Anna Hintzen joins BFI Filmmaking Fund as new senior production executive

The BFI has appointed Anna Hintzen as a new senior production executive to the BFI National Lottery Filmmaking Fund. Responsible for providing support and oversight to all aspects of production on projects awarded BFI production funding, Hintzen will work closely with Charley Fox, who has stepped up to production manager. Other team changes see Aoife Hayes and Phoebe Sutherland becoming development and production executives to reflect the expansion of their roles, and Ama Ampadu and Louise Ortega, senior production and development executives, take on responsibility for the Development fund.

Mia Bays, director of the BFI Filmmaking Fund, said: “We are delighted that Anna has joined the team; our funded productions will hugely benefit from her wealth of experience. Working across the range of titles that make up our slate, from first time filmmakers through to established teams, Anna will help ensure as much budget as possible goes on the screen while centring the three strategic principles around inclusion, sustainability and UK-wide. I’m equally delighted to confirm that three existing team members are formalising their expanded remits with new job titles and an expansion of Ama and Louise’s roles; it’s so important to recognise and support the development of talented executives. We have a strong new team in place who are committed to supporting the filmmakers we fund in multiple ways across the process.”

As senior production executive, Hintzen will work across funded projects responsible for overseeing all aspects of production support. Initially engaging with projects at application stage to advise on their viability, ensuring they are appropriately budgeted and scheduled. Working with Fox, and alongside relevant creative executives and external partners, they will support filmmaking teams both practically and creatively through pre-production, shooting and post to help them maximise budgets and use the BFI National Lottery funding responsibly.

Hintzen joins the BFI from Studiocanal’s production and development department, where she oversaw global and UK productions, such as Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black, and John Crowley’s We Live in Time, and recently developed and co-produced Wicked Little Letters, starring Olivia Colman and Jesse Buckley. Prior to Studiocanal, Anna worked as a freelancer on various feature film and television productions in Germany.

Anna Hintzen said: “I’m thrilled to be joining the BFI Filmmaking Fund and Mia’s fantastic team. I’m looking forward to supporting a wide range of productions supported by the Fund and work with a variety of exciting filmmakers. The slate is filled with fantastic projects and I couldn’t be joining at a better time. I’m especially looking forward to helping the productions accomplish their visions while pushing for even more inclusivity and diversity within the UK film industry as well as working towards more sustainable production processes.”

As development executives for the fund, Hayes and Sutherland have supported the filmmaking teams behind a number of key titles including How to Have Sex from writer/director Molly Manning Walker and Starve Acre, from writer/director Daniel Kokojatlo respectively. As well as leading on allocated projects in development, they will continue to work closely with the senior production and development executives on projects awarded production funding. Responsibilities include providing creative support to filmmakers through to production and post production. They will each also be the lead BFI executive on the majority of the high-end shorts produced through Future Takes.

Ampadu and Ortega will take over joint responsibility of the Development fund, which continues to award funding for fiction feature projects, and can support various stages of development to both emerging and established filmmakers.

Hintzen, Ampadu, Ortega and senior executive for sales and distribution Vicki Brown will report directly to BFI Filmmaking Fund director, Mia Bays. Also in the team are production inclusion manager Leon Oteng (maternity cover for Morgana Melvin); development executive Kate Maxwell, four fund coordinators James Collins, Sarah Westby and Kate Rawson and Becky Oates.