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Charlotte Wells | |
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| Born | Charlotte Anna Wells 13 June 1987 Morningside, Edinburgh, Scotland |
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| Years active | 2014–present |
| Website | charlotte-wells |
Charlotte Wells (born 13 June 1987) is a Scottish director, writer, and producer. She is known for her feature film debut Aftersun (2022), [1] which premiered in 2022 during Critics' Week at Cannes Film Festival, receiving 121 nominations and 33 awards, including Gotham and British Independent Film Awards. [2] Wells has worked on numerous other films, such as Blue Christmas (2017), and her films have screened at festivals worldwide.
Wells was born in Edinburgh. She attended secondary school at the independent George Heriot's School. [3] Wells did not live with her father, who died when she was 16, [4] but remembers him as a very involved parent, despite the living situation. The father-daughter dynamic was a frequent topic of conversation after her first feature-film debut Aftersun , a film about a father and daughter.
Wells was interested in film from a young age, but did not initially pursue it. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Classics from King's College London and a Master of Arts from Oxford University. She went into finance and rediscovered film through helping Callum Just, a school friend, run Digital Orchard, a post-production and DIT agency. [5] She used this experience to apply to New York University's joint business and film graduate program with the intention of becoming a producer. She completed a dual Master of Fine Arts and Master of Business Administration at Tisch School of the Arts and the Stern School.
Before starting her career in the film industry as a producer, Wells helped run Digital Orchard, a company specializing in film, finishing images, developing film and digital imaging. At NYU, she began her ventures into filmmaking, creating three short films.
Tuesday follows a 16 year old learning to cope with a big loss, introducing the themes of family and trauma that are present throughout her various films. A young girl, played by Megan McGill goes to her deceased divorced father's residence and grieves her loss. The film presumably takes place in Scotland and reflects Wells' experience of her father passing when she was the same age. [6] The film earned Wells the Best Writer Nominee at BAFTA Scotland New Talent Awards 2016. [7]
Laps is a New York based short about an ordinary day, until a woman is sexually assaulted on a crowded New York subway. Like Tuesday, Laps explores a very traumatic instance, and how life continues to pass despite the severity of it. Wells' visual style continues to evolve, particularly her handheld camera use, to emphasize the claustrophobic nature of the subway. The film features Thea Brooks, and earned Wells Special Jury Recognition at the SXSW Short Film Awards and Special Jury Award for Editing at Sundance 2017. [8]
The longest of her three shorts, Blue Christmas is a period piece of a Scottish debt collector in the late 1960s, who goes to work on Christmas Eve instead of spending time with his wife and son, due largely in part to her worsening mental health. It follows him around this town, subjecting other families to displeasure based on his presence, even having to collect a television from one family. He eats dinner with one of the people he visits before going home late to his wife grappling with their son, as she tries to and eventually does burn down their Christmas tree. The son is angry with his father, once again pointing to a theme of dysfunctional familial relationships, seen similarly in Tuesday and Aftersun . The title of the film is a reference to the Christmas song Blue Christmas, with Elvis Presley's version being included in the film towards its end. The film features Jamie Robson and Michelle Duncan. [9]
Wells was a fellow at the 2020 Sundance Institute Screenwriters and Directors Labs with her feature film debut Aftersun , which premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival to critical acclaim. She was also a producer on the 2019 film Raf, which premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. [10]
Aftersun is a coming-of-age film that tells the story of a young woman, Sophie, recalling a holiday she took with her father, Calum (Paul Mescal), 20 years earlier, for Calum's 31st birthday. The 11-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) does not spend much time with her father, but they have an annual vacation together. They go to a Turkish budget resort, and each wants to bond and connect with the other, but Calum struggles with depression, creating a barrier. Adult Sophie tries to remember her father by looking back on this holiday and piecing together her memories with the help of the videos they took on the vacation.
The film is shot on 35mm film and partly by the actors themselves on a MiniDV camera. [11] This camera is used for many of the scenes with Sophie during the holiday, including playing with friends at the resort and spending time with her father. Wells's father died when she was 16 and she lived apart from him, though she did not feel that he was uninvolved with her upbringing. [4] The father-daughter dynamic was not something Wells initially tried to uncover in the film; it arose during its making, specifically during the screenwriting. [12]
Aftersun received 121 nominations, and 33 awards, including the British Independent Film Award for Best Director and Best Screenplay for Wells [13] and a nomination for Best Actor at the 2023 Academy Awards for Mescal. [14] The National Board of Review named the film the Best Directorial Debut of 2022. [15] Wells also received the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award at the Gotham Awards and the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer at the BAFTA Awards. [16]
In the years since her debut feature, Wells has been active in spaces adjacent to filmmaking, including serving as the Jury President of the Bright Horizons competition at the 2025 Melbourne International Film Festival, where Aftersun Debuted in Australia in 2022, as part of the same competition in its first year. [17] Simón Mesa Soto's The Poet won the award, and its $140,000 prize. [18] As well as the Melbourne International Film Festival, she also lead the jury for the Luigi De Laurentiis debut film award at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, where Nastia Korkia's Short Summer was crowned the winner.
In February of 2024, Wells directed her first advertisement, a video for Quaker, titled "You've Got This." The short follows family and their changing relationships as time passes, focusing on the bond between father and son, centered on Quaker Oats connecting them all through different stages of life. Similar to her early shorts, and Aftersun, the themes of family and specifically paternal bond between father and child is present here, although more positively in comparison. [19] In discussion of the script for the commercial, Wells discussed how these ideas of familial relationships and the passage of time are front of mind when writing, evidenced by the final result, and her other work. [19]
In July of 2024, she directed her second and third advertisements for the American Red Cross, titled "What's Your Type?" and "Growing Up." [20] The first, was created with the goal of relatability, and encouraging all people to donate blood. While beginning normally with upbeat music and ordinary lighting, the commercial takes a quick turn to a hospital, where the cast is now injured and sickly, in need of blood donations to save their lives. [20] "Growing Up" was intended to target Hispanic audiences, and focuses much more on intimate family moments, more familiar to Wells' style. Similarly, it also tells an emotional story, ending on the importance and growing necessity of blood donations. [20]
In May 2024, Wells directed a video for Romy's song Always Forever. The two were close to collaborating earlier in their careers, but never found the right time. [21] The video is a departure from Wells previous work both thematically and stylistically, but does still maintain some of her visual style, featuring collaborators from Aftersun , specifically the club scenes interspersed throughout that film.
| Year | Title | Credited as | Notes | Ref(s) | ||
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| Director | Producer | Writer | ||||
| 2014 | F to 7th | No | Yes | No | TV series (8 episodes) | [22] |
| 2015 | Tuesday | Yes | No | Yes | Short | [22] [23] |
| 2015 | In a Room Below | No | Yes | No | Short | [24] |
| 2016 | Red Folder | No | Yes | No | Short | [25] |
| 2016 | Briefcase | No | Yes | No | Short | [26] |
| 2016 | Alice | No | Yes | No | Short | [27] |
| 2017 | Laps | Yes | No | Yes | Short | [22] |
| 2017 | Blue Christmas | Yes | No | Yes | Short | [22] |
| 2017 | Eté | No | Yes | No | Short | [28] |
| 2019 | Raf | No | Yes | No | Feature | [29] |
| 2022 | Aftersun | Yes | No | Yes | Feature | [30] |
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