Sophie Black

Born in 1989, Sophie Black was raised in the small Derbyshire town of Belper. She briefly moved to Surrey, where she studied at the University of Creative Arts in Farnham. She graduated with a BA (hons) in Film Production in 2010, specializing in Production Design. After graduation, Sophie worked in the art department of numerous shorts and commercials, as well as the post-apocalyptic horror feature film Wasteland (2013) by Light Films. Her production and costume design work gave her a keen eye for colors and shapes on film, as well as gaining her a strong reputation in the East Midlands film production industry. Sophie then founded her own production company Triskelle Pictures Ltd., and produced two short films, including Neil Oseman's time-travel drama Stop/Eject, starring Georgina Sherrington (from ITV's The Worst Witch). Stop/Eject premiered at Raindance in 2014, before making it onto the long list for 'Best British Short Film' at the BAFTAs in 2015. Finally realizing her ambitions as a director, Sophie went on to create eight directorial shorts, frequently co-writing with the award-winning screenwriter Tommy Draper. One such work was Night Owls (written as a pilot for their feature film, Night Owls & Early Birds) starring Emmerdale's Jonny McPherson. Night Owls premiered at London Short Film Festival in 2016 before going on to win 17 awards at smaller festivals worldwide. In 2017, working again with Tommy Draper, Sophie completed the fantasy musical short film Songbird, starring The X Factor's Janet Devlin. Songbird had a strong online following throughout all of its production, and the film raised over £16,000 in crowdfunding as a result of this interest. Songbird also won numerous awards across its strong festival run. Another notable credit for Sophie was the LGBT short film Hidden (2018), which she wrote for director Jess O'Brien. Hidden has screened at numerous film festivals across the world, including the Oscar-qualifying Seattle International Short Film Festival. Among her accolades, Sophie won the MMBF Rising Star Award in 2017 (she was selected because of her work on Night Owls), and she was accepted into the BFI Network x BAFTA Crew scheme in both 2018 and 2019. In her rare spare time, Sophie is also a keen writer. As well as having her own blog ('The World in a Frame'), Sophie has contributed guest articles to the BFI Network, Gorilla Film Magazine and Clothes on Film, to name just three. One of her articles for Clothes on Film was even showcased by Entertainment Weekly on their website in 2013. She has been interviewed about her work on numerous occasions on BBC Radio Derby and East Midlands Today; through one such interview in 2013, she was heralded as "Belper's answer to Baz Luhrmann". Sophie's work is notable for its consistent magical-realist themes and a strong use of production design, with recurring visual motifs including nature, water and retro music players.