OUR 2026 FESTIVAL

2026 Sykehouse Film and Writer’s Festival 

is even bigger and better! 

Come and join the fun!

VENUE 

HOLIDAY INN DONCASTER A1, High Rd, Warmsworth, Doncaster DN4 9UX

DATE

16 & 17 May 2026

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

The Sykehouse Film and Writer’s Festival’s third year has expanded to two full days of films screenings, writer panels, workshops, pitching sessions and networking opportunities!

PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS

For our filmmaking stream we have:

• A packed schedule of this year’s selected films 

• Q & A’s with the filmmaking talent from our finalists. 

• Interview with Actress and Producer Terri Dwyer (Buffalo Dragon) and Producer William Prince (Level Six Films)

• Interview with director Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent, Doomsday)

• Saturday evening special screening of The Mystery of Mr E followed by a Q & A with bestselling author, Sophie Hannah, Director Martyn Tott and cast from the film.  

For our author stream we have:

• Interview with author guest Sophie Hannah

• Interview with author guest Antony Johnston

• Interview with Bedford Square editor and author guest Maxim Jakubowski

• Author guest Dacre Stoker presents: 129 Years of Dracula from Page to Stage to Screen (80 mins)

• Attending authors take part in panels discussing the art of writing in various genres: Get advice from the pros and hear how the experts work.

Pitching sessions 

• Pitch your novel to Camilla Shestopal from Shesto Literary. (Bring a hook line, synopsis and first 3 chapters)

• Producers Terri Dwyer and William Prince offer screenwriters an opportunity to pitch their screenplay. (1 side of A4 – with Elevator pitch, synopsis of the idea and your contact details on)

Workshops (Bring writing resources)

• How to Start Writing: The Very Best Way To Open Your Story. Writing Workshop with YA Fantasy and Thriller author Bryony Pearce (50 Mins)

• Dissecting Dracula: A hands-on literary workshop by Dacre Stoker (75 mins)

• The 25 Skills You Need to be a Producer with Director/Producer/Lecturer Rob Speranza (90 mins)

Networking opportunities

• Join our guests for a 2 Course buffet on Saturday evening (Price extra £15.95 on request – must be booked before the event)

• Mingle in the bar and rub shoulders with your favourite authors, publishers, agents, filmmakers, directors and producers.

• VIP package includes: Sunday evening networking drinks’ mixer followed by the red-carpet gala dinner and awards.

We have 3 packages to suit all budgets:

• £10 weekend day pass – STUDENTS (Must provide college/university ID or Student Union Card on collection.

• £40 weekend pass for all. Attend all daytime scheduling and Special Saturday evening screening.

• £99 Full VIP pass – Attend all events including Sunday mixer, Gala Awards, get photos on the Red Carpet, Awards presentation and mingle with our guests and surprise celebrities on the night. There is live music and a charity raffle drawn on the night.

TICKETS ON SALE AT EVENTBRITE: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sykehouse-film-and-writers-festival-tickets-1379246636819?aff=oddtdtcreator

In Support of ...

IDAS (Independent Domestic Abuse Services)

A specialist charity with many years’ experience of supporting and accommodating victims and survivors of domestic abuse.   

'There were limited options for victims who often found themselves trapped in abusive and violent relationships. We were one of the first refuge providers in the UK and we opened our local women’s refuge with the help of a York businessman who donated a two-bedroom flat to us.   

'For many years we worked as a feminist collective, depending upon the generosity of supporters and volunteers to provide our services.' 

https://idas.org.uk/ 

GUESTS OF HONOUR

AUTHORS

SOPHIE HANNAH is a Sunday Times, New York Times and Amazon Kindle UK No. 1 bestselling writer of crime fiction, published in forty-nine languages and fifty-one territories. Her books have sold millions of copies worldwide. She writes contemporary psychological thrillers and, at the request of Agatha Christie’s family and estate, the new series of Hercule Poirot novels.

Sophie’s murder mystery musical, The Mystery of Mr E, was released as a feature film in 2023, directed by Martyn Tott, and is available on Amazon Prime and Apple TV+ among other platforms. In 2023, Sophie won the Crime Writers Association’s Dagger in the Library Award for her body of work, and in 2013 her thriller The Carrier won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards. Sophie is also a poet and has been shortlisted for the TS Eliot Award. Her poetry is studied in schools across the UK. 

In 2018, she created the How to Hold a Grudge podcast, based on her self-help book of the same name. More recently, she has published two other self-help books: Happiness: A Mystery, and her latest, The Double Best Method, which was an Amazon UK Top 10 best-seller and is a 'how to' manual for making brilliant decisions. 

Sophie is the founder and coach at Dream Author Coaching, a coaching programme for writers and anyone who wants to write. She lives with her husband, children and dog in Cambridge, where she is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College. 

ANTONY JOHNSTON is one of the most versatile writers of the modern era. The Charlize Theron movie Atomic Blonde was based on his graphic novel. His murder mystery series The Dog Sitter Detective won the Barker Book Award. The Brigitte Sharp spy thrillers are in development for TV. And his productivity guide The Organised Writer has helped authors all over the world take control of their workload.

Antony is a celebrated videogames writer, with genre-defining titles including Dead Space, Shadow of Mordor, and Resident Evil Village to his credit. He also consulted on the Emmy Award-winning Silent Hill Ascension, making him the only writer in the world to have worked on all of the ‘big three’ horror gaming franchises.

His immense body of work also includes Marvel superheroes such as Daredevil, Wolverine, and Shang-Chi; the Alex Rider graphic novels; the post-apocalypse epic Wasteland; and more. He wrote and directed the sci-fi film Crossover Point, made entirely in quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic.

An experienced podcaster and public speaker, he also frequently writes articles on the life of an author, and is a prolific musician.

Antony is a former vice chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, a member of International Thriller Writers and the Society of Authors, a Shore Scripts screenwriting judge, and sits on the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain’s videogames committee. He lives and works in England.

MAXIM JAKUBOWSKI is a Sunday Times bestselling British author and publisher. His awards include the Karel for his SF & fantasy, the Anthony, the CWA Red Herrings and the David L. Goodis Award for his crime and thriller titles. He has edited over 120 anthologies, most recently Birds, Strangers And Psychos, inspired by Alfred Hitchcock. His most recent noir novels are Just A Girl With A Gun and Manhattan Death Ballad, alongside the fantasy novella The Exopotamia Manuscript and a short story collection Cruising The Coast Of Nostalgia. He lives in London and is Editor At Large for Bedford Square Publishers/No Exit Press.

DACRE STOKER is the great grand-nephew of Bram Stoker and the international and New York Times best-selling co-author of Dracula the Un-Dead (2009), and international best seller of Dracul (2018). Dacre is also the co-editor of The Lost Journal of Bram Stoker: The Dublin Years (2012). His companion notes Stoker on Stoker: Dracula Revealed (2022) were published by Telos Publishing. In 2022 Dacre and Robert Eighteen Bisang wrote Dracula: Annotated for the 125th Anniversary, a culmination of years of research. Dacre has consulted and appeared in recent film documentaries about vampires in literature and popular culture. The Real Vampire Files (2010 History Channel), The Tillinghast Nightmare (2014 Historical Haunts), Secrets of the Dead (2015 PBS), Mysteries at the Museum (2017 Travel Channel), Legend Hunter (2019 Travel Channel) American Vampires (2022 Fox Nation). Dacre currently hosts tours to Dublin Ireland, Whitby England, and Cruden Bay Scotland. He also leads groups to Transylvania to explore both the life and times of the historic Vlad Dracula III and also the locations where Bram Stoker set his famous novel. Dacre is a native of Montreal, Canada, he taught Physical Education and Science for twenty-two years, in both Canada and the U.S. He has participated in the sport of Modern Pentathlon as an athlete and a coach at the international and Olympic levels for Canada for 12 years. He lives in Aiken SC with his wife Jenne.

DIRECTORS

Born in Newcastle Upon Tyne in the North of England, NEIL MARSHALL has been working successfully in both feature films and television since his feature debut Dog Soldiers in 2001. His second feature as both writer and director, The Descent 2005 was an even bigger critical and commercial hit, winning several awards including the BIFA for Best Director, and the Empire award for Best Horror. He followed this success with the post-apocalyptic action movie Doomsday 2008 for Universal and historical adventure Centurion in 2010. In 2012 Neil made his debut in the world of high-end television with Game of Thrones S2 Ep9 'Blackwater', and followed that up with S4 Ep9 'The Watchers on the Wall' for which he received an Emmy Nomination for Best Director.

Marshall continued to work in the network, cable and streaming arenas directing projects such as the pilot episodes of Black Sails for Starz, DC's Constantine and Timeless both for NBC. Marshall also directed notable episodes of Hannibal for Showtime and Westworld for HBO. In 2017 Neil developed, produced and directed the Netflix reboot of classic sci-fi series Lost in Space, quickly followed the same year by the feature film reboot of Hellboy released in 2018.

In 2020 Marshall made his return to independent film and the horror genre with the multi-award winning witch-hunt saga The Reckoning which was the opening movie at Fantasia festival in Canada that year. Marshall's next movie The Lair, an all action-creature-feature set in Afghanistan, was the opening night presentation at Frightfest 2022 in London and also played Sitges in Spain before being released on Shudder in Feb 2023.

Marshall switched genres yet again for the violent gangster revenge movie Duchess, released in September 2024. Most recently Marshall directed the erotic giallo thriller Compulsion (2024) and is developing several projects including WW2 alien invasion thriller Invaders, tense action thriller Dead Stop and land speed record drama Mach One. 

MARTYN TOTT is a self-taught independent writer and filmmaker. Harnessing the advancement of DSLR cameras in the late 2000's he was inspired to turn his written stories into film. Learning more each time he worked up from trailers to short drama and finally a first feature film, the zero budget Hunters Lodge starring Tim Ahern in 2015. The movie was picked up for distribution and DVD/Blu Ray release. In 2019 Bestselling Crime Author Sophie Hannah saw the film and discussions began to adapt her family friendly stage musical The Mystery of Mr E - A Murder Mystery Musical Movie, released on Amazon November 25th 2023. It was picked up by PBS America in early 2025. 

After a mad few years making Sophie’s film a reality I’m currently working as a part-time film editor and on some ongoing audio show projects (no budget limits or juggling diaries, just imagination and mostly for the fun of it!) until the next film project appears. I pour so much into each one and as you know it can take years from concept to release so I have to be fully invested before committing.

PRODUCERS

TERRI DWYER has been a dynamic presence on both the big and small screen for nearly 30 years. Her deep-rooted experience in the entertainment industry made her transition into producing a natural evolution. Her first project as a producer led to the writer receiving a prestigious Olivier Award nomination. She later produced the feature film Break, starring Hollywood legend Rutger Hauer in his final on-screen performance before his passing. In September 2020, at the height of the global pandemic, Terri founded Buffalo Dragon, an independent production company. Its debut project, the psychological thriller The Stranger In Our Bed, was adapted from a USA Today bestselling novel. In a remarkable 10-week turnaround from script completion to filming, the project came to life. The film premiered on Showtime in August 2022 to critical acclaim and was released in the UK by Signature Entertainment on September 5, 2022. It went on to win Best Thriller 2023 at the National Film Awards, triumphing over major studio releases. Buffalo Dragon’s second feature, Bolan's Shoes, brought together an award-winning team, including BAFTA-winning actor Timothy Spall, BAFTA-nominated and BIFA-winning editor Chris Gill, and BAFTA-nominated, RTS-winning writer Ian Puleston-Davies. The film earned multiple accolades, including Best Feature Film 2024 at the National Film Awards, and was recently nominated for a BAFTA Cymru.

WILLIAM PRINCE was Operations and Finance Director at Fifth Season-backed Motive Pictures helping build the operations and infrastructure from the ground up and working on projects including The Woman in the Wall (BBC/Showtime), One Night (Paramount+), Get Millie Black (Channel 4/HBO), and Young Sherlock (Amazon). William then joined Little Island Productions Patrick Melrose (Showtime/Sky Atlantic), Wheel of Time (Amazon/Sony), as their COO and Executive Producer before setting up his own production company Level Six Films and joining forces to co-produce with Terri Dwyer of Buffalo Dragon. William and Terri have multiple film and TV projects in development together, including projects William has written himself. William & Terri are now actively pitching to UK and US based commissioners and looking to raise finance for their independent film slate.

AGENT

CAMILLA SHESTOPAL has been involved in publishing all her career, having worked at Penguin Random House, Chorion and Entertainment Rights (now Classic Media).  In 2009 she moved to Peters, Fraser & Dunlop to become agent and Director over Estates, representing clients such as Georges Simenon, Margery Allingham, Eric Ambler, C S Forester and many others.  She now runs Shesto Literary. Camilla was shortlisted for the British Book Awards Literary Agent of the Year in 2017, and is a trustee of the Essex Book Festival. Camilla is interested in the following: crime fiction (encompassing thriller, mystery, psychological thriller); Women’s fiction; Romance; Some historical fiction; Some self-help non-fiction

WHO'S INVOLVED:

FESTIVAL DIRECTOR: Samantha Lee Howe

FILM JUDGES: The Judges for the 2026 SYKEHOUSE FILM AND WRITERS' FESTIVAL are:

Samantha Lee Howe - USA Today bestselling author and multi-award winning screenwriter. www.samanthaleehowe.co.uk

David J Howe - author and historian, who has been reviewing and writing about film since the eighties. www.howeswho.co.uk

Adele Maddison - Self-confessed Film-o-phile, academic and entrepreneur.

Karen Woodham - proprietor of the multi-award winning blog www.blazingminds.co.uk.

Mark Fearn - Reviewer and blogger of popular site Book Mark! https://www.facebook.com/groups/953855924774845

Olivia Maddison - Also film-o-phile, Legal professional.

Linzi Goldstone - Concept Artist/Singer Song Writer/Storyboard Artist.

Mick Herod - Film Buff.

THE NOOSE JUDGES

Tim Rideout (Chair) The Noose - Best Crime/Thriller Novel

Mike Linane (Chair) The Slip Knot - Best Short Story