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Simon Ellis is an independent filmmaker from the U.K. His production company is Bub, and Bubtowers is the 'official' and most comprehensive resource for all things Bub. Simon graduated from Nottingham Trent University in 1995, specialising in Fine Art photography. After spending the subsequent summer feasting on Asian cinema and writing short scripts, he went on to do volunteer work at the now-defunct Intermedia in Nottingham, accessing camera and editing facilities in return for his efforts. A plan was hatched to make at least two short films a year and the first (officially speaking) was Thicker than Water, which cost five pounds (and would have cost less if the person selling the second-hand tape had been more charitable). The film was shot in less than an hour with a one-person cast and crew and went on to win a nice cash prize at the BBC British Short Film Festival in 1997. While freelancing as a storyboard artist for TCM and Cartoon Network to make ends meet, Simon met Nottingham-based animation duo Hot Knife and was introduced to non-linear editing technology. Discovering that affordable computers could provide independent editing facilities was MASSIVE and a modest arts grant to buy one changed everything. To coincide with this, the equally affordable Mini-DV format was born. Jumping forward to the present, Simon's short films have received many international festival awards and have been presented collectively in retrospective programmes at over a dozen film festivals worldwide. His BAFTA and European Academy Award nominated short film Soft won thirty-eight prizes including the jury prize for Best International Short at the Sundance Film Festival. He attends many festivals as either filmmaker or juror and has enjoyed countless sales of his titles to international territories. “Film festivals have been my film school” Simon has also worked as either editor or camera operator on many other projects. He has remained successfully undistracted by the music video industry but occasionally makes them on an independent basis. He directed episodes of the MTV comedy series Fur TV and directed the feature film Dogging: A Love Story. More recently he has dipped his toe in the world of commercials, and his multi-narrative, interactive anti-knife crime films have won over sixty awards including a Grand Prix, three golds and Best European Web Film at Cannes Lions 2010, where he also received the Young Director Award.
Cork Film Festival / Ireland (2003), 3 titles
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