# Alice Waddington

Alice Waddington (born July 31, 1990) is a Spanish film director, writer, photographer and costume designer having developed most of her work in the field of modern cinema. Her directing style is defined by a contemporary approach to the golden era of large-scale-studio genre films (1920s–1970s) in production companies such as Hammer Films or Universal's Creature Features; mixed with current surreal humor and sometimes including musical cinema.

## Early life

Born as Irene on July 31, 1990, in Bilbao, Spain to a Catalan forensic psychiatrist and a Galician teacher. She grew up in the blue-collar neighborhood of San Mamés, known for its working-class pride and industrial surroundings pre-gentrification. During the 1990s, Bilbao was experiencing significant changes and facing various socio-economic challenges, such as terrorism and a heroin crisis, an awareness Alice credits with her first contacts with the abstract ideas of horror.
Waddington adopted her stage name at sixteen, while assisting director of photography Quique López. At 18, she studied advertising at UPV-EHU University where she started capturing promotion stills and directing fashion films as a photographer and assistant of photography for the Spanish editions of Harper's Bazaar, Neo2 and others.
Waddington currently lives and is based in Los Angeles.

## Career

At 20 and for three years, she worked as an advertising creative, a producer and an advertising video editor at the agencies Leo Burnett Iberia and Social Noise also specializing as a digital storyboard artist.
In 2014, with the help of Mexican executive producer Yadira Ávalos, Waddington took a year off advertising agency work to write and direct a short movie. She found sponsors to help her produce her first narrative 11-minute film, Disco Inferno (2015), which received nominations in 63 international film festivals including genre fan favorites such as Palm Springs, Fantasia, Sitges (Noves Visions Short award) or Fantastic Fest, which first awarded her as Best Director in her category, and second best feature project of the Fantastic Market for her movie Paradise Hills. Eleven other international festival wins ensued, with a considerable comparative presence of the short picture in American and Canadian festivals.
Waddington entered pre-production of her first full-length feature, Paradise Hills in 2017 with Spanish production company Nostromo Pictures. The film is a science-fiction thriller written by Brian DeLeeuw and Nacho Vigalondo. It was released in 2019.
Waddington has pointed out in interviews that after Paradise Hills she desires to direct biopics, dark comedies, socially metaphorical fantastic horror about minorities and terror stories that have taken place.
In June 2019, it was announced that Waddington is developing her second film Scarlet, from a script written by her and Kristen SaBerre. The film will be distributed by Orion/MGM.
In September 2021, Waddington was tapped to direct adaptation of comic book series Dept. H for Netflix.
In October 2022, Waddington premiered her first episode of television, in which she personally cast Álvaro Morte and Mina El-Hammani, co-written with Spanish legacy writer Rocío Martínez Llano. An adaptation of heritage Spanish IP Historias para no Dormir based on a vampiric story. Waddington credited her lifelong friend and collaborator Minhal Baig as giving her the idea that a Muslim vampire could not enter Jannah as the conflict.

## Social activism

Waddington is a proactive demander for progressive social change regarding causes related to female cooperation and sorority within the arts.
In the context of film, she has been vocal about the need for both more female-led and more diversely-cast films worldwide and about motivating young women to enroll into filmmaking programs. She has also often mentioned the need for film studios around the world to hire more women, with an accent on women of color.

## Personal life

Waddington is fluent in Spanish and English and conversational in Basque, French and Catalan.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes | Ref(s) |
| 2015 | Disco Inferno | Yes | Yes | Yadira Ávalos | Short film | Link |
| 2019 | Paradise Hills | Yes | Yes | Nostromo Pictures, Netflix Originals | Feature | Link |
| 2022 | Historias Para no Dormir (TV episode) | Yes | Yes | Amazon EU | Anthology | Link |
| 2025 | Tales from the Woods | Yes | Yes | Warners US | Anthology | |

## Awards
### Disco Inferno (2015)

Alice Waddington's short film Disco Inferno was showcased at 63 genre and conventional film festivals globally, including Sitges, Fantastic Fest, and Palm Springs International ShortFest. The film received multiple awards, such as Best Short Film at Sitges and Fantastic Fest, and was qualified for the Academy Awards.

### Paradise Hills (2019)

Waddington's debut feature film Paradise Hills premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival and was screened at over 30 international festivals, including Sitges, Fantasia Film Festival, and Toronto After Dark. Prior to its release, the project won the Silver Award for Best Feature Project at Fantastic Fest in 2015. The film received various nominations, including Best Fantasy Film at the Saturn Awards and a nomination for Best New Director at the Goya Awards. It was also qualified for the Academy Awards.

### La Pesadilla (2022)

The IP-based TV episode La Pesadilla was presented at the Sitges Film Festival in 2022 as part of its Midnight Series lineup. The episode earned critical acclaim for its unique blend of horror and social commentary.