Graham Fitzpatrick

Graham Fitzpatrick is a Scottish film director and screenwriter.

Biography Graham Fitzpatrick was raised in the Edinburgh's Royston housing scheme, attending Ainslie Park High School and Broughton High School. His YTS traineeship at film workshop Pilton Video offered a basic grounding in film, documentary and drama, working across over sixty productions, including arts and charity films, short films, TV documentaries, mainly as an editor.

After directing several short films with Scottish Screen and BBC Scotland funding, Fitzpatrick studied screenwriting at Screen Academy Scotland developing the script for his first short film as writer and director. Entitled Mum's Birthday, the film tells the tale of Alex, a man who must overcome heartbreak to save his relationship with son Stephen on his wife's birthday.

As with previous work, non-professional actors were used in roles close to their everyday lives alongside professional actors. Young people from Edinburgh's care homes and housing schemes shared the screen with professionals such as Tam Dean Burn. Shot in December 2009 with financial backing from Creative Scotland, the film premiered at the Filmhouse in Edinburgh the following year. The film won Best Actor and Ensemble cast awards at Hollywood Reel Film Festival and Fitzpatrick was nominated in the 2011 British Academy Scotland New Talent Awards writer category.

In 2014, Fitzpatrick made another short film Colours, about an incarcerated gay teenager trying to survive behind bars, working in Scotland's HM Prison Polmont, with inmates given acting roles.

The film was shown at film festivals including Interfilm Berlin, Uppsala International Film Festival and Glasgow Film Festival. The British Film Institute included it in its top 11 films to see at the 11th London Short Film Festival. It also won Best UK Short award at East End Film Festival, and was nominated in the Best Short Film category at the 2014 British Academy Scotland Awards. Fitzpatrick of the nomination that "It is an incredible achievement for everyone involved in the film. I am personally delighted that Colours has been recognised in this way, it is a testament to the hard work put in by the entire team."

He is currently the creative manager of Screen Education Edinburgh. and working on his first feature film 'Make Her Proud'.

Filmography Year Film Credited as Notes director screenWriter Producer Film Editor 1999 Happy Ever After 2003 Then and NowTV movie documentary 2006 Yesterday's NewsShort Film 2007 Stolen ChristmasShort Film 2009 My ShadowlandsShort Film 2010 Mum's BirthdayShort Film Girl TMShort 2012 Pen 2 PaperTV movie documentaryExecutive Producer Our WorldTV movie documentaryExecutive Producer FriendshipsTV movie documentaryExecutive Producer 2013 Your PaintingsTV movie documentaryExecutive Producer Maths in ActionTV movie documentaryExecutive Producer ColoursShort Film 2015 The Still Heart BeatingShort FilmAssociate Producer Concrete & FlowersShort FilmExecutive Producer

Awards Year Nominated Work Award Category Result 2010 Mum's Birthday Los Angeles Movie Awards Honorable Mention 2011British Academy Scotland New Talent AwardsBest Writer 2014 Colours British Academy Scotland Awards Best Short FilmBerlin Interfilm FestivalInternational Competition Award East End Film Festival Best UK Short Film Glasgow Film Festival Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film Glasgow Film Festival Scottish Short Film Award Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival Award of Excellence London Short Film Festival Best Short Film Tabor Film Festival Best Fiction Film