About Us

Seventh Art Productions is one of the UK’s leading independent producers of films for cinema, TV and digital platforms. For nearly 40 years it has worked with major British and international broadcasters and shown films in almost 100 countries, specialising in creating top-quality documentaries on art, history, social issues and classical music.

Based in Brighton, East Sussex, the company was founded in 1984 by BAFTA award-winning British filmmaker Phil Grabsky, who continues to write, direct and produce many of its films today.

In 2011 Seventh Art Productions created history when they brought major art exhibitions into cinemas across the globe with Leonardo Live from London’s National Gallery. This was the first ever exhibition from a gallery or museum on the big screen. This led on to Exhibition On Screen – creating from scratch a worldwide network of over 1500 cinemas showing regular arts films in over 60 countries. This hugely successful art cinema brand is now in its 11th season of films.

Previously, Seventh Art Productions was behind cinema films such as Muhammad Ali – Through the Eyes of the World, In Search of Beethoven, In Search of Mozart and most recently in 2022 the multiple award-winning and now BAFTA-winning My Childhood, My Country: 20 Years in Afghanistan.

These films have played in festivals, cinemas and on TV & DVD worldwide, winning dozens of awards.

Phil Grabsky’s past filmography also includes award-winning projects such as I, Caesar – The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire for the BBC, The Great Commanders for C4, Multiple Tim Marlow art series for C5/Sky Arts, Terry Jones’ history films for Discovery and many more. Phil also made the first surround-sound documentary The Lost Temple of Java for the BBC and the world’s first 3D visual arts film Tim Marlow on British Sculpture at The Royal Academy of Arts for Sky Arts.

Phil has also written four history books, including The Great Artists – co-authored with Tim Marlow. He is involved as a judge for the Emmys, BAFTA, Grierson and One World awards, and has won numerous personal awards himself including Royal Television Society awards for both ‘Best Director’ and ‘Services to Television’, and a Voice of the Listener and Viewer Award for ‘Services to Education’.

On Exhibition On Screen, Phil says “I’m constantly in awe at the artworks we feature in these films – they’re some of mankind’s greatest achievements. We strive to not only bring them to both the big screen and small screen, to the largest audience possible, but also tell the human story behind the works and the artists themselves.”