Chris Neilan is an award-winning author, screenwriter and filmmaker.  He was shortlisted for the 2016 Sundance Screenwriters Lab, and was awarded 2nd place for Short Fiction in the 2017 Bridport Prize.

​

Raised in Sussex, an adopted Brightonian, he has made films in South Korea, rural Thailand, urban Thailand, the UK and LA.  In 2015 he scripted the short Circle in the Rock for his regular collaborator Ellis Bahl.  Starring Brendan Sexton III (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri), it was funded by the O'Neill Unreasonable online film festival.  In 2016 his short Demons, which he directed, produced and edited for a budget of £400, shooting on location in Itaewon, Seoul, debuted in competition at the Derby Film Festival.

​​​​

Between 2016 and 2018 he spent several months filming documentaries and other film projects around Thailand.  Scheduled for release in 2018-2019, these include a music video for Karen hip-hop artist Young Sinners, several short documentaries on issues affecting ethnic minorities and rural Thais, and a personal essay film, A Film About Love & Thailand, his first feature project.

​

A former writer-in-residence for New Writing North, his first novel Abattoir Jack, written when was just 22, was published by Punked Books in 2009.  His story 'Ends' was recognised by the Bridport Prize and published in the 2017 Winners Anthology.  Another short, 'A Few Years In Pubs', was published by Smith|Doorstop in One For The Road, an anthology of prose and poetry co-edited by Stuart Maconie and Helen Mort.

​

He created and co-hosts the podcast Two Minute Stories with Helen.

​

Currently lecturing in creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University, he is working on his second novel, his first collection of stories, and several feature projects in the UK and US.

​

Chris Neilan's brilliant short film 'Demons'

​

Chris Neilan's film work