Chiara Ventura

BIFA-winning producer and 2020 BFI Vision Awardee, Chiara, isn’t exactly new to the grind. She got her start in the British film scene bouncing between development, sales, distribution, and hands-on production—basically, the whole buffet. She’s got some serious indie cred too, having produced a bunch of shorts that actually snagged awards, all with support from heavy hitters like Film London, BFI, and BBC Films. Not to mention she produced Elizabeth Sankey’s debut doc “Romantic Comedy,” which made its debut at SXSW 2019 and then just sort of exploded—over 40 festivals, released in 24 countries. No big deal. From 2017 to 2022, she partnered with Manon Ardisson at Ardimages UK, managing a pretty ambitious slate of film and TV projects, with backing from BFI, BBC Films, and SKY. As if that wasn’t enough, in 2020 they kicked off the Mother Tongues Award—a film development scheme with support from Charades, Intermission Film, and Curzon, plus Jack Tarling in the mix. Fast forward to 2022: Chiara headed back to Rome, her hometown, to dive into development full-time, but she didn’t cut ties with the UK scene—she worked with HT Film before joining OUR Films in June 2024. And then, December 2024 rolls around and she lands the BIFA for Best Feature Documentary for “Witches,” alongside Elizabeth Sankey, Manon Ardisson, and Jeremy Warmsley. She’s also racked up experience with big-name training programs, is a BAFTA Connect Member, BIFA voter, and even chaired a BIFA subgroup twice. Basically, she’s everywhere.