Hamnet and 1917 producer Pippa Harris and The Zone of Interest producer James Wilson are set to participate in individual spotlight conversations at the 70th BFI London Film Festival’s Industry Forum in October. 

Harris, who co-founded Neal Street Productions with Sam Mendes, is currently filming The Beatles – A Four Film Cinematic Event, four separate theatrical biopic films about the British quartet starring Paul Mescal, Joseph Quinn, Barry Keoghan and Harris Dickinson. Mendes is directing the project. 

Harris will join LFF for a deep dive into her pioneering work, including The Beatles films, as well as discussing the challenges of development and production and her relationship with filmmakers and talent across her career. Her credits include Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA winning films Hamnet and 1917, Oscar and BAFTA nominated Revolutionary Road, British box office hit The Magic Faraway Tree with Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy and Jarhead. Harris is also behind a raft of hit TV productions including Call the Midwife, Penny Dreadful, Britannia, The Hollow Crown and Stuart, A Life Backwards. 

Prominent indie producer Wilson, who has been in the business for more than thirty years, will join LFF to discuss his career and bold creative collaborations. He has worked with visionary indie filmmakers to great creative and commercial success on films including Oscar and BAFTA winning The Zone of Interest and Under the Skin, both from Jonathan Glazer, Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, Aneil Karia’s Hamlet, Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard’s 20,000 Days on Earth and Sophie Fiennes’ The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology. 

In the conversation, Wilson will touch on his key career moments from his years at Fox Searchlight Pictures and Film4, where he was a production executive on films such as Sexy Beast and Dancer in the Dark through to the creation of his own company JW Films. 

“This year our industry programme puts a spotlight on producers and the vital role they play in shepherding artistic visions from their earliest stages through to the screen,” said BFI London Film Festival Director Kristy Matheson. “I’m delighted that industry colleagues will have the opportunity to hear from Pippa Harris and James Wilson – two esteemed producers whose unique creative careers have given us some of the most memorable and critically acclaimed films of recent years.” 

The 70^th edition of the BFI London Film Festival takes place October 7-18, 2026. The Industry Forum Spotlight and Discussion events take place October 8-15. 

Two of the U.K.’s most successful producers will have individual Spotlight Conversations at the 70th BFI London Film Festival‘s Industry Forum this October.

Neal Street Productions co-founder Pippa Harris (The Beatles, Hamnet, 1917) and indie producer James Wilson (The Zone of Interest, The Voice of Hind Rajab) are set to discuss their careers, current projects and navigating the international film and TV market in a rapidly changing landscape.

The LFF Industry Forum welcomes industry delegates from all over the world for a program of “thought-provoking conversations with some of the most exciting practitioners working in the screen industries and networking events with professionals from all over the world.” The full lineup will be announced in mid-September.

Harris will take a deep dive into her work on the hugely ambitious and much-anticipated quartet The Beatles films, directed by her Neal Street co-founder Sam Mendes, and discuss the challenges of development, production and her relationship with talent across her career. A prolific British film producer, her credits include the Oscar, Golden Golden Globe and BAFTA-winning Hamnet and 1917, Oscar and BAFTA-nominated Revolutionary Road, as well as Jarhead and The Magic Faraway Tree, Call the Midwife, Penny Dreadful and more.

Wilson is one of the U.K.’s most successful independent producers. He has worked for three decades in the business — for Fox Searchlight Pictures and Film4 before heading up his own company in the 2000s — and will speak during his Spotlight Conversation about the bold creative collaborations that have shaped his career so far. He has worked on the Oscar and BAFTA-winning The Zone of Interest and Under the Skin from Jonathan Glazer, as well as Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab and Aneil Karaia’s Hamlet.

“This year our industry programme puts a spotlight on producers and the vital role they play in shepherding artistic visions from their earliest stages through to the screen,” said Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director. “I’m delighted that industry colleagues will have the opportunity to hear from Pippa Harris and James Wilson — two esteemed producers whose unique creative careers have given us some of the most memorable and critically acclaimed films of recent years.”

Attendance of international industry professional delegates to the LFF has doubled over the last five years. The 70th BFI London Film Festival, running Oct. 7-18, is set to open with Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman’s Elsinore, and close with Jesse Eisenberg’s musical-comedy The Debut.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now the highest-grossing Hollywood film of all time in India after taking $10.6M over the weekend for a cumulative $52.8M take. 

The film, starring Tom Holland and Zendaya, overtook the record previously held by James Cameron’s 2022 Avatar: The Way Of Water after only 11 days of release. Opening in India on July 30, the day before its global release, the film has not faced much competition, although two big local films – Batwara 1947, starring Sunny Deol, and Nitin Kakkar’s Awarapan 2, starring Emraan Hashmi – are set to open this coming weekend. 

It’s been a strong summer for Hollywood films in India, with both Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which opened on July 17, and Obsession, an early summer release on May 29, reportedly grossing more than the INR1B ($10M) benchmark. 

Hollywood and other foreign films usually only have a 10-15% share of the Indian market, where local fare dominates. In 2025, international films clocked up a 10% market share with Avatar: Fire And Ash the top-grossing Hollywood film on $26.4M, according to Ormax Media figures. In comparison, the highest-grossing local film last year, Hindi-language action epic Dhurandhar, took $104.8m

In the first half of 2026, international films had an 8% share, with Obsession grossing around $10M (INR1B) and Project Hail Mary on $9.2M (INR880M). Dhurandhar: The Revenge topped the first half chart with $132m.

Overall, India is having an encouraging year at the box office. Ormax Media has reported that revenues for the six months January to June 2026 reached $661.66M (INR63.98B), making it the highest-grossing first half of any year since the pandemic, and surpassing the first half of 2025 by around 10%.

Upcoming films include Geetu Mohandas’ Toxic, starring Yash, scheduled for August 26; and Ramayana: Part 1, which is expected for Diwali in November and was recently picked up by Sony for worldwide distribution.