Home to a unique combination of the world’s leading talent in animation and documentary filmmaking, Passion is committed to telling great stories with heart and soul. Regardless of length, genre or style, we believe in finding the perfect medium to suit the story. What matters to us is that our stories are told with rigour, integrity and of course, passion.
The Passion family includes our sister studio in France, Passion Paris, full-service animation studio Strange Beast and award-winning documentary makers Keo Films.
Passion Pictures was founded in 1987 by Andrew Ruhemann as a studio where the best creatives can collaborate to tell stories on film. Working across animation and live-action, commercials, film and series, innovation and quality remain at the heart of Passion.
A truly international studio, Passion has teams in London, Paris and Barcelona working with directors and crew from across Europe, the USA, Asia and Australia. Our work has been recognised by the most prestigious awards and festivals worldwide, notably Academy Awards in both animation and documentary.
Passion has been behind some of the most well-known animated commercials and shorts, creating the iconic Aleksandr the Meerkat, the original virtual band Gorillaz and was responsible for hundreds of Play Doh bunnies taking over New York City. Recent animated campaigns include a hugely popular series of Christmas films for banking group Erste, epic trailers for blockbuster game Apex Legends and a hilarious but hard-hitting stop motion story for charity Global Women.
We have produced over 90 documentaries including One Day in September, Searching for Sugarman, Listen to me Marlon and most recently Lady Boss: The Jackie Collins Story. Passion Planet, led by David Allen, is our specialist factual department making inspiring science and natural history programming such as My Life as a Turkey and the landmark series H2O: The Molecule that Made Us.
Passion Paris is run by Marc Bodin-Joyeux with its own quintessentially French roster of animation directors. Working in commercials, game trailers and long-form, Paris is the home of the Lego City TV series.
Passion’s sister company Strange Beast is a director-led animation studio with the only gender balanced roster of directors in Europe. With a unique tone of voice, Strange Beast has created eye catching episodes of the Netflix series Headspace, powerful cause-led films for Breast Cancer Now and Bloody Good Period as well as hilarious spots for Cheerios and Venus.
Diversity & Inclusion policy
Passion is committed to diversity and inclusion across race, gender, age, religion, identity, and experience. We pride ourselves on creating a safe and supportive space where people and their stories can thrive. We recognise that our industry has up until now, not created sufficient pathways for those from underrepresented backgrounds and communities and we are determined to help change this. As storytellers, we are at our best when fairly reflecting the world in which we live.
As well as proactively applying our Equal Opportunities policy and our support for the British Black List, we are engaging our team in diversity training with Diverse Matters to embed inclusivity within our studio culture. Passion is a proud member of the Creative Mentor Network, pairing our team with mentees from the scheme in every area of our studio. We will develop and nurture talent from all backgrounds, expanding our network of creatives to foster better representation within our roster, our studio and the wider animation community.
Our ongoing commitment is to learn, listen and adapt to continuously improve as a company and lead our industry in positive change.
Our aim is to make beautiful, thought-provoking films.
Passion People
| Founder & EP | Andrew Ruhemann |
| CEO | Nick Southgate |
| MD & EP Passion Planet | David Allen |
| MD & EP Passion Paris | Marc Bodin-Joyeux |
| COO | Saskia Burke |
| CFO | Rob Stannett |
| Head of Commercial & Business Affairs | Amanda Bannister |
| Non-Executive Director | Ruth Johnston |
| Non-Executive Director | Peter Magyar |
| Group Head of Communications | Sam Gray |
Commercial Animation
| Co MD & EP of New Business | Belle Palmer |
| Co MD & EP of New Business | Kitty Turley |
| Head of Production | Mike Turoff |
| EP (U.S.) | Shannon Lewis |
| MD & EP of Games | Lucie Friar |
| MD of CG Studio | Jason Nicholas |
| Head of CG | Simon Brown |
Long Form Animation
| EP & Head of Production | David Park |
| EP | Debbie Crosscup |
| Head of Development | Nicki Cortese |
| Creative Director | Alan Barillaro |
Passion Paris (Commercial + Long Form)
| MD & EP | Marc Bodin-Joyeux |
| EP | Marion Vermogen |
| EP | Andrew Caulcutt |
Documentary
| Creative Director | David Moulton |
| Director of Feature Docs | Lizzie Gillett |
| Head of Production | Clare Lucas |
Specialist Factual
| MD & EP | David Allen |
| Producer | Gaby Bastyra |
| Producer | Nick Stringer |
To contact anyone, please use the format [firstname] + [last initial] + @passion-pictures.com.
For any new business or scripts, please get in touch at newbusiness@passion-pictures.com
US Representation – FREE AGENTS – 212.255.2252