Elliot Grove

Elliot Grove is a Canadian-born film producer who founded both the Raindance Film Festival in 1993 and the British Independent Film Awards in 1998.

Grove teaches screenwriting and filmmaking throughout the UK, Europe, North America and Japan.

As of 2012, he has produced over 150 short films, and 5 feature films.

Early life and education
Growing up in a Mennonite household, Grove was unable to watch TV or films. At the age of 16, he watched his first film, Lassie Comes Home, and was subsequently "hooked on cinema forever."

He followed up formal art school training at Central Technical School in Toronto with a series of jobs behind the scenes in the film industry.

Career
Working as a scenic artist on 68 feature films and over 700 commercials in his native Toronto, Grove developed a distaste for the wasted resources on set and union bureaucracy that prevented aspiring filmmakers like himself from getting their own features off the ground. In 1992, he founded Raindance Film Festival, a festival devoted to promoting independent filmmaking.

Grove established the British Independent Film Awards in 1998 and launched the IPTV platform Raindance TV in 2007. He also founded the Independent Film Trust, a charitable organization that empowers children facing disabilities or disadvantaged circumstances to express themselves through the art of filmmaking.

In July 2009, Grove was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Open University at Plymouth College of Art, in recognition of his contribution to education in independent film.

In December 2021, Grove received the Impact Award at the first ever British Short Film Awards.

Production
Grove's production company operates under the Raindance banner. Upholding the ethos of Raindance, he wrote, produced and directed 1997's feature, Table 5, for just over £200.

In 2005 Grove produced The Living and the Dead. He stopped producing features between 2007 and 2012 because of his involvement with Raindance. As of 2012, he had produced over 150 short films, and 5 feature films.

In early 2013, Grove re-launched production with Deadly Virtues: Love.Honour.Obey.