Paul Holbrook
Share this
Paul Holbrook is a multi-award-winning writer and director. Proudly working-class, he was born and bred on a rough council estate in the South West of Bristol. Despite a lack of formal education, Holbrook started his career as a screenwriter, advancing through various industry-backed screenwriting competitions including Page, Shore, and Screencraft.
In 2018 he made the final 1% of The Academy Nicholl Fellowship (The Oscars) and was also selected for industry-backed career development through Creative England, Bafta, and the BFI.
As a self-taught director, Paul Holbrook has been prolific in the world of filmmaking, and his work has been selected for numerous Bafta, BIFA, and Oscar-qualifying film festivals around the world including Palm Springs, BFI London, Encounters, and Aesthetica, winning many awards along the way. His films often 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.
In 2020, he was nominated for a London Critics Circle Award for his short film ‘Hungry Joe’ which was described by Short of the Week as “One of the UK’s great modern horror shorts” and his highly anticipated follow-up ‘Hollow’, which was produced through The Pitch Film Fund has garnered similar critical acclaim across the industry, including picking up best cinematography at Rhode Island International Film Festival. His short film ‘Shiney’ which was funded by BFI Network has also racked up over 2 million views online and ‘Old Windows’ was released in 2023 via Directors Notes, to a host of critical acclaim.
Holbrook is developing various film and TV projects with established and emerging production companies, including TV comedies Joan of Park (with Yellow Door Productions & Sky Comedy) and Whatever Happened to Pete Biscuits? (with Bristol AF Productions), as well as feature films Hungry Joe (with Buffalo Dragon) and Snog (with Victoria Falls Entertainment). He is also attached to ‘Wolves’ – a feature-length thriller in development with Film Cymru and is developing his first TV drama ‘Stomping Ground’ via the BBC Voices scheme.
Holbrook has also been selected for Network@LFF and is a returning BAFTA Connect member.