Growing an Indie Feature + Networking

This session will break down the business story of an independent feature from the point of view of a producer, how does it get developed from a slate, how do you put funding together and how do you go about securing distribution etc.

Featuring Producer and her experience on the upcoming film Surviving Earth (Dir Thea Gajic, Film4, BFI) and on her experience with features Bait , Enys Men (Dir. Mark Jenkin) and upcoming MIssion (Dir. Paul Wright, BBC Film, Screen Scotland, Ffilm Cymru).

Followed by Refreshments and Networking.

Sophie Reynolds is a film and television producer. She produced all five episodes of MALPRACTICE, a medical thriller for World Productions starring Niamh Algar, written by Grace Ofori-Attah and directed by Philip Barantini. MALPRACTICE was both critically acclaimed and attracted millions of viewers, making it the most popular new drama of the year for ITV1. Prior to this, she produced the second series of STATE OF THE UNION written by Nick Hornby, directed by Stephen Frears and starring Brendan Gleeson and Patricia Clarkson- who won an Emmy for her performance.

In 2016, she founded Sona Films, which has established a strong track record of championing shorts and features made with talent from low socio-economic backgrounds. Its most recent credit is SURVIVING EARTH, Thea Gajic’s debut feature, backed by Film4 and the BFI, which premiered at SXSW and will be released this spring. Sophie co-founded the UK Producers’ Roundtable to campaign for access into the film industry and is one of the British Screen Forum’s ‘future leaders”. She was previously Production and Development consultant for Film London and is currently Exec Producing for Channel4 Drama.

Kate Byers is a founder member and director of Bristol based Early Day Films. Together with Linn Waite, the company’s journey has been in film from shorts to features beginning with BAFTA winning short September (dir.Esther-May Campbell), to their current film Mission (dir.Paul Wright), funded by Screen Scotland, BBC Film, Film Cymru. Their critically acclaimed debut feature Bait (dir.Mark Jenkin), premiered at Berlinale in 2019 and won the BAFTA for outstanding Debut, and was nominated for Best British film with Kate and Linn receiving a BIFA for Breakthrough producer. Early Day Films is a BFI Vision Award company and we have an ambitious slate celebrating our regionality, bringing outstanding cinematic voices to the screen.

This new event series is aimed at producers in the West making Film, TV and Digital content to upskill them, give them latest market insight and widen their experience of business growth stories from around the UK.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Calling the Shots Films Limited