Simon Hynd  Biography

 

     

 

Simon wrote and directed the feature thriller Senseless starring Jason Behr.  It premiered at the Sitges International Film Festival in October 2007.  

 

For the last three years Simon has been working predominantly in television.  Directing shows for Kudos/Brown Eyed Boy, Foundation/Zodiak, Nickelodeon, BBC/CBBC, The Henson Company and Telegael. 

     

Simon is the writer and director of Tumshie McFadgen’s Bid for Ultimate Bliss, winner of the 2004 BAFTA Scotland Award for best short film. Tumshie has been a huge hit with audiences internationally, receiving the highest viewing figures ever for a Tartan Short when broadcast on BBC 1. Simon was born in Edinburgh in 1974. He is a graduate of Napier University, where he received a first class honours degree in photography, film and digital imaging.

    

Prior to Tumshie, Simon had established himself as an award winning stills photographer, and had written and directed two other successful 16 mm shorts. Virus premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2002, and went on to receive more than 50 international festival screenings, including the London Film Festival, and the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

 

Virus won the best international short award, presented by the int’l panorama of independent film-makers. it was short-listed for a number of awards including the Jim Poole Award for Best Scottish Fiction.  It was highly commended in both the best of british category at Brief Encounters, and the TCM classic shorts competition and picked up awards for its art direction and performances.  Virus became one of the most successful films ever shown on Atom Films, watched by over 21,000 people on its first day alone.

 

Simon followed Virus with The Host, which also premiered at Edinburgh, before being short-listed for the Jim Poole award. The Host won the best fiction prize and the audience award at Scottish Students on Screen 2004.

 

Meat the Campbells was Simon’s last short film. The grisly comedy, a Tartan Small for CBBC, is thought to be Scotland’s first film shot entirely green screen, with all the sets built digitally in post-production.  Meat the Campbells premiered on BBC 1 Scotland on christmas eve.

    

Arts: the Catalyst, a 25 minute documentary, charts the history and phenomenal success story of the Craigmillar Festival Society.  The film won the Saltire Award for best Scottish documentary at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2005.  Simon also directs television and cinema commercials for some of the biggest creative agencies working in and around Scotland.  

     

Simon strongly believes in creating audience-orientated films, which balance intelligence, an entertaining narrative, and an innovative, contemporary visual approach. He is currently developing feature and television ideas including a number of horror, comedy and crime projects. He is represented in london by Ed Hughes at Linda Seifert Management, and in the US by Ashley Berns at Circle of Confusion.