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A new cohort of ambitious women founders ready to scale
We’re delighted to welcome the newest cohort of Female Founders, Creative Enterprise’s business support programme designed to help ambitious women build, scale and lead successful screen-based businesses.
Sponsored by the British Business Bank, Female Founders brings together founders from across film, television, games, immersive, createch and the wider screen sector for a programme of expert-led workshops, one-to-one coaching, mentoring and peer learning.
This year’s cohort represents an inspiring range of businesses, ideas and founders united by a shared ambition to grow sustainable companies and shape the future of the screen industries.
Over the coming months, participants will work alongside industry experts, mentors and fellow founders to strengthen their business strategy, explore funding and growth opportunities, develop their leadership skills and build lasting industry connections.
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Please join us in congratulating the 2026 Female Founders cohort:
Anastasia Marshall - Rebel Muse Studios
Rebel Muse Studios is a media company built to fuse the creative and the commercial. Its mission is to unleash inspiration, challenge old ideas and provoke new thinking, with stories told on screens and outside the box. We are working on an ambitious, debut slate of platform-agnostic stories revolving around women's autonomy and leadership. Based in Folkestone, our projects come with cross-UK talent and opportunity for global co-production partners. For a thriving entertainment ecosystem, we also provide development services and education, specialising in Brand Entertainment film and television.
Andrea Land - Anima Films
Anima works collaboratively to create compelling stories that address critical issues, amplifying voices from cultural niches and geographical peripheries. We’ve honed our narrative approach over 15 years, distilling the most powerful and persuasive story elements to engage both head and heart. It’s won us awards and above all, audiences. Our narrative approach across film, photography, copy and editorial is rooted in journalism and driven by a sense of curiosity and wonder at the world, its peoples and its ecosystems.
Anna Thomson - De Ventos Films
At De Ventos Films we create original moving-image projects that combine compelling human stories with themes of culture, history, identity and social change. Our most notable production is "Yoghurt Utopia", a Sundance-backed feature documentary that tells the story of a psychologist who created a successful yoghurt factory employing people living with severe mental health conditions. "Moment of Truth" examines how AI-generated pollution undermines our visual history and has been acquired by the Spanish streamer Caixa Forum Plus. More recently, we produced "Dear Mr Manley", a film commissioned by Ancestry, exploring family history, migration and identity through the rediscovery of a forgotten ancestor's story.
Elle Dimond - Rabble Film
Rabble is an indie video production company run by troublemakers with 30 years of combined experience in advertising. We make big shiny commercials, scrappy social content, heartfelt charity films and funny shorts. We’re in our element making good stuff.
Emma Drew - Online Media Biz
Online Media Biz is an independent creative IP and digital media company developing original brands, content and concepts for global audiences. Its established portfolio includes MyVoxSongs, a YouTube channel launched in 2009 with over half a billion views, now evolving into VoxKids® and NoniBo®. The company's creator education portfolio includes Be a YouTube Boss and The 5 Cs to Channel Success®, alongside two authored YouTube books for adult and younger audiences and online courses. Alongside these proven properties is a growing pipeline of original publishing, gaming, musical, entertainment and lifestyle IP for different audiences, with expansion potential through licensing, production, publishing, distribution and strategic partnerships.
Felicia Morizet - Blind Mice Film
Blind Mice Film was founded in 2023 to create people-led stories with purpose across campaigns, documentaries, podcasts, social content and original IP. Our motto, Your Story is Our Story, reflects our belief that the strongest work comes from genuine human connection. Today, we combine commissioned productions with original IP, extending stories beyond a single film into podcasts, YouTube, social content and communities. Our slate includes Hurt to Healing, Chalk & Cheese, an original food series, award-winning short films, a snow sports documentary and a live film exhibition. We’re also developing our first feature with Mark Rylance and launching the BMF Collective in 2027.
Gemma Brandt & Justine Allan - Bright Fox Productions Ltd
Company: Bright Fox is TV and digital production company with award-winning traditional television experience with creativity at the heart of its ambition. We make high-end, entertaining, and thought-provoking factual content, from natural history to family-friendly programming. Essentially, we have a movie-making ambition for factual documentaries and digital storytelling. Vision: to create bold, inspiring content that is purposeful, entertains, informs and transports audiences – taking them somewhere new, extraordinary or even magical. We want to champion diverse voices, create better working environments, and build a company where talent thrives, especially for other women.
Helen Tither - Films Not Words
Manchester production company Films Not Words was founded in 2023 to increase representation of women on and off screen. Their first documentary – The Corinthians: We Were The Champions – reveals the story of a rebel football team who defied The FA’s ban on women. Released in cinemas, it sparked an apology from The FA, was acquired by the BBC and is Longlisted for a Grierson Award. Nominated for a Smiley Charity Film Award for its work with Manchester Women’s Aid, the company won the Prolific North Challenger Brand Award 2026 for brands that "punch above their weight".
Jeanie Finlay & Suzanne Alizart - Glimmerama
GLIMMERAMA operates as the creative distribution arm of Finlay’s Nottingham-based production company Glimmer Films, building on two decades of experience producing internationally acclaimed documentaries and connecting with audiences in pioneering ways. The approach of making and releasing work with care - care for protagonists, care for crew, care for audiences - is Glimmer’s hallmark. GLIMMERAMA launches with the release of All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea, which follows veteran North-East fisherman Stan Rennie as he becomes an unlikely activist after poisoned crabs and lobsters devastate his community’s livelihood. The film is on general release from 23rd October, following nationwide previews.
Jennifer Matthews - Cariad Productions
Founded by Jennifer Matthews, Cariad Productions is an independent film company based in North West UK. Making commercial and global comedy and comedy horror films. Cariad is supported by the BFI, Creative UK and the British Business Bank. Films have screened at BIFA, BAFTA-qualifying festivals and BAFTA 95.Our slate includes short films, feature films and writers labs supporting female and non-binary filmmakers.
Laura Taylor-Williams - ScreenHer
ScreenHer® is an independent media company dedicated to amplifying the voices of women+ and non-binary creators and filmmakers. It has built a reputation through festival curation, event moderation and distribution work, alongside a growing Instagram channel spotlighting films by women+ talent. ScreenHer® is currently raising investment to launch a curated streaming platform, satisfying audience desire and demand for stories told on women+ creative terms, and giving rightsholders a dedicated home to reach them.
Lorna Nickson Brown & Louise Brown - Copper Thread Productions
Copper Thread Productions is based in Birmingham, co-producing multi-layered, female-focused drama for film and television audiences. Founded by mother and daughter, Louise Brown and Lorna Nickson Brown, its shorts have achieved significant festival success, winning the Grand Prize Award at the Academy Award-qualifying 41st Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival, and screening at the Academy Award-qualifying Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival. Its films have reached audiences on Apple TV, Prime Video, and ShortsTV’s 'Best of' showcase. Copper Thread champions international co-productions. Its recent project, The Net, was produced with backing from the British Council and the Film Development Council of the Philippines.
Premila Puri - Bombay Drizzle Studios
Be Kind Productions makes short films about the things that shape us — and puts them to work. Bullying. loneliness and bias. Disability. Migration and survival. Our films embrace real social issues, and they entertain too! Stories built to hold an audience, not lecture it. We're interested in what people do for each other when it costs them something — and in stories that leave you lighter than they found you, without pretending the world is easy. Our films have played at festivals across four continents and are used in UK classrooms to start conversations that last longer than the credits. We are now scaling into a studio called Bombay Drizzle Studios that places kindness at the heart of storytelling but for features, tv series and vertical dramas.
Shireenah Ingram - Red Lens
Red Lens is a creative learning development and production company that uses performance to develop people, stories and opportunities. We help actors, professionals and young people build confidence, communication and self-trust through rehearsal, storytelling and real-world creative experiences.
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More Than a Programme: Joining the Female Founders Network
While the workshops, mentoring and business support are a key part of the programme, ask previous participants what stayed with them most and many will point to the community they found along the way.
From sharing challenges and celebrating milestones to building new partnerships and lifelong professional connections, Female Founders has become a powerful network of women supporting women across the screen industries.
By joining this year's cohort, participants become part of a wider Female Founders community spanning six years of founders, mentors and industry leaders. It's a network that extends far beyond the programme itself, creating opportunities for collaboration, support and growth long into the future.
Find out more about our Female Founders Ecosystem.
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About Creative Enterprise
Creative Enterprise is a growth programme supporting ambitious entrepreneurs across the UK’s screen industries. Through training, mentoring, investment readiness support and business development opportunities, Creative Enterprise helps founders build sustainable businesses, create jobs and unlock growth across film, television, games, immersive and creative technology.
Delivered by Creative UK with support from the BFI, awarding National Lottery funding, Creative Enterprise is committed to supporting a diverse and thriving screen sector across the UK.
Find out more: https://creativeenterprise.wearecreative.uk
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