Alice Waddington

Alice Waddington (born July 31, 1990) is a Spanish film director, writer, photographer and costume designer^[1][2] having developed most of her work in the field of modern cinema. Her directing style is defined by a contemporary approach to the golden era of large-scale-studio horror films (1920s–1970s) in classical production companies such as Hammer Films or Universal's Creature Features; mixed with current surreal humor and sometimes including musical cinema.

Early life

Born as Irene^[3] on July 31, 1990, in Bilbao, Spain to a Catalan psychologist and a Galician teacher, Waddington adopted her stage name^[3] at sixteen, while assisting director of photography Quique López.^[4] At 18, she studied advertising at UPV-EHU University where she started capturing promotion stills and directing fashion films as a photographer and assistant of photography for the Spanish editions of Harper's Bazaar, Neo2^[5] and others.

Career

At 20 and for three years, she worked as an advertising creative, a producer and an advertising video editor at the agencies Leo Burnett Iberia and Social Noise also specializing as a digital storyboard artist.

In 2014, with the help of Mexican executive producer Yadira Ávalos, Waddington took a year off advertising agency work to write and direct a short movie. She found sponsors^[6] to help her produce her first narrative 11-minute film,^[7] Disco Inferno (2015), which received nominations in 63 international film festivals including genre fan favorites such as Palm Springs,^[8] Fantasia, Sitges (Noves Visions Short award^[9]) or Fantastic Fest, which first awarded her as Best Director in her category, and second best feature project of the Fantastic Market for her movie Paradise Hills.^[10] Eleven other international festival wins ensued, with a considerable comparative presence of the short picture in American and Canadian festivals.

Waddington entered pre-production of her first full-length feature, Paradise Hills in 2017^[10] with Spanish production company Nostromo Pictures.^[2][11] The film is a science-fiction thriller written by Brian DeLeeuw^[12] and Nacho Vigalondo. It was released in 2019.

Waddington has pointed out in interviews that after Paradise Hills she desires to direct biopics, socially metaphorical fantastic horror about minorities^[13] and terror stories that have taken place.^[14]

In June 2019, it was announced that Waddington is developing her second film Scarlet, from a script written by her and Kristen SaBerre. The film will be distributed by Netflix.^[15]

In September 2021, Waddington was tapped to direct adaptation of comic book series Dept. H for Netflix.^[16]

Social activism

Waddington is a proactive demander for progressive social change regarding causes related to female cooperation^[17] and sorority within the arts.^[3]

In the context of film, she has been vocal about the need for both more female-led and more diversely-cast films worldwide^[18] and about motivating young women to enroll into filmmaking programs.^[19] She has also often mentioned the need for film studios around the world to hire more women, with an accent on women of color.^[13]

Personal life

Waddington is fluent in Spanish and English and conversational in French and Catalan.

Filmography

Film

Awards

Waddington's short film "Disco Inferno" has been presented on 63 plus,^[20] genre and conventional film festivals across the world, winning several awards:

References