Kirk Jones

Kirk Jones b Nov 31 1964 in Bristol England is an English film director and screenwriter Kirk Jones grew up in Long Ashton Bristol and attended Newport Film School from 198587 specializing in directing drama and television commercials He graduated in 1987 after winning a National Student Film award and started to work for a London based production company as a production runner and later as assistant film editor Whilst working in the cutting room he continued to write and direct his own films and after collecting a Silver award at the Creative Circle Awards for his Mercedes commercial in 1990 he was invited to join Xenium Productions as a director His Absolute Vodka film which he wrote and directed was awarded a Silver in 1991 and Kirk began directing commercials full time in London and Europe working for agencies including Saatchi Saatchi Bartle Bogle and Hegarty and Mother Kirks producer Glynis Murray set up Tomboy Films in 1991 and he joined her soon after Awards at NABS in 94 and a Silver at the Creative Circle Awards followed and Kirk continued to direct commercials for clients including The National Lottery National Westminster Bank Reebok HSBC His campaign for Heinz won a Silver Lion at Cannes in 96 Best Campaign and his Reebok campaign won awards at both The Creative Circle and the British TV Advertising Awards in 98 Kirk was nominated for a BAFTA as Best Newcomer in 1999 for his first feature film WAKING NED which he both wrote and directed Proportionate to budget Waking Ned was the second highest grossing film in the world that year behind The Blairwitch Project and won awards in the US and Europe These included New York Comedy Film Festival for Best Feature Grand Jury and Critics Prize for Best Feature at Comedy dAlp in France and Audience Award for Best Feature at Paris Film Festival In 2004 Kirk directed his second feature film NANNY MCPHEE for Working Title and Universal Pictures Starring Emma Thompson and Colin Firth it was a top ten highest grossing film in the UK with 30m and took 135m worldwide In 2008 Kirk wrote and directed his third film EVERYBODYS FINE Starring Robert De Niro Drew Barrymore Kate Beckinsale and Sam Rockwell it is an adaptation of an Italian film and was released through Miramax 2009 and Disney worldwide in 2010