Actor and film director Paddy Considine triumphs with his film Tyrannosaur.
15 Aug 2013
Actor and film director Paddy Considine, who studied BA(Hons) Photography at the University of Brighton's, Faculty of Arts, has won the BAFTA for ‘Outstanding British Debut’ in an impressive field.
Critical acclaim for his direction of Tyrannosaur (2011) has been building since its release last year. It is a social-realist study of a self-destructive man who earns a chance of redemption through Hannah, a Christian charity shop worker.
Commenting in the Guardian about his experience at Brighton, Paddy said: “It made me. I discovered how to translate stuff from your head and your guts and put it into something.” That something being photography on to documentaries and ultimately acting and directing.
Whilst still a student, Considine had a series of photographic portraits published in the Guardian and on graduation embarked on a filmmaking career. However, when working on a documentary he had made entitled Ex-Boxers he met director Shane Meadows who asked him to audition for the part of troubled loner Morell, in A room for Romeo Brass (1999).
Considine’s acting career then took off with a number of film and TV roles including, Pawlikowski's My Summer of Love (2004). Dead Man's Shoes (2004), Cinderella Man with Russell Crowe and Renee Zelwegger, and a role playing the friend of Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones in Stoned (2005), The Bourne Ultimatum and Hot Fuzz (2007) and the starring role in the TV dramatisation of Kate Summerscale’s best-selling book about an infamous Victorian murder: The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (2011).
Along with leading roles, Considine has had significant supporting roles in 24 Hour Party People, Born Romantic (2000), and The Martins (2001), working alongside Kathy Burke, Steve Coogan, Lee Evans and Jane Horrock.
The film and photography courses at the Faculty of Arts provide a rich experimental context for cutting edge work. Graduates are encouraged to be independent creative practitioners who also have the technical skills and conceptual agility to communicate to a wide range of audiences.
