Marcel Grant
Marcel Grant | |
|---|---|
| Born | 19 July 1961 London, UK |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter, film producer |
| Years active | 2000–present |
Marcel Grant (born 19 July 1961) is a British independent filmmaker based in London, who has written and directed four feature films, Open My Eyes (2024) Coffee Sex You (2014), Just Inès (2010), and What's Your Name 41? (2005). He has recently completed a documentary film The Late Great ‘78 (Glamours Golden Sunset) about his personal experience as a seventeen year old on the London, New York and Paris club scene in the late 1970's, featuring Grace Jones and Amanda Lear, due for release in early 2024. Grant is the founder of MAMA Film Worx and the WSFF film festival and brand.
Career
In the late 1970s Grant was an influential figure on the London and New York club scene, where he worked as an actor and singer. In the early 1980s Grant became a part of the New Romantic movement in London, and in 1984, at the age of 23, was named “London's youngest club entrepreneur” by Time Out magazine for establishing the new concept of ‘One Nighters’ at Legends in Mayfair, London. This included the hugely successful 'Fresh' on Thursdays.
By 1986 Grant had moved into property and project development. In 1993 he started working with Thompson Holdings overseeing several of the group's main interests, such as Windsor Racecourse, Queens Park Rangers F.C. premier league football club and the Portuguese luxury resort Quinta Do Lago. Grant and Richard Thompson then co-founded the film production company Pagoda (1998) with producer Norma Heyman, which in 2000 saw its first commercial success with the film Gangster No. 1 starring Paul Bettany and Malcolm McDowell.
Grant left Thompson Holdings in 2004, to become an independent filmmaker and to establish the film production company Shipwreck Film, where he shot four short films, as well as his first feature What's Your Name 41? (2005) starring Con O'Neill and Ann Mitchell. The film was shown at several international film festivals, including Raindance Film Festival, the Berlin International Directors Lounge and the California Independent Film Festival.
Grant subsequently wrote, directed and produced three further feature films: Just Inès (2010); Coffee Sex You (2014); and the soon to be released Open My Eyes (2024) starring Oliver Tobias and Alissa Jung. Just Inès starring Daniel Weyman and the French actress Caroline Ducey had its world premier at the Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival (2010) and was then screened at the Cairo International Film Festival and FEST Belgrade Serbia.
Grant directed the short Electric Cinema's How To Behave, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Natalie Dormer, Michael McIntyre, Nigella Lawson, James Corden, Rafe Spall, Emilia Fox, amongst others.