Paolo Marinou-Blanco

Born in New York City to a Greek mother and Portuguese/Spanish father, and raised in England, South Africa, Greece, Brazil and Portugal, Paolo’s international upbringing led him to the London School of Economics (LSE), studying Philosophy and following his passion for theater, independently staging over 30 award-winning productions in the London Fringe.

Paolo received a scholarship to pursue an M.F.A. in Film at New York University (NYU) – Tisch School of the Arts, and in 2007 won the Portuguese Film Institute’s New Filmmaker Award for his feature screenplay “Goodnight Irene”, which he then directed and produced, starring award-winning veteran British actor Robert Pugh. “Goodnight Irene” premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival to critical acclaim, screened at numerous international festivals, and was theatrically released in Europe in 2008.

“Candido, or Optimism in Times of Crisis and Olympic Games” is one of Paolo’s most recent projects as writer/director, a satirical comedy about the pervasiveness of social and economic injustice in Brazil, and its darkly humorous links to Golf and the Olympic Games. The project has won a Development Grant from the Portuguese Film Institute, a scholarship to the Mediterranean Film Institute, run by the EU’s MEDIA programme, and was accepted into the highly competitive Jerusalem International Film Lab for 2015.

In addition to his own work as writer/director, Paolo has also successfully established himself as a screenwriter in the USA, having co-written “Captive”, for Oscar-nominated producer Michael London, and sold the screenplay “Brass Monkey” to Paramount Pictures. In 2013, Paolo received the San Francisco Film Society’s Hearst Screenwriting Award and Kenneth Rainin Foundation Grant. Paolo is currently also working on a near-future science-fiction thriller and an original Pilot for a new TV Series, both for the US market.