Sky Studios announces development deal with Dorothy St Pictures

The London-based film and television production company will co-produce a slate of documentary projects with Sky Studios

Sky Studios, Sky’s original programming arm across Europe, today announced a development deal with Dorothy St Pictures, the female-led home for filmmakers, both new and established, to tell authentic, original and distinctive stories.

Announced today as part of the Televisual Factual Festival, the partnership will see the award-winning Dorothy St Pictures team, which includes founder Julia Nottingham (Be Water, Kingdom of Us) and Director and Producer Becky Read (Twas the Fight Before Christmas, Three Identical Strangers), co-produce an exclusive slate of high-end series and feature documentaries with strong theatrical qualities across a range of topics, often told from the female gaze.

The projects are expected to target Sky’s factual channels across Europe

and viewers around the world with Sky’s sister company, NBCUniversal, taking a first-look option for global distribution.

Dorothy St Pictures Founder Julia Nottingham said of today’s deal: “We’re uncovering compelling new stories all the time, so we’re thrilled to be working with Sky Studios to fast-track development. They share our vision for premium documentaries, and we can’t wait for this partnership to bear fruit and bring audiences more exceptional and high-quality storytelling.”

Sky Studios’ Director of Factual, Barnaby Shingleton added: “In collaboration with Sky’s factual commissioning teams across all our territories, we’re excited to turbocharge our documentary slate with series and feature documentaries from Dorothy St Pictures. The Dorothy St team are exceptional filmmakers with a keen eye for stories that explore society and the human condition from a totally unique vantage point.”

Dorothy St Pictures and Sky Studios already have a number of titles in development, with commissioned titles expected to be announced over the coming months.

About Dorothy St Pictures

Award winning producer Julia Nottingham set up Dorothy Street Pictures in 2018, whose credits include TWAS THE FIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS an Apple Original feature documentary directed by Three Identical Strangers Producer - Becky Read, THE LAST MOUNTAIN dir: Chris Terrill (BBC & UNIVERSAL), KILLER BOOK CLUB an Audible original true crime podcast, PERSONA dir: Tim Travers Hawkins (HBO MAX), and BE WATER dir: Bao Nguyen (Sundance 2020). Julia’s prior credits include XY CHELSEA dir: Tim Travers Hawkins (Tribeca 2019), SKATE KITCHEN Dir: Crystal Moselle featuring Jaden Smith (Sundance 2018), KINGDOM OF US Dir: Lucy Cohen (LFF 2017) which won the Grierson Best Doc prize and was nominated for Outstanding Debut at BAFTA 2018, TROPHY (Sundance 2017) Dir: Shaul Schwarz which won an Emmy for Outstanding Nature Documentary, ALL THESE SLEEPLESS NIGHTS (Sundance 2016) which won Best Director at the festival and THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS ( SXSW 2014) Dir: Edward Lovelace and James Hall. In 2018 Julia was named by Screen International as a Future Leader. Dorothy St Pictures has fiction projects in development with BBC FILM, FILM 4 and the BFI and upcoming 2022 releases include SUPER EAGLES 96 dir: Yemi Bamiro and BURN IT DOWN! dir: Tim Travers Hawkins.

About Sky Studios

Sky Studios brings to screen unique stories from the very best talent in Europe.

We develop, produce and fund original drama, comedy and documentary for Sky’s 24m customers and beyond. Building on the success of critically-acclaimed Sky Originals including Emmy-winning Chernobyl, Bafta-winning Patrick Melrose and international hits Das Boot, Riviera and Britannia, Sky Studios is the new creative home of Sky Originals, such as The Third Day with Jude Law, I Hate Suzie, co-created by Lucy Prebble and Billie Piper and BAFTA-nominated hit comedy, Brassic.

We’re an agile Studio, seeking out the best untold stories from new voices while working in creative partnership with today’s best writers, producers and on-screen talent to bring viewers stories they wouldn’t find anywhere else.

With commissioning talent and production capability across the UK, Germany and Italy, we understand local tastes across Europe better than anyone else and have plans to more than double our investment in original content by 2024, fully supported and backed by Comcast NBCUniversal.

We’re also developing a new TV and movie studio, Sky Studios Elstree, which is expected to lead to the creation of over 2,000 new jobs and generate an additional £3 billion of production investment in the UK creative sector in the first five years alone.

Sky Studios invests in the cultural economy and global production sector with equity stakes in several production companies in the UK and the US, including Great British Bake-Off creator Love Productions, and the premier reality crime producer in the US, Jupiter Entertainment, creator of long-running hit Snapped. Sky Studios has invested in high quality factual specialists Blast! Films, True North Productions, and Transistor Films; natural history producer True to Nature; drama producers The Lighthouse and Longboat Pictures; and growth businesses Sugar Films, Chrysalis Vision, and Talos Films (US).