OKRE connects the film, TV, and gaming industries with researchers and lived experience to create entertainment that sparks real social change
Case Study
CultureFilm

Sunny Dancer

Ivy finds unexpected friends in a group of misfits and has a summer she'll never forget.
Sunny Dancer is a coming-of-age feature film written and directed by George Jaques. Set at a summer camp for teenagers in remission from cancer, the film explores identity, grief, friendship, and the long-term emotional impact of illness. The film stars BAFTA and Emmy nominee Bella Ramsey (The Last of Us), Ruby Stokes (Bridgerton), Earl Cave (Days of the Bagnold Summer), BAFTA nominee Conrad Khan (County Lines), five-time Emmy winner Neil Patrick Harris (Gone Girl), Golden Globe and BAFTA winner Jessica Gunning (Baby Reindeer), and BAFTA nominee James Norton (Happy Valley).

How did OKRE support collaboration

OKRE funding enabled extensive collaboration with medical professionals, researchers, and young people with lived experience of cancer. This had a direct and lasting impact on how the characters and their experiences are represented in the film.

How collaboration improved authenticity

Authentic Portrayals

  • George worked with Dr Rachael Hough (Consultant Haematologist at UCLH), who advised on authenticity with portraying situations such as medication dosages, hospital architecture and treatment side effects.
  • He also interviewed a young person who was also diagonised and now works at a camp, gaining lots of insights from this perspective. Vomit realism, scarring make-up designs were also run past doctors and those with lived experience to ensure authenticity.
  • George also interviewed Dr Elizabeth Rapa and Dr Louise Dalton (Oxford University) leaders in youth bereavement research. Scenes were informed from research with anticipatory grief, trauma, hallucinatory memory, peer loss and emotional detachment.
  • The film's editor, Caitlin Spiller, has personal lived experience of cancer, bringing a deep sensitivity to tone, pacing, and authenticity in the edit. Her input shaped key emotional beats and has been invaluable in crafting scenes with medical nuance.

Working with Survivors

  • George cast two young people with lived experience of cancer with speaking roles in the film. Young survivors highlighted the difficulty of life after treatment, marked by anxiety, loss of structure, and pressure to appear “fine.”
  • These experiences shaped the characters and tone, emphasising that the film goes beyond comedy to explore deeper emotional realities. The projects collaborations showed that adolescent grief is complex and non-linear, often expressed through humour and openness.
  • Workshops with survivors informed realistic behaviours, relationships, and camp details, creating a lived-in environment where vulnerability and comedy coexist.

Movement Coaching

  • Movement work with Polly Bennett explored how trauma and treatment are held physically in the body.
  • This shaped performances in subtle but important ways, allowing actors to communicate anxiety, withdrawal, and resilience through physicality rather than dialogue.

OKRE Focus: Sunny Dancer

The OKRE Summit 2025 panel discussion is available to watch back now

Read more

Meet the team

George Jaques

Actor/Director/Writer/Producer & Founder of Athenaeum Productions

Caitlin Spiller

Film Editor

Ken Petrie

Producer

Meet the collaborators

Teenage Cancer Trust

Rachael Hough

Consultant and Professor of Haematology

Polly Bennett

Director, Movement Director and Choreographer

Dr Louise Dalton

Associate Professor & Clinical Psychologist

Dr Elizabeth Rapa

Associate Professor, Psychiatry at Oxford University

Related Case Studies

View all case studies
Case Study CultureFilm

Rose’s House

A terrace home in Sheffield, providing a safe space for a marginalised community of trans women.
View Case Study
Case Study CultureFilm

The Exhibition

Queer Roma artist returns from London to his Hungarian hometown to stage a public exhibition.
View Case Study
Case Study CultureFilm

The Things We Don’t Say

A group of young adults born during or just after the 1994 genocide against Rwanda's Tutsi people gather to find the courage to break a powerful taboo.
View Case Study
Case Study CultureFilm

MOTHERBOARD

Decades spanning documentary following the twists and turns of single motherhood, finding beauty in the passage of time.
View Case Study
Case Study CultureFilm

The Ceremony

Immigrant cultures expressed through food, music & burial Practices.
View Case Study
Case Study CultureFilm

My Blonde GF

Tackling the troubling issue of non-consensual deepfake pornography through powerful storytelling.
View Case Study
Case Study CultureFilm

Black Dog

A journey into what it means to face trauma and find connection in the unlikeliest of places.
View Case Study
Case Study CultureVideo Game

Windrush Tales

Delving into the experiences of Caribbean immigrants in post-war Britain.
View Case Study