The UK Global Screen Fund’s Co-production Weekender is a participatory two-day programme for UK-based feature film and TV producers interested in international co-production. The event, designed to take participants through the essentials of putting a co-production together, will consist of panels, talks, and workshops with a range of both UK-based and international experts and producers.
It takes place on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 April 2023 at GMAC in Glasgow.
Speakers will include:
- French producer, Emilie Georges (Memento Films)
- Producer and founding partner of Ollfi.com, Ilann Girard
- UK producer, Naima Abed (We Are Paradise City)
- Producer and EAVE group leader, Roshanak Behesht Nedjad
- Polish producer, Sean Bobbitt (Breaktrhu Films)
- UK producer, Sonja Henrici (Sonja Henrici Creates)
Chantel Burrell from the BFI’s Certification Unit, which runs the British qualification process for co-productions in order to access the UK’s screen sector tax reliefs, and Alastair Mavor from legal firm Lee &Thompson, will also be sharing their expertise as part of the speaker line-up.
The producers selected are:
Adam Dawtrey
Adam Dawtrey founded Bofa Productions in 2013 with Mary Bell. Adam is the producer of creative documentaries, based in Scotland with an international perspective. Credits include The Story of Looking, Iorram, The Eyes of Orson Welles, Stockholm My Love and A Story of Children and Film. Current productions include Celluloid Underground by Ehsan Khoshbakht, and A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things by Mark Cousins.
Ben Giladi
Ben Giladi is an award-winning Film and Television producer and the founder of Liminal Content, a UK production house that specializes in development, production and financing of International film & television. His producing credits include Nicholas Cage starred Pig, John Trengove’s Manodrome and true-crime cult series Shadow of Truth. Giladi founded his first production company, EGG Films, in 2006. EGG Films grew to become a leading force in the global Premium Documentary market and produced shows such as Netflix’s Shadow of Truth and Showtime’s Emmy-nominated Buried. The company was sold to Fremantle in 2022. In 2013, Giladi moved from Israel to London and started working with Len Blavatnik’s AI Film. During his time at the company, AI Film financed and produced numerous Academy Award nominated titles including — Hacksaw Ridge, I, Tonya, Silence and Lee Daniel’s The Butler. In 2018, Giladi launched a film production fund with Pulse Films and Access Industries, through which he produced and financed Pig, starring Nicholas Cage and Alex Wolf. Giladi is a graduate of the The Steven Tisch School of Film and Television at Tel Aviv University.
Carol Harding
Carol Harding produced the 2022 C21 International Drama, Best TV Movie: My Name Is Leon an adaptation by Shola Amoo of Kit De Waal’s best selling book of the same title, directed by Lynette Linton for Douglas Road Productions/BBC2 in association with Carol’s company, Vicarious Productions. She partnered with 13Films, Ingenious, LipSync and Creative England to finance. Next feature, Final Breath, is in advanced development with co-producers Mark O’Neill, Panoramic Pictures, Canada. Previously Carol produced feature film The Last Witness, by Piotr Szkopiak, through her company Vicarious Productions, GFM Films for eOne, Signature Entertainment, Kino Swiat. Previous drama credits include: Black Ops BBC1, The Confessions of Frannie Langton ITV, Una Marson: Our Lost Caribbean Voice BBC Arts, Casualty, Doctors, WPC56, Molly Afternoon Play. Vicarious Productions has a slate of films in development and is partnered with Picnik Entertainment a UK based venture, incubating diverse and ambitious media companies to help them grow commercially and creatively. Founded by Nicola Pearcey who was previously President of UK & Europe Lionsgate.
Chloe Chudasama
Chloe Chudasama is a UK based film producer at Nocturnal Pictures. She has worked as a Project Manager for over 10 years at one of the leading PR and live event companies, managing clients such as Sony Pictures, XBOX, General Electric, Adidas and more. Chloe has managed live award shows and events, including numerous PR stunts and photo calls at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival for Sony Pictures (Titles include The Angry Birds 1 & 2, The Shallows, Hotel Transylvania 3 and Spiderman: into the Spider-Verse). Transitioning her skills from events into film production, Chloe has produced three short films and her debut feature The Last Rite which is out now in the U.S with Samuel Goldwyn Films on HULU, and the UK on Sky Store. It is Chloe’s shared vision with Writer/Director Leroy Kincaide, to build on Nocturnal Pictures as a leading production company and ensure all motion pictures have commercial and market viability and success. Chloe was also selected as part of the Edinburgh Film Festival Talent Lab, BIFA Springboard and Creative England’s Market Trader & Film Accelerator in 202½2.
Ciara Barry
Ciara Barry is a Belfast born producer based in Glasgow and one half of producing duo barry crerar, founded in 2016 with friend & fellow producer Rosie Crerar. Recent credits include Girl (BFI/BBC Film/ Screen Scotland) with a world premiere at Sundance Film Festival, in the world dramatic cinema competition. Accolades include selection for the inaugural Rising Stars Scotland 2022, BAFTA Scotland nomination for Best Film 2021 and BIFA longlist for Breakthrough Producer 2020. Prior to barry crerar, Ciara’s background is in talent development, producing short films over a decade with talent including Sam Firth, Ruth Paxton and Michael Pearce. From 2013-2016 Ciara was a line producer at Mallinson Television Productions, delivering high end TV commercials and production services. Previously Ciara was project manager at Screen Academy Scotland for MEDIA funded European inter-film school programme ENGAGE and Development & Production Executive at DigiCult, a talent development initiative funded by UK Film Council 2009-2012.
Dewi Gregory
Dewi Gregory is an experienced producer of feature-length documentaries. His films include the BIFA-winning film Orion: The Man Who Would Be King and The Borneo Case which premiered at Tribeca and IDFA respectively. His BAFTA and BIFA long-listed film Donna, premiered at Frameline Film Festival San Francisco in June 2022 and was released in UK & Ireland theatres by Bohemia Media (Sales: Wide Management, Paris). He is currently producing Smoking Shores, an immersive film about surfers and the permacrisis by debut filmmaker David Warwick, executive produced by Michael Sheen. He is an EAVE Producers Workshop graduate and Creative England Market Trader delegate.
Ed Gibbs
Ed Gibbs is an award-winning producer and writer based in London. Together with Rubika Shah he formed Smoking Bear, a boutique indie committed to telling bold, compelling stories from around the world. Ed is best-known for White Riot, which won multiple awards including the Best Documentary Prize at the BFI London Film Festival. His films have premiered at festivals including Sundance, Berlin and Hot Docs. Prior to becoming a producer, Ed was Sunday film critic for The Sydney Morning Herald.
Fawzia Mahmood
Fawzia Mahmood is an independent producer of fiction and documentary from London. Her films have screened at festivals including Locarno, London, São Paulo, and Pingyao, and won Grierson and RTS awards. For broadcast, she has produced with Sky, BBC Studios and UKTV, amongst others. Fawzia is currently developing projects across genre, platform, budget level and borders. She graduated from the National Film and Television School with an MA in Producing, having been awarded a scholarship and having previously studied economics and South Asian history. She is an alumna of Berlinale Talents, Edinburgh Film Festival Talent Lab and Rotterdam Lab.
Giada Mazzoleni
Giada Mazzoleni, BFI Network x BAFTA Crew producer and film educator, founder of Paguro Film. She produced the short film Moths to Flame (2018 — Studio Universal Prize at Alice Nella Città and Italian Silver Ribbon award) and Fulci for Fake, selected at Mostra Internazionale del Cinema di Venezia and screened at Sitges Fantastic Film Festival. As an educator, Giada collaborates with the British Council and the Civic School of Cinema in Milan, delivering workshops on movies production and distribution. She took part in different programs supported by Creative England and BFI: Market Trader Cohort, TV and film Foundation, S2F and received business planning support for her company. Biennale Cinema College and EGF alumna. Since 2020 EWA member and part of Women in Film & TV (UK).
Jade Alexander
London-based producer Jade Alexander loves finding new ways to bring the audience into the story. She produced interactive film The Complex 2020, which won Best Sound and Best VFX at British Film Festival and was to premiere at Brussels International Fantastic Film
Festival. With a talented cast including Michelle Mylett and Kate Dickie, it has outperformed other interactive films and hit profits in 2022. Available on Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch & Steam garnering 5 star reviews. In 2021, Jade was associate producer on the interactive film Nightbook 2021, worked for Warner Bros Australia on the tv series Love Me
for Hulu, and also released the feature film The Complex: Lockdown 2021, on Apple TV, Hulu, iTunes and Sky. Jade interned with ICM & Partners in 2012 at Cannes Film Festival, completed Buisness of Film Course in 2018 and was in BAFTA Crew 2018-19. She has become an award-winning producer (Best Film – After Death, 2 x Lovies and 1 x FWA award for Asics Blackout Track) with experience in commercials, features & new media. Having pioneered interactive film, she hopes to share that knowledge with other projects. She is very excited by the possibilities that interactive and immersive films can bring to audiences.
Kathy Speirs
Since 2012 Kathy Speirs has focused on developing and producing high quality fiction for theatrical, online platforms and terrestrial broadcast. Feature Films produced include multi-award winning coming of age Scottish road-trip Moon Dogs, Brexit thriller Concrete Plans, and for TV, co-creator of scripted comedy Hogmanay special First Footing and sketch show special for BBC Scotland Pity Party. Small slate in development (2023) including co-producing script adaptation of award-winning graphic novel The Gigantic Beard that was Evil feature animation with Snafu Films written by Gideon Defoe selected for ACE animation special 2023.
Laura McBride
Compact Pictures is John McKay’s start-up production company, based in Glasgow, Scotland and designed to bring his extensive production experience across tv and film, and his developed network of talent relationships to bear on big, new, and innovative projects, trading internationally and in co-production — working now with BAFTA-nominated Lothian Films’ Laura McBride. Compact is currently in post-production with Aylin Tezel’s romantic drama Falling Into Place, co-produced with Silver Bear -winning Weydemann Bros of Berlin. Compact has developed a diverse slate of screen drama, including The Pharmacist, adaptation of Rachelle Atalla’s Sunday Times Paperback of the Week which is a slow burning speculative thriller set in the near future within a bunker after a catastrophic nuclear event, 9 Deaths, David Harrower’s follow-up to Una, a contemporary gang saga about two warring crime families; The Empty Space Inside My Heart, James Mavor’s slow-burning drama, which has attached BAFTA-winner Tim Courtney to direct; and Love Song to Lavender Menace, James Ley’s sparkling adaptation of his award-winning play about the founding of Edinburgh’s first ever gay bookshop in 1981.
Margarita Veberaite
Margarita Veberaite started her career in the screen industries in 2009 in Lithuania, working on various TV Drama Series productions. In 2016, Margarita co-founded Shakehaus — a media production company based in Scotland that develops and produces Film and TV projects. Shakehaus works with new and emerging talent with a strong focus on genre projects that tackle contemporary and pressing themes. Her latest co-production was a Comedy Special for BBC Scotland. In 2021 Margarita has been part of the first edition of the Series’ Women programme run by Erich Pommer Institut as well as part of the MidPoint Institute Series Launch development programme.
Michele D’Acosta
Diversity empowerment group, The TV Collective, recognised Michele D’Acosta as one of the 60 most influential People of Colour in British Television. Michele is best known as producer of the award-winning documentary Biggie & Tupac, which has been acknowledged as one of the 50 most important documentary films of the past 25 years. She was co-executive producer of the music documentary No Distance Left to Run, which was nominated for Best Long Form Music Video for the 53rd Grammy Awards. She has worked on staff as a producer at HBO, BBC, and Channel 4 (UK). Michele studied Russian, German, and International Relations at the University of West London. She did her postgraduate work at UCLA, in the screenwriting program.
Nadira Murray
Nadira Murray is Founder of Sylph Productions and BIFA Winning Breakthrough Producer 2022, a participant of Rotterdam Producer’s Lab, and trained at Media Business School, Spain, funded by Creative Europe. The debut feature she produced, co-financed by Screen Scotland, Winners, won the BIFA Raindance Discovery Award, the Audience Award at the EIFF 2022, Best UK Feature (Raindance), as well as being the UK Entry for Best International Feature to the Oscars. After graduating Media Business School 2014 she did a paid internship in PeaPie Films, before founding her own company in Scotland. Sylph Productions focuses on original ideas, aimed at theatrical distribution. Sylph works on scripted and unscripted stories to promote new talent across UK, and to highlight ethnically diverse voices, in order to tie cultures together through artistic expression. Nadira produced a short for HULU/Disney broadcast in their ‘Halloween Bites’ series, and other shorts travelled across BAFTA & OSCAR qualifying film festivals. Her experience includes working in Iran, India, Azerbaijan, Kazakstan and US. Currently, Sylph is developing slate of projects with the aim of connecting east and west through audiovisual experiences, as well as focusing on the theatrical release of Winners in UK and Irish cinemas by Modern Films.
Thembisa Cochrane
Thembisa Cochrane is the co-founder of Caspian Films, a PACT Future30 company which produced The Colour Room, directed by Claire McCarthy, starring Phoebe Dynevor, Matthew Goode and released theatrically in the UK by Sky Cinema. Other films include US Among the Stones and My Driver & I, the debut feature from Ahd Kamel which is currently in production and received support from the UK Global Screen Fund. Previously, Thembisa worked with international production company Spier Films as producer on The Harvesters and held executive roles on films including Young Ones starring Nicholas Hoult, Elle Fanning and Kodi Smit-McPhee; The Salvation, starring Mads Mikkelsen and Eva Green; and Of Good Report, winner of 7 South African Film & TV Awards.
Wendy Griffin
Wendy Griffin has worked for many years as Line Producer on film and TV, including Red Road, Limbo and Run. Recently, Wendy worked as co-producer on She Will and The Origin and is presently working on a film in Mumbai entitled Sister Midnight. Wendy also produced the low budget feature Phea, music doc features Big Gold Dream and Teenage Superstars and the hybrid theatre/film piece The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (writer/ director Hope Dickson Leach) which is in final post. Wendy’s company, Selkie Productions, has several projects in development.