BFI supports 6 UK Black and Global Majority producers to attend TIFF: The Market as part of programme of activity during the festival

The BFI is supporting six entrepreneurial UK Black and Global Majority producers to attend TIFF: The Market, the inaugural market at the Toronto International Film Festival. Farah Abushwesha, Yemi Adegbulu, Jumafor Ajogwu, Emma Grazette, Nadine Marsh-Edwards and Chi Thai, who each have at least one UK/Canadian feature film project in active development, will be attending The Market to develop their international networks, and to establish and grow collaborations which will push their co-productions forward. 

Following an open application process, the six producers have been selected to attend TIFF: The Market, supported by the BFI National Lottery International Connections Fund. This is the first time TIFF has hosted a formal market representing a new expansion of one of the world’s largest public film festivals and will see global film professionals come together to raise finance as well as buy and sell projects.  

Canadian partners Ontario Creates will present a bespoke Ontario-UK day of activity for the delegation and a larger pool of UK and Canadian producers. It will include presentations on the Canadian market from various funding and industry bodies including Ontario Creates, Black Screen Office and Indigenous Screen Office, as well as presentations from the BFI’s Director of UK Global Screen Fund & International Funds, Denitsa Yordanova, on working and co-producing with the UK. It will also feature a panel on distribution in the Canadian market, a networking lunch and curated one-to-one meetings.  

The programme for the delegation has been coordinated by the BFI’s International Fund and Inclusion teams and represents a continued collaboration between the two teams that seeks to foster co-production and create a more accessible environment at international film festivals.  

“TIFF launching their inaugural Market is a very interesting moment for the international industry and I’m glad we are in a position to support the UK industry to take full advantage,” said Yordanova. “We are thrilled to support this strong and dynamic group of producers to attend and connect with the industry at the Market as well as the excellent programme developed with Ontario Creates. I’m also delighted we will have a strong UK presence within the new Market with the ScreenUK Industry stand, alongside our longstanding UK Sales Office in the Hyatt. All of which I hope leads to a range of new UK international co-productions and strong global sales for UK films.”  

Melanie Hoyes, Senior Director of Inclusion at the BFI said, “We are thrilled to be collaborating with our International Fund colleagues to offer this incredible opportunity to these six brilliant producers. TIFF is one of the most important meeting places for the global industry and the addition of The Market this year felt like a perfect time to bring a delegation that reflects the diversity of storytelling in the UK. We have created a programme that not only enables the delegation to access the multitude of creative and financial opportunities to develop their projects at TIFF, but also the spaces and connections in this global community which will help to enhance and nurture their careers.”   

The BFI Inclusion team, in partnership with Collective Moxie and Prasanna Ranganathan are also presenting a panel in The Market’s industry programme. On Sunday 13 September, The Stories We Tell: Advancing Accessibility Through Inclusive Storytelling panel at Metro Toronto Convention Centre will look as how storytelling is key to making disability inclusion a reality. Shifting away from technical standards and legal compliance, the discussion will focus on the cultural and attitudinal changes required to make accessibility real. The panel is made up of talent featured in official selection and industry experts: athlete and activist Rick Hansen, BAFTA-nominated actor Ruth Madeley, filmmaker Matthew Kowalchuk, producer and DEI consultant Prasanna Ranganathan, Founder and CEO of Collective Moxie Julie Ann Crommett, and BFI Inclusion Partners, Tahliah Simumba and Melissa Allada.  

Farah Abushwesha is a BAFTA-nominated Irish-Libyan producer, writer and founder of Rocliffe Productions, working across film and television in the UK and Ireland.

Her feature credits include Lemonade, starring Barry Keoghan; the award-winning documentary Testimony; the Netflix Original Irreplaceable You; and the science-fiction feature Woken. Her television credits include Stags for Paramount+, No Return for ITV, Christopher Hampton’s The Singapore Grip, and Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders.

Farah is the founder of the BAFTA Rocliffe New Writing Competition, which champions emerging screenwriting talent and connects writers with leading figures from across the film and television industries. She is a former recipient of the BFI Vision Award and an American Academy Gold Fellowship finalist.

Working across development, financing, production and international co-production, Farah is particularly interested in distinctive, filmmaker-led stories, ambitious genre projects and work that brings underrepresented voices and perspectives to international audiences.

Yemi is a British-Nigerian producer working across scripted features, documentaries, and shorts. She was Associate Producer on Dreamers (BBC Films/Quiddity Films) and she is currently the associate producer on the feature Everybody Wants to Fck Me* (Studiocanal/Film4/LuckyChap/Parkville Pictures). She is also producing Mother Me, a BFI NETWORK supported short film, in post-production and produced through Sleepwalker Studios, which she co-founded.

Jumafor Ajogwu is a Leeds-based producer and founder of Bold Pictures, an independent production company developing culturally specific, emotionally driven films for global audiences. With over a decade of experience across the UK and Nigeria, his credits include Lionheart, Nigeria’s first Netflix Original; The Milkmaid, Nigeria’s official Academy Awards submission; and My Father’s Shadow, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, received a Special Mention for the Caméra d’Or, won the BAFTA for Outstanding British Debut and received multiple AMVCA awards.

His debut feature under Bold Pictures, Which Way, is completed and beginning its international festival and sales journey. He is currently producing Sleepless, a UK-Nigerian supernatural thriller selected for the Screen Yorkshire’s Local Landscapes, Global Horizons programme which is supported by the BFI. Written by Olivier Award-winning playwright Bola Agbaje and directed by Sundance Special Jury Prize winner CJ “Fiery” Obasi, the project is being structured as an international co-production with confirmed partners in Nigeria, South Africa and Ireland ahead of a planned February 2027 shoot.

Through Bold Pictures, Jumafor is building a slate of elevated genre films that connect British, African and diaspora audiences through international co-production. He is attending TIFF 2026 as part of the BFI-supported UK producer delegation to advance Canadian co-production partnerships, international financing and distribution for Sleepless, while building long-term relationships across the North American film industry.

Emma Grazette is a British-Bajan producer and entrepreneur developing a slate of features and television projects with co-production partners in the UK and abroad. She is also working on several initiatives to contribute to the growth of a sustainable pan-Caribbean screen ecosystem.

Emma holds an MA in Producing from the NFTS (BAFTA supported), and a BA in English and Caribbean Literature. Her credits include Death in Paradise (BBC/Red Planet Pictures, Seasons 14 and 15), The Birthday Party (Locarno Film Festival 2025), Lead Producer on two internal productions for YouTube, and short films that have won a Student Academy Award, and Gold at Cannes Lions. She has worked across development on several BFI-backed features and shadowed development on Disney+’s A Thousand Blows. She holds Albert sustainability certification, unconscious bias training from BIFA, mental health leadership certification from 6ft from the Spotlight, and has participated in BFI and Creative England programmes focused on co-production, inclusion and business development.

Formerly co-director of Raucous Pictures, she is represented by Casarotto Ramsay, her producing practice is defined by a commitment to international co-production and to centring stories from the African diaspora, Caribbean and indigenous communities in projects that are commercially viable and emotionally resonant. Her current slate reflects that: a Jamaica period war film, in development with BBC Film — a co-production about one of history’s most significant resistance leaders; a Ghanaian set thriller; South African set adventure; and she holds an option on a novel by British writer Alex Wheatle MBE, intended as a UK-Canada co-production.

Nadine Marsh-Edwards is an Emmy-nominated, BAFTA and RTS award-winning film and television producer, and the co-founder of Greenacre Films, a dynamic, female-led independent production company.

Nadine’s recent screen credits include Riches, the acclaimed drama series (ITV/Amazon) written by Abby Ajayi, the short anthology series Unsaid Stories (ITV), as well as The Ruins of Empire and Joe All Alone (BBC).

Her feature film work spans a rich and diverse slate including: the musical Been So Long (Netflix, BFI, Film4); BAFTA-nominated Bhaji on the Beach (Film4) dir. Gurinder Chadha; Hijack Stories dir. Oliver Schmitz; and iconic films such as Isaac Julien’s Teddy Award-winning Looking for Langston and Young Soul Rebels, which won the Critics’ Week Prize at Cannes. She has also produced multiple award-winning short films across both the UK and South Africa.

Nadine also worked as the Development Executive on the BAFTA-nominated An Englishman in New York (ITV) and The Grey Man (BBC). She was also an executive producer for several years at BBC Drama Scotland, overseeing a range of major series. Previous to this role she was a founding member of Sankofa Film and Video.

Nadine is currently a board member of The Film and TV Charity and is also a recent recipient of the Women in Film and TV Contribution to the Medium Award.

Chi Thai is a two-time BIFA-nominated producer, a Screen International Screen Star of Tomorrow and Carnegie-nominated author of The Endless Sea.

She helms Last Conker, an independent film company that specialises in genre and stories that unravel from the complex web of diaspora. Her most recent feature film, Raging Grace (directed by Paris Zarcilla), premiered at SXSW in 2023, where it won the top two Grand Jury prizes: Best Film in Competition and Best Debut. The film has since been acquired for many territories, including theatrical distribution in North America and the UK.

Last Conker was awarded a BFI Vision Award (2020), a UK Global Screen Fund International Business Development award (2023) and was selected for the BBC Small Indies Fund (2023).

Her other credits include Little Miss Sumo (Netflix), Lullaby (Alter), Automat (Sky), and The Promise (BBC).

She is a leading inclusion advocate for the East and Southeast Asian community in the UK and co-authored The Exclusion Act and Disrupt the Narrative, which were published in Representology. She is also co-founder of the multi-award-winning audience-building cultural organisation, MilkTea.