Genre Feature Lab
New Writing North and Film4 announce the three Northern screenwriters selected to take part in Genre Feature Lab.
Genre Feature Lab is a film development programme for writers from the North of England, including a two-day residential lab. Writers are matched with a regional producer and benefit from ongoing development with an experienced script editor to help take their early-stage idea for a feature film into a compelling treatment and deck ready to present and pitch to Film4.
The lab kicked off in September with a weekend of development led by experienced creative producers Ivana Mackinnon and Emily Leo from Wild Swim Films. Wild Swim Fims was founded in 2019, and has produced four films, including the award-winning How To Have Sex, which premiered at Cannes in 2023. Prior to Wild Swim, Ivana produced Michael Pearce’s Beast, which won the BAFTA for Best Debut Film 2019, and Emily is the BAFTA-winning producer behind 2015’s Farsi-language Sundance hit Under the Shadow. The programme will not only focus on the craft of screenwriting, but push writers to take creative risks ensuring their ideas reach full potential.
Funded by North of Tyne Combined Authority, now administered by North East Combined Authority.
Jackie Okwera and Shudder Films
Writer Jackie Okwera was paired with Shudder Films to develop her original feature film THE LOST, a supernatural drama that follows a 16-year-old Ugandan girl who is transported into a New York dreamscape to find her missing mother.
Jackie has worked in writers’ rooms for Disney+, HBO Max, Netflix, Apple TV+, Sky, and Channel 4. She previously wrote an episode and was a supervising producer for the DC Comics reboot of Constantine with Bad Robot for HBO Max. Jackie also wrote an episode of the latest series of The Mallorca Files for Amazon Prime and was a core writer on ITV’s Emmerdale for several years. Jackie was named one of Edinburgh TV festival’s ‘Ones to Watch’ in 2021.
Shudder Films has produced three feature films, GOD’S OWN COUNTRY, which won prizes in 2017 at Sundance, Berlin, Edinburgh, Galway, 4 BIFAs, including Best Film, and a BAFTA nomination for Outstanding British Film, and AWAIT FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS, which was critics pick in the New York Times and sold to Netflix. Their latest film, KNEECAP features two-time Oscar nominee Michael Fassbender. It premiered at Sundance 2024.
Bethan Moore and Eight Zero Three Media/Candle and Bell
Writer Bethan Moore was paired with Eight Zero Three Media and Candle and Bell to develop SCRUM. SCRUM is an action film following a women’s Rugby Sevens team on Tour in Costa Brava as they hunt down a gang that has kidnapped one of their own.
Bethan Moore’s script KEEPERS was developed in association with Carnival Films and was written with mentorship from Alice Lowe. Following this experience, Bethan applied to the National Film and Television School where she graduated in 2023, winning the NFTS Popcorn Prize for her black comedy crime script THE WIDOW MAKING SYNDICATE. Whilst at film school she developed two features, two pilots and two short films which are currently on the festival circuit.
Andy Malone is a producer based in Newcastle upon Tyne with 15 years of experience in the TV industry. His career started out in lifestyle and entertainment before he travelled the world producing adventure series for Discovery and the BBC. More recently Andy has partnered with Candle & Bell to develop scripted content and films that champion emerging talent outside of London. Candle & Bell was formed in 2013 and has grown into an award winning production company, based in Newcastle and Gateshead.
Emilie Robson and Vita Nova Films
Writer Emilie Robson has been paired with Vita Nova Films to develop YOU CAN LEAVE WHENEVER YOU WANT, a satirical psychological horror following a group of friends who attend a wellness spa in Mexico that slowly descends into chaos.
Emilie is a North East based screenwriter who began her career after participating in 4Screenwriting’s 2021 course. She has worked with Home Team Content, DNA Films, Bonafide, Firebird, Kudos, New Pictures and Witchery Pictures. Emilie currently has a book adaptation in development with the BBC and Heyday TV and has recently commenced a North East set project with Range Media UK and a new pilot with New Pictures.
Steve Bowden has over thirty years of experience producing feature films, short films, and cross-platform. His projects have been successfully delivered to exhibitors, distributors, broadcasters, and screen agencies, including the BBC, ITV, Channel Four, SKY, Amazon, Screen Yorkshire, Northern Film & Media, and the UK Film Council. His recent feature film THE CARER, starring Brian Cox, achieved significant acclaim, winning the Audience Award at both the Palm Springs International Film Festival 2016 and the 70th Edinburgh International Film Festival.
‘I’m elated to have been selected for the Film 4 genre lab. This is not only an incredible opportunity to develop my craft in the feature space, alongside esteemed industry pros but also to forge networks with other creatives in the North of England’ – Emilie Robson
‘The Genre Feature Lab represents a powerful opportunity to discover and support new talent in genre filmmaking. We’re excited to help shape the next generation of distinctive storytellers from the North and in doing so, continue to build meaningful relationships with Film4 & New Writing North’ – Dermot Dempsey, Shudder Films
About the producers
Ivana MacKinnon
Ivana’s new company Wild Swim Films, a collaboration with Emily Leo, was founded in 2019, and has produced four films. Nocebo, a contemporary thriller directed by Lorcan Finnegan and starring Eva Green, was released in theatres internationally in 2023. Tuesday, a mother-daughter fairytale starring Julia Louis Dreyfus and Arinze Kene, will be released internationally in summer 2024. Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex premiered at Cannes 2023, winning the prize of Un Certain Regard; it was released internationally in late 2023. Bring Them Down, an Irish revenge thriller starring Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott, will premiere in 2024.
Prior to Wild Swim, Ivana produced Michael Peace’s Beast, which won the BAFTA for Best Debut Film 2019, was nominated for the BAFTA for Best British Film, and received 11 BIFA nominations. Beast was released internationally in 2018, after premiering at Toronto in the acclaimed Platform strand.
In 2013 Ivana Exec Produced War Book, a Jack Thorne-penned and Tom Harper helmed political thriller starring Sophie Okenedo and Antony Sher, having worked with both writer and director previously on their debut The Scouting Book For Boys.
Ivana was Head of Creative Affairs for Cloud Eight Pictures and Celador Films from 2002-2012, working across films as diverse as Slumdog Millionaire and The Descent.
Emily Leo
Emily Leo is a BAFTA and BIFA-winning producer with a track record for discovering new voices and taking risks on distinctive material. Starting Wigwam Films in 2012, Emily sought out and backed the emerging voices on which the company was built. Babak Anvari’s debut feature Under the Shadow, produced by Emily, won a BAFTA for Best Debut, won prizes at festivals around the world, and was the UK’s submission to the Oscars as a Foreign Language film. Her commission of an idea from emerging theatre writers Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Vicky Jones resulted in the TV Series Run, which Emily Exec Produced for HBO and One, and which will air in 2020. While at Wigwam Emily also produced An Evening With Beverley Luff Lin, which premiered at Sundance 2018, and Netflix’s first UK Original, iBoy. In 2015 she was a Screen International Future Leader.
In 2018 Emily and Ivana McKinnon combined development slates to form WILD SWIM FILMS. The company aims to tell creatively ambitious stories that seek truth through fable and genre. The company has recently produced Tuesday, directed by Daina O Pusic and starring Julia Louise Dreyfus, and Nocebo, directed by Lorcan Finnegan and starring Eva Green and Mark Strong. Molly Manning Walker’s debut film How to Have Sex, premiered in and won Un Certain Regard in Cannes 2023, and Christopher Andrews’ debut Bring Them Down is in post-production. Upcoming projects include Cavendish, a female driven chase movie set in the witch hunting forests of 17th century England, and teen comedy Sumo.
