Samantha Horley

After twenty years in international film sales, marketing, development and production for PolyGram, Summit and as MD of The Salt Company, Samantha is now a freelance consultant, offering "creative notes from a commercial perspective." She works with established BAFTA and Oscar winning producers to first-time writers and filmmakers, on projects at every stage: treatment to script to post-production and launch. She was recently appointed expert distribution and development consultant for FOCUS, the new screen business development initiative in Scotland; is an assessor for The New Zealand Film Commission; recently served on the BAFTA Cymru committee; and has just been invited to be on the Film Committee of The Writers Guild of Great Britain.

A course tutor at The NFTS, she also lectures widely for clients including BAFTA, the BFI, Raising Films and London Screenwriters Festival. Samantha was the founder of The Vipers Nest, the creative collective for first-time filmmakers, and she still enjoys mentoring up-and-coming talent, independently and professionally, with the likes of Ffilm Cymru, Encounters and Raising Films.

Having moved to The Brecon Beacons in Wales, Summer 2015, to the land of her mothers, to become a writer, she is now represented as a screenwriter by United Agents, her first screenplay is currently being optioned by Eleven Films for television, and she was recently awarded development funding from Ffilm Cymru. She is also close to completing her first novel. 

 www.samanthahorley.com