Biography

Paul Holbrook is an award-winning writer and director. A proud working-class Bristolian, he was born and bred in Hartcliffe - a council estate in the South West of England. Despite a lack of formal education, Paul started his career as a screenwriter, writing feature-length scripts aimed at the spec market. He made encouraging progress, advancing through various industry-backed screenwriting competitions including Page, Shore, Screencraft and in 2018 made the final 1% of The Academy Nicholl Fellowship (The Oscars) with his coming-of-age feature 'Snog'. In the UK, he has also made the final stages of the BBC Writersroom with TV comedy ‘Gwentboys’, the final stages of iShorts with short film ‘Mamba’, and has been selected for industry-backed mentoring and career development through Creative England, Bafta, and the BFI. As a writer/director, Paul's films fuse the flair of genre cinema with grounded social realism, and his passion for intimate, character-driven stories is evident in all of his produced work thus far. His films have screened and won numerous awards at Bafta, BIFA, and Oscar-qualifying festivals around the world including Palm Springs, BFI London, Encounters, and Aesthetica. His short film ‘Hungry Joe’ was nominated for a London Critics Circle Award and was described by Short of the Week as "One of the UK's great modern horror shorts" and his highly anticipated follow-up, which was produced through the Enter the Pitch scheme, ‘Hollow’ has garnered similar critical acclaim across the industry, including picking up best cinematography at Rhode Island International Film Festival. Paul is a returning member of the BaftaXBFICrew program, is listed on the Shore Director’s roster, has been funded by BFI Network, and is developing various projects with established production companies in the drive towards his debut feature. Paul is represented by United Agents.

Credits

Other Credits

Hungry Joe Short Film View
Description Year
Produced by Shunk Films. A single mother struggles to bond with her apathetic child, born with an insatiable and increasingly inhumane appetite. 2020
Cell Short Film View
Description Year
A Prisoner of war wakes up in a Nazi prison cell to discover he's the unwitting test subject in a cruel psychological experiment where all is not as it seems. 2017
Sunday Worship Short Film View
Description Year
Commissioned by Talkies Community Cinema. Starring Brian Croucher and Annabel Leventon. A lonely septuagenarian struggles to conceal his ailing health from his doting wife, finding solace watching a local football team, his levels of fandom start to border on obsession. 2017
A Girl and Her Gun Short Film View
Description Year
Starring Joe Sims, Brian Croucher, Tilly Randall, Laura Bayston. A tormented and neglected twelve year old finds solace watching classic western movies. When she finds a gun in her late father's loft she stands up to her tormentors, just like her gunslinging heroes. 2015
Boys Will Be Boys Educational Short Film View
Description Year
A short drama commissioned by the charity Integrate UK looks at the links between unaddressed sexual harassment in secondary schools and rape culture. 2021
Old Windows Short Film View
Description Year
Starring Larry Lamb and Laura Bayston. Produced by Jackalor Films. A struggling cafe owner is intrigued when a mysterious, elderly stranger takes an interest in her life. 2021
Hollow Short Film View
Description Year
Produced by Reel Issue Films and Footprint Films via The Pitch Film Fund. Starring Karl Collins, Kris Hitchen & Laura Bayston. A grieving single mother seeks revenge against the man who killed her child. Struggling to find the strength, she seeks guidance from her local vicar - a man on the edge. 2021
Shiney Short Film View
Description Year
Funded by BFI Network. Produced by Camilla Stoppani. Two creative but impressionable kids hatch a plan to purchase their first packet of cigarettes, whilst clinging on to their prized possession; an impossible-to-get shiny gold football sticker. 2020
Smile More Short Film View
Description Year
A short drama commissioned by the charity Integrate UK looking at the effects of unaddressed racism on a young black boxer. 2022
Five Thousand Stars Short Film View
Description Year
Produced by Reel Issue Films. Starring Julia Hills, Toyin Omari-Kinch, Sammy Windward. Guided by a mysterious chef, a once renowned food critic, now struggling with alcoholism and homelessness campaigns for her local soup kitchen to be saved, despite it being her complaint that shut it down in the first place. 2023
Boys Like You Short Film View
Description Year
Produced by EyUp Films. Starring Lindsay Bennett-Thompson, Louis Emerick & Liam Collins. A depressed housewife seeks out a troubled young man from her past, with disastrous consequences. 2024
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