VENETIAN MEN



Documentary Short Film / 2022

Two 15 year old girls leave South London in 1994 and find their teenage gaze in Venice, in a promise that is never fulfilled.
Was being 15 truly the last invincible age of our romantic lives?

ONLINE PREMIERE: 
Girls In Film  (2022)

WORLD PREMIERE:
/ Best Documentary Short Film Competition. Flickerfest 31st International Short Film Festival, Australia. Academy Qualifying and BAFTA recognised (Jan 2022) / 

FESTIVALS & SCREENINGS:
/ Best Directing Category. Underwire, UK. BAFTA recognised. (2022) /
/ Official Selection. London Independent Film Festival, UK (2022) / 
/ Official Selection. Women X Film Festival, UK (2022) /
/ Official Selection. Aesthetica Short Film Festival, UK. BAFTA qualifying. (2022) /
/ Official Selection. Crystal Palace International Film Festival, UK (2023) / 
/ Women in Film and TV Short Film Club, London, UK (2023) /
/ A Night of Shorts, The Social, London, UK (2023) / 
/ Girls In Film Galentine’s Screening, The Genesis Cinema, London, UK (2024) /

AWARDS & NOMINATIONS:
/ Winner: Best Experimental Short. London Independent Film Festival, UK (2022) /
/ Nominations: Rising Star Award & Best Documentary. Women X Film Festival, UK (2022) /
/ Nominations: Best Documentary. Crystal Palace International Film Festival, UK (2023) /

Directors Notes






MAGICLAND 



Documentary Short Film / Commissioned by Channel Four’s Random Acts / 2019

Meet Jenny Mayers, the first black woman to be invited into the Magic Circle.

FESTIVAL SCREENINGS:
/ Latitude Festival, UK (2019) /
/ Official Selection. London Independent Film Festival, UK (2020) /
/ Official Selection. The Fine Arts Film Festival, USA (2020) /
/ Official Selection. Cheap Cuts Documentary Film Festival, UK (2020) /
/ Official Selection. New Renaissance Film Festival, UK (2020) /
/ Official Selection. Women Over 50 Film Festival, UK (2020) /
/ Official Selection. The Los Angeles International Children’s Film Festival, USA (2020) /
/ Official Selection. Margate Film Festival, UK (2020) /
/ Official Selection. Providence Children’s Film Festival, USA (2021) /
/ Official Selection. Hebden Bridge Film Festival, UK (2021) /

AWARDS & NOMINATIONS:
/ Nomination: Short Short Award. New Renaissance Film Festival, UK (2020) /
/ Nomination: Audience Choice Award Best Short Documentary & Special Jury Award Best Short Documentary. Providence Children’s Film Festival, USA (2021) / 

FEATURED IN:
TMRW Magazine






BOYS



Short Film / Collaboration with The PappyShow Theatre Company / 2023

BOYS: a celebration of boys of colour finding radical joy as they become men.

Co-commissioned by New Diorama Theatre & London International Mime Festival. 
Supported by Arts Council England Cultural Recovery Fund.
Born out of the ideas behind The PappyShow theatre company’s award-winning stage show (The Barbican, Vaults Festival), BOYS the film is devised by and stars a group of young men of colour.

BOYS the film is a hybrid, blurring the lines between documentary, fiction and imagination. It’s improvisation, play and time spent with true friends. BOYS is the playfulness and pressure of being a boy, trying to be a man; the bright, bold colour of youth bursting through.

FESTIVALS & SCREENINGS:
/ The Barbican, UK (2023) /
/ London International Mime Festival, UK (2023) / 
/ Official Selection. Moving Body Festival, Bulgaria (2023) / 
/ Official Selection. Bolton International Film Festival, UK. BAFTA & BIFA Qualifying. (2023) /
/ Official Selection. Trinidad & Tobago Film Festival, Trindad & Tobago. (2023) /
/ MicroActs 16. London, UK. (2023) / 

ONLINE PREMIERE:
Guap Magazine




IN DEVELOPMENT 2024


Short films / Feature Films / Documentary / Narrative / 2023 

In development with a slate of fresh projects. 
Nostalgic trips, wild teenagers and rose-tinted glasses...new films coming soon! 

Photo credit: Matthew Smith

Celia Willis is a writer/director/producer telling offbeat stories of quiet personal revolution. Her filmmaking mixes up fashion photography aesthetic, documentary, scripts and devised theatre making techniques. Collaboration, shared curiosity and excavating a story as a team, she nurtures talent both professional and street cast.
Her first short film MAGICLAND (2019) was commissioned by Channel 4’s Random Acts, and has screened at film festivals worldwide.

Award-winning short film VENETIAN MEN (2022) premiered in Best Documentary Short Film Competition at Academy Qualifying & BAFTA recognised Flickerfest 31st International Short Film Festival, Australia (Jan 2022), with other festival highlights including Aesthetica and Underwire. 
BOYS (2023) a film collaboration with award-winning theatre company The PappyShow highlighted screenings include The Barbican, Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival and Bolton Film Festival (BAFTA qualifying).

Trained at Camberwell College of Arts, University of Brighton & The Royal College of Art she has a background in immersive theatre and fashion photography.
Her largest immersive theatre show was commissioned by Emily Eavis for Glastonbury Festival and toured the UK for five years. She also co-founded We Are Photogirls, a fashion photography organisation empowering girls from all walks of life to redefine ‘beauty’, publishing the The DIY Fashion Shoot Book with Laurence King.

She is a visiting practitioner at University of The Arts London and a WFTV member.

Contact: celiawillis@gmail.com