Senior BFI team members Editor-at-Large Lizzie Francke, Head of Production Fiona Morham and Head of Editorial Natascha Wharton have announced their decision to leave the BFI Film Fund later this year.
The trio has led the BFI’s National Lottery funding for the development and production of UK films, providing guidance and support to filmmakers and their teams throughout the life journey of a film and initiatives for developing emerging filmmaking talent.
They will step down in late spring to early summer 2023. In the interim, they will continue to support their slate of projects, working with the Filmmaking Fund team as it transitions to a new structure.
Francke, Morham and Wharton put out a joint statement saying: “It has been such a huge privilege to work for the Film Fund over the years and to champion an extraordinary range of filmmakers. With the 2023-33 strategy and the Filmmaking Fund being launched this week, we feel it is a perfect time to step away to pursue our own ventures.”
Recent titles supported under their watch include Raine Allen Miller’s Rye Lane, Charlotte Wells’s BAFTA winner Aftersun; Adura Onashile’s Girl, which premiered at Sundance; Karen Palmer’s Consensus Gentium, which just won the award for Best XR at SXSW, Georgia Oakley’s Blue Jean and 2022 Cannes Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness by Ruben Ostlund.
“Natascha, Lizzie and Fiona leave a huge legacy behind them and a lasting impact on UK filmmaking that has seen them steer some of the most exciting and important work coming out of the UK independent sector,” said Ben Roberts, BFI CEO.
“They also leave us with an amazing slate of projects of which we are all incredibly proud. At this moment of change for the Filmmaking Fund, it is important to recognise the tremendous work of all three of them that we are building on. As we focused on debuts and put our values of equity, diversity and inclusion front and centre during the last strategy period they were instrumental in ensuring we supported great, important and impactful work.”
Mia Bays, Director of the BFI National Lottery Filmmaking Fund, also thanked the departing execs.
“Lizzie, Natascha and Fiona are rightly recognised as three of the most experienced professionals in the UK film industry, with a track record that speaks for itself. Myself and the rest of the team, and, most importantly the filmmakers we work with, have learnt an enormous amount from them. I think I speak for everyone in saying how much we will benefit from their wealth of experience in this handover period, and wish them well for the future.”
