Carnival Film & Television Limited,^[1][2] trading as Carnival Films, is a British production company based in London, UK, founded in 1978. It has produced television series for all the major UK networks including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Sky, as well as international broadcasters including PBS, A&E, HBO and NBC. Productions include single dramas, long-running television dramas, feature films, and stage productions.

Carnival Films was founded in 1978 by feature film producer Brian Eastman.

As of 2014, Carnival has produced over 500 hours of drama and comedy for television, cinema and stage. This included 70 episodes of Agatha Christie's Poirot starring David Suchet and 22 episodes of Rosemary & Thyme, starring Felicity Kendal and Pam Ferris. In the action/adventure genre it produced BUGS, Oktober and The Grid, in comedy drama it produced Jeeves and Wooster starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, teenage drama-comedy As If, as well as the adaptations of Tom Sharpe's novels Blott on the Landscape and Porterhouse Blue.

In 2004, the BBC's former Head of Drama Commissioning Gareth Neame joined Carnival as managing director.^[3] In 2007, former Creative Director of BBC Drama Sally Woodward Gentle joined the company as Creative Director. The two had previously worked together on Spooks (MI:5), Tipping the Velvet and Cambridge Spies.

In 2007 Australian production company Southern Star acquired 75% percent of Carnival Films but by 2008 the company was acquired by American-based NBCUniversal as part of its plan to increase its presence in content creation outside the United States.^[4] Following several more acquisitions Carnival is now part of NBCUniversal International Television Production alongside newer additions Monkey Kingdom, Working Title Television, Chocolate Media and Lucky Giant in the UK, Lark in Canada and Matchbox Pictures in Australia.^[5][6]

Under the direction of Gareth Neame, Carnival has produced series such as; The Philanthropist for NBC; hit BBC series Hotel Babylon; the television films Enid starring Helena Bonham Carter and Matthew Macfadyen; Page Eight starring Bill Nighy, Rachel Weisz, Michael Gambon and Ralph Fiennes; four-part drama Any Human Heart starring Jim Broadbent, Matthew MacFadyen, Hayley Atwell and Kim Cattrall; The Hollow Crown, a BBC adaptation of Shakespeare's history plays starring Tom Hiddleston, Ben Whishaw and Jeremy Irons; The Last Weekend, a three-part adaptation of Blake Morrison's novel; and Whitechapel for ITV.

Carnival's biggest hit, both critically and commercially, is Downton Abbey, written and co-produced by Julian Fellowes.^[7] The final episode of the TV series aired on 25 December 2015. In 2016, Neame and Fellowes started planning a feature adaptation; it was officially confirmed in July 2018 and filming began later that month. Downton Abbey (film) was released in the United Kingdom on 13 September 2019 by Universal Pictures, and in the United States on 20 September 2019 by Focus Features. It received generally positive reviews from critics and grossed $194 million worldwide. The sequel, Downton Abbey: A New Era, was released in the United Kingdom on 29 April 2022, and in the United States on 20 May 2022.

Carnival Films has won a wide variety of awards for its work on Television, Film and Stage productions. With the company itself winning the 'Best Independent Production Company' award at both the Televisual Magazine Bulldog Awards 2011,^[16] and the Broadcast Awards 2012.^[17] In addition Carnival's productions have together been awarded nine Primetime Emmy Awards;^[18] one Golden Globe;^[19] nineteen BAFTAs;^{[20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]} one Screen Actors Guild Award;^[28] a Producers Guild of America Award;^[29] two National Television Award;^[30] three International Emmy Awards;^[31] five RTS awards;^[32][33][34] four BANFF Rockie Awards;^[35] three Ivor Novello Awards;^[36] two Broadcast awards;^[17] a Bulldog award; an Evening Standard Theatre Award; and a Tony.^[37]

Further to this success the company's productions have also received nominations from such varied awards bodies as the Academy Awards,^[38] the Laurence Olivier Awards, The Monte Carlo International Television Festival,^[39] The Screen Actors Guild,^[40] The American Society of Cinematographers,^[41] The Edgar Allan Poe Awards,^[42] The Rose D’Or^[43] and The San Sebastian Film Festival.^[44]