BFI Group Attendance at IDFA 2024

In collaboration with the BFI International Fund, BFI Doc Society is hosting a delegation of seven UK producers working in independent feature documentary to take part in Forum activity at International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) 2024. The cohort consists of delegates who have worked on or are working towards at least one feature documentary as lead producer, and are currently working on projects with the potential for international co-production. They will attend IDFA from 16 - 20 November, and will seek to meet potential new partners and explore opportunities for collaboration, alongside gaining new insights through IDFA’s industry programme.

The producers were selected after an open call for applications. We are pleased to introduce you to them below, and you can download the full delegation brochure here.

Dee Harvey

Dee Harvey is a producer and director specialising in verbatim storytelling. Her film Heartbeat, a verbatim VR documentary about miscarriage, won the Best Narrative award at Raindance Immersive in June 2024 and will be in competition in Kaohsiung and Aesthetica Film Festivals in the coming months. In 2023 she directed Lost in the Luminous City, an augmented reality poetry reading. She's currently directing Medusa's Notebook, a Dome projection experience. Projects in development are Loss, a verbatim feature documentary about still birth, an XR jukebox, and Muintir Nah Aite, an Irish language feature film.

Emily Copley

Emily Copley works regularly as a consultant and pre-selector for festivals and funds, including Sheffield DocFest, Open City Documentary Festival, The Grierson Trust, the IDA and Doc Society. She is currently producing her first feature documentary with the director of The Hermit of Treig, Lizzie MacKenzie.

Emily is the Joint Acting Director of the Documentary Film Council (DFC), the first national, member-led organisation for the UK’s documentary film industry. Before joining the DFC, she produced the annual documentary funding awards at The Whickers, a UK-based international fund for emerging directors. Prior to that Emily was Film Release Manager at Journeyman Pictures and Production Manager at DocHouse, where she was part of the small team that opened the UK’s first documentary dedicated cinema, Bertha DocHouse.

Gannesh Rajah

Gannesh Rajah is a multiple BIFA-award-winning producer. His first feature documentary, If The Streets Were On Fire, had its world premiere at the London Film Festival, was released theatrically, acquired by BBC Storyville, and screened at the Houses of Parliament. The film was longlisted for the Outstanding Debut BAFTA and won two BIFAs - including Best Feature Documentary - with Gannesh receiving a nomination for Breakthrough Producer.

Gannesh is a Sheffield DocFest Future Producer and BFI Insight Producer alumni, part of BAFTA Connect and Film London’s Breaking the Glass Ceiling cohorts, and was named a Film London Lodestar.

Leo Nelki

Leo Nelki is a producer/director from Merseyside, UK. He makes hybrid documentaries which bring together the material and immaterial.

Leo is the producer/editor of Maisha Maene’s 2022 short film Mulika (Sundance, Locarno, Clermont-Ferrand). He is now producing Maisha's feature hybrid documentary Spaceman in Kongo (funded by Sundance Sandbox Fund, IDFA Bertha Fund, Hot Docs Blue Ice Fund, and selected for Berlinale Talents Doc Station).

Leo is directing his feature debut, a documentary titled Sunday in Japan (funded by Creative Europe and Docs Up Fund). He is also developing a slate of projects about digital democracy and imagining new institutions.

Pinky Ghundale

Pinky Ghundale has produced innovative film works with artist filmmakers and directors for cinema, museum, gallery installation, documentary, animation and broadcast. Works have screened internationally and widely at prestigious film festivals and renowned institutions. Recent works have included Grenfell by Steve McQueen, presented at The Serpentine Gallery 2023 and Transparent by Siobhan Davies, premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in 2022. Daya Films is currently producing an artist’s long format work to be exhibited at Tate Britain as well as a feature length documentary set in London, which through narrative plays with the tropes of detective fiction and investigates our perceptions of place and belonging.

Toby Cameron

Toby Cameron is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and TV producer known for his innovative storytelling and visual creativity. With a background deeply rooted in Cardiff, he has spent over a decade crafting diverse narratives that often explore themes of mental health and underrepresented communities. His work has been featured across major broadcasters such as the BBC, including the BAFTA-winning documentary Born Deaf Raised Hearing. Toby is committed to authenticity and innovation, working closely with and supporting unique voices to bring their stories to life in both intimate documentaries and feature-length films.

Yemi Adegbulu

Yemi Adegbulu is a British-Nigerian producer at Sleepwalker Studios with experience in both feature and short films. Yemi is in post-production as an associate producer on Dreamers, a Quiddity Films production. Yemi joined this film through the BBC Films Associate Producer Programme.

Yemi’s recent credits include: The Memory Boom (documentary, producer), commissioned by Phoenix Exeter, National Lottery Heritage, and the Radcliffe Trust; world premiere in competition at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival 2024. Goodbye Train (short film, producer), commissioned by the Roundhouse, Wiggin Filmmaker Award winner. The Ink Life (short documentary, director and producer), commissioned via Fresh Cuts by ITV, premiered at BAFTA, broadcast nationally.

The producers will be joined at IDFA by Luke Moody, Head of the BFI Doc Society Fund, and Sanne Jehoul, Talent Support Programme Manager. For more info or to get in touch with any of the producers, please email sanne@docsociety.org.