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 Founder operating in the Film space. If you think a Founder 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.
Barry Smith
Co-Founder of Noah Media Group
Barry Smith co-founded Skyscanner in early 2002. Since then the company has grown to be the largest independent travel search company in the world, with offices in Edinburgh, Singapore, Barcelona, Beijing, Budapest and Miami. It is currently valued at over £1billion, and employs over 700 people around the globe. Barry is also an active angel investor/adviser in a number of technology companies, mentors several tech startups and is on the Board of Trustees for the Entrepreneurial Charity – NEF. Barry’s experience and involvement in the technology sector will drive Noah’s digital arm, where our team plan to experiment and innovate with all filming projects using the very latest emerging technologies – including VR, which will become an ever increasing focus for Noah Media Group.
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About Noah Media Group: Noah Media Group is a production company, specialise in Documentary, Film, TV, Promos and Digital Content.
Morgan Sowden
Co-Founder & CTO of paydesk
Currently a product-focused CTO at Lendinvest, a VC backed fin-tech disruptor in the mortgage-lending space. Formerly the CTO at the Octopus Group, where I co-founded and built octopuslabs.com, octopuschoice.com and octopuscash.com; built the Octopus digital design team from scratch, as well as their product and (distributed) engineering teams; and initiated the group transformation from waterfall to agile. I am also co-founder and CTO of paydesk.co, a B2B media platform with 6000+ journalists in 165+ countries. Prior to Paydesk, I was interim CEO and CTO of birthdayalarm.com, a very profitable online greeting card site with 55+ million active members. I’ve also been: Entrepreneur in Residence at Monkey Inferno, a San Francisco based startup accelerator; a serial entrepreneur, having co-founded (and sold) two other web businesses, including an early social network (2003); and a board member / NED. Mostly though, I am DJ and love Techno. Search for me on Mixcloud.
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About Facebook AI, paydesk: On-demand workforce platform disrupting the recruitment industry one sector at a time. Starting with media and doing it with payments
Sharon Reed
Co-Founder & Director of Framestore
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About Framestore: Framestore is a creative studio that offers production, pre-production, and post-production services for its users.
Mike McGee
Chief Creative Office, Founder, of Framestore
Framestore’s co-founder and creative director Mike McGee has directed for some of the UK’s most well-known brands, including the BBC, Next and Robinsons, who sent him up in the ‘vomit comet’ to shoot their commercial in zero gravity. His most recent directing work has been for O2 where Jonesy the cat was transported into space as part of their ongoing ‘Be More Dog’ campaign. Having worked in the industry for over 25 years, Mike is highly awarded in his field and his eye for detail is unrivalled. Mike’s skills as a live-action director are welded to an exceptional understanding of visual effects. His credits as a VFX supervisor include the BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs, feature films Nanny McPhee and Your Highness, and advertising campaigns for GE and ESPN. Mike has also given talks at various events across the world such as Ciclope and the GREAT festival of Creativity, whilst writing articles for well-known publications such as The Guardian and Marketing Magazine.
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About Framestore: Framestore is a creative studio that offers production, pre-production, and post-production services for its users.
David Sproxton
Co-Founder of Aardman Animations
David Sproxton is Co-Founder at Aardman Animations.
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About Aardman Animations: Aardman has a deserved reputation as a world leader in model animation. Peter Lord and David Sproxton began their animating partnership at
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.
Amin Hamzianpour
Co-Founder of The Qube
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About The Qube: Creatives, Music, Art, Film, Photography
Simon Windsor
Founder, Joint Managing Director of Dimension
Simon has been at the forefront of immersive technologies since 2011, launching several successful companies in AR and VR, and bringing state-of-the-art immersive production facilities to the UK. He is joint-head at immersive media company, Hammerhead, and at Dimension, a pioneering volumetric video capture studio and first Microsoft Mixed Reality Capture studio partner, focused on creating next generation virtual humans. Simon is also a director at TimeSlice Films, one of the UK’s leading multi-cam and capture solutions specialists, and prior to this he was part of the management team that launched AR technology platform, String. An award winning AR and VR producer, Simon has inspired and lead projects for companies including Disney, Nike, Sky, Audi, HSBC, Magic Leap and many more, and produced original VR titles including ABE and Syren.
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About Dimension: Revolutionary volumetric production studios for the creation of next generation digital humans, XR content and virtual production.
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.
Kevin Spacey
Founder of Trigger Street Productions
Kevin Spacey Fowler, better known as Kevin Spacey, is an American actor, film director, writer, producer, and comedian. He began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television.
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About Trigger Street Productions: Trigger Street Productions is an entertainment production company that develops and produces movies.
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.
Catherine Downes
Co-Founder of usheru
Founder at usherU
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About usheru: usheru powers direct ticketing and marketing data insights for film distributors.
Ollie Fegan
Co-Founder of usheru
Founder of usherU
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About usheru: usheru powers direct ticketing and marketing data insights for film distributors.
Maria Tanjala
Co-Founder of Big Couch
Maria is the co-founder of Big Couch, a fintech startup, energising the entertainment industry with a new financial model: Crewfunding. Since 2017, Big Couch has been developing a new product, FilmChain on the blockchain, in partnership with Imperial College London. In 2018, they have been awarded an innovation grant from Innovate UK. Maria has been a prominent figure at film industry events and festivals worldwide, including Cannes, Berlin, Glasgow etc. She produced and associate produced two feature docs and one drama.
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About Big Couch, FilmChain: Big Couch is the ‘crewfunding’ platform that empowers filmmakers, connecting them with crews that invest in projects they believe in.
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.
Andre Ferreira
Co-Founder and COO of Airstoc
Andre Ferreira is the Co-founder and COO of Airstoc.
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About Airstoc: Airstoc is the world’s first dedicated marketplace for the professional drone industry.
Dee Harvey
Founder & Director of Controvert
Over 20 years experience in interactive media production at the highest level, and a graduate of NYU.
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About Controvert: Controvert creates and develops media content using immersive technology.
Sarah Jane Thomson
Co Founder of Discover Film
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About Discover Film: A technology and entertainment platform for short movies. Films can be watched online and via mobile and Smart TV Apps.
Steve Harmston
Founder of Discover Film
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About Discover Film: A technology and entertainment platform for short movies. Films can be watched online and via mobile and Smart TV Apps.
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
Christopher O’Reilly
Co-Founder of Nexus Studios
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About Nexus Studios: Nexus Studios is an independent production company, interactive arts and animation studio.
Shamim Sarif
Co-Founder of Enlightenment Productions
British/Canadian writer and director Shamim Sarif is an equally successful novelist (the Pendleton May First Novel Award, Betty Trask Award), screenwriter, and feature film director. Shamim recently completed the film, Despite the Falling Snow, an epic story of love and betrayal in cold war Russia based on her second novel, published by Hodder Headline and St Martins Press to universal acclaim. Shamim’s first feature film ‘I Can’t Think Straight’ won 11 awards and her follow up movie ‘The World Unseen’ had its debut at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival before going on to garner 23 awards internationally, including 11 SAFTAs (South African Film Awards). Shamim’s third film, The House of Tomorrow, was shot on location in Israel and Palestine and had festival debuts in New York and Sarasota in 2012 and won its first award this year in France. An accomplished speaker, Shamim has spoken at TED events including the invitation-only TEDSalon in London, TEDxHolyLand in Jerusalem and TED India, as well as at DLD Women for the past three years. With her partner and producer on her films, Hanan Kattan, Shamim runs Enlightenment Productions, based in London and their Canadian film company, SK Enlightenment Films. Shamim is also a Founder of the Sarif-Kattan Foundation, focused on empowering and educating women and children. Shamim earned her B.A. in English from Royal Holloway at University of London and M.A. in English from Boston University.
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About EBS Digital, Enlightenment Productions: Enlightenment Productions is a multi-media entertainment company.
Nathan Harrigan
Founder of Kindrd
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About Kindrd: A discovery service powered by humans, not algorithms.
Jacob Payne
Founder of Kindrd
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About Kindrd: A discovery service powered by humans, not algorithms.
Jacob Payne
Founder of Kindrd
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About Kindrd: A discovery service powered by humans, not algorithms.
Ashley Widowson
Founder of AJ-Drone Ltd
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About AJ-Drone Ltd: AJ-Drone Ltd is a photography and videography business.
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
Jamie Gorman
Co-Founder of Xzero Entertainment
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About Xzero Entertainment: 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.
Linda Howell
Director & Co-Founder of iMetaFilm
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About iMetaFilm: iMetaFilm will create a new industry sector which will digitise the world’s film heritage.
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
Louise Hart
Founder, Principal Consultant & Marketing Communications Consultant of STEADY ON
Louise Hart is the founder and CEO of Steady On Productions, a brand strategy and management consultancy based in Hollywood which focuses on film, fashion and new digital media. Hart is fluent in Japanese and this has taken her on many adventures in television, advertising and film. She started out in London working on the team that launched the UK’s first digital TV channels, BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge. When young media maverick Stuart Murphy started developing BBC Three, he entrusted Hart with the development and production of a weekend of programming on a Japan theme, including a series exploring youth culture in Tokyo (Music, Fashion, Sex, Shopping and the Future) and an English-dub of the cult anime Lum the Invader Girl. After working on various TV productions for the BBC and RDF Media, she set up a production division at the boutique London talent agency WSK Artists, representing art directors, stylists and photographers, where she produced various ad campaigns for the Japanese market, including Tokyo Beauty Center (TBC) ads featuring David and Victoria Beckham. In 2003, Hart returned to Los Angeles (where she had spent her teenage years) and joined the team launching Blu-ray at Sony Pictures. This placed her at the center of the notorious format war and as a result she is now known in the industry for her key role in defeating the HD DVD competition. Hart conceived of the idea to set up Steady On while at Sony and in 2009 she decided to strike out on her own as a consultant currently for Sony, Target, Adidas and various independent film producers and fashion designers. Hart holds a Bachelor of Arts Honors Degree in Drama and Theatre Arts from Goldsmiths, University of London.
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About STEADY ON: Audience Building for Indie Films
Rachel Wang
Co-Founder of Chocolate Films
Rachel Wang is a Co-Founder of Chocolate Films and a creative director at 1000 Londoners. She is a Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery, UK Council Member of the Creative Industries Federation, Leadership Fellow of St. George’s House, and a Fellow of the RSA.
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About Big Smoke Fixers, Chocolate Films: Chocolate Films is a video image production company for directly commissioned content.
