EXCLUSIVE: Projects by Caspian Films and Sixteen Films producers are among the 10 titles selected for the inaugural edition of UK development lab The Business of Impact Lab & Pitch.
The 10 titles come from 20 producers and will participate in a five-month development programme designed to strengthen commercial strategy, financial packaging, and real-world impact planning.
Scroll down for the full list of projects
It is run by Impact Together, the non-profit entity from UK marketing, distribution and sales company Together Films and has backing from the BFI Creative Challenge Fund, launched in October 2023.
The lab will consist of 10 virtual sessions and an in-person development day, culminating in a live pitch event to financiers and key stakeholders in June 2026. Among the lab’s aims is helping producers to bridge the gap between creative ambition and market readiness, particularly for projects seeking to combine artistic excellence with meaningful social engagement.
Participants will work with a soon-to-be-announced group of industry speakers and mentors from the finance, distribution, impact strategy, philanthropy, foundations, and non-traditional investment sectors of the industry.
Selected projects include An Alteration, produced by Caspian Films’ Thembisa Cochrane and Georgie Paget, in which a maverick Afghan artist working illegally at the back of a Liverpool dry cleaners defies the expectations of her as a refugee, an Afghan, and a woman. Caspian’s Frank & Louis from director Petra Volpe had its world premiere at Sundance last month.
Also selected is Four Ordinary Women, produced by Sixteen Films’ Jack Thomas O’Brien and Dorothy Allen-Pickard, and in development with BBC Film. The film sees four women who have destroyed a fighter jet destined for a genocidal regime turn their prosecution into a courtroom battle that puts Britain’s arms trade on trial.
Wellington Films’ Alastair Clark and Jolly Griffin’s Anna Griffin will participate with Sandra Goldbacher’s After You’d Gone, in which a woman’s partner of six years vanishes overnight, leaving only a note saying not to find them; and the woman goes looking anyway, finding a secret buried inside the system they were fighting. The script is written by Kefi Chadwick, based on her stage play Any Means Necessary.
“Socially relevant scripted films are essential to how we understand the world — yet too often they struggle to access the financing, visibility, and pathways to market they deserve,” said Sarah Mosses, Together Films founder and CEO. “This Lab exists to challenge that imbalance. By opening up new avenues of impact and funding, and by bringing producers into direct dialogue with philanthropy, foundations, brands, and equity partners, we’re deliberately expanding who gets to invest in — and benefit from — these stories.”
“Responding to the BFI Creative Challenge Fund’s goal of enabling producers to sustain careers and deliver their creative visions at scale and with reach, The Business of Impact Lab has chosen ten ambitious projects representing a dynamic cross-section of genres from an exciting range of producers,” said Mia Bays, director of the BFI Filmmaking Fund.
The Business of Impact Lab & Pitch 2026 projects & teams
After You’d Gone, prods. Anna Griffin, Alastair Clark
An Alteration, prods. Thembisa Cochrane, Georgie Paget
Black Samphire, prods. Cathy Wippell, Joseph Archer
Four Ordinary Women, prods. Jack Thomas-O’Brien, Dorothy Allen-Pickard
It’s A Fake, prods. Savannah James-Bayley, Alexandra Blue
Jem, prods. Aleksandra Bilic, Dorottya Szekely
Madison, prods. Alice Lusher, Helios Blanc
Shorelines, prods. Branwen Prestwood-Smith, Heather Rabbats
Stolen, prods. Rebecca Long, Anya Camilleri
The Lido, prods. Charlotte Walls, Emily Barttelot
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