Jo Smyth’s short films and web series have screened at multiple festivals and won several awards including Best Short Film at London Independent Film Festival, Best Web Series at Pilot Light and for her latest short film Smile, Sue Vincent has already won Best Actress at Venice Shorts and San Francisco Arthouse Shorts Awards. For more information check out her work page.

Whilst directing, Jo is an editor for television drama, credits include BBC and HBO’s His Dark Materials, Showtime’s The Man Who Fell To Earth, Netflix’s The Witcher: Blood Origin, and Stephen Knight’s latest project for Disney starring Stephen Graham; A Thousand Blows. She has worked with some of the finest producers and writers in television today, this experience coupled with her skills as an editor have made her a formidable writer/director on the festival circuit.

Jo writes / directs female lead stories that tackle challenging and often underrepresented subjects. Her latest short, a horror film called Find You Here – screening at Grimmfest and Dead Northern – tackles coercive control in a same sex marriage, and her crowd funded short film Smile – now screening at the BAFTA qualifying film festivals; Carmarthen Bay and Aesthetica – confronts the murky waters of everyday sexual harassment and assault.