Paul Holbrook

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 look to 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 Bafta Connect member, is listed on the Shore Director’s roster, has been funded by BFI Network, including being selected for Network@LFF and is developing various projects with established production companies in the drive towards TV and features.

Paul is also an ambassador for Youth Moves, a charity empowering young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to thrive and break away from the stigmas they face.

Paul is currently developing with BFI Network on his debut feature, Hungry Joe (based on the award-winning short of the same name).