Family film company is doing more than canny
Morning Sir Productions - the outfit behind film festival favourite, Gan Canny - is turning a £500 passion project into one of the region’s biggest indie success stories
In less than two years, a North Tyneside-based, family-run film company has gone from launching its first projects to picking up major awards, travelling the festival circuit and turning heads across the industry.
At the centre of that rise is Gan Canny - a darkly comic, defiantly Geordie short film that has become one of the North East’s standout indie success stories of the past 12 months.
For Morning Sir Productions, the journey has been as personal as it has been rapid.
“We are a mum (Lou), dad (Michael) and son (Aaron) production company and started Morning Sir Productions in June 2024 ahead of our first production, Bruised,” explains Michael Burns, who has successfully transferred skills developed during the running of the family recruitment company over to the role of film producer.
The company was born not out of industry connections or financial backing, but out of a determination to carve out space in an industry that can often feel closed off.
“Morning Sir really came about when, as parents, we felt concerned that our neurodiverse son, Aaron, may not be able to access the industry because of his access needs,” Michael says.
“As a northern, working class, disabled writer dealing with chronic illness, Lou too had felt the force of barriers in the industry,” he continues. “She knew how challenging it could be and we wanted to build something that would hopefully support Aaron (who completed a film degree in 2024) to gain vital industry experience.”
From the outset, Morning Sir has been about more than just making films. It is about creating opportunities, particularly for those who might otherwise be overlooked.
That ethos - creating access, representation and opportunity - is embedded in Gan Canny, a film rooted in the North East in spirit as well as setting.
Written in response to personal loss, the story follows siblings Tyler and Paige as they clash with their estranged mother over funeral arrangements, before impulsively stealing a hearse and taking their Nana on one final road trip.
It is, on paper, a chaotic premise. In practice, it is something more nuanced: a working-class family drama that balances grief with humour, tenderness with absurdity.
“The idea of the film started with one question: just how far would you go to spend one more day, one more moment, with someone you love that you’ve lost?” says Michael.
The film’s emotional core comes directly from lived experience. Writer Lou drew on her own grief following the loss of her father, channelling that into a story that refuses to separate sadness from laughter.
“As dark and sad as that time in our lives was, Lou wanted to bring a sense of warmth and humour to the theme of grief,” Michael explains.
That balance between heartbreak and humour has proved to be one of the film’s defining strengths.
It has also resonated far beyond the region.
Made on a micro-budget of around £500, the production relied heavily on the goodwill, talent and commitment of a North East cast and crew who believed in the project.
“Producing a film this ambitious without any sort of budget was a scary thought but we were so lucky to find people that believed in the project as much as we did,” Michael says.
Filming took place across North Tyneside in May 2025, with support from local communities in Shiremoor, Wallsend and Whitley Bay - including crack-of-dawn shoots along the coast.
From there, the film quickly gathered momentum.
After entering the festival circuit in late 2025, Gan Canny began picking up selections - and then awards.
Successes have included Best Comedy Drama and Best Newcomer at the UK Film Awards; Best Indie Film at the London Director Talents Movie Awards 2026; and Best Comedy Screenplay at The Funny Life Film Festival. There was also a win at the Barcelona Indie Awards, where Gan Canny triumphed over 3,300 submissions to take Best UK Film.
Perhaps most significantly, the film took home a major prize at the Royal Television Society North East and the Borders Awards earlier this year, winning in the Non-Broadcast Scripted and Non-Scripted category.
By my reckoning, it also bossed the unofficial category of ‘most shout outs during acceptance speeches’.
“We were absolutely over the moon,” says Michael. “Gan Canny was made with a hugely passionate and dedicated team, and a huge amount of love for the North East, so to have it recognised by the Royal Television Society was a massive honour.”
If the award marked a milestone, it was far from the end of the story.
Since then, the film has continued to travel, with screenings lined up across the UK and beyond. Among the next stops is a closing slot at Sunderland Shorts, a BIFA-qualifying festival, on Sunday, May 17.
Internationally, the team are heading to Ireland, where Gan Canny has been selected as one of just eight short films from around the world to screen at the Athlone Film Festival later this month, part of the RTÉ All Ireland Drama Festival.
“Apparently the Irish love a humorous death so we’ll fit right in,” Michael says.
Beneath the jokes lies something more significant: a film that proves that regional storytelling, told authentically, can travel.
“There has always been something that feels very special about this project,” Michael reflects.
“When it went onto the festival circuit and won awards at places like Folkestone, Epsom, London, it has felt amazing because it’s meant that despite being so deep rooted in Geordie culture, it still resonated with audiences in other parts of the country.”
That ability to connect - without diluting its identity one jot - is part of what has set Gan Canny apart.
It has also opened doors.
“We’ve had a number of emails and calls already… it hasn’t stopped since!” says Michael of the response following the RTS win.
While that momentum is exciting for the company, there is a clear sense that the success belongs to a wider creative community.
“Gan Canny is very much a film by a group of brilliantly talented people and they all deserve to be acknowledged and reap anything they can from this.”
Looking ahead, there are already plans to expand the world of Gan Canny beyond the short film format.
“We have fallen in love with the characters and so it felt only right that we explore the development of the Gan Canny ‘world’,” Michael says.
“The industry feedback and our belief all along is that there’s longer term potential with this, and that it would lend itself to a returnable TV series.”
Alongside that, Morning Sir Productions is continuing to build momentum off-screen too. The company has been announced as one of the first partner companies to Runway Rooms - a new North East studio aiming to rebalance power in the creative industries - which has also named acclaimed Newcastle filmmaker Neil Marshall as its first official ambassador.
For a company that didn’t exist two years ago, it is a remarkable trajectory - and one which is still very much on the up.