Comment: North Yorkshire Oscar winner launches firm

It's been a pretty good year for Serena Armitage. In February the Yorkshire-born filmmaker won an Oscar for her film Stutterer and now she is launching her own production company.
Serena Armitage (s)Serena Armitage (s)
Serena Armitage (s)

Red Breast Productions, which Armitage has set up following a grant from the British Film Institute (BFI), will be based in York. Her aim, she says, is to develop the best new Yorkshire talent and collaborate with filmmakers across the region.

It’s an indicator of just how much the film industry has been transformed in Yorkshire during the past few years that somebody of Armitage’s pedigree wants to stay here. Credit must go to Screen Yorkshire whose new Church Fenton studios, near Selby, have proved a huge success. The lavish ITV drama Victoria is among several high-profile productions already filmed there with others queuing up to follow.

It just goes to show that you don’t have to head off to Hollywood or London to make it in the film business.