SIMONE SMITH

Simone Smith is a self-taught BAFTA New Talent award-winning filmmaker and visual artist from Glasgow, Scotland. In her work, she combines pure cinema with authentic experience. Translating her experience of living in the world into form. Independently made on zero to low budgets, her films have been described as "surreal poetry", and "raw and unconventional", and screened at multiple Oscar and Bafta qualifying festivals.

Her short film SLAP was BAFTA-nominated and won Jury Special Mention at GSFF were "the Jury were struck by the work of this director who is pursuing her own sensory style in design and narration." SLAP was also hailed by BFI's Sight and Sound Magazine  as an "impressionistic knockout", and voted top-pick by Eden Court at Inverness Film Festival "It settles deep under the skin. I’ve never seen anything quite like it."  Her short RED  won a BAFTA New Talent Award and praised as "Very original" by Stanley Kubrick's producer, Jan Harlen, and "a true work of art" by Ain't It Cool News. THE RINSING was broadcast on Channel 4's Random Acts and won the Best Film award at London's Shorts On Tap. Simone's latest short film THE MöBIUS TRIP was selected for Short Circuit's Sharp Shorts development and funding scheme, and is now in the festival circuit, premiering at the Glasgow Short Film Festival and winning another Jury Special Mention Award praised for its "radicalism" and "strong and adventurous cinematic vision." 

Simone was subsequently profiled in The Skinny where the film was described as "The gnarliest Scottish film of the year." Since then, it has gone on to screen at 30+ festivals worldwide including Edinburgh International Film Festival, Hollyshorts, BFI London, Beyond Fest and more. Further notable award wins include the UK Special Mention at Encounters International Film Festival, Best Film at Torino Underground, Best Experimental at Arizona Underground, the Grand Jury Award at Chicago Underground Film Festival, and made the prestigious BIFA-longlist for Best British Short Film.

Raised in the east end of Glasgow, Simone gained a BA Honours in Computer Animation & Digital Art, an HND in Digital Art & Design, and an Advanced Diploma in Physical Theatre Practice. From 2008-2014 she earned a position at BBC Scotland, working up the ladder from Runner to self-shooting Director and Producer. Simone then travelled to New York to work with experimental theatre collective The Wooster Group, founded by Elizabeth LeCompte and Willem Dafoe. She is an EIFF Talent Lab participant for 2019, a BFI Network@LFF participant for 2023 - selected from over 400 applicants, and her debut feature film IT'S TOO LATE YOU CAN'T SAVE ME is in development with BFI Network / Short Circuit First Features scheme.

"My work is a constant work-in-progress where I aspire to explore freely through instinct, and without any kind of pre-conception the construction of the still and moving image. I follow my instincts and emotions, expressing what I can't not express. It is animal, intimate, instinctive, a place to be both violent and tender, a diary of visual exercises with multiple interpretations, a spiritual place."

Simone is represented by Rowena Wallace at PEACH HOUSE.