Alice Waddington

A still of Waddington's Disco Inferno, featuring actress Ana Rujas and a FX goat.

Spanish actress Ana Rujas hops into a flower-covered window on the set of Waddington's Disco Inferno.

Alice Waddington is a Spanish film director, writer,^[1] photographer and costume designer^[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.

Ana Rujas turns off a phonograph on location for Waddington's Disco Inferno.

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 Kike López (Sótano, Ander).^[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, such as the Japanese Kera Magazine. 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 (with clients such as AXA, DIA or Trident) and Social Noise (eDreams, Pepsico, Verti) 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' 30'' - 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 (18/63) and Canadian (6/63) festivals.

Current projects

Waddington is to enter pre-production of her first full-length feature, Paradise Hills in 2017^[10] with Spanish production company Nostromo Pictures.^[11][1] The film is a science-fiction thriller written by Brian DeLeeuw^[12] and Nacho Vigalondo. If Paradise Hills enters production in 2017, Waddington will become the youngest Spanish woman to ever direct a feature film, at 26 years old (a record previously held by Isabel Coixet who was 28 when she directed Demasiado Viejo para morir Joven).

Actress Ana Rujas surrounded by a FX wall of fire on the set of Waddington-directed Disco Inferno.

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]

Social activism

Waddington is a proactive demander for progressive social change regarding causes related to female cooperation ^[15] 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-casted films worldwide^[16] and about motivating young women to enroll into filmmaking programs.^[17] She has also often mentioned the need for film studios around the world to hire more women, with an accent on POC women.^[13]

International awards as a film director

Waddington's short film "Disco Inferno" has been presented on 63 plus,^[18] genre and conventional film festivals across the world:

References