#109: Katie Sinclair, Development Exec & Independent Producer

I am very excited to introduce this week’s guest, as she is both a friend of the podcast and a someone I consider to be a friend full stop. 

And that person is Katie Sinclair. 

Katie is an independent producer and development executive, currently working at Blueprint Pictures, whose credits include Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, In Bruges, The Last Letter From Your Lover, The Riot Club and Emma, where she sources and develops projects for the production company’s slate. She has worked in production and development for BBC Film, BBC Studios, Disney and Lionsgate.

As producer, Katie recently completed The Last Days (wri/dir. Dipo Baruwa-Etti) which was filmed during the pandemic and was funded by BFI NETWORK and BBC Drama commissioning, while her previous short film Signs (wri/dir Yero Timi-Biu) won the Youth Jury Prize at the Academy Award-qualifying Encounters Film Festival. She produces under the banner Tannahill Productions and is committed to developing and championing new talent. 

We talk about how she pursued a career in development, what she learnt from working at BBC Film, our shared love of the Anna Paquin film Fly Away Home, why relationships are the key to pretty much everything, how she has built her confidence in her taste and opinion, the difference between working in development for a production company as opposed to a public funder, the art of giving feedback and why the key is asking questions rather than supplying solutions and her producing ethic and storytelling sensibilities and why it comes down to empathy and care. 

Enjoy!