TOM MARSHALL

Writer-director

Tom Marshall has not let money - or lack of it - get in the way of making films. Twenty one years old and just out of Teesside University, he has been making films since he was 17. Two, shot for less than $1,000 (£500), have got him noticed. Daddy's Girl (2006), co-directed by Matt Rozdoba-Hallows, is a partly improvised story about a man's spiral into despair. And bigboy_74 is a funny tale of a suicidal man who, on a desolate hillside, has an unexpected and violent introduction to the kinkier side of internet dating. Smartly written and crisply put together, the film showcases Marshall's wit, talent at editing comedy and ability to draw engaging performances from his actors. Marshall won the BBC New Talent Award at last year's Encounters festival and Hat Trick Productions has optioned a series based on the short. He has finished two more shorts, one about a boy with an invisible friend and a two-minute horror about a murderous satnav. 'I want to move between genres,' he says. 'There's nothing better than watching an audience respond to something I've made.'