EXCLUSIVE: Reclaim The Frame has unveiled the 12 filmmakers taking part in the UK charity’s inaugural Back In The Frame six-month programme supporting experienced women and marginalised gender directors and producers re-entering the screen industries after a career break.
Participants include Philippa Tsang, previously head of production and development UK for German outfit DCM and an executive at HanWay Films and Film4 with credits including Beast, Fighting With My Family and How To Build A Girl. She is currently a film development consultant for UK commercials producer Blink Productions.
Beryl Richards is the former chair of Directors UK, who has won seven Baftas for her work, specialising in films for children and young people. She has just completed Hello Stranger, a feature documentary made with her adopted neurodivergent son which tells her family’s story.
Producer Laura Rees was a Screen Star of Tomorrow in 2008 and most recently worked as a line producer on Shane Meadows’ Chork and co-producer on Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s Venice 2025 documentary Broken English.
There’s also Alexandra Genova, whose documentary short Our Land won a Bafta in 2022 and is currently directing Casa Mia, a documentary exploring the lives of women connected to the Neapolitan Camorra; former head of production at SunnyMarch Films Stephanie Bamberg; and producer of Emmy-winning feature documentary The English Surgeon, Shreepali Patel.
Scroll down for the full cohort
The programme starts this month and runs until March 2027. Industry experts supporting the scheme come from the likes of BBC Film, BFI, Rentrak, Cornerstone Films, Film4 and HanWay Films.
“What struck us throughout the selection process was the extraordinary calibre of the people applying,” said Melanie Iredale, executive director of Reclaim The Frame. ”These are not filmmakers starting again. They are experienced directors and producers, Bafta and Bifa winners, people whose work has travelled to some of the world’s leading festivals, and people who have spent years, often decades, building knowledge, relationships and craft.
“But time away can have a disproportionate impact in an industry where so much work still depends on visibility, networks and being in the room. The response to Back in the Frame, with 114 applications for just 12 places, made very clear both how much experienced talent is at risk of being lost and how much demand there is for meaningful routes back.”
Back In The Frame 2026/7 cohort
- Alexandra Genova – director
- Beryl Richards – director/writer/executive producer
- Catriona MacInnes – writer/director/actor
- Chiara A.Bellati – executive producer/director
- Isabelle Stead – writer/director/producer
- Jaso Barker – writer/director
- Laura Rees – producer
- Philippa Tsang – producer
- Poonam Brah – writer/director
- Shreepali Patel – director/producer
- Stephanie Bamberg – producer/director
- Zillah Bowes – writer/director
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