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Vadim Jean Vadim started work as a runner on Stormy Monday after graduating from Warwick University with a degree in History. He then set up a company producing everything from corporate videos to sports. Three years and a naively optimistic lunch with Gary Sinyor later, he was directing Leon the Pig Farmer, followed by emotional drama Clockwork Mice, comedy The Real Howard Spitz and love story One More Kiss. Recently Vadim has made his American directorial debut with Jiminy Glick in Lalawood. For Sky he directed The Hogfather and The Colour of Magic.
Vadim has also established himself as a commercials director for agencies such as Saatchi & Saatchi, BBH, Abbott Mead Vickers, Bates Dorland, TBWA and St. Lukes. His campaigns have included ‘Blockbuster Video', ‘Sony Playstation', ‘Thomas Cook' and ‘PC World'. |
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Tony Jordan Tony started his writing career following a workshop with John Sullivan and Carla Lane, when he was taken on to write for EastEnders in 1997 for 18 years. Post Eastenders Tony wrote Minder, Boon, Eldorado, Thieftakers, The Vanishing Man, Can't Buy Me Love, and City Central. The creation of the hit drama award winning Hustle saw the start of a long running and successful relationship with Kudos which lead to him co-creating the highly successful Life on Mars. Tony set up his own production company, Red Planet Pictures in 2006 with regional offices in Bedfordshire and Wales, and won his first commission for the company with Holby Blue; Tony once again teamed up with Kudos to make ambitious dramas Echo Beach and Moving Wallpaper for ITV1. Tony has appeared at SWF in '07 and '08 to promote Red Planet's Screenplay Competition which offers the winner the opportunity to write for a TV series. |
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David Kipen Director of Literature/Author SWF '07
David Kipen joined the National Endowment for the Arts in September 2005 as the Director of Literature. Among his responsibilities, Mr. Kipen leads the agency's national leadership initiatives in literature, including the Big Read and Poetry Out Loud. He also oversees the review process for literature applications. |
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Peter Kosminsky Film & TV Drama Writer & Director SWF '08 Joined BBC as General Trainee in 1980 straight from Oxford, working as a Drama Script Editor before moving to Current Affairs as a director on NATIONWIDE, BREAKFAST TIME and NEWSNIGHT. Moved to Yorkshire Television in 1985 as a Producer/Director on FIRST TUESDAY. Documentaries included THE FALKLANDS WAR - THE UNTOLD STORY and AFGHANTSI as well as the two-part drama SHOOT TO KILL about the Stalker affair by Michael Eaton. Since 1995, have worked largely as a freelance drama director. TV Dramas include NO CHILD OF MINE by Guy Hibbert, (BAFTA for Best Single Drama), WARRIORS by Leigh Jackson, (BAFTA for Best Serial) and THE PROJECT, (a two-part drama about New Labour, also by Leigh Jackson). Projects for TV as a writer/director are: THE GOVERNMENT INSPECTOR, (the Dr David Kelly drama for C4 - BAFTA for Best Single Drama, Best Actor (Mark Rylance) and Best Writer), and BRITZ - a two part drama for C4 about being second generation Muslim in Britain today, to be transmitted on 31st October/1st November 2007. Directed two feature films for Hollywood studios: WUTHERING HEIGHTS for Paramount, starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, and WHITE OLEANDER for Warner Bros, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Renée Zellweger. A winner of the Alan Clarke Award for Outstanding Creative Contribution to Television and a Fellow of the Royal Television Society. |
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Joanna Leigh Screenwriter SWF '08 Joanna is a graduate of the London College of Communication MA Screenwriting, and the current winner of the Red Planet Prize. Her winning script, Sam J, which is in development with Red Planet, is a biopic of 18th century lexicographer Samuel Johnson. Inspired by Joanna's own experience as a lexicographer, the film is also the culmination of her research into the ethics of biopics, as part of a PhD at the LCC. She also wrote and co-created the BAFTA nominated teen web series Planet Jemma for XPT and the National Endowment for Science Technology and the Arts. She is a member of 3witches development group, formed with Hester Schofield and Louise Sanderson, fellow graduates of the MA. |
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Mike Leigh Writer/Director SWF '08 Mike Leigh was born in 1943 in Salford, Manchester. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Camberwell and Central Art Schools in London, and at the London Film School. His first feature film was Bleak Moments (1971); this was followed by the full-length television films, Hard Labour (1973), Nuts in May (1975), The Kiss of Death (1976), Who's Who (1978), Grown-Ups (1980), Home Sweet Home (1982), Meantime (1983), and Four Days In July (1984). Other feature films are High Hopes (1988), Life Is Sweet (1990), Naked (1993) (Cannes: Best Director and Best Actor), Secrets and Lies (1996) (Cannes: Palme d'Or and Best Actress; 4 Oscar nominations), Career Girls (1997), Topsy-Turvy (1999) (two Oscar Awards, 5 nominations), All Or Nothing (2002), Vera Drake (2004) (Venice: Golden Lion & Best Actress; 6 BIFA's, 3 BAFTA's including Best Director, 3 Oscar nominations) and most recently Happy-Go-Lucky (2008) which was in competition at this years Berlin Film Festival where Sally Hawkins was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Actress. He has written and directed over twenty stage plays, including Abigail's Party (1977), Ecstasy (1979), Goose-Pimples (1981), and Two Thousand Years (2005). |
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David Lemon Writer SWF '08
‘Faintheart' a Film4/Vertigo Films production in association with myspace and Slingshot Studios, is David Lemon's first produced feature script. A comedy about a group of hapless battle re-enactors, it stars Eddie Marsan, Jessica Hynes and Ewen Bremner, and will premier at the Cannes Film Festival. |
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Kate Leys Feature film script editor SWF '07 & '08 Kate Leys is a feature film script editor. She works on projects at all stages of development, currently ranging from the first outline of UK author Julie Myerson's bestselling book SOMETHING MIGHT HAPPEN to script notes on Ash Ditta's FRENCH FILM 6 weeks before shooting. As well as working with screenwriters and producers she advises both commercial and public film financiers including DNA, The Weinstein Co and Media Europe, and teaches script development to post-graduate students at the National Film School. She also evaluates screenwriting courses for Skillset. She has been head of development at several companies including FilmFour and sales agency Capitol Films. She has been involved in the development of some of the UK's most successful feature films including THE FULL MONTY, ORPHANS, EAST IS EAST and GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING. She commissioned at least one Oscar nominated film (SOLOMON AND GAENOR) and has also been involved in commissioning something like 100 short films. She has worked as a film agent for Gillon Aitken Associates; as a presenter & producer on BBC2's The Late Show and Moving Pictures; as director of the Edinburgh Television Festival; and as Associate Director of Cinema at the ICA. In addition she has been a location caterer, a film festival programmer, a visiting lecturer in screenwriting, a film distributor and a cinema usherette. She was on the production committee at Scottish Screen for 7 years and is a member of the Advisory Board of the Script Factory. |
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Kevin Loader Producer SWF '06
Producer Kevin Loader spent fourteen years at the BBC, producing and directing arts documentaries and television drama. His BBC productions included "Clarissa", and the award-winning "The Buddha of Suburbia" (directed by Roger Michell). Loader also executive produced a number of award-winning programmes including Bryan Elsley's adaptation of "The Crow Road", Tony Marchant's epic serial, "Holding On" and Peter Flannery's "Our Friends in the North".
‘Straightheads' |