Josef Bates is a passionate cinephile and filmmaker with a love for an ‘out-of-the-box’ style of filmmaking. His cinema-obsessed father was the driving force behind Joe’s 80’s classic obsession. Much to his mother’s dismay, Joe was that eight-year-old child always in trouble for quoting ‘Top Gun’, ‘Aliens’, and ‘Terminator’ at school.
Josef went on to study Directing Screen Fiction at the Royal Holloway University of London where he made several films (which he believes should ‘never-see-the-light-of-day’).
Josef has worked in advertising film production writing treatments and developing pitches alongside some of the industry’s most talented directors for clients such as ‘Lidl’, ‘Philadelphia’, The FA, and BT.
Working for other directors encouraged Josef to pursue his own directing career. Bates has already developed a signature dark comedy style, which was first showcased in his inaugural short ‘Meat’. The film made waves on the European film festival circuit and won him an award at the British Horror Film Festival in 2018, as well as a shortlist at Molins de Rei Horror Film Festival.
Josef has kept up the momentum with his second short, “TIC”, based on his own experience of growing up with Tourettes Syndrome. The film stars Emma Mackey (Sex Education) and Will Merrick (Skins, Dead Pixels, About Time) and premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2019.
