Ben Pickering

Born in London to Welsh parents, Ben’s film career spans three decades. Starting with his first feature-film Backstreet in 1995 – when he was just sixteen and studying for his GCSEs – he has since produced over a dozen features ranging from micro-budget to multi-million pound projects.

Seventeen years later, he finally took the plunge and directed his first feature Two Days in the Smoke, starring Matt di Angelo (Borgia), Lili Bordán (Battlestar Galactica) and Alan Ford (Snatch). The London- and Paris-set feature was released in the UK in October 2014 and internationally throughout 2015 as London Payback. It has recently been available on Netflix.

After co-producing Isle of Man heist caper Longtails starring Vas Blackwood (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) and associate producing The Stranger starring Rachel McDowell (Mamma Mia!), he returned to the director’s chair for the Cornwall-set psychological thriller Welcome to Curiosity.

The world’s first wholly equity crowd-funded feature-film (which he also produced), it starred Amrita Acharia (Game of Thrones), Jack Ashton (Call the Midwife), Richard Blackwood (Eastenders) and Stephen Marcus (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels). After a limited North American theatrical run, it was released in the UK in June 2018 and is now available on Amazon Prime.

In 2019 he produced or co-produced four features including the political thriller Election Night and the award-winning Give Them Wings, the 1980s-set true story of a disabled man growing up in northern England. He also published his award-winning debut novel Freiheit, a dystopian alternative history exploring what Britain would have looked like today if the Nazis has won the Battle of Britain.

He is currently developing a slate of features and TV projects for production, including directing duties on the Irish-set psychological thriller Cage and marine bio-terror actioner The Dead Sea alongside producing duties on political thriller Operation Clockwork Orange, as well as Local Boys and The Copper Kings, finalists and semi-finalists respectively in the 2020 Filmarkethub UK Online Pitchbox.