Brendan Cleaves

After running around Camden with a camera shooting music videos for local bands’, I thought the only way to make a dent in the professional world of promo directing was to go off-piste and write the music as well. I got a guitar, learnt to play, and the music video I directed for that band got nominated for a UK MVA.

After spending the next few years directing music videos, I then decided to follow my passion for writing genre films and wrote my first short ROGER a proof of concept for a feature film. I shot Roger in 2016 staring John Bradley’ (Game of Thrones) and comedian Seann Walsh, it then went on to be screened at over fifty film festivals around the world, many BAFTA and Academy award qualifying, it was nominated and won various awards.

My focus is on creating worlds and characters different from normality. My work is character-driven, sometimes weird, sometimes dark, but always fun and entertaining.

My short film ‘The Dead Collectors’ stars Ivan Kaye (Vikings, Bubblegum Milkshake) and Elliot Langridge (Northern Soul) has been selected for many prestigious genre festivals worldwide, including BIFFF, Flickers Rhode Island, Frightfest, Screamfest LA, Abertoir, Trieste and FilmQuest. It was nominated for the Méliès d'Argent three times.

My latest shorts 'Sam and Doug' a zombie thriller starring Craig Charles (Red Dwarf) and Karla Langly (Call the Midwife, Carnival Row) is currently on the world film festival circuit, recently nominated for the Méliès d'Argent at the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival.

The feature film script for the ‘Roger’ feature film made it to the semifinal of every major screenplay competition in the world, and was featured on the Hollywood Blacklist websites 'Top Comedy scripts'.

I have been nominated for the Méliès d'Argent four times.