Project 1961 is the award-winning creative studio behind the critically acclaimed feature film Grand Theft Hamlet (SXSW Jury Award, BIFA, Grierson)

We make films - documentary, fiction & hybrid - and live performances that explore the boundaries between real & virtual, digital & analogue, ancient & modern. Our work reflects the beautiful, strange and funny ways that we exist as humans in today's complex world.

The company was founded in 2016 by Julia Ton, whose focus on international cross-border collaboration and creative risk-taking remains a cornerstone of our practice.

Today Project 1961 is led by Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane

Pinny is a 2025 BAFTA Breakthrough artist and winner of the BFI Chanel Filmmaker Award for Creative Audacity for Grand Theft Hamlet. Working across documentary, theatre and ethnography, she is known for formally adventurous films about performance and human connection, and is a proud deaf filmmaker and British Sign Language user

Sam is a BIFA-winning filmmaker and actor (NT, Globe, West End) whose work pioneers the collision of classical performance and digital culture. A PhD candidate at the University of York, he is a leading researcher in hybrid theatrical methodology — investigating how human presence and performance are transformed across real and virtual spaces.

PROJECT 1961

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