Samm Haillay

Samm Haillay founded Third with Duane Hopkins in 2001. Third was granted a BFI Vision Award in 2013. He produced Hopkins’ multi-award winning short films and feature debut Better Things, which premiered to critical acclaim at International Critics Week, Cannes in 2008. Samm also produced Hopkins’ multi-channel film installations series Sunday and Hopkins’ latest feature Bypass that premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2014. Samm is now developing both feature and TV drama with Hopkins.

As well as producing all of Hopkins’ film and galley work, Samm also produces a number of other amazing filmmakers feature work through Third, including the BAFTA winning Esther May Campbell, renowned critic and writer Mark Cousins, Sundance winning Simon Ellis, Silver Bear winning Daniel Elliott, and the Venice screening Joseph Bull & Luke Seomore.

In 2010 he coproduced Turner Prize winning, Gillian Wearing’s feature debut Self Made. In 2013 Samm’s work on The Uprising, a self-funded documentary culminated in it winning best international film at Jihlava documentary festival. 2017 brings coproduction of Christmas Island, the debut feature by internationally renowned artist Gabrielle Brady.

On top of a muscular development slate of feature films Samm’s short film productions have won over 45 awards inc. Berlin, Venice Edinburgh, and Chicago.

A member of BAFTA, EAVE and ACE, Samm sat on the jury in Berlin 2010 to award the Golden Bear for best short film. He is a group leader for EAVE, Feature Expanded and the Venice College Cinema. He delivers the training for Creative England’s iShorts scheme and for Film London. He is a board member of Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival sits on the steering committee for the Tyneside cinema & the Film Hub North and a patron of the Underwire Film Festival.

Samm is also an Associate Senior Lecturer in Film Production at Teesside University specializing in pitch training and is an external examiner at the University of Cumbria and Bath College of Higher Education.

• Producer BYPASS by Duane Hopkins
• Producer LIGHTYEARS by Esther May Campbell
• Producer BLOODCELLS by Joseph Bull and Luke Seomore
• Producer 6 DESIRES: DH LAWRENCE AND SARDINIA by Mark Cousins
• Producer BETTERTHINGS by Duane Hopkins
• Coproducer SELF MADE by Gillian Wearing
• Producer THE UPRISING by Peter Snowdon
• Producer SUNDAY by Duane Hopkins

Samm is active in his own work and as well as the seven features produced to date is currently in production of another. There are also five features in bone fide development on his slate and he is working withWarp Films (This is England) on a TV drama series. Samm is also a driving force behind the schools film research seminar the Social Realism Seminar (SRS) and as well as delivering papers and including undergraduates in the research process Samm aims to produce a film for general release and academic consumption via the SRS.

Over and above this Samm is studying towards a PhDCW that uses his own work to trace the changing face of the social realist movement and the subjective experience within.

• BETTER THINGS (Feature Film 2008) £1m, BFI, FILM4, EM Media, ARTE, Producer, Cannes Film Festival
• SUNDAY (Multi Channel installation 2009) £60k, Arts Council, Digital City, Producer, Baltic CCA
• JADE (Short Film 2009) £20k, BFI, NFM, Producer, Berlin Film Festival (Silver Bear) BAFTA nominated
• SELF MADE (Feature Film 2010) £600k, BFI, NFM, BritDoc Co-Producer, LFF
• COMPULSION (Short Film 2011) £20k, BFI, NFM Producer LSFF (Winner)
• BLOOD CELLS (Feature Film 2014) €150k, Biennale College Cinema, Producer, Venice Film Festival
• BYPASS (Feature Film 2014) £1.1m, BFI, FAW, Film I Vast, SFI SVT, Producer, Venice Film Festival
• SIX DESIRES: DH LAWRENCE AND SARDINIA (Feature Film 2015) £30k, Private Producer, Sundance
• LIGHT YEARS (Feature Film) £900k BFI, Creative England, Producer, Venice Film Festival
• HOWLS (Short Film 2017) £40k, Creative Scotland, Creative England, Producer, Edinburgh Film Festival

Changing representations of subjective experience in social realism film - Submission for PhDCW made in Sept 2017

• Film Producer
• Film Financier
• Film Industry Mentor for:

• Venice College Cinema
• Film London
• Feature Expanded
• Creative England
• BFI
• Foundation of Arts and Creative technologies

• BLACK COUNTRY (TV Co-creators Andrew McVicar and Benjamin Young) – Development with Warp
• THE CREATOR (feature w/d Al and Al) Developed by BFI and Creative Scotland
• HEAVEN IS DARK (feature w/d Joseph Bull/Luke Seomore) - Development
• MULATTO (TV Co-creators Andrew McVicar and Benjamin Young) – Development with Brain Academy
• PETRICHOR (feature w/d Esther May Campbell) – Development with BFI
• POPPELKROFT –Producer lead Project Development   
• ROOFRAPPER (feature w/d Gavin Whitfield) – Development with Creative England
• SAFE DAYS (feature w/d Catriona MacInnes - Development with Creative England and Creative Scotland
• WOLF NOTE (feature w/d Duane Hopkins co-w Andrew McVicar) – Development with BFI
• ZERO%PROOF (feature w/d Simon Ellis co-w Tim Cunningham) – Development with Film4

Samm is invested in bringing closer links between industry and the School of Computing, Media and the Arts. This is mainly through his production company Third Films, which regularly employs students on work placements and graduates as freelancers. However Samm is a respected producer across Europe and brings industry connections and knowhow to the school via his extensive network of directors, producers, agents, distributors, sales agents and financiers.

Individual learning and the correlation between theory and practice.