Fox Cub Films was established in 2012 by producer, Savannah James-Bayly, with a passion for telling fresh, bold stories from new perspectives.
Layla, the debut feature of writer-director and Screen Star of Tomorrow 2018 Amrou Al-Kadhi, and staring rising talent Bilal Hasna, premiered at Sundance 2024 and is to be released in UK cinemas by Curzon on 22nd November 2024. Layla was backed by Film4, BFI, and Significant Productions with WME handling North American sales, and Luc Roeg’s Independent Entertainment for ROW. Amrou, Savannah and Bilal all both been longlisted in their respective Breakthrough categories at the 2024 British Independent Film Awards. The film is a romance set in London’s queer community and represents a continuation of the themes explored in Amrou’s four short films with Fox Cub Films. Fox Cub is now developing Amrou’s sophomore feature with Film4.
Fox Cub Films has produced over twelve short films, starring talent such as Jason Flemyng, Bill Paterson and Alice Lowe. These films have shown at major festivals internationally, have had support from the likes of Film London, BBC Films, BFI, BBC4 and NOWNESS, and have been distributed on TV, DVD, VOD and in cinemas.
Outside of Fox Cub Films, Savannah has been a producer on two series of high end drama, Queens of Mystery, created by Julian Unthank for AMC label Acorn TV, staring Julie Graham, Siobhan Redmond and Sarah Woodward. She was Associate Producer on A Guide to Second Date Sex, for her role in developing the film, written and directed by Rachel Hirons and staring George Mackay and Alexandra Roach. Savannah is part of the 2024 cohort for the BIFA Springboard programme, and was formerly a BFI Flare x BAFTA mentee in 2017 and a Film London 2020 Lodestar.
Emily Everdee joined Fox Cub as Development & Production Executive following her role as Associate Producer on ‘Layla’. Emily has produced or executive produced 17 short films, including John Ogunmuyiwa’s BIFA-nominated ‘Mandem’, Courteney Tan's ‘Longing’, which had a year-long run on Channel 4, and Louisa Connolly-Burnham's drama ‘Sister Wives ’, starring Mia Mckenna-Bruce, which won the 2024 Iris Prize for Best British Short and is now streaming on Channel 4 online.
In 2020 Savannah teamed up with producers Loran Dunn and Sorcha Bacon to create Teen Club, a joint venture with an expressed mission to create commercial, positive, queer content for young audiences. Teen Club's first projects are an adaptation of one of Entertainment Weekly’s Top YA novels of 2019, Amelia Westlake Was Never Here, and the innovative short form series from visionary director Abel Rubinstein, Life in Love, which was the inaugural programme of new ITV backed service, Woo, in June 2022.