BFI NETWORK South East
Producers Programme 2021

Helen Simmons

Helen is a BIFA longlisted producer and writer who was named a Screen International Star of Tomorrow in 2018. She began her career running the student film festival Watersprite, before making short films with directors such as Kate Herron and Chloe Wicks. Her work has screened at festivals across the world including Rhode Island, Flickerfest and LOCO. Her first feature as a producer, CHUBBY FUNNY, starring Augustus Prew, Asim Chaudhry and Alice Lowe, was released in 2017 and was nominated for a BIFA and the LOCO Discovery Award. Her second feature, SAY YOUR PRAYERS, starring Derek Jacobi and Anna Maxwell Martin, was released in 2020 in the UK, USA and internationally, after being selected for Great 8 in Cannes. As a writer, her debut short F*CK, starring Emmy nominated Brett Goldstein, was selected for both Short of the Week and Vimeo Staff Picks, and has had over 100k views online. She was selected as one of the iFeatures writers 19/20 and gained a place on the prestigious 4Screenwriting’s 2021 mentoring scheme. She recently wrote on the Audible original drama, Dark Harbour, and is currently co-writing a romantic comedy TV series for Kinetic Content in the US. She has multiple TV projects in development with British production companies, and has features in development with Ardimages and Workshop Pictures.

Helen is Co-Managing Director of Erebus Pictures, the production company she runs with Stephanie Aspin and which received a BFI Vision Award. The company recently shot their first feature film – KLOKKENLUIDER – starring Tom Burke, Jenna Coleman and Amit Shah, and Executive Produced by Ben Wheatley, which is being sold internationally by MarVista Entertainment and Endeavour Content. Erebus has film and TV projects in development with an array of exciting talent including Luna Carmoon, Josh O’Connor, Tom Wentworth, Marissa Ogbeide, Anoushka Warden, Julia Jackman and Eve Hedderwick Turner. Projects are being developed alongside partners including Film4, BBC Film, the BFI, HatTrick Mercurio, Company Pictures, Endor Productions, True Vision, Rook Films and TeleFilm Canada. Helen is one of the British Screen Forum’s Future Leaders and spearheaded the recent Producers Roundtable initiative alongside Loran Dunn and Sophie Reynolds.

Sophie Reynolds

In 2016 Sophie established SONA films, which aims to produce British films and TV that intelligently entertain. SONA films has developed a track record of producing films that have gone on to be Vimeo Staff Picks, BAFTA longlisted and win awards (most recently ‘VERT’ SXSW 2020).  SONA Films development slate includes an Anne Fine book adaptation and various projects in development with the BFI and BBC Films.

Sophie co-founded the UK Producer’s Roundtable (along with Helen Simmons and Loran Dunn) to campaign for access into the film industry and is one of the British Screen Forum’s ‘future leaders’.  In 2020, she was one of 12 producers selected to take part in the BFI’s inaugural Insight Producer programme. She has just finished producing the second series of ‘State of The Union’ for See Saw, directed by Stephen Frears and written by Nick Hornby.

Loran Dunn

Loran Dunn is a Screen Daily Star of Tomorrow, BFI Vision Award winning and BIFA Long-listed Breakthrough Film Producer.

She runs Manchester based Delaval Film listed as one of the Top 50 Most Creative Companies in England. Delaval’s work is recognised for being risk taking, authored and diverse. Producing live action, stop-motion animation, and documentary work for cinema and television with funding/broadcast partners including BBC, Film4, BFI, and Sky.

Loran’s short films have played internationally recognised festivals including Sundance, London Film Festival and Palm Springs, and in 2019 her first feature A Deal With The Universe was released in UK cinemas to critical acclaim. In 2020 Loran was selected for the Cannes Producers Network, and served on the BAFTA Outstanding British Debut jury.

Loran is also a Senior Lecturer in Filmmaking at The Manchester School of Art, and a Development Mentor for BBC New Creatives. She was the Executive Producer for British Council and BFI’s initiative More Films For Freedom 2019, and Development Mentor at Channel 4’s Random Acts North 2016-2018. She was also the Producer for ShortFLIX – Sky Arts, National Youth Theatre and Creative England’s new talent scheme, and is the Co-Founder of the UK Producers Roundtable.