MAY DAVIES || PRODUCTION DESIGN
On set - The (Un)Holy Trinity
PRODUCTION DESIGNER
Berlinale Talents Alumni
IMDB
London/ Margate/ Cumbria based
mayjdavies@gmail.com
Citizenships - British | German | Australian
Represented by United Talent Agency (UTA)
Email: samantha.speirs@unitedtalent.com
Phone: +44 (0)131 381 6113
Recent feature films include Yutong Bai’s, The Way of the Runner (in post), Rebekah Fortune’s, Learning to Breathe Under Water (in post), and Elizabeth Sankey’s latest feature doc, Witches, BIFA Best Documentary 2024 Winner and BFDG award winner 2025, premiered at Tribeca Festival 2024 and released on MUBI. Art direction credits for feature film and tv drama include Kevin Macdonald’s The Runner (2026) , Black Mirror S7 - ‘Plaything’ (2024) and Landscapers (2021) which won a TV BAFTA for best production design.
With a background in interdisciplinary art, theatre design, socially engaged community film projects and working my way through the art department I look for projects that I can bring my skills and knowledge to a collaboration. I love to create atmospheres and environments for characters to inhabit that contribute to moving and entertaining narratives, whilst working in empowering and inclusive environments.
After studying a fine art BA at Oxford Brookes School of Arts, working in installation and interdisciplinary work, I worked for an arts venue in the old canteen of the shipyard in Barrow-in-Furness in my home county, curating a community cinema and comedy club alongside shooting and editing training and documentary videos for the local submarine building and windfarm industries. Skills in camera and edit evolved to more creative projects and to working with leading film and arts charity, Signal Films also in Barrow, which gave me my introduction to short filmmaking and the art department. Signal offers opportunities in filmmaking, art and personal growth through collaborative projects for the local community of all ages and backgrounds, partnering with many organisations including Mind, Youth Offending and National Offenders Management Serivce, local youth centres, local multicultural networks, and women’s support groups alongside offering professional opportunities to locals. Making contact with production companies that came to shoot in the Lake District gave us the chance to signpost local talent into productions including access for myself on productions including Safe House (2015) with production designer Cristina Casali, and in Muffin Green’s props team on Swallows and Amazons (2016), both providing eye opening and transformative experiences.
After a move to London to complete an MA in theatre design at Wimbledon College of Art, I worked my way up through the art department, from assistant, dressing props and standby, to art directing and supervising, alongside designing sets for fringe theatre, short films and eventually independent feature films. Installation art and the scenographic process of performance design remains a firm influence for my work in film and I have a particular interest in projects that can explore these worlds.
I remain committed to sharing our craft, building a community and encouraging new faces into the industry through my work and the opportunities I am able to offer others. I mentor with BFI Film Academy, UAL and BAFTA, and co-organise and participate in events with the British Film Designers Guild, The Production Designer’s Collective and the Society of British Theatre Designers.