Acclaimed writer, director, and actor Peter Mullan has written and directed three short films and two feature films. As a director and writer he debuted with the short Clase in 1993, which won him the Michael Samuelson Award for Best Film and marked the beginning of a long collaboration between Peter Mullan and Magdalene producer Frances Higson. In 1995 he made Gaad Day Far The Bad Guys and in 1996 Fridge which won him several international awards such as BAFTA, Best Film at the Bilbao Film Festival, and Best Foreign Language Film at the Palm Springs Short Film Festival. Peter Mullan’s first film Orphans, which he wrote and directed, starred Douglas Henshall and Gary Lewis. It won great acclaim from both audiences and critics, and won many international awards including Best Film at the Venice Film Festival and Best European Screenplay at the Barcelona Film Festival in 1999. As an accomplished actor, Peter Mullan starred in the 1990s in The Big Man and Riff-Raff. He worked alongside Ewan McGregor in Danny, Boyle’s Little Murders Among Friends, was one of the performers in Trainspotting, and we saw him opposite Mel Gibson in Braveheart.

His role as Joe in Ken Loach’s My name is Joe was awarded Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival, the Valladolid Film Festival, and the Empire Film Awards. Peter Mullan has also directed several works for television, including episodes for the BBC series Cardiac Arrest, which earned him a Best Director nomination at the Royal Television Society. The Magdalene Sisters his second feature film earned him the Golden Lion at Venice in 2003.