Brit List 2023 Revealed: Family Adventure Feature On Dyslexic School Kid Sent To Stay With ‘Super Gran’ Tops List

Jesse Whittock

7 November 2023 at 4:15 pm·7-min read

A family adventure feature about a dyslexic London school kid sent to live with his grandmother in Scotland has topped the annual Brit List for the top unsigned TV and film projects.

Super Gran, which is from Keri Collins and with London-based producer Brock Media, scored 22 recommendations, four more than the second placed project, Henry Blake and Xiao Tang’s ‘body horror love story’ feature The Golden Radiance of a Beetle. The results were revealed at an event in London this evening in the UK. Scroll down for the full list.

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Collins’ film treatment follows a boy who sent to his boring, cantankerous granny’s home in Scotland for Christmas only to discover she has secret superpowers and spy base beneath Loch Ness. He is taken on an epic adventure in her flying 1980s Mini to do battle with an arrogant tech bro, who wants to bring about instant climate change for profit.

Thirteen projects have been selected for the Brit List this year, with the number of recommendation upped to 12 to gain a place. There is near parity between male and female writers and nearly a third of writers come from historically underrepresented voices.

The top three, which also includes Maja Bodenstein’s psychological thriller The Manikin, are all features. Brit List founder and Director Alexandra said she hoped “this marks a British film renaissance.”

The following ten projects are TV projects from the likes of BBC Studios Drama, Happy Prince and 5 Acts Productions. Five of the projects don’t yet have a production company attached but all come from writers with representation.

Recommendations comes from British production companies, talent agencies, sales companies, financiers, distributors and broadcasters, with the results providing a snapshot of industry tastes.

“Thirteen scripts from fourteen fantastic writers have made it onto The Brit List 2023, and I’m particularly delighted that this year three feature scripts have topped the List – the first time since The Brit List combined both film and TV scripts,” said Arlango.

“The volume of scripts put forward for recommendation – and the number of companies taking part from the UK film and television industries – continues to grow. Most importantly, the range of the stories being written are diverse, engaging and brilliantly entertaining.

“All the writers who have made it onto The Brit List 2023 are exceptionally talented, and The Brit List is committed to supporting them as they navigate both the UK ,and global, film and TV industries. I can’t wait to see what they will do next.”

The full Brit List (representation in brackets)

TWENTY TWO RECOMMENDATIONS
SUPER GRAN by Keri Collins (42)
Producer: Brock Media
Form: Feature
Genre: Family Adventure Comedy

Summary: A dyslexic London schoolkid (12), tired of people saying he’s stupid, is sent to stay with his boring, cantankerous Scottish granny for Christmas. However, he is stunned to discover she has secret superpowers and a secret spy base beneath Loch Ness, as he is taken on an epic adventure in her flying 1980s Mini, doing battle with an arrogant tech bro who wants to bring about instant climate change for profit. It is in this chaos that the boy discovers his dyslexia helps him see the world in a different way, giving him his very own superpower with which to help his Super Gran.

EIGHTEEN RECOMMENDATIONS
THE GOLDEN RADIANCE OF A BEETLE by Henry Blake & Xiao Tang (Casarotto)
Producers: Bosena and Two Birds Entertainment
Form: Feature
Genre: Body Horror Love Story

Summary: 1919, East London. A Chinese dock worker and white English secretary fall in love, only for their relationship to be threatened by societal contempt, triggering the woman’s transmogrification into a beetle. Cocooned from the pain, can their love transcend?

SIXTEEN RECOMMENDATIONS
THE MANIKIN by Maja Bodenstein (Casarotto)
Producer: Joi Productions
Form: Feature
Genre: Psychological thriller

Summary: A humble tailor’s daughter arrives at the manor house on an isolated island, newly married to the third brother of the family that resides there. But she soon discovers there’s more to the imposing matriarch’s grip over the family than their hopes of inheritance alone, and comes to realise there may be power in the unsettling anatomical manikin that matriarch keeps under lock and key…

FIFTEEN RECOMMENDATIONS
DARING by Libby Adam (Curtis Brown)
Producer: Water & Power Productions
Form: TV
Genre: Crime Thriller

Summary: Raphael has spent his life trying to escape his family’s legacy. Kitty has spent hers trying to live up to one. So when a high stakes cocaine deal begins to unravel, both are drawn into the criminal underworld where their pasts force them to question if love and justice can ever coexist.

FOURTEEN RECOMMENDATIONS
THE BEAUTIFUL GAYME by Asad (Independent Talent Group)
Producer: 5 Acts Productions
Form: TV
Genre: Comedy Drama

Summary: A failing gay amateur football team are in desperate need of saving and look to a new star player to be their unconventional hero. Can they save their football club, and themselves, in the process?

BITE ME by Alfie Coates (Curtis Brown)
Producers: Available
Form: TV
Genre: Supernatural Drama

Summary: All Darcy wanted was to find her real dad. But when your dad manages a boyband – and when that boyband has a vampire in it – it’s hard to avoid getting blood on your hands.

THIRTEEN RECOMMENDATIONS
ANTIPOPE by Sam Ferguson (Curtis Brown)
Producers: Available
Form: TV
Genre: Historical Adventure Comedy

Summary: Antipope follows two medieval conmen who get in over their heads after crashing a party at the castle of the Count of Avignon. There they find a scheming pit of vipers planning on anointing a new Pope at their wedding — an Antipope. When one of the conmen accidentally kills the chosen Cardinal, he’s forced to take their place to survive…

PRESERVATION by Matthew McDevitt (Independent Talent Group)
Producers: Available
Form: TV
Genre: Crime Drama

Summary: On a Donegal island, two Gardaí battle a storm, the locals, paranoia and each other as they attempt to preserve a murder-suicide crime scene. But when they unearth an entire community complicit in generational crime, they’ll test each other’s limits of ‘what’s in the public interest.’

DASILVA & SHARP by Karla Marie Sweet (The Agency)
Producers: Available
Form: TV
Genre: Police Drama

Summary: City cop DS Melanie Sharp moves to Saltney-On-Sea, a tiny town on the Welsh and English border, after being hired as maternity cover for local detective Portia DaSilva. But when Portia returns from leave to find Mel has stuck around, she can’t help feeling like she’s trying to take her place. As animosity grows between the two women, their boss partners them up to solve a massive local case.

TWELVE RECOMMENDATIONS
MARCO & GORDON by Joe Bishop (Independent Talent Group)
Producers: Available
Form: TV
Genre: Drama

Summary: Marco & Gordon traces the volatile, tempestuous relationship between two giants of British cooking: Marco Pierre White and Gordon Ramsay. We follow them through their respective boom and bust in 1990s London, and the explosive end of their personal and professional alliance.

FOXES by Dexter Flanders (United Agents)
Producer: Happy Prince
Form: TV
Genre: Drama

Summary: If one kiss had the power to destroy everything, would you risk it? A deeply moving and complex story of family, community, and sexual identity, Foxes tackles the Black gay experience with tenderness and beautiful depth.

EASY by Cerys Hughes (Speed Literary and Talent Management)
Producer: B19 Media
Form: TV
Genre: Drama/Comedy

Summary: Based on real life experiences, Easy is an unflinchingly dark comedy set within the slutty world of sex addiction, as a woman tries, fails, and tries again to connect in a world where everything, and everyone, feels disposable. When things go too far, how do you get off from getting off?

YOUR KNIFE MY BACK, MY GUN YOUR HEAD by Anita Vettesse (The Haworth Agency)
Producer: BBC Studios Drama
Form: TV
Genre: Revenge Thriller

Summary: How far is a woman prepared to go to protect her child? Fiona sets out on an all-consuming journey of revenge after headteacher Marissa expels her son for getting too close to her daughter. This decision is catastrophic and now Fiona is coming for Marissa’s daughter.

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