Neil Thompson

After graduating from PCL film school, Neil commenced his directing career in music videos for AWGO Productions who were based in London and Los Angeles. He then co-founded the Shooting Stars Production Company which went on to be one of the most prolific companies in the business. He directed over one hundred and sixty music videos for all the major record companies, over fifty television commercials for some of the world's leading brands, two award winning short films and worked as a producer/director in broadcast television. He was an elected member of the PACT council for four years and chaired the film group of the DGGB for five years. His TV credits include work for companies such as Planet 24, Diverse and Wall to Wall such as producing and directing comedy items for Channel 4's acclaimed youth show "The Word". Neil's music video credits include Shaft, Inner City, Black Box, Steve "Silk" Hurley, Kim Wilde, Alexander O'Neil, Cherrelle, Arthur Baker, Stock Aitken & Waterman, The Sounds Of Blackness, Maxi Priest, Joan Armatrading, Terry Hall, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Del Amitri, Squeeze and M-People. He has also produced and directed long-form, television and concert films for clients such as George Benson, Prince, The Persuasions, Bawl, Del Amitri, Dina Carrol, Bananarama, N-Joi and Runrig.as well as TV commercials for clients such as Scrumpy Jack, Fuji Film, ID Design, Chris Tarrant, Telstar TV, Panasonic, Moby, Mute Records, Sky Sports and Emap amongst numerous others. Neil has a BA Hons in Film & Photographic Art, a Diploma in Screenwriting from London University, was nominated twice for a Billboard award in Los Angeles, a European Film Award for best music video, a TAPS award as writer of the year and is represented by United Agents. After setting up Formosa Films, he co-produced and directed the crime/gangster film Clubbed based on a bestselling book by a Bafta winning writer. The film starred Colin Salmon (Resident Evil, The World is Not Enough, Alien V Predator), Mel Raido (In Our Name, Gemma Bovary, The Informers), and Maxine Peake (Shameless, See No Evil, The Village). The film was released theatrically in the UK and France in 2009. It has sold to more than 25 territories and was a best-selling DVD on week of release. Clubbed was nominated for a BIFA award and invited to screen at Dinard Festival of UK film, France. Neil developed, produced and co-directed Twenty8k, an exciting thriller written by BAFTA and EMMY winner Paul Abbott (State of Play, Shameless). The film starred Parminder Nagra (The Blacklist, ER, Bend it Like Beckham), Stephen Dillane (Game of Thrones, The Hours, The Tunnel) and Kaya Scodelario, (Pirates of the Caribbean, Emmanuel and the Truth About Fishes, The Maze Runner). The film premiered at the EFM in Berlin, had a UK release in October 2012 and all TV rights were acquired by Sky. The US released in January 2014. Neil's current slate includes The Naked Truth, an edgy com rom, Contained, a high octane, conspiracy thriller, Diamond Life a glossy high end TV series, Unspoken, described as The Wicker Man set on a Greek Island, Nightshade, a Sci Fi thriller, and Guilty, a Boston set neo noir currently set up as a UK/Canada co pro. Neil was a guest of honour at the Producer's Network during the Cannes Film Festival and invited to TAP where producers from Europe, Canada and the US attended markets and movie case studies in Berlin, Toronto and New York to facilitate co-production projects between the selected companies. He was selected for the European Film Finance co-production conference in Berlin and regularly speaks on panels about tax driven financing models in the UK such as at the Screen Summit Annual Conference and the Bafta Production Market.