BRIDES by Nadia Fall premiered during the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Producer Nicky Bentham (ACE United Kingdom) brought the project to the ACE 31 Annual Programme, where she met fellow producer Marica Stocchi (ACE Italy), and they produced the film together. ACE sat down with them to discuss their journey from their meeting in the workshop, until the premiere at Sundance.
Two teenage girls in search of freedom, friendship, and belonging run away from their lives in the UK with a dangerous plan of travelling to Syria.
How are you looking back at the premiere during Sundance earlier this year?
The premiere in Sundance was great! It’s such an amazing festival for filmmakers, they were very supportive and welcoming to us, and the film was received very well! So that was lovely.
On the ‘friend’ side, it was wonderful to experience the film together with the team. Nicky found a house where we were staying in with 10 women, who all worked on the film, and we lived together for almost one week. We shared so many nice moments together during the festival and the premiere, but also at the house in the mornings and evenings, or even eating a pasta at night together.
How did the ACE Annual Programme benefit you as a producer, and your ACE project?
The ACE Annual Programme played a pivotal role in the realisation of Brides. Nicky applied with the project for the workshop, as she knew she had to shoot a part of the film aboard and wanted to investigate all options for this. Soon after the start of the programme, after meeting Marica, Nicky quickly identified that Italy could possibly be a sensible option. During the Financing Strategies Workshop, we’re asked to present a few different financing plans, but she didn’t really find anything that would work as well as Italy. Marica also responded very strongly to the material and the project, so already very early, it seemed like a natural fit.
Our group of producers in the workshop was so wonderful, we learned a lot from each other. It’s just as much give as there is take, which is very valuable. Nicky knew that there was no way to make this project on her own, so the camaraderie and reciprocity of the group was very important to her.
Nicky really came to the ACE Annual Programme to define the finance strategy. There was already a strong script, and although the international perspectives on it by fellow participants and consultants were important, the film was already there. But, during the workshop, Nicky could really explore the financing opportunities with European co-producers and investigate which options would be the most viable.
Also important to note is that we met our sales agent Bankside during the workshop. They were present for the Financing Strategies Workshop and approached us afterwards to collaborate. So, every step of the workshop was a big success to us.
What was the most challenging in getting this film from script to the screen?
Bringing this film to life was far from easy, there were many challenges like shooting a low budget film in three countries, but these felt like things that we had in our control.
The most challenging was the financing the project from the UK and Italy. It is very challenging for European countries to work with the UK, as the two systems are very different. In a financing plan it works, but if you compare the financing and legal frameworks of the UK and Italy, they are not compatible. So, on paper, it wouldn’t really work, and perhaps the co-production wouldn’t have worked if it wasn’t between Nicky and Marica, because there was a click between us from the beginning, and Marica responded so strongly to the project from the first pitch.
There were moments when it all felt so precarious that it could collapse, hitting a dead end, or something didn’t work out or fell through. We also really needed each other for support and to drag each other through these times.
Also meeting each other in a workshop like the Annual Programme helped, as we could really get to know each other during the three different sessions. It would have been difficult to take this leap of faith without knowing each other this well.
What’s ahead for you and your company? What are you currently working on?
Basically, we are contacted daily about co-productions between Italy and the UK, from Italian or UK producers with a project, or producers who want to be introduced to Nicky or Marica. That’s like a full-time job now.
Nicky and Marica are now developing a new project with the same writer and director team, set in Rome, so we hope our collaboration will continue. Now that we know we can do it, we want to do it more often! It was too much of a success and such a stress to not do it again.
Marica is participating in the ACE Animation Special, so now she has done all the programmes ACE has to offer. She previously participated in the ACE Leadership Special, and the Series Special. The series she developed was on air last year, and we’re currently working on the second season.
