The Brit 50: the leading documentary and animation companies in the UK

Documentary 

Lightbox

Former Red Box producer and Oscar winner Simon Chinn (Man On Wire, Searching For Sugar Man) set up Lightbox in 2014 with his Los Angeles-­based cousin Jonathan Chinn. The Whitney company’s focus has been producing documentaries for TV, such as five-part National Geographic series Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time; Sam Mendes’s first ever documentary Belsen: What They Found for the BBC; and three-part Netflix series The Diamond Heist. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s Lost In The Jungle had its world premiere at Telluride this year, ahead of a release on Disney+ and Hulu.

In production is Return To The Moon with National Geographic Documentary Films, a long-term collaboration with Nasa charting the Artemis 1 and Artemis 2 space missions. Lightbox also has several series in the works with Apple, Sky, Hulu and HBO.

The team of 20, spread across London and Los Angeles, also includes managing director Vanessa Tovell, creative directors Ben Samuel and Suzanne Lavery, senior vice-­president, production and operations Carolyn Lewis, and head of production, UK Polly Allen.

Misfits Entertainment

Franco Swiss director/producer Ian Bonhôte — co-founder of Pulse Films — and UK producer Andee Ryder launched London-based Misfits Entertainment in 2016. Its breakthrough project was the Bafta-­nominated 2018 fashion documentary McQueen, which Bonhôte co‑directed with Peter Ettedgui. Lizzie Gillett joined as head of documentary from Passion Pictures in 2023, and Europe’s Mediawan bought a majority stake in the company in 2024. This year, the team won a Bafta for Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, produced alongside Passion Pictures and Words + Pictures, and released by Warner Bros Discovery.

Recent festival premieres include Love & Rage: Munroe Bergdorf, a feature documentary about the trailblazing model and trans activist that world premiered at SXSW London; climate-change refugee film Lowland Kids, which debuted at CPH:DOX and was also produced by Darren Aronofsky and sold by Together Films; BFI London Film Festival premiere Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story; and Japanese reality show doc The Contestant, which played Toronto, Doc NYC, CPH:DOX, Sheffield DocFest and Galway. Next year brings a feature doc looking at the 1980s heyday of Hollywood blockbuster movies.

Passion Pictures

Passion Pictures has offices in London, Bristol, Paris and Los Angeles, with a 24-strong team. As well as documentary, Passion produces animation and commercials — but it is known for unscripted, with a flair for layered profiles of pop-culture icons.

Recent successes include 2025 Bafta winner Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story and 2024 Bafta nominee Wham!, produced with Ventureland. Michael Hutchence, John Belushi, Alex Ferguson, Elizabeth Taylor, Caroline Aherne and Eric Clapton have all had the Passion treatment. Upcoming docs include a Joan Rivers feature directed by Colette Camden and produced alongside The Media­pro Studio; Paul McCartney doc The Beatle And The Bass and David Attenborough’s Wild London for the BBC; plus a Channel 4 doc directed by Benedict Sanderson about a Church of England abuse scandal.

Creative managing director David Moulton and creative director Hamish Fergusson head up the documentary division. Passion was originally set up as an animation company by CEO Andrew Ruhemann in 1987, with John Battsek joining in 1997 to establish the film and TV arm. Battsek left to launch Venture­land in January 2020. Passion achieved Oscar wins for One Day In September in 2000 and Searching For Sugar Man in 2013.

Ventureland

Busy is an understatement for Ventureland over the next year. In the works are Michael Harte’s three-part Kylie Minogue series for Netflix, Kylie; Joe Pearlman’s three-part Mourinho about football coach Jose Mourinho, also for Netflix; feature doc Usyk, about the heavy­weight boxing world champion; A Life Illuminated, a doc about actor Adam Pearson, directed by Ed Lovelace and slated for release in 2026; and an untitled feature doc from Amir Bar-Lev exploring events during a winter summit of K2, also slated for 2026.

Recent festival premieres include Tribeca 2025’s Just Sing, Universal Pictures’ Kerouac’s Road: The Beat Of A Nation and Birthright, and Sheffield premiere A Simple Soldier.

Former Passion Pictures managing director John Battsek launched Ventureland in 2020, and it now boasts a full-time team of seven across the UK, Los Angeles and New York. Notable credits include four-part Netflix series Beckham, which won a Primetime Emmy; Alex Gibney’s Apple TV Berlin world premiere Boom! Boom! The World Vs Boris Becker; and Oscar-­nominated Venice world premiere Bobi Wine: The People’s President, which Dogwoof released theatrically in the UK & Ireland. Key staff alongside Battsek include head of production Adam Bardach, producer Sarah Thomson, and producer and head of development Miles Coleman.

Vice Studios (formerly Pulse Films)

Pulse Films was co-founded in 2005 by Thomas Benski and Marisa Clifford as a studio working across features, TV, non-fiction, commercials and music videos. It was acquired by Vice Media Group in 2022, and while the Pulse Films banner remains in branded entertainment and music, all scripted and unscripted projects now sit under Vice Studios.

The company first punched through as Pulse with acclaimed music documentaries, including LCD Soundsystem film Shut Up And Play The Hits in 2012; Nick Cave hybrid film 20,000 Days On Earth in 2014; Spike Jonze’s Beastie Boys Story for Apple TV in 2020; Venice 2024 premiere Pavements; one-off Lewis Capaldi: How I’m Feeling Now for Netflix in 2023; and 2025 series Into The Void: Life, Death And Heavy Metal for Hulu. A slate of documentaries about some of rock music’s most iconic figures is in the works.

Recent scripted projects include Jonatan Etzler’s Toronto and BFI London Film Festival premiere Bad Apples, Oscar Hudson’s Venice Critics’ Week title Straight Circle and Sky TV series Atomic and Gangs Of London, with a fourth season of the latter crime show in the works.

Vice Studios has offices in London, Los Angeles and New York. London-based head of film Oskar Pimlott, head of production (and chair of the Production Guild of Great Britain) Bianca Gavin and head of unscripted Joe Ingham all joined Pulse prior to the Vice acquisition. They report to Los Angeles-­based Vice Studios president Amy Powell.

Animation

Aardman Animations

Veteran Bristol-based animation outfit Aardman, founded by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, has been going strong since 1972. The company now has a full-time team of 375, working across film, TV, games, short form and commercials. ‘Full of character’ is the company’s motto — with the likes of Wallace & Gromit and Shaun the Sheep among the studio’s enduring creations. Aardman holds two world records as of July 2025: Chicken Run remains the highest-grossing stop-motion animated film of all time, with a global box office of $227.8m (£185.2m), while Aardman’s six theatrical stop-motion releases have collectively grossed $756.5m (£494m) worldwide, making it the highest-grossing stop-motion film studio of all time.

Recent releases include 2024’s Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (BBC/Netflix) and 2023’s Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget (Netflix). The company has worked regularly with Net­flix since 2021’s Robin Robin, although no formal deal is in place. Its next project is set up with Sky and Studio­canal — Shaun The Sheep: The Beast Of Mossy Bottom, which is currently in production. A further three feature concepts are in various stages of development. Key company personnel include managing director Sean Clarke, chief creative director Sarah Cox and executive director of production Carla Shelley.

Locksmith Animation

Locksmith Animation, the studio behind Ron’s Gone Wrong and Richard Curtis-penned That Christmas, strives to position itself as a rival to US animated studio juggernauts DreamWorks and Pixar. It was co-founded in 2014 by Elisabeth Murdoch, Julie Lockhart and Sarah Smith (who left the company in 2021), and now has a team of 18 based in London and eight in Los Angeles.

A first-look deal for worldwide distribution was struck with Warner Bros in 2023, with two features currently in production: Megan Nicole Dong’s Bad Fairies, a high-concept musical comedy scheduled for May 2027 with Cynthia Erivo in the voice cast , and The Lunar Chronicles, based on the bestselling young-adult series by Marissa Meyer and directed by Noëlle Raffaele, targeting a theatrical release in November 2028.

Locksmith is in development on Olly Reid’s Wed Wabbit, with six further features in development. It aims to release one film a year beginning in 2027. Natalie Fischer is CEO, with Lockhart as president of production and Mary Coleman as chief commercial officer. 

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