Shane Meadows

After producing a short film every month for a year, he was approached to direct the TV documentary The Gypsy’s Tale (1995). Meadows also wrote, produced, directed, edited and co-starred in the 60-minute film Small Time (1996). After Stephen Woolley, producer of The Crying Game, The Company of Wolves and Interview with the Vampire, saw Shane’s eclectic mix of short films he signed Meadows to write and direct the BBC-financed TwentyFourSeven (1997). The film won Meadows the FIPRESCI award at the 1998 Venice Film Festival as well as many other festival prizes. His next film, A Room For Romeo Brass (1999) was a dark and comic rites-ofpassage story featuring an impressive debut performance from Paddy Considine. With huge critical acclaim and a clutch of awards, the film has gone on to become a British cult classic. The final part of his trilogy, Once Upon a Time in the Midlands, is Meadows’ comedic homage to the Spaghetti Western genre, in which a man returns to The Midlands to try to win back his ex-girlfriend. This film was selected for Director’s Fortnight at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival and was picked up by Sony Classics for the United States. In 2004 Shane’s idiosyncratic, award winning follow up, Dead Man’s Shoes, confirmed his status as one of British film’s most significant voices.