Our Early Development Fund supports writers at the very beginning of their development process, prior to completing the first draft of a script. Funding enables writers to develop an initial treatment alongside supporting materials, giving them a strong foundation to secure further development opportunities.

During the 2025 round we awarded five projects by talented writers and producers from across the North, spanning a wide range of genres, perspectives and filmmaking backgrounds. 

Each project brings a distinctive voice and bold creative vision. We can’t wait to see how their projects evolve – until then, meet the filmmakers:

Akaash Meeda is a BAFTA-award winning filmmaker for his work on short film Mobility (BBC). Having started out writing and directing his own shorts, he has gone on to direct a range of TV series from sci-fi thriller The Lazarus Project S1 (SKY/TNT), Black Ops S2 (BBC/Hulu) and BAFTA-nominated comedy G’wed (ITVX). As a writer, he has had a development deal with Big Talk Productions for a 6-part comedy series and has been adapting a returnable YA series for The Lighthouse Film and TV. He is also an alumni of the BFI NETWORK@LFF talent scheme, during which his short film THIS TIME screened at the BFI London Film Festival.

Beth is a member of BAFTA Connect and Directors UK, and an alumna of Screen Yorkshire’s FLEX programme (2021–22) and BFI Scratch Me (2020–21). In 2025, Beth ranked among the top 5% of applicants for the BBC Comedy Director’s Bursary, and her comedy script Boss was nominated for the Women x Script competition in 2024.

In 2018, she was mentored by Shane Meadows through the process of making a film a month for 12 months. Shane subsequently served as Executive Producer on her BFI-backed short film Bury the Dogs. The film was produced by Hollie Bryan (Cosmosquare Films) and co-produced by Diva Rodriguez, premiering internationally at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in 2024.

Beth is repped by Olivia Martin at United Agents and most recently, became the first alumna of the Warner Bros. x Waterloo Road Directors Programme to be commissioned to direct an episode of Waterloo Road.

Claire Tailyour is a writer/director born in Johannesburg, grown in the UK, trained in the USA. She has an MFA from USC film school in Los Angeles and BA from UCLA/Sussex. Her credits include Harlan Coben's The Woods (Netflix), The Blame (ITV), The Wives (Channel 5), Beyond Paradise, Phoenix Rise (BBC) and Get Even S2 (Netflix).  

As a writer, her debut feature script Mother Wild won BAFTA Rocliffe and PAGE awards in 2020. She is a Sundance International Scriptwriter Semi-finalist and a Semi-finalist for The Academy Awards' Nicholl Fellowship, and wrote the Harper Collins web series adaptation of The Adventures of MacKenzie Blue. 

Other directing credits include Waterloo Road, Moving On, Hollyoaks and documentaries Life, Death and Cheerleading, The Forgotten Girls of Dhaka and The Surrogates Club. Whilst starting out in LA she assisted screenwriter Mark Goffman (West Wing). Her short films have played at international festivals including Sundance, AFI, Underwire and Tribeca. 

Claire is represented by Hannah Boulton at The Agency London.

Eleanor Wight is a BAFTA-winning documentary producer and writer based in Leeds. Over the past decade, she has developed and produced premium documentaries for the BBC, Channel 4, Peacock and Sky.

A Broadcast Hot Shot and Grierson Documentary alumna, her work has taken her into some of Britain’s most hidden and complex worlds, from criminal investigations and courtrooms to cults, closed communities and families navigating life-changing events. Often working with contributors over many years, she specialises in helping people share their stories publicly for the first time.

Her credits include the BAFTA-winning Libby, Are You Home Yet? and the documentary series Cause of Death, alongside investigative current affairs films, contemporary history series and documentaries exploring some of the UK’s most high-profile stories. Across her work, she is drawn to complex, character-driven narratives and telling sensitive stories with care. Alongside her documentary work, Eleanor is a keen writer and is currently developing scripted projects drawing on a decade spent immersed in extraordinary worlds and experiences through documentary filmmaking.

Hollie’s debut feature as producer The Ceremony received a BAFTA nomination for outstanding debut and two BIFA nominations including breakthrough producer, after winning the Sean Connery prize at Edinburgh International Film Festival in 2024. Before that she was Associate Producer on Ken Loach’s The Old Oak with Rebecca O'Brien at Sixteen Films. 

Hollie founded Yorkshire based Cosmosquare Films in 2020, which prior to The Ceremony produced several independent and publicly funded shorts including the multi award-winning short documentary Hanging On and Predators which was nominated for a Critics Circle Award in 2024. She is currently part of EAVE producers network and is developing a slate of features with an international focus. 

Jackie is a screenwriter with several projects in development, including a comedy-drama for ITV and her first feature film with the BFI. Her credits include Constantine (Bad Robot/DC Comics/HBO), The Mallorca Files (Amazon Prime) and Emmerdale (ITV). She has also worked in writers’ rooms for HBO, Apple TV, Disney, Netflix and Sky.

Before moving into screenwriting, Jackie spent more than a decade in TV and film development. She began her career as a script editor in continuing drama before taking on development roles at several of the UK’s leading independent production companies.

Jackie has been a BAFTA member since 2018 and was named one of the Edinburgh TV Festival’s Ones to Watch in 2021.