Talent Guide
Simon Arthur
- Discipline:Director, Writer
- Program Year:Directing Lab 2014
Bio
Simon Arthur was nominated in the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Award’s Someone to Watch category. His debut feature, Silver Tongues, won the Audience Award at Slamdance, and premiered at San Sebastian, where Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian said it was the big discovery of the festival. It won eight awards on the festival circuit, including the Telia Film Award at Stockholm, and Best Screenplay Award at Athens. It was distributed by Virgil Films in the United States.
Arthur is working with producer Annalise Davis (The Railway Man with Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman) on Death in the Jungle, set in Peru. His script, No Man’s Land, recently received development funding from Creative Scotland. Arthur’s also hoping to make Days of Revolt, a fictional film based on interviews he held with over 250 people across a range of Cairo neighborhoods and Tahrir Square during the Jan 28th 2011 revolution.
Arthur employs a method writing strategy; for research he worked for three months as a prison guard. He lived on the streets of London for a month, becoming part of a group of homeless people who slept in parks and construction sites. These projects are a major influence on his screenplays, and humanist outlook. Arthur grew up in Glasgow, Scotland, and people often struggle to understand what he says.