eight in 2009, where she served as Associate Producer on Neil Marshall’s Centurion.

In March 2011, Ivana left Cloud Eight to produce her own material. She remains attached to a number of C8 projects as Producer/ Associate Producer.

In 2012 Ivana Executive Produced five dance shorts for Big Dance and C4’s Random Acts, and produced a short viral film with Tom Harper for Sony Ericsson.
Ivana is currently producing Kibwe Tavares’ Jonah, a hugely ambitious live action/VFX short shot in Zanzibar, and developing a slate of TV and feature film projects with, among others, Tom Harper, Chris Shepherd, Debs Paterson, Sam Firth, and neurophilosopher Paul Broks.

Antony Smith

Tornado Films

Antony Smith is an Independent Film Producer based in Wales, UK. He started his career at ITV in 1998. Having been made redundant in 2003, he set up his own film production company – Tornado Films Ltd.

In 2007, Antony was engaged by Boom Films to produce 12 micro budgeted films – 6 of which were theatrically intended films, working alongside Marc Evans (My Little Eye, Patagonia).

Also 2007, Antony was selected as one of 25 emerging producers from all over the UK to take part in the first ever London Production Finance Market (PFM) following that, Antony was selected to take part in The European Media Film School in Bulgaria. Antony was selected as one of 3 Producers from the UK taking part with Producers from all over Europe

In 2011, Antony was chosen to undertake a 3 year research PhD programme through POWIS, (Prince of Wales Innovation Scholarship) to investigate the fragmentation of the independent film value chain, with the aim of developing new digital film business models. This is supported by HRH The Prince of Wales, The University of Wales, Swansea Metropolitan University, ERDF and The Welsh Assembly Government.

In April this year Antony produced Viking Saga The Darkest Day and has personally negotiated and sold the film to Grindstone in North America, Revolver in the UK, Tiberius Film in Germany and Condor in France. The film is due to be released in the UK in Q1 2013.

www.tornadofilms.co.uk