Directed by Prano Bailey-Bond and starring Niamh Algar.

Silver Salt Films today announced that the feature film Censor has begun principal photography in Leeds. Censor is the unsettling tale of film censor Enid, who discovers an eerily familiar horror film that speaks directly to her past. As she unravels the mystery behind the film, she loses her grasp on reality and is dragged into a twisted fairytale. Steeped in 1980s aesthetics, Censor is an atmospheric and suspenseful love letter to the horror classics of the past. 

The film is the feature debut by award-winning Screen International Star of Tomorrow 2018 Prano Bailey-Bond, who co-wrote the script with Anthony Fletcher. Helen Jones produces for Silver Salt Films, with legendary horror writer Kim Newman serving as Executive Producer alongside Ant Timpson (Timpson Films) and Andy Starke (Rook Films, producer of Sightseers, Kill List and In Fabric). Mary Burke (BFI), Lauren Dark (Film4) and Kimberley Warner (Ffilm Cymru Wales) also serve as Executive Producers.

Censor was developed by Film4, Creative England via the BFI NETWORK and Ffilm Cymru Wales, and is funded by the BFI and Ffilm Cymru Wales (both awarding National Lottery funding) and by Film4, with support from Kodak Motion Picture and Cinelab London.

Censor stars Niamh Algar (The Virtues, Calm With Horses) alongside Michael Smiley (Jawbone, Kill List), Vincent Franklin (Gentleman Jack, Bodyguard), Nicholas Burns (Ghost Stories, Nathan Barley), Adrian Schiller (Victoria, The Last Kingdom), Max Bennett (Poldark, Bohemian Rhapsody) and Sophia La Porta (Hulu’s Four Weddings and a Funeral, Been So Long). 

Protagonist Pictures represents worldwide sales, hot on the heels of a successful Toronto International Film Festival where the indie sales outfit successfully soldpsychological horror Saint Maud to A24 (US), Studiocanal (UK), and Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (International).

“Censor is one the most original and terrifying scripts we have read at Protagonist, it has all the hallmarks of a future horror classic,” said Dave Bishop, CEO of Protagonist Pictures. “We’re very excited to be working with Silver Salt Films and Prano on her much-anticipated debut, and to be partnering again with Film4 and the BFI, building on our recent success with another female-led genre film Saint Maud.”

Bailey-Bond’s previous films have screened at 100s of global film festivals and received multiple awards. Bailey-Bond is recognized as one of the UK’s most exciting contemporary horror directors thanks to her imaginative and stylish filmmaking. 

Censor stars Niamh Algar, who recently co-starred alongside Stephen Graham in the highly acclaimed Channel 4 drama The Virtues, from BAFTA-winning director Shane Meadows.