Our Story

Kate Hodgson and Justin McDonald founded Elevator Productions in Liverpool in 2017, bringing together world-renowned talent and emerging voices to develop scripted narrative content and produce independent film and television with commercial appeal.

Elevator's first project, A MODERN MAGICIAN, a black comedy short film directed by Mark Heller features Primetime Emmy, Golden Globes and Olivier Award winning actor Brian Cox and was selected in competition at many international film festivals.

The BFI Network's Film Hub North commissioned their next film FIST, a drama short written by Lee Mattinson and directed by Andrew McVicar. In 2023 FIST received a nomination for Best British Short at the BAFTA qualifying London Short Film Festival and received a nomination for Best Short at the Royal Television Society Awards North East and The Borders where it won Drama Performance of the year.

Elevator's third film NETTLE DAY is a folk-horror short, written and directed by Olivier Award nominated playwright and debut filmmaker Jack Nicholls and also commissioned by the BFI Network's Film Hub North. It stars Kate Dickie alongside newcomers Yazmin Kayani and Lewis Pratt and premiered at FilmQuest 2024, one of the world's most prestigious genre film festivals.

Elevator then associate produced the BFI Network short I KNOW A PLACE written by Adam Bennett-Lea and stars Amelia Clarkson and Alicia Forde. It was selected in competition at OSCAR, BAFTA and BIFA qualifying Leeds International Film Festival 2024 and was nominated for best short at Women X Film Festival where it received the best director award for Theresa Varga.

Elevator recently wrapped on short film PATRIOTS which is written and directed by BIFA nominated Gavin Scott Whitfield and stars Bradley Turner. It is now in post-production with announcements to follow soon.

Alumni of Creative UK's Creative Enterprise scheme, Elevator Productions has a slate of scripted projects that are in development for film and television. Kate and Justin have also been invited to join BAFTA as Connect members, representing the North West as producers and were selected for the 2026 Mission Accomplished Producers Lab in association with ScreenSkills.