The Brit 50: Ones to watch - UK production companies on the rise

27 Ten Productions

Edinburgh-based Ken Petrie, who set up 27 Ten Productions in 2014 in parallel to his work as a SFX technician, is in post on coming-of-age comedy Sunny Dancer starring Bella Ramsey, Neil Patrick Harris, Jessica Gunning and James Norton. True Brit Entertainment will release the film in UK-Ireland cinemas next summer. It is Petrie’s second collaboration with filmmaker George Jaques, after 2023’s Black Dog. On the way are time-travel thriller Flashback and chase thriller Ankle, the latter a co-production with John Wick producer Thunder Road; and musical dance comedy Dancing With The Scars. Also incoming is a returning series about a cash counterfeiter, with showrunner Ed Herro and in co-production with F1 The Movie star Damson Idris and Zach Beckman of Keep Quiet Productions; and a documentary miniseries about the founders of music app Shazam.

Agile Films

Agile Films developed and produced Sam H Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s Femme, which launched at Berlin 2023 and scored 11 Bifa nominations and three wins. Founded in 2005 by producer Myles Payne, who runs it with producer and head of film and TV Sam Ritzenberg, the company has ramped up its film activities recently. Wasteman starring David Jonsson and Tom Blyth is on the festival circuit with Lionsgate to release in UK-Ireland. Upcoming projects include BFI-backed musical horror-­romance Stuffed with Jodie Comer and Harry Melling, sold by Cornerstone; Stages, the debut feature of Ex Machina actress Sonoya Mizuno, executive produced by Alex Garland, shooting next year; Freeman’s BBC Film-­developed Rehearsal; Mitch Kalisa’s Film4-backed Ldoy11; and Feed, written by Daniella Isaacs with producers including Rosamund Pike. Creston Whittington recently joined as co-head of film and TV, with a slate including sci-fi Dark Eden based on Chris Beckett’s novels, written by Jamie Whitby and Laurence Pumfrey, in which descendants of a crashed spaceship begin to question the faith that has governed their survival. Hayley Williams is Agile’s head of production, with Arsalan Motavali as creative executive.

barry crerar

Founded in 2016 and situated between Glasgow and Belfast, Ciara Barry and Rosie Crerar’s company received UK Global Screen Fund support in 2023, allowing it to add former Screen Scotland executive Jennifer Armitage as head of development. Successive Sundance trips for Girl in 2023 and Sebastian — which barry crerar co-produced — in 2024 led to Bifa nominations for cast on both. In the works are documentaries Matrescence from Nothing Compares filmmaker Kathryn Ferguson and Everybody To Kenmure Street, about a 2021 deportation prevention protest in Glasgow, plus feminist horror Swither and co-producing Peter Mackie Burns’ third feature with lead producers The Bureau.

Bosena

Denzil Monk’s Cornish powerhouse launched Mark Jenkin’s Rose Of Nevada starring George MacKay and Callum Turner at Venice Film Festival this year, following up with Toronto, New York and London screenings. Having also produced Jenkin’s Cannes 2022 Directors’ Fortnight title Enys Men, development is underway on his next projects. Monk started Bosena in 2019, with Ben Bond joining as executive producer in 2024, while Amanda Rawling is impact lead, overseeing a sustainability focus that is key to the company, which is targeting the B Corp environmental certification for 2026. With Jim Hosking’s absurdist comedy Ebony & Ivory also out this past September, upcoming projects include partnering with US firms Ventureland, Present Company and Merino Films on The Swell, the debut feature of Nomadland cinematographer Joshua James Richards; Henry Blake’s The Beetle with Victoria Bavister’s Two Birds Entertainment and Good Chaos, written by Blake and Xiao Tang; and Esther May Campbell’s sci-fi A Dreaming Creature with Severn Screen. Also in the works are Welsh filmmaker and video artist Simon Clode’s debut feature documentary, completing next year; and Mathy Tremewan and Fran Broadhurst’s Cornish-language debut Estren Hi, in partnership with My Accomplice.

Boudica Entertainment

Jamie Adams’ comedy Let’s Love starring Martin Freeman, Josh Hutcherson and Jess Weixler is currently in post for Boudica Entertainment, with Princ Films selling. Founded in 2019 by producers Rebecca Long and Stella Nwimo and based between the West Midlands and London, Boudica launched Campbell X’s South Africa-­set LGBTQ+ drama Low Rider at Edinburgh 2025. Alief is handling sales with theatrical releases planned for next year. Pencilled in to shoot next year are A Blue Butterfly from Nigerian filmmaker CJ ‘Fiery’ Obasi starring Steve Toussaint, and Anya Camilleri’s UK-­Italy co-­production Stolen. Recipients of the BBC Small Indie Fund, Boudica also has a TV slate including geopolitical thriller Tomorrow Died Yesterday with Plan B Entertainment.

Braintrust

Sam Bank and Hélène Sifre began producing together at the National Film and Television School in 2014. Bank founded Braintrust in 2016, with Sifre — producer of 2022 Bifa winner Blue Jean — joining him in 2018 and now creative director. Development executive Caroline Webster joined in 2022. The company has raised a private development fund that allows it to nurture projects internally, alongside collaborations with the BFI, Film4 and international partners including Showmax, Fifth Season and Sobini Films. David Drake’s Dead Letters starring Margo Martindale, Stephen Root, Cole Sprouse, Yalitza Aparicio, Jefferson White and Wes Studi is in post, produced with US producer Juliet Berman of Spiral Stairs Entertainment. Michael Caton-Jones’ UK comedy The Big Sheep, based on real events and the French novel The Incredible Story Of The Sheep Who Saved A School, is at casting and financing stage, sold by Global Constellation, and Jo Ingabire Moys’ BFI-backed South London-based dance comedy-­drama Afrokicks is in development.

Devisio Pictures

A Cannes Un Certain Regard best actor win for Frank Dillane, screenings at top festivals including Telluride and sales around the world through Charades — not a bad start for Devisio Pictures’ debut Urchin. Harris Dickinson and Archie Pearch’s company is backed by US-based investment firm Tricky Knot and has projects in development across film and TV, some with Dickinson attached to star. A psychological drama set between the UK and Poland is shooting in early 2026, with Klaudia Smieja-­Rostworowska of Madants co-producing, while a Los Angeles-­set drama is also aiming for early next year. Dickinson is also writing his second feature.

Elation Pictures

Rebecca Hall, Gael Garcia Bernal, Noomi Rapace and Beanie Feldstein headline Maria Martinez Bayona’s sci-fi The End Of It, in post for Elation Pictures, backed by BBC Film and Mediapro Studios and sold by Bankside Films and WME, with the film eyeing a 2026 festival launch. Founded by Emilie Jouffroy and Kamilla Kristiane Hodol in 2016, Elation added Joanne Michael as development and production executive in 2025 on a drive towards more commercially ambitious, genre-driven work. That includes Claire Fowler’s debut feature Toad, developed with the BFI and through Sundance labs; a second feature with Thordur Palsson after 2024 horror The Damned; and projects with Severance director/producer Aoife McArdle, Slow director Marija Kavtaradze, Simon Cartwright, writing duo Coral Amiga and Nicole Harley, and playwright Dawn King.

Shudder Films

Shudder Films founder Jack Tarling has an eye for indie projects, first with God’s Own Country, which won four Bifas and was 2017’s highest-­grossing UK debut in the territory, then last year’s Kneecap, winner of seven Bifas and the best British debut Bafta. Running Newcastle upon Tyne and London-based Shudder Films with development producer Dermot O’Dempsey, Tarling’s company co-founded the Mother Tongues development award with Curzon and Charades, supporting UK-set films told in a language other than English. Shudder Films has just wrapped Fateme Ahmadi’s Daughter Of Eden starring Yasmin Al-Khudhairi, Hiam Abbass, Amir El-Masry and Lindsay Duncan, financed by the BFI, BBC Film, Screen Ireland and Civic Studios; and has Rebekah Fortune’s Learning To Breathe Under Water with Ezra Carlisle, Rory Kinnear and Maria Bakalova launching next year, backed by Screen Ireland, the UK Global Screen Fund, Ffilm Cymru and the Netherlands Film Fund, and sold by Bankside.

Somesuch

Producer Scott O’Donnell joined Somesuch in 2018, and in 2023 was appointed as film executive to run its new features division. The UK and US-based production and management firm was founded by Sally Campbell and Tim Nash in 2010; it works across film, advertising and music videos, with Tash Tan as UK managing director. Having produced Leo Leigh’s 2023 debut Sweet Sue, O’Donnell is gearing up to shoot Leigh’s The Mixed Up Kind in 2026, co-producing with Andy Brunskill’s SUMS. O’Donnell produced Harris Dickinson’s Urchin alongside Dickinson and Archie Pearch’s Devisio Pictures. There is also Beatrice Gibson’s Paris-set La Nuit, in offline edit for a 2026 festival launch, and Roxy Rezvany’s debut feature, aiming to shoot in late 2026. All of the above were developed with BBC Film. Aneil Karia’s The Long Goodbye, produced by O’Donnell for Somesuch, won the Oscar for best short film (live action) in 2022.

Turnover Films

Originally set up as a vehicle for her line producing services, Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo has expanded Turnover into developing film and TV projects. The 2023 south London-set romantic comedy Rye Lane was a successful debut feature for Raine Allen-Miller. Produced with Damian Jones, it scored two Bafta nominations including outstanding British film, was acquired for worldwide by Disney, and grossed $1.7m in the UK & Ireland. Having been a series producer on Netflix series Top Boy, in 2022 Ibazebo produced documentary A Story Of Bones, about the remains of enslaved Africans discovered on the South Atlantic island of St Helena, which played at Tribeca. Turnover has received UK Global Screen Fund and BBC Small Indie Fund backing in the last two years. This has enabled development of a slate including Nigerian duo Arie and Chuko Esiri’s Lagos-set feature Three Songs, Yolanda Mercy’s adaptation of Lizzie Damilola Blackburn’s novel Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?, and an original series with Skins, New Girl and The Newsroom writer Camilla Blackett.

Unified

Amy Jackson and Lauren Dark brought pedigree to their founding of Unified in March 2025. Jackson produced Charlotte Wells’ Oscar-­nominated indie hit Aftersun while Dark produced Michael Pearce’s Bafta-­winning Beast and was a BFI and Film4 development executive. Unified is in post on Chork, written by Jack Thorne and Shane Meadows. The company will work on its own film and TV projects and as a co-­production entity, working with North American partners in the UK, Europe and internationally. Bringing strong relationships with BBC Film and Film4, Unified has projects in the works with Levan Akin, Thea Hvistendahl and William Oldroyd; a book adaptation with Plan B; an original project with 2025 Screen Star of Tomorrow Sami Ibrahim; and co-­productions with US companies including Dylan Clark Productions, Elevation, FilmNation and Tango Entertainment.

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