A cohort of six Black and global majority UK producers are being supported by the BFI to attend Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)’s inaugural market, including Farah Abushwesha, producer of TIFF Centrepiece title Lemonade.
Irish-Libyan producer Abushwesha of UK-Irish company Rocliffe Productions is joined by British-Nigerian Yemi Adegbulu of Sleepwalker Studios, an associate producer on Jonathan Schey’s TIFF Special Presentations title Everybody Wants To F*ck Me and Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor’s Dreamers.
Jumafor Ajogwu works between the UK and Nigeria with credits including a co-producer on Netflix’s first Nigerian Original, Lionheart, and as a production manager on Akinola Davis Jr’s Bafta-winning My Father’s Shadow. His debut feature under his Leeds-based banner Bold Pictures, Which Way, is completed, and he is building a slate of elevated genre projects.
Emma Grazette is a Yorkshire-based British-Bajan producer at Blue J Pictures, and was an associate producer on Locarno 2025 premiere The Birthday Party. She currently has a Jamaican period war film in development with BBC Film.
Nadine Marsh-Edwards is a TV producer and co-founder of Greenacre Films, with credits including ITV drama series Riches. She has previously produced films including Netflix musical Been So Long starring Michaela Coel and Gurinder Chadha’s Bhaji On The Beach.
Chi Thai of London-based Last Conker specialises in genre stories, such as SXSW 2023 premiere Raging Grace. She is a leading inclusion advocate for the East and Southeast Asian community in the UK.
Each have at least one UK-Canadian feature film project in active development, will be attending TIFF: The Market to develop their international networks and establish and grow collaborations to push their co-productions forward.
Their attendance is supported by the BFI National Lottery International Connections Fund.
Canadian partners Ontario Creates will present a bespoke Ontario-UK day of activity for the delegation and a larger pool of UK and Canadian producers, including presentations from Canada’s Black Screen Office and Indigenous Screen Office, as well as the BFI’s director of UK Global Screen Fund and International Funds, Denitsa Yordanova, on working and co-producing with the UK.
The BFI’s presence at TIFF also includes a ScreenUK Industry stand in the new market at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre as well as longstanding UK sales office in the Hyatt, in partnership with Film Export UK and the British Film Commission.
The BFI inclusion team will also be taking part in a panel, ‘The stories we tell: advancing accessibility through inclusive storytelling’ at Metro Toronto Convention Centre will look as how storytelling is key to making disability inclusion a reality, which features actor Ruth Madeley and filmmaker Matthew Kowalchuk.
TIFF: The Market runs from September 10-16.
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