Stars of Tomorrow 2025: Matty Crawford (writer/director)

“The first thing I said to BBC Film when I pitched it was, ‘I want to make something that makes you throw up and cry,’” says Matty Crawford of his Bafta-nominated short Stomach Bug.

A body horror about a father dealing with empty-nest syndrome, the film – which premiered at Toronto in 2024 and won the Midnight shorts jury award at SXSW – was a litmus test for the filmmaker. Up until then, he had been making intimate dramas inspired by his UK-Filipino upbringing.

“Horror felt more truthfully like something I wanted to make,” says Crawford, who is developing his feature debut – which he describes as a colonial folk horror – with BBC Film and Galazia Productions. “It still feels very personal, but the genre allows me a layer of objectivity.”

While studying media and film production at college in Salisbury, Crawford’s lecturer introduced him to the genre when he decided to make a feature with the other teachers and students. The result was Scrawl, a low-budget zombie flick starring Daisy Ridley, with Crawford working as cinematographer and editor. “That was basically my film school,” he jokes.

More-traditional training followed with a film degree at the University of Gloucestershire and an MA in directing fiction from the National Film and Television School (NFTS), the latter supporting Stomach Bug. He was also a Sundance Ignite fellow in 2018.

“For my first feature, I want to take some big swings, even if I fuck up and miss,” declares Crawford. “I appreciate films that take the big swings because even if they miss, at least they’re trying something.”

Contact: Sophia Zhang, Nina Amini, Casarotto Ramsay & Associates  

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