Mr Jezz Vernon

Jezz Vernon is a senior lecturer in Film and industry studies at the University of Exeter. He is Program Lead for the MA in International Film Business and co-founded eXeFilm with Professor Will Higbee, the only contemporary film distribution label to be run by a higher education institute. He is a London based film & TV producer, and was a member of the Film London board (the capital’s strategic screen agency) from 2015 to 2021. He has run production company Port Royal Media since 2016.

After graduating film school in 1998 he started working across editorial and marketing for a range of magazine publishers, including a tenure at the New Musical Express, before returning to the film in 2002 as Marketing Director at film distributor Revolver Entertainment. He joined Metrodome Distribution in 2005 and became Managing Director in 2012, launching a production slate the same year and expanding the group into international sales. Jezz began his producing career with horror film The Borderlands (2013, Goldner), which gained recognition from Guillermo Del Toro, who described it as, "a truly unique film: erudite and absorbing. It captures the energies of James, Blackwood and Machen and resolves them in a powerful, 21st century way".

Jezz was Metrodome's supervising producer on their film and doc output, latterly funded in conjunction with equity investment fund Moli Films. He went on to produce and co-produce a series of genre films and documentaries.

Metrodome's releases under Jezz included The Secret in Their Eyes (Academy Award Winner), The Counterfeiters (Academy Award Winner), I Am Love, Frances Ha, The Falling and Sunset Song. Throughout his career Jezz has worked in close collaboration with filmmakers and actors including Terence Davies, Luca Guadagnino, Tilda Swinton, Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach, Bruce Weber, Lukas Moodysson and Julie Christie. 

Jezz has distributed over 500 films in his career in the UK and internationally, including several Academy Award Winners and Bafta nominees.

IMDb link

Jezz's recent production projects include Last Swim (Crystal Bear Winner at the 2024 Berlinale), Public Enemy: A Greek Tragedy (theatrically released in 2024 through eXeFilm) and It’s the Blackness.