In the competitive landscape of independent cinema, finding a production company with a distinct, uncompromising voice is a rare achievement. Enter Candid Broads Productions, a London-based, female-led film and television company that has steadily been making waves with a slate of provocative, character-driven shorts. Founded in 2020 by French-British actress and producer Oriane Pick, who serves as CEO, alongside producer Anaïs Ferrato, the company has built its growing reputation on a straightforward mission: bringing unspoken truths from underrepresented communities to the forefront of the entertainment industry while ensuring diverse female representation both in front of and behind the camera.
As the company transitions into feature-length filmmaking and eyes the television space, its distinct brand of warmth, energy, and cinematic flair continues to define its approach to championing emerging talent.
A Slate Rooted in Bold Narratives and Fresh Perspectives
Candid Broads has already built an impressive catalogue of short-form content that explores complex social issues, human resilience, and personal identity with unflinching honesty. Among its standout titles is Swim Sistas, a short documentary narrated by James Bond star Naomie Harris. Directed by actress and author Catherine Joy White, the project was designed as a poetic and visually rich love letter to water, sisterhood, and the resilience of Black women across generations.
Another notable documentary short in the company’s portfolio is Hannah Congdon’s The Long Away Game, which charts the compelling journey of a female Afghan refugee soccer player as she works to find a home and a sense of community in Yorkshire, England. On the narrative side, Julie Magnaudet’s comedic short The Contraception Fair brings a surreal, satirical edge to reproductive health. Starring Ronkáō¹ Adékáyoù¹jāó¹¹jāō¹¹ (from Alex Rider), Kathy Kiera Clarke (from Derry Girls), and Amber Grappy (from The Baby), the film follows a young woman who decides she wants to stop taking the birth control pill. She suddenly finds herself at the imaginary "Female Contraception Fair," where various female contraceptive methods compete for her attention and pressure her to make a choice.
These projects reflect the core ethos of Candid Broads: discovering fresh perspectives and taking chances on emerging writers, directors, and creative duos who are eager to challenge audiences and break long-standing stigmas.
The Story Behind the Name
The genesis of the company’s eye-catching name is rooted in the founders’ cultural backgrounds and their shared philosophy on communication. When conceptualizing the brand in 2020, Pick and her team wanted something explicitly female-centric that avoided patronizing terminology.
"We wanted to make sure to highlight that the company is really female-centric, and we didn’t want to call it ‘chick,’" Pick recalls. "Pero pensamos que ‘broads’ sonaba genial. Y ‘candid’ vino porque ambas somos francesas, así que a veces somos muy directas, probablemente un poco demasiado a veces. Pero nos encanta ser honestas, y pensamos que tener ‘candid’ ahí funcionaría muy bien. Así que somos esencialmente las chicas honestas."
Beyond a playful moniker, the Candid Broads brand serves as a clear signal to creative partners entering what is notoriously a difficult and rejecting industry. Pick emphasizes that the company’s name reinforces its resilience and transparency. There are many people in the industry who sugarcoat reality or hide behind industry platitudes, but Candid Broads prefers directness. Navigating the business requires thick skin, numerous rejections, and the belief that a single definitive "yes" can make up for countless "noes." That refusal to give up defines how Pick and Ferrato operate, taking collaborators along on a transparent journey.
While the company is firmly female-centric, Ferrato notes that its storytelling scope is not exclusively confined to female protagonists. The company aims to cast a wider net when necessary, pointing to a recent short film titled Punching Bag, which follows a male protagonist. Ultimately, the driving criteria remain distinctive voices, originality, and narrative urgency.
"It’s all about perspective for us," Ferrato explains. "When we read a script, we want to think, oh, we haven’t seen that before. It may be something that has been explored, but the voice of that director or writer is bringing something that feels different."
Championing Impact and Unflinching Representation
For the founders of Candid Broads, making an impact and pushing audiences outside their comfort zones is paramount. Ferrato notes that the team is naturally drawn to stories that feel difficult, uncomfortable, or intensely personal to their creators. Whether the goal is opening a conversation, breaking a persistent societal stigma, or contributing to measurable cultural change, the narrative impact must be organic to the material.
This commitment to meaningful representation remains steady, even in the face of political pushback and a broader cultural backlash against diversity and inclusion initiatives, particularly in the United States. For Pick and Ferrato, inclusivity is not a superficial checkbox or a fleeting corporate trend; it is a fundamental professional duty that must be woven into the fabric of every production.
"For us, it’s really important that everyone does their duty on it, and that we all make sure that it’s part of every film," Pick says. Whether behind the camera, in front of the lens, or embedded within the thematic core of the script, representation is vital. Although Pick and Ferrato are Caucasian women, they have proudly championed stories told through the eyes of Black filmmakers about Black characters, recognizing that true equity means clearing the path for talents who have historically been sidelined by traditional gatekeepers.
Ferrato echoes this sentiment, pointing out that historical inequalities in storytelling have severely limited the depth and variety of experiences brought to the screen. By actively providing opportunities to underrepresented creators, Candid Broads aims to tap into an immense reservoir of untold stories.
To ensure that their sets reflect these values, Candid Broads maintains a strict policy requiring at least gender parity on their productions. Organic casting and hiring practices frequently result in sets comprising roughly 60 percent women without the need for forced quotas.
Stepping Into Features, Television, and Beyond
Having firmly established its footing in the short film arena, Candid Broads Productions is now scaling up its ambitions, spearheading several high-profile feature films and preparing its maiden voyage into television series development.
The company has recently wrapped production on its debut feature film, the romantic drama Arthur & Clara. Marking the feature-length directorial debut of Kieran Bourne, the film stars CJ Beckford and Mirren Mack. The narrative follows a filmmaker and an actress who unknowingly run away to the same rural farmhouse in search of self-discovery, only to realize they simply needed someone to truly see them.
Additionally, Candid Broads is currently in the casting phase for the coming-of-age comedy Underdogs, written and directed by Fabia Martin. The film features rising star Alisha Weir alongside Amber Grappy. Underdogs centers on two teenage girls in foster care who embark on an unauthorized road trip in a stolen ambulance, searching for freedom and family, before accidentally finding themselves illegally competing at Crufts, the world’s largest annual dog show in Birmingham, England. Grappy plays the role of a stressed social worker tasked with tracking the teenagers down.
Another major project in development is Am I Nervous, the first feature film from director Amy Hodge. The project is an expansion of The Date, a celebrated short written by Bethan Marlow that earned a 2024 BAFTA Cymru Breakthrough Award nomination. The original short starred Millie Kiss, Sinead Matthews, and Precious Scott, following a 13-year-old girl named Sasha navigating her first date and taking charge of her own sexuality. The feature adaptation, co-written by Hodge and Marlow in early development with Ffilm Cymru, follows a teenager and a grandmother as they simultaneously embark on personal journeys to reclaim their sexuality.
Kieran Bourne is also scripting another feature for the company titled Loud & Clear, which Pick is producing alongside Alexa Waugh. On the short film front, Candid Broads is developing Vag, a dark comedy written and directed by Lily Britton and executive produced by Slick Films. The project addresses vaginismus, a medical condition and topic that remains largely taboo in mainstream media. The story follows a 27-year-old successful woman forced to explore her own pleasure after a promising romance falters due to the condition.
Beyond features and shorts, Candid Broads is stepping into the television sector with its first series in development. Written by Ali Hughes, the project is being co-produced alongside Mischief International, with founder Maria Ishak serving as executive producer.
As the company manages its expanding slate, Ferrato and Pick remain focused on bridging the gap between audience expectations, industry risk aversion, and bold, creative storytelling. By maintaining a diverse portfolio of projects at various stages of production, the founders intend to keep challenging themselves, learning, and ensuring that boredom never enters the equation.