Thomas Laurance(I)

Thomas Laurance is an award-winning writer/director of documentary and fiction. After studying direction at the Northern Film School in Leeds and screenwriting at FAMU in Prague, his graduation short 'The Bottle' won Best Film at the 2013 Horizon Film Festival. Thomas followed up with an autobiographical feature documentary titled 'William Laurance & Sons Marine Engineers' which featured at Sheffield Doc Fest 2015. In addition to writing and directing, Thomas has worked as a set and scenery carpenter and a prop maker on films such as Tim Burton's 'Dumbo'. This skill-set proved useful in the informal refugee camp known as the Calais 'Jungle' where Thomas volunteered for a year in 2016. This experience became the basis of his next documentary 'On Our Doorstep' which featured at the 2021 Leeds International Film Festival and was also awarded the Martello at the 2022 Cinque Ports International Documentary Film Festival. In 2024, Thomas returned to fiction with a dark comedy short titled 'Tortured Artist'. This rotoscoped animation featured at the London Short Film Festival and also won Best Short Short at the Comedy Shorts Awards.