The building that Sands Films occupies is a former granary, now a grade II listed building. The business was founded in 1975 and since 1976, it has housed a small film stage, film theatre, picture library, workshops and costume stores. The Goodwins initially used the derelict building rent-free, on the basis they completely repaired and renovated the property. As an independent filmproduction studio Sands Films has its own soundproof stage, workshops, costume department, set construction workshop, cutting room, cinema and other services needed to make films. It is a self-sufficient and fully integrated production facility. Cinema and television companies as varied as Working Title, Talkback, BBC, C4, Freemantle, Ridley Scott Associates, Sky TV, the Royal Opera House, the New York Metropolitan Opera and Canal+ have used the facilities at Sands for their projects.
Productions
The studio has also been successful in delivering full production packages to companies in need of a London studio base, from A Passage to India" to Bright Star. Sands films supplied facilities to Working Title's productions of "Anna Karenina" and Les Miserables. Other productions for which the company has produced costumes include all the Agatha Christie films produced by EMI, Vanity Fair, The Phantom of the Opera, Fingersmith, and Pride & Prejudice. They hand embroidered the costumes for the main characters in the BBC's 2015 series, Wolf Hall. In 2011 the company's annual turnover exceeded £1 million for the first time. After their rent had almost quadrupled since 2000 and they had been asked to pay back-rent for an unrenovated part of the building, the Goodwins began to raise funds to purchase the property. This included selling shares at £500 each and, later in 2012, they successfully bought the property, with plans to modernise its production facilities. Managing director Olivier Stockman has worked for Sands Studios since 1980. In 2017 Sands Films began production of "The Good Soldier Schwejck", written and directed by Christine Edzard and based on the famous The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek. The project was partly funded by the auction of a costume worn by Mark Rylance in the BBC's Wolf Hall''.
