Leanne Saunders gained a foothold in the industry with Working Title Films and attached sales company Manifesto Film Sales, UK. On return to New Zealand she worked as an in-house and freelance production manager before establishing herself as a producer of short form drama, commonly known as TV commercials.
She launched as a feature film producer under her newly formed company Severe Features with micro budget digital film CHRISTMAS (2003) directed by Gregory King, which was selected for Toronto, Locarno, Edinburgh, and Melbourne. She then set up low budget feature scheme, Headstrong with business partners Ant Timpson and Paul Swadel, looking to energise opportunities for filmmakers to make feature films, recognising international trends around digital acquisition and distribution. Through the scheme she executive produced THE DEVIL DARED ME TO (2007), World Premiere at SXSW and sold in the UK to Wild Bunch and to BollAG for ROW and A SONG OF GOOD (2008), World Premiere at Rotterdam 2008; other festivals include Warsaw, Durban, Karlovy Vary, Gijon and Philadelphia.
She partnered with Curious Film to produce Stephen Kang’s feature film DESERT (2010), which premiered at Pusan and was released in NZ/Australia by Curious Distribution. She also came on board with Curious and AKA Films to co-produce Kang’s short film BLUE (2011) Winner Grand Prix Critics Week Cannes 2011.
She produced Paul Campion’s low budget horror THE DEVIL’S ROCK (2011) as an unofficial co-venture between UK and NZ, which was has sold to 30 territories including UK (Metrodome) and US/ Canada (Entertainment One) as well as screening in many leading genre festivals including Fantasia, San Sebastian and Yubari.
Currently in release is the debut feature of Daniel Joseph Borgman, THE WEIGHT OF ELEPHANTS, a co-production with leading European production company, Zentropa Entertainments5 and Sweden’s Film I Väst. It premiered in Forum and Generation sections of the Berlin Film Festival 2013.
Co-Pro Case Study – The Weight of Elephants: What Scandinavia does right with Leanne Saunders and Daniel Borgman
