John’s screenplays have been selected for the Austin Film Festival (TV pilot competition), BFI Flare (short film), and winner of the BAFTA Rocliffe screenplay competition (feature script). His feature screenplay GOBLIN MARKET (co-written with Jacqueline Pepall), exploring the life of poet Christina Rossetti, is in formal development with the BFI, and currently shortlisted for the 2021 Sundance Development Track scheme.
His short films include 'Wishin' and Hopin' (BFI Flare 2018, BAFTA longlist), 'The Hotel Affair' (London Short Film Festival, BAFTA qualifying, 2018), 'Visiting Mr Keats' (Best Short, NYC Indie Film Festival 2016; London Independent Film Festival; Amsterdam Lift-Off Film Festival), 'The Last Words of Gavrilo Princip' (Short of the Year Festival 2016), and 'We'll Meet Again' (Best Foreign Film Nominee, New Hope Film Festival 2016), as well as the TV/Arts series Then Dance (National Lottery Award nominee, Best Use of Public Funding - Arts, 2015).
John’s TV pilot AVALON, a political drama based on the true story of Nazi leader Rudolph Hess's mysterious flight to Britain in search of peace, was a finalist in the Austin Film Festival 2018 and the ScreenCraft Screenwriting Fellowship 2019, earning a place on the Coverfly RED LIST (Top 10 for 2019) .
His first feature screenplay, CHOSEN, exploring the love triangle between Clara Schumann, Robert Schumann, and Johannes Brahms, won the BAFTA Rocliffe screenplay competition 2018. THE CONSPIRATORS, following Gavrilo Princip and his school friends' plot to assassinate the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was a Feature Screenplay Competition Winner at the London Film Awards 2016. In 2015 and 2016, John was a screenwriter-in-residence at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama.
Chosen showcase - BAFTA
December 5, 2018
Amazing night at BAFTA - huge thanks to director Nour Wazzi and all the brilliant actors who performed an excerpt from ‘Chosen’ - plus a Q&A with screenwriters Moira Buffini (Jane Eyre, Tamara Drewe) and Matt Greenhalgh (Control, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool).
Wishin' and Hopin'
A bridesmaid takes refuge in the ladies' bathroom at her best friend's wedding.
Dir: Jacqueline Pepall
9 mins; Great Lake Films 2017
Official Selection: BFI Flare 2018; Cannes Short Film Corner 2018
Ophelia's End
Shakespeare's most famous heroine breaks free of her own play.
Frailty thy name is Hamlet. ‘Ophelia’s End’ recasts Ophelia in the lead role, and she fakes her madness to escape Elsinore castle and the world of Hamlet. Her obstacles to freedom are many and varied. But Ophelia is resourceful and brave, and though she finds herself locked in an asylum, she engineers an escape with the help of the sympathetic Queen Gertrude. Her final – and deadly – obstacle she must face alone: an armed highwayman looking to return her to captivity – or worse. Ophelia must risk everything to truly to be free.
Dir: Jacqueline Pepall
18 mins; Great Lake Films, 2016 (Commission: Royal Central School of Speech and Drama)
Winner: Best of Fest, Dallas Film Festival 2017. Official Selection: London Independent Film Festival 2017; On the Verge Film Festival
Visiting Mr. Keats
An eager graduate student and a domineering Professor (disguised as a period-appropriate weaver and his mother) travel back in time to 1819 London in order to interview literary icon, John Keats. But present day arguments seep into the past, and the poet sits forgotten while the two academics bicker.
Dir: Jacqueline Pepall
Starring: Ed Coleman, Lisa Palfrey, Gavin Fowler, John Last
10 mins; Great Lake Films, 2015
Winner: Best Short, NYC Indie Film Awards 2016; Best Comedy, Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards 2016; Best Period/ Historical Film, International New York Film Festival 2016. Official Selection: London Independent Film Festival 2016; Short of the Year Festival 2016; Moscow International Film Festival 2016; Lift-Off Amsterdam Film Festival 2016
Beginners' Creative Writing
Things get personal in Beginners’ Creative Writing when Becky is motivated to present a story about her boyfriend – the teacher.
Dir: Jacqueline Pepall
Starring: Gemma Yates-Round, Hamza Siddique, Mariah Nonnemacher, Adam Burkholder, Christopher Runciman, Josias Bertrand, Sophia Shad, Shakira Francis
8 mins; Great Lake Films, 2015 (Commission: Royal Central School of Speech and Drama)
Nominated: Best Comedy, Los Angeles Independent Film Festival Awards 2016
We'll Meet Again
London, 1941. Shattered by an air-raid, an evening of dancing - and the hope of love - is renewed in the bomb shelter.
Dir: Jacqueline Pepall
Starring: Caroline Ward, Andrew Cantillon, Haley Bishop, Paul Bailey, Christopher Runciman, Sophia Shad, Rebecca Robinson, Rebecca Gutherless
4 mins; Great Lake Films, 2015 (Commission: Royal Central School of Speech and Drama)
Nominated: Best Foreign Film, New Hope Film Festival 2016; Best Film, IWM Film Festival 2016; Official Selection: New Hope Film Festival 2016.
The Last Words of Gavrilo Princip
A simple act of kindness brings light into the prison cell of the most famous assassin in history.
Dir: Jacqueline Pepall
Starring: Joel Gillman, Jonathan Tafler, Ailish Symons
10 mins; Great Lake Films, 2014 (Commission: Remarkable Books)
Nominated, Best Film, Imperial War Museum Film Festival 2014; Official Selection, Bath Film Festival 2014.