Insight: Emerging Producer Programme – 2023 cohort announcement

BFI NETWORK’s Insight: Emerging Producer programme is back for a second round to provide 12 UK emerging producers with vital training and professional development support in taking serious steps towards their debut feature and growing sustainable, creative companies. Made possible through National Lottery funding, designed and delivered by Screen Yorkshire.

Over six months the selected producers will attend a hybrid programme of workshops, masterclasses and individual development covering all areas of production, such as financing, marketing, distribution and business planning. They will also have the opportunity to take part in the European Film Market in Berlin. The selected participants stood out to the panel because of their commitment to producing, with an exciting slate of long-form projects in development and scope for them to benefit from the professional development opportunity that the Insight programme presents. 

Running for the second time, alumni from the first edition of Insight have gone on to produce features and TV drama series, including Douglas Cox who produced BIFA-nominated Host, Sophie Reynolds, who produced the second series of BBC’s State of the Union, directed by Stephen Frears and written by Nick Hornby, and Barrington Robinson, who produced episodes of the BBC’s The Responder.

Here are the 12 producers from across the UK selected for this round of Insight.

Reece Cargan is an RTS award-winning producer and founder of Bombito productions, a Scottish production company. Reece has produced numerous award-winning shorts and has multiple fiction features, documentaries and TV series in development. In 2022, Reece represented Scotland at IFFR Producer’s Lab and was the only UK producer selected for EAVE 2022 Producer’s Workshop – with feature project A Good Spell. In August 2022, Reece was selected by Screen International as a Rising Star Scotland. Reece solidified his skills as a producer with regular production work across shorts, features, TV and commercials. Reece – as his slate attests – is passionate about working with and turning up the volume of the next generation of queer UK talent, with a focus on intersectional LGBTQIA+ stories and voices.

Cheri Darbon is a producer with a diverse background in commercials, television and independent film. During her career, Cheri has worked within major broadcasters as well as on more recent projects alongside the likes of Netflix, Film4 and the National Theatre. Her current project, Luna Carmoon’s debut feature Hoard, sees Cheri take on an associate producer role, with the backing of BBC Film and BFI. Her short films have screened at numerous festivals, with their success contributing to her selection for the prestigious BFI Flare x BAFTA Crew cohort (2020). That same year Cheri established June & Stella Productions, a space in which she continues to develop inspiring stories and champion emerging filmmakers focusing on internationally-appealing genre films and television.

Nan Davies is a Welsh filmmaker who has produced multiple award-winning shorts that have screened at BAFTA and Academy Award qualifying festivals around the world. She studied film production at the New York Film Academy and in 2022 attended the Edinburgh International Film Festival Talent Lab. Before moving to film she developed and produced non-scripted formats for Channel 4 and the BBC and has produced high-budget TV commercials and content for brands including the BFI, the Brit Awards and Swarovski. She’s drawn to stories that examine contemporary social themes through unique and inspiring characters and is currently developing a slate of features through her Cardiff-based company One Wave Films.

Suzy Garnett is a writer-producer based in the north of England. While studying producing at the NFTS, Suzy produced Academy Award-winning animated musical Miss Todd and BIFA winning drama Z1. She was a BFI Creative Producer in 2021 and has served as part of the BIFA selection committee since 2014. After working in scripted film and television development for eight years, Suzy founded Eighty-Eighty-Ten Productions in Cumbria, where she is developing several feature and television projects, including Bickershaw 72 with writer Jill O’Halloran. Suzy is currently shooting the BFI funded short film Kiss with director Katja Roberts and writer Katie Mulgrew, and is chair of The Roxy Collective, a community group working to protect and restore an Art Deco cinema and museum.

Danielle Goff is a BAFTA and BIFA nominated and RTS, Grierson and Annie Award winning producer. She is an alumni of the MA Producing course from National Film and Television School and a recipient of the Screenskills scholarship. Danielle is a working-class, queer woman, of British, Jamaican and Algerian heritage. Her work focuses on championing under-represented voices and filmmakers whose work centres on ethnic-minority, working-class and queer stories. Danielle produced the Unearthed Narratives short film slate with DBK Studios and Sky. She is currently Development Producer on a Sky Drama series titled Promise Land, created by Edem Wornoo, with DBK Studios. Danielle is developing a slate of feature film and television projects and is represented by Independent Talent.

Jessi Gutch is a BAFTA Elevate / BIFA nominated producer and co-director of Fig Films. The company’s slate is at the intersection of creative documentary and authentic narrative, focusing on stories with socio-political impact. Their short films have screened at many BAFTA/BIFA qualifying international festivals, having partnered with BFI, Doc Society, Arts Council, Audible and the Uncertain Kingdom. Priding herself on being a creative producer, Jessi uses her strengths as an award-winning writer-director to support talent. Living with incurable ovarian cancer, she is committed to working with disabled cast and crew, and representing mortality and illness more interestingly. She is an alumni of industry schemes including BFI NETWORK @ LFF, Edinburgh Talent Lab, Sheffield Doc/Fest: Focus Filmmaker Talent, and Film London’s PFM (New Talent).

Cat Marshall is a Sheffield-based producer working in film and high-end TV. She most recently produced the BIFA longlisted short Mars: an original idea by Yungblud, written by Chris Bush and directed by Abel Rubinstein. Previously, Cat was with the award-winning Warp Films for over nine years, working in production across their slate. She was Associate Producer on the BAFTA nominated feature film adaption of Everybody’s Talking About Jamie (2021, Amazon Studios), and also produced Liam Williams’ The Coaches for Sky Arts in 2017. Cat is currently developing her own slate of film and TV projects, including feature Ula selected for Edinburgh Talent Lab Connects 2022. Alongside producing, Cat is working with trainer Nim Ralph to create training and resources around gender identity for the screen industries.

Rami Sarras Pantoja is a London based producer. His short Lucky Break was BAFTA nominated in 2021. He has produced several critically acclaimed, ambitious short films ranging from a tap dance musical to a retro sci-fi. His shorts have screened at dozens of film festivals including Aesthetica, Encounters, Bolton, PÖFF, SSFF, Norwich and LA Shorts. Rami founded production company Rasp Films where his goal is to develop and produce a slate of stylised commercial feature films.

Shauna Shivers McAtamney is based in Northern Ireland and is a graduate of Trinity College Dublin and the NFTS. She worked at the Cinemagic Film Festival for 12 years, taking on various producing roles on numerous award-winning short and feature films, and also managed the BFI Film Academy. In 2018 she was Line Producer on the NI Screen-funded short film Troubles (Honesty Inc). In 2021 Shauna produced Just Johnny (Doyen Pictures), which was funded by NI Screen and Arts Council NI. Just Johnny premiered at the Galway Film Fleadh and has enjoyed a successful international festival run – picking up awards at Giffoni and at various festivals in the US. Shauna is currently in development, supported by NI Screen, with her first feature project The Wise Guy.

Lily Slydel has produced short films and documentaries that screened at international BAFTA and Oscar-qualifying festivals including London Film Festival, Outfest, Frameline, Rhode Island, BFI Flare and Cambridge Film Festival. Their recent projects include: BFI network-backed short The Bower by Marco Alessi, starring Sharon D Clarke and Paul Hilton, and Grierson-shortlisted doc Saintmaking for The Guardian, and they are developing a feature film with Film4. Lily works in development at Greenacre Films across an eclectic and diverse slate of HETV and feature film projects, including recent Amazon/ITVX series Riches, and previously upheld positions in development/acquisitions at financier New Sparta Films, across projects including The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Tale of Tales, and Miss You Already, and at the BFI.

Naomi Wallwork has worked in the UK and New Zealand screen industries for over 16 years in production and business affairs roles for independent producers, production companies, distributors and funding agencies. She has produced theatre, short films and feature documentary Yellow is Forbidden, which premiered at Tribeca in 2018 and was New Zealand’s foreign-language Oscar submission. Over the last five years she has built a development slate with NZ and UK writers, including short film My Eyes Are Up Here, (BFI London Film Festival, LSFF, Slamdance, Flickerfest), two feature films and three television series. Having received several rounds of development funding to date, in 2023 she is aiming to package and finance feature film Standing Up, written by NZ comedian Abby Howells.

Dominique Webb is a BAFTA Elevate creative producer working across film and television. She has produced work for Creative England, the BFI, the BBC and Arts Council England, and her multi-award-winning short films have screened at BAFTA and Oscar qualifying festivals. She was associate and executive producer on the theatrically released feature film Lapwing, distributed by Bulldog in 2021. Dominique has a diverse slate of TV and film projects, some in funded development, through her company Inceptive Films, based in the East Midlands. She has also produced music videos, TV commercials and corporate work and is an alumna of EIFF Talent Lab, Creative Enterprise’s Market Trader and Talent Lab Connects, and is a masterclass tutor for the BFI Academy.