Celine Rattray and Trudie Styler’s Maven Screen Media is moving into TV production and short-form digital content after securing investment from the UK Creative Content EIS Fund, launched last year in association with the BFI.
London and New York-based Rattray has produced more than 45 films, including Oscar-nominated The Kids Are All Right, and set up Maven Pictures in 2011 with Styler, producing Cannes jury prize winner American Honey and Sundance award winnerThe Kindergarten Teacher. The company recently rebranded as Maven Screen Media.
The undisclosed investment will see the company maintain its film slate, which includes Roger Michell’s Good Morning, Mr. Mandela, while expanding into production for television and digital, with a focus on short-form content.
Maven will also aim to increase representation of female creators and female-centred stories. Upcoming features include drama A Mouthful Of Air, directed by Amy Koppelman and starring Amanda Seyfried; Christmas film Silent Night, directed by Camille Griffin and starring Lily-Rose Depp and Keira Knightley; and anthology With/In, made during lockdown by award-winning talent including Julianne Moore, Emily Mortimer and Rosie Perez.
The UK Creative Content Fund was launched last year to take advantage of the government’s Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) to support independent companies working across film and television. The EIS is looking to invest around £2m in 10 independent companies per year.
Fund manager Calculus Capital, which specialises in securing EIS and venture capital trust investment, and screen finance company Stargrove Pictures, run by former Ingenious Media executive Stephen Fuss, oversee management of the fund.
Maven is the latest company to have gained funding from the EIS after Colin Firth’s Raindog Films, UK digital studio Maze Theory and TV production company Wonderhood Studios, run by former Channel 4 chief executive David Abraham.
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