Ian Waugh is a writer, director, and artist working with film and photography.
He works with narrative cinema to explore psychological and existential themes. The feeling of landscape and nature is often integral in his stories as outsiders and lost souls strive for connection in an indifferent world, with fractured inner journeys reflected in isolated and raw environments.
His films have played at festivals such as Edinburgh, Drama, Stockholm, Busan and BFI London. He is an alumnus of Berlinale Talents, Reykjavík Transatlantic Lab and EIFF Talent Lab, and in 2019 he was selected for the flagship BFI development programme Network@LFF as an artist disrupting conventions with international focus and ambition.
Born and raised in North East England, he studied Photography & Film at Edinburgh Napier and Advanced Film Practice at Screen Academy Scotland, with his medium length graduation drama Leaves premiering in competition for Best UK First Feature at London’s East End Film Festival. His short drama Strayed shot on location in the Scottish Highlands and premiered in competition at Glasgow Short Film Festival, before an online release through acclaimed indie platform NoBudge.
His next short drama As He Lay Falling was supported by Creative Scotland and premiered in competition at Edinburgh International Film Festival. Screening at over 30 festivals, it won the Directors’ Jury Award at International Short Film Festival of Soria and Special Mentions at Reykjavík International Film Festival and International Short Film Festival of Cyprus. It was released online through BFI Network and NoBudge.
As He Lay Falling is being developed into a feature film with support from Creative Scotland and the BFI Network. It was selected for the New Talent strand of Film London’s Production Finance Market at the BFI London Film Festival and further developed through Edinburgh’s bespoke feature programme Talent Lab Connects.
Waugh works with photography to explore emotional landscapes and the physical and psychological experience of place. He has received numerous bursaries and has made work in residencies in Iceland, Finland, Germany and the UK.
His upcoming series The Cleared Country delves into the wild and abandoned nature of Scotland’s remote north, where the long shadow of the Highland Clearances resonates over the expanse of Europe’s largest blanket peat bog. The series has been supported by Creative Scotland and is being developed into an exhibition and book.