Best Startup
At Best Startup UK we track over 130,000 UK startups and over 500,000 people who hold key positions in these companies. We use this directory of startups to highlight top employees, founders and board members we think deserve more appreciation than they are currently getting.
This list showcases the top United Kingdom based CEO’ operating in the Film space. If you think a CEO’ is missing from this list, feel free to contact our editor on editor@beststartup.co.uk.
The individuals on this list have been included because of exceptional performance in one of the following categories:
- Innovation – Operating as a key part in an extremely innovative business or startup.
- Growth – Operating as a key figure in the growth and upscale of a market leading business or startup.
- Management – Showing exceptional management skills.
- Societal impact – Putting their business on the map for their positive societal or environmental impact.
Our Data – We source our data from OSINT (open source intelligence) and public directories such as Companies House UK, Crunchbase, SemRush and many more. The data from these sources should be treated with a degree of caution and verified yourself.
Efe Cakarel
Founder & CEO of MUBI
Efe Cakarel is a Turkish entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of MUBI, an online film service. Previously, Cakarel worked with Goldman Sachs in London and New York, where he worked on IPOs, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity investments. Cakarel obtained his bachelor of science in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT in 1998, and his MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2005. Cakarel was a contributor to The Huffington Post. He also has two patents involving the monetization of web applications.
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About MUBI: MUBI is a global streaming service, production company and film distributor.
Stephen Lane
Founder & CEO of Prop Store
The founder of The Prop Store of London, Stephen became interested in movie memorabilia while his previous sign-making company was working as a contractor on the sets of Eyes Wide Shut. Stephen began networking with Industry technicians and found his first few treasures, which led him to pursue Prop Store as a full time business. At that time, no one in the UK was selling this type of memorabilia as a full-time operation. Stephen has been a steady pioneer in the industry, constantly developing and evolving the business and constantly trying fresh initiatives. He has located some of the most significant caches of film memorabilia of the past decade and both his personal and company collections reflect this- they are amongst the finest in the world.
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About Prop Store: Prop Store, one of the worlds leading vendors of original movie props and costumes.
Catherine Cahn
CEO of Twig World
Catherine studied law at the University of California, Berkeley. Starting her career at Latham and Watkins in San Francisco, she then moved to London where she worked first as a finance lawyer, then as an investment banker, before entering the media industry as Head of Business Affairs at Cinnamon Entertainment. Working initially as Head of Operations at Twig Education, Catherine has played an integral part in the company’s development, utilising her experience as a television producer, lawyer and investment banker to lead the Twig team.
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About Twig Education, Twig World: Twig World is award-winning tools and educational resources for the classroom.
Jake Cossington
Founder & CEO of Terrabyte Studios Limited
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About Terrabyte Studios Limited: Terrabyte Studios Limited is a Media Company powering online services.
Nic Hatch
Co-Founder & CEO of NCam
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About NCam: Ncam develops augmented reality technology for the entertainment industries.
Nicholas Minter-Green
CEO & Founder of Parable Works
An expert in content creation, public relations and integrated marketing, Nicholas was president of Economist Films, steering the team responsible for creating content that reflected the newspaper’s heritage as a world leader in reporting, analysis and investigation. Before that he was managing director at TVC group, building the agency into a leading brand content-communications business and top-10 UK PR agency.
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About Parable Works: A Virtual Reality and Television Studio & Agency.
Tim Jarvis
Co-Founder & CEO of Fabrik
Tim Jarvis is an award-winning creative director and co-founder of Fabrik and Frēsh. As CEO of Fabrik Tim supports and champions creativity; helping creatives find a voice and audience for their talents regardless of their background, geography or experience. He designs products and brands, engineers desirability and builds communities.
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About Fabrik, Fresh Future: Fabrik is the fastest way on earth for creatives and small studios to build a beautiful, powerful portfolio website.
Will Cohen
CEO & Executive Producer of Milk VFX
Will is one of the five founding owners of Milk, an independent Academy Award-winning visual effects company with studios in London and Cardiff, Will is Milk’s CEO and Executive Producer. In just four years Milk has created a range of innovative and complex sequences for high end TV and feature films, winning an Oscar for Alex Garland’s feature Ex-Machina, an Emmy Award for Hartswood/BBC’s Sherlock (2016) and three consecutive BAFTA Television Craft Awards for their work on the BBC’s Doctor Who (2014 and 2015) and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2016).
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About Milk VFX: We create innovative and complex sequences for high-end television and feature films.
Robin Shenfield
CEO of The Mill
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About The Mill: Their passion is for great ideas, beautifully executed, that engage audiences irrespective of platform, device or venue.
Caroline Pires
Founder and CEO of Nerdeo
Caroline Pires has worked in the visual effects industry for seven years as both an artist and supervisor. After her studies at Escape Studios, she went on to work on major blockbuster titles and eventually became part of an Oscar-winning visual effects team for Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo 3D”. She has become a master of VFX for TV and advertising, having worked with Framestore, Saddington Baynes, Mainframe, Vine FX, Pixomondo, Nvizible and Cinesite to name just a few of the facilities listed on her CV. Now the founder of her own business Nerdeo, Caroline has applied her wealth of experience to create an online collaboration platform for professionals within the independent film, TV and gaming industries.
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About Nerdeo: An online platform for professionals within the independent film, TV, commercial and Gaming industry.
Stuart Logan
Founder & CEO of Twine
As the Big Boss, Stuart spends his days in a large leather armchair, staring out over the Manchester skyline while smoking a cigar and plotting world domination. (He doesn’t really). Originally from Salisbury, he studied computer science at Manchester University but was always keen to break into the exciting world of start-ups, and was involved in a number of ventures before finalising his plans for Clowdy. When not wearing his chief executive hat (metaphorically speaking) he enjoys harbouring unrealistic expectations for Manchester United’s future success and live music.
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About Twine: Twine connects companies to diverse creative and digital freelancers
Marc Allenby
CEO of Trafalgar Releasing
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About Picturehouse Cinemas, Trafalgar Releasing: Trafalgar Releasing is the UK-based global leader in event cinema distribution.
Adrian Bull
CEO of Cinelab London
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About Cinelab London: Cinelab London is a full-service film processing lab that offers services film deliverables, digitization and restoration services.
Sam Hartnell
CEO / Founder of Xzero Entertainment
Sam Hartnell – YouTube Network Entrepreneur, Founder of Xzero Entertainment Xzero Entertainment Network (XEN) is a media & technology company that brings together content owners, network operators and advertisers to create economically sustainable online and mobile video business models. XEN specializes in the aggregation, optimization, protection and monetization of video content. We create compelling distribution opportunities for its content partners and income generation opportunities for its network and advertising partners.
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About Xzero Entertainment, YouTube: DigiYouTube MCN Network – Business Development & Music Distribution
Kate McLaughlin
Founder & CEO of We Got POP
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About We Got POP: The platform for all people on production in film, TV and commercials.
Erica Melargo
Founder, CEO of Britalians TV
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About Britalians TV: Entertainment TV Channel and Production Company
Marco Biagioli
Founder and CEO of Britalians TV
Founder of Joboundu.
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About Britalians TV: Entertainment TV Channel and Production Company
Marco Biagioli
Founder and CEO of Britalians TV
Founder of Joboundu.
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About Britalians TV: Entertainment TV Channel and Production Company
Philip Large
CEO of The Mandy Network
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About The Mandy Network: The Mandy Network is a developer of a networking platform designed to help artists to find work.
Derek Morgan
CEO & Cofounder of MovieGlu
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About MovieGlu: MovieGlu provides TV Guide style listings for Movie Theater showtimes
