Oxford Scientific Films
| Private company limited by shares | |
| Industry | Television production, Film production |
| Genre | Documentary, Nature |
| Founded | Oxford, U.K. (July 8, 1968) |
| Founder | Gerald Thompson Peter Parks John Paling Sean Morris David Thompson |
| Headquarters | London, United Kingdom |
|
Key people
|
Clare Birks, CEO, Caroline Hawkins, Creative Director |
| Products | Meerkat Manor, Lemur Kingdom, Fatal Attractions |
| Parent | Fairfax Media |
| Website | http://www.oxfordscientificfilms.tv |
Oxford Scientific Films (OSF) is a British company that produces natural history and documentary programmes. Founded on 8 July 1968, by noted documentary filmmaker Gerald Thompson, the independent film company broke new ground in the world of documentaries, using new filming techniques and capturing footage of never before filmed activities of its various subjects. In 1996, Oxford Scientific Films was sold to Circle Communications, where it retained its own identity as a division within the company. The following year, Circle Communications was taken over by Southern Star Entertainment UK. Under the new ownership, Oxford Scientific Films continued to enhance its reputation for innovative film-making, producing multiple award-winning series and films, including the highly acclaimed Animal Planet series, Meerkat Manor.
In March 2008, Southern Star merged its Sydney-based factual business division into the Oxford Scientific Films division, retaining the brand name for specialist documentaries, while using "Southern Star Factual" as the brand name for its features and entertainment style documentaries. When Southern Star was sold to Endemol, Oxford Scientific Films was retained by parent company Fairfax Media. In 2011 Oxford Scientific Films was acquired by Boom Pictures Productions, who own a 70% share of the company.
In 1967, cinemicrophotography pioneer, professional film maker, and Oxford University lecturer Gerald Thompson, was approached by the Ealing Corporation of Harvard about expanding its catalog of short educational films. Universal Education and Visual Arts, a New York City, company also was interested in talking with Thompson about the works he'd produced. Thompson and five of his associates and former students: Peter Parks, who worked with plankton; John Paling, a fish specialist who worked with Parks; recent Oxford graduate Sean Morris; zoologist John Cooke; and Eric Skinner, who assisted Thompson with his films, wanted to form an independent film company. Thompson and Parks travelled to America to meet with the two companies to show their work. At the end of the meeting, they told the head of the company about their desire to open their own company and, impressed with the films he'd seen, he offered to finance them for the first three years and give them the funds to build a place to work.
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