Wild Child Animation, the Scottish indie behind Sky’s The Brilliant World of Tom Gates, is among the first children’s TV producers to receive backing from the BBC’s Small Indies Fund.
The BBC has unveiled the 50 indies with turnovers of under £10m that are set to benefit from the annual £1m fund, with a selection chosen by the Children’s commissioning team for the first time.
Other indies to be mentored by the children’s team include Yorkshire stop-motion specialist Kerrupt Animation and Manchester’s youth-focused queer content producer Teen Media.
Of this year’s cohort, 38 (79%) are based outside London, up from 75% last year, while half have diverse leadership.
The list includes four Northern Irish indies, including Ronin Films; five from Wales, including Yeti Television; and five from Scotland.
Regional producers include Leeds-based factual indie Candour Productions, Manchester entertainment and fact ent indie King of Sunshine, and Brighton’s Middlechild Productions.
London companies include Romesh Ranganathan’s indie Ranga Bee and Dreaming Whilst Black producer Big Deal Films.
The 50 companies in last year’s Small Indie Fund cohort have already won 48 new commissions since they were selected, including Alleycats’ BBC2 series Clive Myrie’s Italian Roadtrip.
Meanwhile, BBC Drama has commissioned its first script commission from Brock Media, which is developing three projects from East-Asian talent.
Companies selected for the 2023 Small Indie Fund:
Northern Ireland
Big Mountain Productions
Nice One Productions Ltd.
Out of Orbit Ltd
Ronin Films
Wales
Beastly Media Ltd
Bright Branch Media Ltd
Chwarel Ltd
Kailash Films
Yeti Television
Scotland
14th Floor Productions
North Bridge Media
Restless Native Productions Ltd.
Studio Something
Wild Child Animation
English Regions
Candle & Bell – North East
MCC Media Limited – North East
Middlechild Productions – North East
Schnoobert Productions – North East
Sea & Sky Pictures – North East
Twenty Six 03 Entertainment – North East
Can Can Productions – Yorkshire
Brazen Productions Ltd – Yorkshire
Candour Productions Ltd. - Yorkshire
Kerrupt Animation – Yorkshire
Blue House Productions – North West
Buffalo Dragon Ltd – North West
Escape Films – North West
King of Sunshine – North West
Leopard Pictures – North West
Little Monk – North West
Teen Club Ltd – North West
Three Arrows Media – North West
Tiny House Productions Ltd – North West
Full Fat – West Midlands
Griffin Pictures – East Midlands
MacLarty Brown Media – East Midlands
SLNda Ltd. – East Midlands (also London based)
The Slate Works – South West
(Gold Wala – London and Bristol)
London
Big Deal Films
Bolla Media
Frolic Films
Gold Wala Ltd. (also Bristol based)
Joi Productions
Last Conker Ltd
Nuwave Pictures Ltd.
Ranga Bee Productions
Silver Salt Films
Turnover Films Ltd.
