Simon Ellis | |
|---|---|
| Born | Coventry, England |
| Occupation | film director, screenwriter |
| Website | simonellisfilms |
Simon Ellis is a British film director.
Ellis' short films have received many awards, including the International Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Best Short Film at BIFA, and BAFTA and European Academy Award nominations. Working in fiction, animation, hybrid documentary and interactive, his work been presented collectively in dedicated retrospective shows at numerous international film festivals. He continues to attend festivals as either filmmaker or juror and has mentored short film directors in both the UK and overseas.
Ellis comes out of a strong tradition of regional British filmmaking. He is a very resourceful filmmaker who had embraced a DIY ethic even before digital technology made that option straightforward. Most importantly, he's an actor's director, and his ability to draw out convincing performances, often from inexperienced young actors and non-professionals, makes his films powerful, whatever the genre (Shots magazine)
Soft, commissioned by Film 4 and UK Film Council's Cinema Extreme scheme won thirty-eight festival prizes including the International Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Best Short Film at the British Independent Film Awards, and both BAFTA and European Film Awards nominations.
I came across a short film recently which blew everything else I had seen that week out of the water. After it was over, there was no question of doing anything other than lying on the sofa with a cushion on my face, whimpering in fear and paranoia. 'Soft' is shocking and violent, and ingeniously, intimately upsetting in a way I can only compare to the controversial scenes in Gaspar Noé's Irréversible. The film reminded me of an essay I read by the late Alexander Walker about Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange: that the film was not merely about violence but about something deeper, darker, more unsayable: a fear of our children, and older people's fear and hatred of the young. (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)
The films Telling Lies and Soft both feature on the Cinema 16 DVD collection, on 'British Short Films' and 'World Short Films', respectively. Alongside short films by Ridley Scott, Christopher Nolan, Guillermo del Toro, Mike Leigh, Lynne Ramsay and many others, Ellis is the only director to feature twice in the series.
In a major collaboration with UK beatboxing champion and loop pedal artist The Petebox, Ellis directed a video for every track from the album Future Loops for an innovative dual CD/DVD album campaign. Each video is a single-take documentary of the actual live recordings, initially released virally in chronological album order via YouTube, amassing millions of views. He has also directed two environmental binaural recording documentaries with Swimming.
The multi-narrative, interactive anti-knife crime campaign films Choose a Different Ending and Who Killed Deon, which won 60+ awards collectively, including several golds and the inaugural Grand Prix for Good at the Cannes Lions, plus golds at the Clio Awards, and the British Television Advertising Awards. Ellis was bestowed with the Young Director Award for Best European Web Film for Choose a Different Ending and Who Killed Deon was ranked 'most awarded TV campaign in the world' by Campaign magazine in January 2012.
In these days of violence and shocking gornography, it's hard to be sickened by anything on TV – but when the stabbed guy realises he's dying (if you choose that option), my stomach turned. Great filming, great acting, great work. (Noel Bussey, Campaign)
The success of these campaigns saw Ellis direct further short films in single-take format for both the Scottish Police Federation and the National Police of Ukraine.
Andrea Arnold, OBE is an English filmmaker and former actor. She won an Academy Award for her short film Wasp in 2005. Her feature films include Red Road (2006), Fish Tank (2009), and American Honey (2016), all of which have won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Arnold has also directed four episodes of the Amazon Prime Video series Transparent, as well as all seven episodes of the second season of the HBO series Big Little Lies. Her documentary Cow premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and played at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival.
Thomas Furneaux Lennon is a documentary filmmaker.
The 2007 Sundance Film Festival ran from January 18 until January 28, 2007, in Park City, Utah with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah and Ogden, Utah. It was the 23-rd iteration of the Sundance Film Festival. The opening night film was Chicago 10; the closing night film was Life Support.
Molly Dineen is a television documentary director, cinematographer and producer. One of Britain's most acclaimed documentary filmmakers, Molly is known for her intimate and probing portraits of British individuals and institutions. Her work includes The Lie of the Land (2007), examining the decline of the countryside and British farming, The Ark (1993) about London Zoo during Thatcherism and the Lords' Tale (2002), which examined the removal of the hereditary peers.
The 2009 Sundance Film Festival was held during January 15, 2009 until January 25 in Park City, Utah. It was the 25th iteration of the Sundance Film Festival.
Gary Tarn is a British filmmaker and composer.
Sally El Hosaini is a Welsh-Egyptian film director and screenwriter.
The 26th annual Sundance Film Festival was held from January 21, 2010 until January 31, 2010 in Park City, Utah.
The 27th annual Sundance Film Festival took place from January 20, 2011 until January 30, 2011 in Park City, Utah, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah, Ogden, Utah, and Sundance, Utah.
Baby is a Brixton set drama short film, written and directed by Daniel Mulloy and starring Arta Dobroshi, Daniel Kaluuya and Josef Altin. Baby premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to win multiple awards including the British Independent Film Award.
The 2013 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 17, 2013, until January 27, 2013, in Park City, Utah, United States, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Utah, Ogden, Utah, and Sundance, Utah.
Petra Costa is a Brazilian filmmaker and actress whose work lives on the borderlines of fiction and nonfiction. She has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 2018.
Ritesh Batra is an Indian film director and screenwriter who is known for his short films. His 2013 film, The Lunchbox broke many records at the box office and even received many awards.
Lindsey Dryden is an Emmy award-winning British film director, producer and writer.
The 2014 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 16, 2014 until January 26, 2014 in Park City, Utah, United States, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Sundance Resort in Utah. The festival opened with Whiplash directed by Damien Chazelle and closed with musical drama Rudderless directed by William H. Macy.
Nick Ryan is a film director and producer from Dublin, Ireland. Ryan directed A Lonely Sky (2006), The German (2008), Electric Picnic: The Documentary (2008), and the award-winning documentary The Summit(2012); In 2016 he produced the award winning Feature I Am Not A Serial Killer directed by Billy O'Brien starring Max Records and Christopher Lloyd; he was also the producer for Ruairi Robinson's short films The Silent City, BlinkyTM, and Corporate Monster. In 1995 he and two others founded Image Now Films, where they worked on commercials and graphic design. In 2018 he established Titan II Films
Eliza Hittman is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer from New York City. She has won multiple awards for her film Never Rarely Sometimes Always, which include the New York Film Critics Circle Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award—both for best screenplay.
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi is an American documentary filmmaker. She was the director, along with her husband, Jimmy Chin, for the film Free Solo, which won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The film profiled Alex Honnold and his free solo climb of El Capitan in June 2017.
Matthew Heineman is an American filmmaker. The Sundance Film Festival called Heineman "one of the most talented and exciting documentary filmmakers working today", while Anne Thompson of Indiewire wrote that Heineman is a "respected and gifted filmmaker who combines gonzo fearlessness with empathetic sensitivity." He recently received a nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement of a First Time Feature Film Director from the Directors Guild of America for his narrative debut A Private War, making Heineman and Martin Scorsese the only filmmakers ever nominated for both narrative and documentary DGA Awards.
