Career
His short film Mixtape starring Bill Milner was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Short Film and won the Virgin Media Shorts competition. The film features music from The Kinks and Heart.
Jason Solomons singled out the film in his Trailer Trash column for The Guardian in the build up to the BAFTA Awards in 2010. He stated that he was "Immediately charmed by its retro story of a boy who makes a cassette of songs for the girl next door". [3]
In honour of Mixtape's BAFTA nomination, BBC 6 Music presenter Lauren Laverne invited Snellin on her show to share a mixtape from when he was 11 years old in the memory tapes segment.
He was then selected as one of seven directors, from nearly a thousand applicants, to direct an episode of original drama for Channel 4 through the broadcaster's "Coming Up" scheme in 2013. [4]
This led to him directing episodes of BAFTA and Emmy-nominated My Mad Fat Diary , Russell T Davies' Banana and Pete Bowker's The A Word.
In 2018/19 he was the lead director on both BBC/Netflix coproduction Wanderlust , written by Nick Payne and starring Toni Collette and Temple , written by Mark O'Rowe and starring Mark Strong.
On Wanderlust, The Hollywood Reporter's Tim Goodman remarked that "There’s a scene when the two are driving each other to their separate dates and the Bill Withers classic “Use Me” comes on the radio, and they both sing. In lesser hands, this would be an eye-roller, but director Luke Snellin, who does a consistently excellent job, uses the good will Payne has built up with these characters; the brief scene is more fun than trite, as both get into the song and laugh while singing along." [5]
On Temple, Jeff Robson wrote for The i that "director Luke Snellin creates a suitably surreal atmosphere from the landscape of tunnels, staircases and side doors that Tube travellers glimpse out of the corners of their eyes every day." [6] and Alastair McKay compared it to "at times, like early Tarantino" [7] for The Evening Standard.
Snellin directed the feature film adaptation of John Green, Lauren Myracle and Maureen Johnson's young adult novel, Let It Snow , released by Netflix on 8 November 2019. The film scored an 85% percent fresh rating [8] on Rotten Tomatoes and stars Isabela Merced, Shamiek Moore, Odeya Rush, Kiernan Shipka and Joan Cusack. Let It Snow was nominated for a GLAAD award in 2020.
On Let It Snow Adam Chitwood wrote for Collider that “Luke Snellin makes his feature directorial debut with a warm, cinematic approach to the material, crafting a dynamic frame so that the film is visually engaging...it’s a treat to watch a Christmas movie that feels genuinely cinematic.” [9] .
While The New York Times' Elisabeth Vincentelli said “this fat-free, affectionate debut feature from director Luke Snellin embodies the Christmas spirit of tolerance and generosity — spiced up with some genuinely funny scenes.” [10]
In 2021 he directed the entirety of the second season of Feel Good starring Mae Martin, Charlotte Ritchie and Lisa Kudrow for which he won an RTS Award for Best Director - Comedy Drama at the RTS Craft and Design Awards. The show also won an NME Award for Best TV Show and was ranked at number 6 on The Guardian's 50 Best TV Shows of 2021.
He directed episodes 10-13 of Netflix show One Day created by Nicole Taylor and based on the book of the same name by David Nicholls. Starring Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall, the show debuted to critical and commercial success in February 2024 with The Guardian calling it "a flawless rom com" [11] and ranking it at number 3 on their 50 Best TV Shows of 2024.
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