Wigan film company's support scheme expands

For Northern Heart Films’ purses are growing to £3,000 and will cover the whole North of England.

What started as a passion project and a desire to bring about change for Northern Heart founders Natasha Hawthornthwaite and Scott Bradley – both of whom are from working-class backgrounds and say they faced numerous challenges and barriers to entering the industry – has developed into a respected and valued industry programme and, to date, is the only one of its kind in the whole of the UK.

Following early financial input from Wigan Council and Creative Lancashire, the scheme has now grown to attract support from the likes of Sheffield DocFest, Sticks & Glass, a Leeds-based post-production business, Olympic Studios and mental wellbeing organisation Film in Mind, along with the interest of Waël Kabbani from Iambic Dream Films, most recently the Executive Producer on the award-winning film The End, starring Tilda Swinton and George MacKay.

As a result, the 2025 to 2026 scheme has been expanded to cover the whole of the North of England and rebranded as the Northern Doc Fund.

Northern Heart Films is based at The Old Courts on Crawford Street in Wigan, itself a huge backer of art and culture.

For this third programme, two successful applicants will each receive a £3,000 cash grant, comprehensive mentoring, post-production support from Sticks & Glass, an industry pass to Sheffield DocFest ’25, well-being support from Film in Mind plus cinema screenings at Leigh Film Factory in Greater Manchester and Olympic Studios in London.

This year, emerging documentary makers will be challenged to create a short film around the theme of Climate and Class, two issues which are particularly topical at the moment.

Shortlisted applicants will be invited to pitch their project at the LA1 Shorts Film Festival at The Dukes Theatre in Lancaster in June and be judged by a panel of experts.

The two winning pitches will then receive the £3,000 grants to produce their short films, along with extensive mentoring and support from Northern Heart Films and its Fund sponsors and collaborators.

Applications close at midnight on April 28. For further information and application details, visit: https://www.northernheartfilms.com/docfund

Co-founder of Northern Heart Films and award-winning director, Natasha Hawthornthwaite, says she is incredibly proud that the Northern Doc Fund has expanded and made it to year three:

She said: “I come from a Northern working-class background and found it a massive struggle to get my foot in the door.

"Despite a lot of noise in the sector about diversity and inclusion measures, it feels like the working class is still a very much overlooked – or forgotten about – minority in TV, especially off-screen, and we are desperate to change that.

“For our industry to thrive, it’s vital that visionaries of all ages and from all backgrounds have the chance to enter and succeed, finding ways to share their original stories with authentic voices.

"There is a big appetite for our fund and for the mentoring that accompanies the financial support.

"As far as we know, there aren’t any schemes around specifically supporting new documentary makers in this way, so we are honoured to be doing our bit and gathering more and more support every year.

"We are also excited to be profiling the power of documentary shorts: not only are they a brilliant way to learn our craft and tell important stories but with increasing opportunities on digital platforms, there has also never been more demand or places to get them seen!”

Natasha added: “We have introduced Climate and Class as the theme for this year's applicants as voices from privileged backgrounds have frequently hijacked climate change narratives.

"It has never been more important to hear from working-class communities directly affected by these issues.”

Waël Kabbani of Iambic Dream Films added: “While working with Northern Heart on two films and witnessing how much they do for their communities, I knew that our values and goals matched up well with theirs.

"We are very proud to support its expanded Doc Fund this year through our Iambic Dream Foundation and cannot wait to see what stories the applicants present.”

Northern Heart Films’ investment in what they have created does not stop once the grant is bestowed.

"The company prides itself in continuously supporting a growing community of young filmmakers in the North.

This year, previous recipients of the Northern Heart Doc Fund will be involved in the decision-making rounds.

Past recipients have also gone on to work with Northern Heart Films on both its originals and commercial productions, and the business has created new directing opportunities for junior directors by establishing a collaboration with the Media Trust.

Northern Heart is now keen to hear from any organisation within the industry – with aligning values - who may wish to get involved with growing the Northern Doc Fund further.

This could be another production company, distributor, broadcaster, platform or a training or funding body.

Northern Heart has always been proud of its Wigan roots. In 2021 it was commissioned by Wigan Council to produce a documentary about the borough’s culture and meeting people who found happiness through their jobs, hobbies or interests, particularly those from working class backgrounds.

It was later shown at Wigan Arts Festival.