Best Girl Grip – Details, episodes & analysis

The final ever episode!

This week, my first ever guest, Georgia Goggin is back!

As a producer, Georgia has been collaborating with writer/director Dionne Edwards for over a decade under their banner Teng Teng Films. Georgia was nominated for the Breakthrough Producer BIFA for her work on their critically acclaimed debut PRETTY RED DRESS. Their previous film, the celebrated 2016 short WE LOVE MOSES won multiple awards, screened at festivals worldwide, has been licensed by Canal+, Netflix, HBO and is now available on Disney+.

Georgia’s writing and directing credits include BEND, which was backed by BBC Drama and comes to Short of the Week in December 2023, and SORRY FI DISTURB YUH (written by Russeni Fisher) which was nominated for the Outspoken Prize for Poetry in Film. Georgia has a feature in development with The Electric Shadow Company and a TV series with The Development Partnership.

Georgia is an alum of Sundance, EIFF and Rotterdam talent development programmes. She is also Development Executive at The Uncertain Kingdom.

We talk about becoming a writer and director in her own right and a whole host of reflections on making a film during a pandemic, making a creative career and well, making a life…

Plus! Georgia asks me some questions about how the podcast got started, how it’s evolved and what it’s taught me…

SHOW NOTES

• Find out where you can watch PRETTY RED DRESS
• Apply for The Uncertain Kingdom's Short Film Production Fund
• Listen to our first conversation!

This is week my guest is Desiree Akhavan! 

Desiree’s first feature film was 2014’s APPROPRIATE BEHAVIOUR, in which she also starred. It came off the back of a web series she made in 2010 called The Slope, with fellow NYU postgrad film student Ingrid Jungermann.

After Appropriate Behaviour, Desiree had a guest spot on the TV show Girls, and also began adapting the book THE MISEDUCATION OF CAMERON POST, alongside her co-writer and producer Cecilia Frugiuele. The film, which Desiree also directed, would star Chloe Grace Moretz and Sasha Lane and went on to win the Sundance Dramatic Grand Jury Prize in 2018. 

Around the same time, Desiree also created, wrote and directed a brilliant 6-part TV show for Channel 4 called THE BISEXUAL, starring Maxine Peake, Brian Gleeson, Naomi Ackie and Desiree herself and all set in London. 

Since 2018 Desiree has been working on a very personal project which we talk about, as well directing episodes of many brilliant TV shows, including RAMY, HACKS and TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS. 

We talk about a lot, and if you’ve ever read an interview with Desiree you know she’s very good at cutting through the bullshit and this is no exception. We dig into how the past five years have seen her working at a different pace and why that is, we talk about the moments after success and the expectations that were placed on her career, we talk about what it actually means or requires to direct an episode of TV, finding a soulmate in her creative partner Cecilia and why learning and having fun is at the centre of everything she does…

This week my guest is Cassandra Johnson-Bekoe, a woman who wears many hats - among which are writer, producer, script editor and the current Head of Scripted Development at DARE Pictures. 

After working as a bouncer to fund her Screenwriting certificate from the Met Film School, Cassandra's way into the industry was through the Mama Youth Project in 2016. 

Cassandra was previously senior development executive at Daniel Kaluuya’s production outfit 59%, overseeing the company’s slate and generating new IP across international and regional markets. Prior to this she worked in scripted development. Her credits include “Ted Lasso” season 2 (WarnerBros/Apple+), “Riches” (Greenacre Films for ITV), “Secret Invasion” (Marvel Studios) and “The Chemistry of Death” (Cuba Pictures Ltd, for Paramount+).

Cassandra also co-founded the collective 'Black Women in Scripted' in 2020, and which currently boasts over 300 members - a mix of established and award-winning writers, producers, and execs, as well as new industry talent. 

We talk about the difference between pride and self-worth, how to set your rates as a freelancer, how to adapt to working at different companies, how securing an agent changed her career, how she treads the line between writer and script editor, how she gives notes and what it means to be a warm CEO, finding community in the industry and prioritising your mental health above all else.

SHOW NOTES:

• Mama Youth Project 
• Black Women in Scripted 
• Sister Pictures
• Vanity Fair article about the toxic atmosphere on the set of “Lost” 
• Find out where to watch Cassandra’s film recommendation I AM NOT A WITCH 
• For more conversations with women who work in development, listen to episodes of Best Girl Grip with Katie Sinclair and Dionne Farrell.

This week I'm pleased to welcome to Best Girl Grip talent agent Emma Obank. 

Emma joined Casarotto Ramsay & Associates, an industry-leading literary agency representing many of the world’s best-known creatives, in 2014 as an Agent’s Assistant. 

At the age of 26, Emma started building her own list of screenwriters, directors and literary properties; today she represents some of the UK’s most exciting and promising new voices. 

Alongside her agenting work, Emma launched Casarotto’s unrepresented writer and director surgeries, which act as a platform for unrepresented talent to gain direct access to agents and creatives and freely ask questions about the industry; guests at the surgeries have included Bisha K. Ali, Jack Thorne, Jessica Hobbs and Kayleigh Llewellyn. 

Emma is a frequent guest speaker at the NFTS and has been on the panel for writing competitions such as BAFTA Rocliffe and Funny Women. Emma was a mentee on the 2023 Women in Film & TV mentorship scheme.

We talk about how she became aware of, and interested in, talent agenting, how she worked her way up the agenting ladder, how she acts as a buffer for rejection and maintains client relationships, how she decides to take on new clients and her recommendations for approaching agents.

SHOW NOTES

• Follow Emma on Twitter, where she gives lots of great advice and shares useful resources for writers and creatives looking to break into the industry. 
• A great thread that Emma put together of film industry accounts to follow on Twitter for updates and opportunities.
• And the thread I reference about ‘how to cold approach an agent’.
• Check out the BBC Writersroom Opportunities page. 
• Find out where to watch Emma’s film recommendation ‘Millie Lies Low’, directed by Michelle Savill.
• For more conversations with talent agents, listen to my episodes of Best Girl Grip with Roxana Adle and Kat Buckle. 

This week my guest is award-winning, freelance foley editor and mixer Sophia Hardman. 

Sophia studied Sound Technology at The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and started out her career at Twickenham Studios as an intern 9 years ago. 

Since then Sophia has worked on a wide range of projects, from high-end TV dramas to Oscar-nominated feature films. Her credits include THE OUTFIT, HOUSE OF GUCCI, THE LAST DUEL, BELFAST, NO TIME TO DIE, ENOLA HOMES, THE TOURIST, STATE OF THE UNION and THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH. 

We talk about the strange and unique language of foley, the differences between a foley artist and a foley editor, what it means to create impactful, unexpected sound effects, why she made the move to freelancing after working in-house at post house, how she chooses projects to work on and how she stays across technical / technological trends. 

SHOW NOTES

• Find out where you can watch THE OUTFIT
• Find out where you can watch THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH
• Find out where you can watch NO TIME TO DIE
• Watch ENOLA HOLMES on Netflix
• Watch the trailer for THE INVENTOR
• Find BECTU’s rate cards here. 
• Check out Midge Costin’s documentary MAKING WAVES: THE ART OF CINEMATIC SOUND
• Watch the trailer for Sophia’s film recommendation EARTH MAMA directed by Savannah Leaf. 
• For more conversations with women who worked in sound, listen to episodes of Best Girl Grip with Lucy Bright, Ines Adriana and Anna Bertmark. 

This week's guest is producer Helen Gladders.

I became aware of Helen’s work through the 2016 short film RHONNA & DONNA, directed by Daina O. Pusic, and then I kept seeing her name popping up everywhere and knew she was a producer to watch. 

More things you might want to know about Helen:  

She is a graduate of the National Film and Television School having done their MA in Producing for Film & Television. She set up her own company Gingerbread Pictures in October 2016 and was nominated for the “Best Producer” award at Underwire for her short THE WYRD written and directed by Chloë Wicks, in 2017. She is an alumni of the BFI NETWORK’S Producer weekender, Edinburgh Film Festival talent lab, and NETWORK@LFF. Her recent short films include NIGHT BUS directed by former podcast guests Jessica & Henrietta Ashworth and the Film4 & BFI Network backed RUN written & directed by former podcast guest Ruth Greenberg and starring Niamh Algar. 

At the time of recording, she was in post-production on her first feature TUESDAY, written and directed by Daina O. Pusic, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Lola Petticrew and backed by A24, BBC Films, BFI, and Cinereach. And excitingly, the film has since had two festival appearances confirmed. It will premiere at this year’s Telluride festival in the US, followed shortly after by the BFI London Film Festival, where it will screen in the First Feature Competition. 

Elsewhere, Helen is busy working on several projects including debut features from filmmakers Jessica & Henrietta Ashworth, Astrid Thorvaldsen, Morayo Akande and Zoe Alker.

We talk about how Helen discovered a knack for producing, her experience studying at NFTS, establishing a vision and a voice for her production company, the short film funding landscape, what it means to package a project, the differences between producing shorts and features, and how Titanic kickstarted both of our fascinations with the film industry…

SHOW NOTES:

• Watch Helen's shorts RHONNA & DONNA, RUN and NIGHT BUS.
• Listen to my episodes of Best Girl Grip with filmmakers Ruth Greenberg and Jessica & Henrietta Ashworth.  
• Read Deadline's review for the feature TUESDAY, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
• Buy tickets for TUESDAY at the BFI London Film Festival. 
• Find out where you can watch Helen's film recommendation: JUMBO. 
• For more conversations with producers, listen to episodes of Best Girl Grip with Jeanie Igoe, Chi Thai, Sarah Brocklehurst, Emily Morgan and Elhum Shakerifar. 

This week my guest is the wonderful Eve Gabereau.

Eve is someone whose work and ingenuity I became aware of quite early on in my own career and she is someone I have wanted on the podcast for a good while.

Eve is the Founder and Managing Director of Modern Films, a London-based, female-led, social issues-driven production, distribution and event cinema company. It was founded in 2017 and since gone onto to release buzzy titles such as BORDER, MURINA, HAPPY AS LAZZARO, WHITE RIOT, WHEEL OF FORTUNE AND FANTASY and Oscar-winner DRIVE MY CAR. 

Two of their upcoming releases were part of this year’s LFF programme - Emily Atef’s MORE THAN EVER and Kristoffer Borgli’s SICK OF MYSELF, which both speak well to the kind of provocative, spellbinding and whip-smart cinema that Modern Films have made their trademark. 

Prior to that Eve was the MD of Soda Pictures for 15 years, where she released such indie hits as TONI ERDMANN, ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE, PATERSON and MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE. She also executive produced Rungano Nyoni’s directorial debut I AM NOT A WITCH.

She is a regular feature on panels and training schemes throughout the industry, and was also featured in Geoffrey Macnab’s 2021 book ‘The British Film Industry in 25 Careers: The Mavericks, Visionaries and Outsiders Who Shaped British Cinema’, so it’s fair to say I approached this interview with high expectations for the wisdom and insight it might contain and Eve definitely didn’t disappoint and it’s truly a privilege to count her among Best Girl Grip’s guests. 

This week my guest is producer Jeanie Igoe. 

Jeanie’s big break came when she landed a role at A24, where her credits as a production executive include Barry Jenkins’ MOONLIGHT, Trey Edwards Shults’, IT COMES AT NIGHT, Bo Burnham’s EIGHTH GRADE and Robert Eggers’ THE LIGHTHOUSE. She also served as a producer on their TV series RAMY, and a co-producer on David Lowery’s THE GREEN KNIGHT.

She then launched herself as an independent producer, with her first project MISS JUNETEENTH, the directorial debut from Channing Godfrey Peoples going on to premiere at Sundance and receive a nomination for the Grand Jury Prize.

Most recently, Jeanie co-produced CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS alongside Catherine Magee and the team at Element Pictures, including former podcast guest Emma Norton and Development Producer Chelsea Morgan Hoffman who developed Sally Rooney’s novel into the series script, alongside the writers. 

We talk about moving to New York, getting a job at A24 in its fledging years as a company and then being witness to their exponential growth, making the decision to start producing independently, moving back to Ireland, maintaining a work-life balance, how Jeanie creates an atmosphere of collaboration and care on set and adapts her role to the needs of the project and the filmmaker.

I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation as much as I did having it.

This week I’m thrilled to be chatting with film critic, broadcaster, podcaster and now author Hanna Flint, about her path into the film and media industry, as well as how her new book STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER was born.

Having started out in various journalism and media roles for the likes of MailOnline, Metro and OK! Magazine, Hanna has since become a prolific film critic and features writer, with bylines at a wealth of outlets, including Variety, Empire Magazine, Sight & Sound, Time Out, The Guardian, Esquire, Dazed, British GQ and Stylist, and has also appeared as a critic and commentator on the likes of BBC Radio 4, Sky News, BBC Radio 5 Live and TALKRadio. 

She is also a host for MTV Movies and the co-host of the Fade to Black podcast alongside Amon Warmann and former Best Girl Grip guest Clarisse Loughrey. 

Her book STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER, is out now and weaves together personal memoir with cultural criticism as she reflects on how cinema has been formative to her own identity and the world we live in. The book is sprawling, funny and down-to-earth and manages to traverse topics such basketball, sexuality, sexual assault, colourism, her changing relationship to her Tunisian heritage, eating disorders, social media, family, first crushes and much much more. 

Our conversation likewise covers lots of ground as we probe the pros and cons of doing an MA in journalism, how Hanna hustled her way into her career with hard work and persistence, how she established herself as a critic, how the idea for her book developed, the madness of writing it in just under three months and her relationship to it now as it makes its way into the world. 

My guest this week is the incredibly talented and prolific sound designer and mixer Ines Adriana.

Ines studied for an MA in sound design at NFTS and has been credited on over 40 projects since 2020, including some incredible short films like Ruth Greenberg’s RUN, Molly Manning Walker’s, GOOD THANKS, YOU?, Theo James Krekis’ PRAM SNATCHER, Nia Childs’ HOME, as well as documentaries such as THE CATHEDRAL and SELF-PORTRAIT.

Ines’ work has screened at Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, BFI London Film Festival and Sheffield Doc/Fest. She is a Film London Lodestar 2022, a Berlinale Talent alumni and a member of the BFI NETWORK x BAFTA crew. 

We talk about how she discovered a passion for sound, finding the confidence and the skills to call herself a sound designer, her ‘fever dream’ experience studying at NFTS, how her career picked up momentum and how sound design can facilitate and augment story.

I always enjoy the craft-centred episodes because I’m such a rookie in that space and it’s such a fun opportunity to learn about a completely different area of filmmaking, so I appreciate Ines’ time and I hope you get something from our conversation.