70TH BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL INDUSTRY FORUM SPOTLIGHTS UK

The BFI announces today that two of the UK’s most successful producers Pippa Harris (The Beatles, Hamnet, 1917) and James Wilson (The Zone of Interest, The Voice of Hind Rajab, Under the Skin) will have individual Spotlight Conversations at the 70th BFI London Film Festival’s Industry Forum to discuss their careers, current projects and navigating the international film and TV market in a rapidly changing landscape.  

The LFF’s Industry Forum welcomes industry delegates from all over the world for a programme of thought-provoking conversations with some of the most exciting practitioners working in the screen industries and networking events with professionals from all over the world. Industry accreditation is now open and accessed HERE. The scheduling of the Spotlight Conversations, together with the full LFF Industry Forum programme will be announced mid- September. 

Pippa Harris, co-founder of Neal Street Productions 
As one of the most acclaimed and dynamic producers working in film and television today, Pippa’s work has had a huge impact with audiences all over the world. Pippa will join us for a deep dive into her pioneering work, including the hugely ambitious and much-anticipated quartet The Beatles films, directed by Sam Mendes – also her Neal Street co-founder, and currently in production. Pippa will discuss the challenges of development and production and her relationship with filmmakers and talent across her career. Pippa’s credits include Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA winning films Hamnet and 1917, Oscar and BAFTA nominated Revolutionary Road, Jarhead and The Magic Faraway Tree and some of our best loved TV productions including Call the Midwife, Penny Dreadful, Britannia, The Hollow Crown and Stuart, A Life Backwards.  

James Wilson, film producer
James Wilson, one of the UK’s most exciting independent film producers, will draw on his 30+ years in the business, to discuss his incredible career and bold creative collaborations. James has worked with visionary independent filmmakers to great creative and commercial success on films that include the Oscar and BAFTA winning The Zone of Interest and Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer), You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay), The Voice of Hind Rajab (Kaouther Ben Hania), Hamlet (Aneil Karia), 20,000 Days on Earth (Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard) and The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology (Sophie Fiennes). This conversation will guide us through James’ key career moments, from his years at Fox Searchlight Pictures and Film4, where he was the production executive on, among others, Sexy Beast and Dancer in the Dark, through to the creation of his own company JW Films in the 2000s.   

Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director, said: 
“This year our industry programme puts a spotlight on Producers and the vital role they play in shepherding artistic visions from their earliest stages through to the screen. I'm delighted that industry colleagues will have the opportunity to hear from Pippa Harris and James Wilson - two esteemed Producers whose unique creative careers have given us some of the most memorable and critically acclaimed films of recent years.” 

Attendance of international industry professional delegates to the LFF has doubled over the last five years, and this year it once again welcomes world-leading figures to share their experience and knowledge. In addition to the Spotlight conversations, expect a programme of in-person panel discussions and targeted networking events for industry delegates, creating valuable opportunities for creatives and industry professionals to meet and make new connections with UK and international colleagues seeking potential creative and business collaboration.   Industry delegates also get access to the LFF’s Press & Industry screening programme which will start in September. 

Industry accreditation is open here to UK and international filmmakers and individuals working in a professional capacity in film and/or wider screen sectors. 

Pippa Harris biography
Pippa Harris is an Oscar-nominated, BAFTA-winning film and television producer and co-founder of Neal Street Productions. Her film and television credits include Jarhead,  Revolutionary Road, 1917, Call the Midwife, Penny Dreadful, and The Hollow Crown.  

Most recently, she produced the UK box office hits The Magic Faraway Tree and the multi-award winning Hamnet. She is currently producing four movies about The Beatles directed by Sam Mendes as well as the Call the Midwife prequel Sisters in Arms.  

Formerly Chair of BAFTA, she now serves as their VP for Television. Pippa is also Chair of the arts charity Charleston and a Trustee of The Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales. She was made a Dame in 2015. 

James Wilson biography
James most recently produced Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, which was Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated for Best International Film, and won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at the 2025 Venice Film Festival. 

Previously, he produced Jonathan Glazer’s Best International Film Oscar-winning The Zone of Interest, for which he was a Best Picture nominee, and won two BAFTAs for Best Film Not in the English Language and Outstanding British Film. The film won the Grand Prix at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. He also produced Glazer's BAFTA-nominated Under the Skin, which world premiered at the 2013 Venice Film Festival. 

He produced Aneil Karia and Riz Ahmed’s Hamlet; Lynne Ramsay’s BAFTA-nominated You Were Never Really Here, which premiered at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, winning Best Actor for Joaquin Phoenix; Trey Shults’ Waves; Sophie Fiennes’ The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology with Slavoj Žižek; Andrew Dominik’s One More Time with Feeling, which was Grammy nomination for Best Music Film; Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s 20,000 Days on Earth; Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block, and James Marsh’s The King.  He executive produced Savanah Leaf’s Earth Mama, which won the BAFTA for Outstanding British Debut; Sophie Fiennes’ Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami; Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead; and Jonathan Glazer’s 2019 short film The Fall. 

Prior to producing he was a production executive at Fox Searchlight Pictures, and then FilmFour, working on a range of films including Sexy Beast, Dancer in the Dark, and The Filth and the Fury.