Naomi Waring

I am a London Film School graduate and filmmaker whose recent films include Milk, executive produced by Sienna Miller and supported by Uncertain Kingdom’s Belief Fund, and Privileged, a BBC Three and BBC iPlayer film produced by Out of Orbit and Northern Ireland Screen. Both will screen at festivals across the UK and internationally.

I am currently developing my debut feature Drifters, which was selected for development at the prestigious Less is More (LIM) programme. My work is rooted in working-class communities and explores youth culture, care systems, masculinity, and the female perspective—often told through a poetic lens of social realism.

My graduation film at LFS won Best Short and screened at multiple BAFTA- and Oscar-qualifying festivals. In 2019, I was selected for Béla Tarr’s directing workshop, where I made Ascend, later screened at Locarno Film Festival as part of the anthology Under the God. I began my career in theatre through the Royal Court’s invite-only Young Writers’ Programme, with my first play staged at London’s Battersea Arts Centre (BAC). My first film, Little Ones—an autobiographical documentary supported by Film London and the Kevin Spacey Foundation—screened internationally. I was later commissioned by BBC Northern Ireland and Screen NI to direct Ode, which screened on BBC Arts and BBC iPlayer and played at international festivals including Aesthetica, Dublin, Uppsala, and Underwire.

Alongside my filmmaking, I am an Assistant Professor in Screen and Audio at LAMDA, where I’ve been teaching and leading training for the past three years. My films have screened at Locarno, Galway, Aesthetica, Dublin, Cork, Manchester, Belfast, Kerry, Underwire, Richard Harris, and beyond, earning recognition including a Shiny Award, Best International Short at Offline, and a finalist placement at the European Cinematography Awards.