‘Pushing for the best from everyone’

MIPTV delegates will hear from one of the TV industry’s leading drama producers during a fireside chat with Sister co-founder and chief creative officer Jane Featherstone — in Cannes representing the company and its co-founders Elisabeth Murdoch and Stacey Snider, and to collect the Variety International Achievement in TV Award on Sister’s behalf. She spoke to Julian Newby ahead of her on-stage appearance

Do you identify three distinct skillsets between you and your co-founders? Or do the three of you work as one?

We three hail from different professional backgrounds — be it Liz’s entrepreneurial and business background or Stacey’s peerless film expertise — but we’re cut from the same intellectual cloth. We’re united by an appetite for established and emerging talent alike, on global and local scales. Our approach is grounded in decades of collective international industry experience, strong relationships and trusted insight.

A lot of Sister’s output features top storytellers and talent. What is the creative strategy behind this?

Sister rebalances the power dynamic in favour of creators — enabling them to challenge boundaries, and tell transformative stories.

We make it our business to forge partnerships which put the creative and their vision first — providing both the freedom and support that they need every step of the way. In doing so, we try to champion and empower each individual in their work in a way that lifts a whole project to be greater than the sum of its parts; this holistic approach in pushing for the best from everyone — writers, directors, gaffers or runners — is what we love doing. With a growing community of like-minded creatives who are con stantly pushing for the best from themselves and those around them, you can’t help but to create great.

Take an example: the adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s The Pow er for Amazon, starring Toni Collette. What was the process towards securing those rights? I had the book thrust into my hands one Friday evening and I simply couldn’t put it down until I’d fin ished it on the Sunday morning. It was then and there I knew this just HAD to be made and that Sister had to be the one to do it.

Sister recently took a minority stake in Dorothy Street Pictures. Are there plans for further part nerships and acquisitions?

We’re always open to additive like-minded partners across gen res, as we’ve seen with Julia Nottingham (Dorothy Street) in doc- umentaries. These partners share our vision and are drawn to our family of companies. We’re particularly interested in the ability of technology to blur the boundaries of different channels and mediums — which is also how we see consumer habits shifting in the future. People who are able to harness that are exciting to us. Our most recent announcement: the investment in Richard Bacon’s Yes Yes Media, who is operating in the non-scripted arena, speaks to that. We’ll know future partners when we see them; partners who share our core values and interest in working with innovative creative minds across the global media landscape.

How does Sister face up to the ever-changing TV landscape?

Being fiercely independent with a global outlook gives us the freedom to write our own rules, collaborate across borders while remaining nimble enough to adapt to the constantly shifting landscape. I mean it’s a bit like the French Riviera in that no two days are the same, but you can guarantee it will be time well spent.

Aside from your on-stage interview in Cannes, what plans do you have for MIPTV?

The Sister team and I will be soaking up as much of the electric here at MIPTV as possible. We’re looking forward to bumping into some extraordinary thinkers and being predominantly London-based, we’re thrilled at the prospect of some sunshine. Don’t let us down Cannes!

…Sister with Jane Featherstone, Monday, April 17, in the Debussy Theatre, from 17.15 to 17.45