Heartless

PHILIP RIDLEY (Writer / Director) was born in the East End of London where he still lives and works. He studied painting at St Martin’s School of Art and his work - including short films, photography, performance pieces, drawings and paintings – has been exhibited throughout Europe and Japan. As well as three books for adults - including the cult classic “In The Eyes of Mr Fury” - he has written seven adult stage plays: “The Pitchfork Disney”, the multi-award-winning “The Fastest Clock in the Universe”, “Ghost from a Perfect Place”, “Vincent River”, the controversial “Mercury Fur, Leaves of Glass” and “Piranha Height”, plus a further five plays for young people; “Karamazoo”, “Fairytaleheart”, “Moonfleece”, “Sparkleshark” and “Brokenville”. Philip has also written many books for children including “Scribbleboy” (shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal), “Kasper in the Glitter” (nominated for the Whitbread Prize), “Mighty Fizz Chilla” (shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book of the Year Award), “ZinderZunder”, “Vinegar Street”, “Zips’Apollo” and “Krindlekrax” (winner of both the Smarties Prize and WH Smith’s Mind-Boggling Books Award), the stage play of which – adapted by Philip himself – was premiered at the Birmingham Rep Theatre in the summer of 2002.

Philip's first short film, “The Universe of Dermot Finn”, was officially selected for the 1989 Cannes Film Festival. The following year he was at the festival again, this time with two feature films: The Krays (winner of The Evening Standard Best Film of the Year Award) for which he wrote the highly acclaimed screenplay, and his directing debut, “The Reflecting Skin”, (starring a young Viggo Mortensen), which went on to win eleven international awards (including the prestigious George Sadoul Prize and the Silver Leopard at the Lacarno Film Festival) and was one of Rolling Stone magazine's Top Ten Films of the Year.

A few years later he wrote and directed “The Passion of Darkly Noon” starring Viggo Mortensen, Brendan Fraser and Ashley Judd (winner of the Best Director Prize at the Porto Film Festival). Philip has won both the Evening Standard’s Most Promising Newcomer to British Film and Most Promising Playwright Awards. The only person ever to receive both prizes. “Heartless” is his third film as writer and director.