Substantial Films was founded by Tom Sands in 2009 to produce a series of uplifting documentaries filmed in remote parts of the world - the Birds Head peninsula in Indonesia, the jungles of Hampi in India, and several countries in West Africa. These documentaries are currently available on YouTube along with several others, where Hampi - Valley of the Kings has racked up 1.4 million views. In 2012, Tom decided to focus on feature film projects with his dad Mick Sands and Phil Harris later joined the team as the lead producer.

In 2013, we made our first feature film, Backtrack (AKA Nazi Vengeance), a psychological horror starring Julian Glover (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Game of Thrones), which was picked up by Netflix in the UK. It was also picked up in North America, Australia and New Zealand, Germany, Scandinavia and across Asia.
 
Our second film The Holly Kane Experiment is a dark psychological thriller with Nicky Henson (Syriana, Vera Drake) and in 2017 it was released in North America, the UK, Germany and across Asia through 108 Media, following festival screenings at St Louis International Film Festival, Independent Days FilmFest, Wicked Film Festival and Anchorage International Film Festival. It’s currently on Amazon Prime in the UK and ITN Distribution have picked up remaining world rights.
 
Our third film Rupert, Rupert & Rupert is a bittersweet comedy-drama about an actor with multiple personalities. It was released in the US and UK in 2019 by Global Digital Releasing and was nominated for Best Comedy at the National Film Awards in 2020.

In 2021, we completed Decrypted, a dark comedy set in the world of the intelligence agencies starring Sophia Myles (Transformers: Age of Extinction), David Hoflin (Z: The Beginning of Everything), Amanda Abbington (Sherlock), Kevin McNally (Pirates of the Caribbean), Don Gilet (The Stranger), Talisa Garcia (Baptiste) and Akie Kotabe (The Man in the High Castle).

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