about

Writer-director Claire Fowler is a filmmaker from North Wales working between the UK, New York and LA. Her most recent short, SALAM, had its World Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival, won a BAFTA Cymru award, and travelled to over one hundred international film festivals. She recently made her TV episodic debut with episode 414 of the WB/Netflix show Manifest.
After studying at Oxford University and the Royal College of Art, Claire made a number of human rights-themed documentary films that screened at festivals including Sheffield Docfest UK, the International Human Rights Watch Festival and the International Film Festival Rotterdam. She went on to win a Fulbright scholarship to study film at Columbia University in New York City and graduated with MFA honors.
Claire's feature screenplay LITTLE HOUSE won the grand prize in both the Shore Scripts Screenwriting Competition and Starz Denver Screenwriting Competition. It placed second in the Script Goldmine Screenwriting competition, was one of the top three scripts in the Nantucket Film Festival’s Showtime Tony Cox screenwriting competition, was in the top 5% of the Academy's Nicholl Fellowship entries, and was shortlisted for the Sundance Screenwriting lab. Her AFI DWW short film, NOODLES, premiered at Nantucket Film Festival, was acquired by Nowness, and then went on to become a Vimeo Staff Pick. Her short films have been watched over million times online.
In the UK, Claire has participated in the BFI London Film Festival’s feature filmmaking program Think Shoot Distribute and The Kudos-Bush Initiative, an emerging writer’s scheme with the Emmy award winning production-company behind The Hour, Utopia and Broadchurch. She directed all eight episodes of a BBC Wales/S4C Welsh language web series called Merched Parchus in 2019.
In the USA, she has participated in the Warner Bros Directing Workshop, the AFI's Directing Workshop for Women (DWW), the Sony TV Directing Program and the Ryan Murphy HALF foundation, and has shadowed directors on Pose, Homeland and Manifest.
Claire is currently in development with BBC Film on a thriller produced by Sorcha Bacon of Try Hard Film.
You can also find her on IMDb and Vimeo.
She was interviewed by the BBC Film Network.
Lorm ipsum
Education
2008–2011 Columbia University MFA Film
2004 Royal College of Art
2001 Oxford University (1st Class BA Hons Fine Art)
1998 Chelsea College of Art
Awards
2010 PEO International Peace Scholarship
2010 Moving Picture Institute Internship Grant
2009 Academy Foundation Internship Grant
2009 PEO International Peace Scholarship
2008 Fulbright Scholar, Columbia University, New York, USA (Film)
2008 SWS Bursary to attend Berlinale Film Festival as delegate
2008 Palestine Children's Relief Fund Grant for film
2007 British Council Travel Grant to Iran
2006 Arts Council of England Grant
2005 Arts Council of England Grant
2003 Paul Reilly Memorial Travel Scholarship to Iceland
Professional Commissions include
Atlantic Records
Palestine Children's Relief Fund
Emmy award winning channel Current TV
Experience filming in UK, USA, France, Germany, Palestine, Israel and Iran
Selected Screenings include
2010 London Palestine Film Festival
2009 Interieurs Visual Art Center of Lille, France
2009 London Palestine Film Festival
2008 Sheffield International Docfest, UK
2008 War & Peace SW Moving Image Touring Exhibition, UK
2008 Human Rights Watch International Film Festival London & New York
2007 War & Peace SW Moving Image Touring Exhibition, UK
2007 International Film Festival Rotterdam, Netherlands
2007 Sheffield International Docfest, UK
2007 Chicago Palestine Film Festival USA
2007 Curtocircuito International Art Film Festival, Spain
2007 Boston Palestine Film Festival, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, USA
2007 Tehran International Documentary Film Festival, Iran
2006 Rencontres Internationales touring exhibition Paris, Berlin and Madrid
2006 Chlotrudis Short Film Festival, Boston USA
2006 Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK
2006 Cube Cinema Bristol UK
2005 Rooftop Films New York, USA
Awarded Special Mention at the 2007 Forli International Film Festival Italy
Nominated Best Short Chlotrudis Short Film festival, Boston, USA
Residencies
2006 EU Pepinieres Europeenes Pour Jeunes Artistes, France
2006 Berlinale Festival Talent Campus Screenwriting
Publications
2008 Writer for Comment is Free Guardian, UK
2007 Writer and reviewer for DFG website
2006 Issue 29 Filmwaves Autumn - Interview with Carine Adler Director "Under the skin"
2005 Issue 28 Filmwaves Spring - Interview Lucile Hadzihalilovic
2004 George Hanson Critical Forum Publication, RCA
2004 ARC Issue 2