We are excited to share the new website for Counterpoints Productions, our new production studio dedicated to telling stories that build narrative power for migrants and refugees.
About Counterpoints Productions
Counterpoints Productions is production arm of Counterpoints Arts, which has long worked in the film space as a co-producer and production consultant under the Pop Change label. Counterpoints Productions aims to produce, co-produce, and collaborate on films that challenge dominant narratives on migration and centre lived experience.
“We are proud to launch Counterpoints Productions, a creative home for compelling stories of migration and belonging,” said Almir Kodlzic, Creative Director at Counterpoints Productions. “Through our work, we seek not only to illuminate the complexity of human movement and identity, but also to reimagine how stories are made: championing ethical, collaborative practices where creators are valued, credited, and supported at every stage of the filmmaking journey.”
Counterpoints documentary and fiction productions
The new studio welcomes 2026 with an impressive slate spanning documentary and fiction projects. Among its current productions is short documentary Allies in Exile, directed by Hasan Kattan and produced by Grain Media, with Counterpoints Productions serving as co-producer. Two Syrian filmmakers, bound by a 14-year friendship forged in war, document their shared exile in the UK asylum system – until one is granted refuge and the other returns to a changed Syria, reflecting the impossible choices refugees face today. The film was awarded Cate Blanchett’s inaugural Displacement Film Fund.
Counterpoints Productions has also commissioned and produced Rendered in Light, a short documentary directed by Maria Marrone. Left behind in a city under siege, a software engineer transforms his loneliness into a lifeline for others, creating virtual worlds of healing that defy the destruction around him. The short will premiere at festivals this year and marks the first project for the studio’s newly launched impact arm.
On the feature front, the studio has seed commissioned Where Did My Mother Go, directed by Samera Kadry and produced by BAFTA winner Yasmine Afifi and Mohamed Shalaby. A grieving daughter searches for her mother in the details of daily life in Palestine, leading her onto a journey of love and the power of memory.
Additionally, Counterpoints Productions has seed commissioned development on two fiction projects, including one co-written by the creator of a BAFTA-nominated TV series, both in partnership with established TV production companies. The studio is also supporting emerging filmmakers, including British Sudanese director Sid Elbadawi’s short documentary Failing To Make A Documentary About My Sudanese Family, and Mama’s Gold, written and directed by Bediah, exploring how gold jewelry carries memory and identity for refugee families.
Previously, Counterpoints provided consultancy with people with lived experience of being undocumented for Hassan Akkad’s short Matar (produced by Deadbeat Films), and worked in association on Palestine Comedy Club by Alaa Aliabdallah and Charlotte Knowles. Six Palestinian stand-up comedians write and tour a stand-up comedy show exploring the unlikely, often dark humour that surrounds the complexity of Palestinian identity. What starts as a blending of comic traditions to encourage honest and open reflections through the shared enjoyment of laughter becomes an existential imperative to survival and sharing common humanity. The feature documentary premiered at SXSW London and will be released in cinemas across the UK and Ireland on 27 February. The studio is also providing consultancy on Akkad’s new feature film Rest in Chaos.
Film Festivals
Expanding beyond production, Counterpoints Productions is launching an impact arm that will continue platforming films through its Refugee Week Film Festival and the newly launched Climate and Migration Community Film Festival. The impact team will work with filmmakers to build extended impact campaigns.
The studio is also partnering with Climate Spring to fund development of films and TV shows at the intersection of climate and migration.
“Launching Counterpoints Productions feels like a natural and necessary next step for us,” said Ornella Mutoni, Producer at Counterpoints Productions.
“For years, we’ve championed films by and about migrants, refugees, and displaced people through partnerships, festivals, and consultancy work with filmmakers. Formalising our production arm allows us to go further, to back stories led by lived experience from the very beginning, support filmmakers in telling more authentic narratives, and ensure these films reach audiences who can engage with them in meaningful ways. This is about shifting who gets to tell stories, and how those stories live in the world.”
