FUTURE LEADERS IN DISTRIBUTION

SEPTEMBER 6 2019 - FEBRUARY 28 2020

THE FUTURE OF UK FILM DISTRIBUTION

100% RECOMMENDATION RATING FROM

THREE PREVIOUS COHORTS

FUTURE LEADERS IN DISTRIBUTION (FLD) is a leadership training programme for women, those who identify as women across the spectrum: transgender, non-cisgender and non-binary, with 7+ years of film distribution experience and who have the ambition to run / own a distribution business or operate at a higher executive level.

Founded in 2014 with the support of Creative Skillset (now ScreenSkills), FLD has supported 35 participants to date – from freelancers and business owners to Executives from Studio Canal, Disney, Twentieth century Fox, EOne, Curzon Artificial Eye, Sony, Altitude, Pathe, Universal, BFI and Warner Bros UK to name a few. Many participants have negotiated promotions and pay rises or garnered new roles and have cited the course as being a prime influence in that.

In response to the 2015 film workforce survey findings – only 20% of CEOs and directors in UK film distribution are female, compared to 47% of the workforce, we are launching our 4th round of FUTURE LEADERS IN DISTRIBUTION female leadership programme, supported by ScreenSkills using National Lottery funds awarded by the BFI as part of the Future Film Skills programme.

Leadership exists at all levels in organisations and businesses. In order to operate as effective leaders we need to feel comfortable in our own skins and to speak with confidence in our own authentic style. Leadership also involves understanding our skills and believing in our business so we can inspire and lead others. This is the only continued professional development programme designed to address the lack of women at the top of the UK distribution sector.

The course is designed to fit into a full-time work schedule and will comprise of 13 sessions across 6 months, involving workshops, group sessions, solo sessions, panels, peer networking, tailored mentoring, business coaching and a regional business trip for each individual participant.

“This course should be available to all women in the industry every year. I found it invaluable and the connections made are priceless.’’

“Life changing and helps to create awareness to strive for more equality in the film industry.’’

“A really positive environment that made learning and self-development so much easier.”

“I feel more confident on a personal and professional level. It was great and a privilege to connect and bond with like-minded women.”

“A real boost in optimism, confidence and willingness to take more risks.’’

how it works

FUTURE LEADERS IN DISTRIBUTION endeavours to arm and inspire 10-12 participants in their career goals, and entrepreneurial ambitions, in order that the next film workforce census figures, on female management in film distribution, climb beyond 30%.

COURSE LEADER

Mia Bays

Mia Bays is an Oscar-winning, twice BAFTA nominated, producer on documentary and fiction, and founder of the production company and distribution/sales strategy advisor Missing In Action Films. She has worked on over 90 features in various capacities, as a distributor, producer (on SIX SHOOTER by Martin McDonagh which won Best Live Action Short Oscar 2005, and most recent credit being LETTERS FROM BAGHDAD, voiced by Tilda Swinton, released by Verve in 2017). She has held such roles as Creative Producer on the Microwave micro-budget scheme 2007-14 (LILTING, SHIFTY, ILL MANORS, STRAWBERRY FIELDS, etc) which included strategizing the UK distribution deals and international sales plans. All films got UK distribution and international sales deals. She began her career in the film industry in distribution, in the early ’90s, working for Romaine Hart, a successful female distributor and exhibitor – and her first role model. Mia took over Birds’ Eye View in 2016, pivoting it from being a film festival about to close into a year-round positive agitator in the UK distribution and exhibition space, establishing the BFI Audience Fund backed RECLAIM THE FRAME project (a mission to bring ever-greater audiences to films by women) in 2018. The project now has networks in 10 cities, and partnerships with 11 cinemas from across the UK and collaborates with distributors such as Curzon, Vertigo, Dogwoof, 20^th Century Fox and eOne, and with cinema partners such as Picturehouse, Curzon, Home Manchester and Glasgow Film Theatre.

Mission Statement

We are thrilled and excited to build on the work to find the future leaders in UK distribution from the UK female film talent pool. We will be cutting edge with our data and best practice and we will be looking at other business sectors for inspiration and experience, which is an exciting element of this programme. It balances hard business with personal development to ultimately, we hope, address greater diversity in leadership roles.

A more balanced leadership picture in the UK distribution sector can also arguably help the sector economically. The female cinema-going audience is now in the majority in the US and UK but our film industry does not reflect this. This programme will focus on the individuals who will drive forward change so that the distribution sector is armed for the future by representing the audience more closely.

PREVIOUS COLLABORATORS

Averil Leimon

Averil Leimon is an executive coach, a leadership psychologist, an author and a media commentator. She is a founder of leadership consultancy White Water Group, and the force behind White Water Women. Through her work in big business, we will have access to female leaders from other sectors to build our work shadowing program and bespoke coaching for each participant, benefiting from her work at the cutting edge of female entrepreneur training.

Caroline Goyder

Caroline Goyder is a leading voice coach and keynote speaker. She has worked at Central School of Speech and Drama as a voice coach since 2001 and has over 15 years’ experience providing voice and gravitas training to people of all ages, including celebrities, teachers, broadcasters and the corporate sector.

John Letham

John is founder and director of Considered Thinking Ltd. He uniquely combines relevant and comprehensive experience in the screen industries, together with being a qualified executive coach, life coach and action learning facilitator. He established Considered Thinking in 2014, to focus on providing executive coaching, mentoring, facilitating, training and business process review services, primarily within the screen, creative and tech industries.

Previous Mentors 2016-2017

We were thrilled to have the support of high level industry mentors such as John Fletcher, MD at Paramount UK, Anna Higgs, Head of Ent at Facebook, Kezia Williams (eOne), Sue Bruce Smith (FilmFour), Robert Walak (Focus Features International), and Anna Godas (Dogwoof), to name but a few.

KEY PARTNERS

ScreenSkills, formerly known as Creative Skillset, is the industry-led skills body for the UK’s screen industries – animation, film, games, television including children’s TV and high-end drama, VFX and immersive technology. We work across the whole of the country to ensure that UK screen has access now, and in the future, to the skills and talent needed for continued success.

Over three years ago WME and Endeavor Content launched Empower, an internal program to support diversity and inclusion at all levels at within the company. This includes integration into the hiring and development process; mentorship program; regular events and panel discussions; and working with external educational and media partners to create employment opportunities and diversity pipelines. Since its launch we have extended Empower to 33 Endeavor offices around the world.

WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO

Negeen Yazdi and Ebony Amoroso at Endeavor Content, Barbara Broccoli and the team at Eon Productions, and Alison Thompson at Cornerstone

Current Cohort

Bianca Boey is Head of Publicity at Entertainment One UK where she has worked since April. She started her career in the film industry at freuds and has subsequently worked as a publicity consultant for Lionsgate and Twentieth Century Fox and as a Senior Publicity Manager at Warner Bros prior to joining eOne. Over the past few years she has worked on films ranging from Suicide Squad to Aquaman to Ready Player One.

Charlotte Mardon-Heath is currently a Theatrical Marketing Consultant at eOne. For five years before this as the Senior Manager, New Media, she lead the marketing strategy and team for eOne’s Film and TV slates across digital platforms. Working with global and local partners, titles included The Girl on the Train, I, Daniel Blake, Stan&Ollie, Vice and The Walking Dead. Prior to this, Charlotte worked in International Marketing at Content Media and guerrilla marketing at Revolver.

Claire Roman

Managing Legal and Business Affairs at Curzon (5 years), Claire represents its distinctively integrated business in all legal aspects around the making, distributing, licensing, broadcasting and transmitting of films. She developed this wide-ranging expertise at ContentFilm (now KewMedia), NBC, Fox Channels, MK2 and Gaumont Television. Claire is fascinated by the developments of corporate social responsibilities such as diversity and inclusion.

Delphine Lievens started her career in film as part of the FEDS trainee scheme, completing a 9-month placement at Altitude Film Distribution. Later she was Theatrical Sales Executive there for over 2 years, working on a variety of critically acclaimed films including MOONLIGHT, LADY MACBETH and THE RIDER.

Recently, she became a Box Office Analyst at Gower Street Analytics where she implements forecasting and analysis for the UK and German markets.

Nadia Lachman is currently Senior Director of Business Affairs and Legal at eOne Features, Nadia has previously worked in private practice (Wiggin and Sheridans) as well as senior in-house roles as Business Affairs Manager (BBC Films) and Head of Legal (Protagonist Pictures). Since joining the film industry in 2006 Nadia has worked on a variety of films including Philomena, Pride, Stan & Ollie, Official Secrets and Absolutely Fabulous. Nadia was chosen as one of Edinburgh Int Television Festival’s Ones to Watch in 2015.

Droo Padhiar has worked in UK film distribution for ten years across studio and world cinema titles in both Marketing and Publicity. She currently heads up marketing for leading Documentary specialist Dogwoof across production, world sales and UK distribution. She has previously held roles within Theatrical Marketing at STUDIOCANAL and Peccadillo Pictures where she worked on award-winning titles across multiple genres.

Abigail Merrick is the Technical Director at Park Circus, managing the technical servicing team in London, looking after worldwide theatrical distribution and content prep and delivery for both theatrical & Home Ent. Abigail has worked in the industry for over 13 years, and across global worldwide releases for both live & recorded events over the last 7 years and previously worked at Arts Alliance Media & Digital Pictures where she specialised in Digital Cinema distribution, looking after distributors requirements & developing key processes.

Lauren Hockings is VP of Global Creative Marketing at Studiocanal where she is responsible the origination of global creative campaign assets (trailers, artworks etc) across numerous films, notably the Paddington franchise. Prior to working at Studiocanal Lauren worked at eOne where she led the UK & EIRE marketing campaign for The BFG.

Ngozi Okali has worked in Film Distribution for over 19 years. Starting her career at WB, where she spent 11 years, first within Home Ent Operations before moving into the UK Digital Cinema manager role. From WB she spent 6 years as the UK Technical manager at Disney. Ngozi has a special interest in Access in cinemas and has worked alongside the UKCA in developing new technologies. Ngozi is currently working as a Freelancer after a one-year stint as Head of Technical for eOne.

Nicola Browning has recently joined StudioCanal as Senior Product Manager and is responsible for new release, including franchise management of Shaun the Sheep and Paddington.

Prior to this, she worked at HBO and delivered the largest Game Of Thrones release to date. Her career began in home entertainment production and moved into distribution where she had key roles at 20^th Century Fox for 9 years.

Rebecca Ashdown is Campaign Director at Together Films – a distribution, marketing and data agency. She leads on devising & delivering bespoke impact distribution campaign for social issues films. Previous titles include Unrest, The Tale & The Judge. Prior to this she worked for the BFI as Events & Production Manager, as well as in various roles with BFI London Film Festival & Toronto International Film Festival.

Violette Martin. Having started her career in Children’s TV and PR in Paris, Violette entered the wonderful world of distribution in 2008. She worked with short films before joining the sales team at BBC Worldwide and Sony Pictures Television.
Since 2017 Violette has been leading UK and international film sales for the BFI.

Sophie Wild is Senior Marketing Manager – Theatrical at Entertainment One; delivering innovative and award-winning campaigns on such films as I, Daniel Blake, Eye in the Sky and Mr Turner.

She previously worked at Warner Bros. in the European Promotions team working on branded partnerships across titles such as The Dark Knight Rises, Happy Feet and Rock of Ages and before that she worked at Lime Pictures on Lionsgate, Paramount and EFD.