The Brit 50: The Bureau

Need to know: The Bureau’s UK office is known for director-driven theatrical projects with strong roles for actors, although the company has been broadening its remit. The Bureau was founded by French executive Bertrand Faivre in 2000, before Tristan Goligher joined in 2010 to spearhead UK production. It has France-based production and sales outfits (The Bureau Sales), which operate out of Paris and run as distinct companies.

Goligher has produced several of Andrew Haigh’s films, including 45 Years, Lean On Pete and the upcoming A Long Winter. Other key titles include Aleem Khan’s After Love, Nathaniel Martello-White’s horror thriller The Strays, which was released through Netflix, and Harry Macqueen’s Supernova.

The Bureau has been ramping up its international co-­production efforts, for example with Dara Van Dusen’s A Prayer For The Dying, which was awarded funding through the UK Global Screen Fund.

Key personnel: Tristan Goli­gher, Bertrand Faivre, Matthieu de Braconier, producers; Valentina Brazzini, head of development.

Incoming: Next up for The Bureau is Lance Hammer’s Queen At Sea, which is in post-production and stars Juliette Binoche and Tom Courtenay. It is the follow-up to Hammer’s 2008 debut Ballast.

Also wrapped in Wales is Black Church Bay, Rhys Marc Jones’s debut mystery starring Tom Cullen and Heartstopper’s Joe Locke. Production is also underway on Haigh’s A Long Winter, backed by Mubi and Film4, and starring Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Caitriona Balfe, Kit Connor and Fred Hechinger.

Further ahead, the company is lining up projects with Harry Wootliff and Peter Mackie Burns, and co-­producing Corinna Faith’s second feature with Rob Watson and Air Street Films.

Tristan Goligher says: “The French production company is autonomous and primarily focused on producing French films, sometimes international co-productions as well. And the UK company is mainly focused on British or English-language projects. But the idea, then, is that our sales company doesn’t make any acquisitions, they only sell what we produce. So we’re sharing experience, we’re sharing some resources and people. But also it’s a way to get as producers much more immediate perspective of the market, and what people are looking for, what they’re buying, what’s working.”

Valentina Brazzini says: “We are currently financing and casting projects with filmmakers that we’ve already worked with, like Harry Wootliff and Peter Mackey Burns, and in a way we’re evolving with our filmmakers as well, so at every step they’re making bigger, more commercial projects.”

Contact: mail@thebureau.co.uk

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