Picturehouse Entertainment acquires UK rights to A Town In Nova Scotia
Picturehouse Entertainment has acquired the UK and Ireland rights to A Town In Nova Scotia, the first feature film to have received investment from the LCR Production Fund.
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First look at A Town In Nova Scotia with worldwide sales launch at Cannes
A first-look image of upcoming feature film A Town In Nova Scotia has been released ahead of the worldwide sales launch at Cannes.
The feature, directed by Babak Jalali and produced by Paradise City Films including Liverpool’s own Jennifer Monks of The Fold, stars Bill Nighy and Makram J Khoury. It is the first feature to receive investment from the LCR Production Fund and filmed across the Liverpool City Region earlier this year.
The film was co-written with Carolina Cavalli who collaborated with Jalali on Fremont. Further creatives include Saint Maud production designer Paulina Rzeszowska, Great Freedom cinematographer Crystel Fournier who also worked on Céline Sciamma’s movies Girlhood and Tomboy, Adolescence and Boiling Point costume designer Jessica Schofield, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie hair and makeup designer Caroline Rose and Aftersun BAFTA winning casting director Lucy Pardee.
The synopsis for the feature is as follows: Following a plea from his daughter to join her in Nova Scotia, widowed Irish senior Leon instead launches a crusade to make his aging Liverpool building safer after news of a tower fire in London. On a mission alongside his neighbour and closest friend, Saleh, Leon turns their fellow residents’ quiet lives upside down in a warm story of friendship, stubbornness and small acts of defiance.
Speaking about the feature, Babak Jalali said: “A Town in Nova Scotia is about community and camaraderie in the latter phase of life, and choosing how and with whom you want to spend that particular phase.
“I’m thrilled to be working with Paradise City Sales again after the wonderful experience I had with the whole team there on my previous film Fremont. I couldn’t wish for a more thoughtful, ambitious, dedicated and kind set of people to take this film out into this big, strange world.”
A Town In Nova Scotia is being produced by Naïma Abed and Émilie Georges for Paradise City (Call Me By Your Name), and Jennifer Monks for The Fold. The film is financed by BBC Film, BFI (awarding National Lottery funding), Liverpool Film Office (through the LCR Production Fund), Calculus, Hoopsa Films and Desmar.
Executive Producers are Kristin Irving for BBC Film, Ama Ampadu for the BFI, Christopher Moll for Liverpool Film Office, Sonny Gill and Peter O’Leary for Hoopsa Films, Naomi Despres and Michèle Marshall for Desmar, Brad Noel and Mariyah Dosani for Calculus. The film was developed with BBC Film.
UK distribution to be announced.
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Liverpool Film Office backs two new Funded productions
Filming is now underway on A Town in Nova Scotia and Saviour, the latest productions to receive investment from the Film Office’s Liverpool City Region Production Fund, following its relaunch in Autumn 2025.
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FILM OFFICE INVESTS IN BBC’s ARRESTING NEW LIVERPOOL CRIME DRAMA; THE RESPONDER
The Responder has secured funding and support from the Liverpool Film Office through the Liverpool City Region Production Fund, using funding from Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s Strategic Investment Fund.
READ MORELCR Film & TV Development Fund – Awards
Awards have equipped local creatives with the capital to research and develop a feature film treatment, create TV series outlines and draft pilot episodes, work with established script writers and more.
Full list of awardees from the Liverpool City Region Film & TV Development Fund and their projects can be seen below.
| COMPANY | PROJECT TITLE | AWARD |
| Pencil Trick Productions | Spent Light | £10,000 |
| Hurricane Films | 12 Canning Square | £24,750 |
| Dynamo Content | Superheroes of Science | £6,000 |
| Glasshouse Productions | Detention | £10,000 |
| Leopard Pictures | L17 | £5,000 |
| Pencil Trick Productions/Tiger Lily | Lily | £11,000 |
| Heroic Books | The Girl Who Stole An Elephant | £12,500 |
| Hurricane Films | The Last Date | £18,000 |
| Crocodile Media | Untitled Documentary | £6,000 |
| Nova Inc Film & Television | Reconstructing Ron | £3,600 |
| Potboiler Productions | Untitled Feature Film | £15,000 |
| Redbag Pictures | Belly Full | £5,500 |
| Lime Pictures | Untitled TV Drama | £16,254 |
| Clare Coombes Productions | Girl Boy | £5,000 |
| White Star/Hurricane Films | Brass | £10,000 |