‘Santa Barbara Film Festival’ success!

Congratulations to former Grosvenor pupil Ross White who has had his debut short film selected for the world-renowned Santa Barbara Film Festival, where it is the only film from the UK and Ireland selected to compete for ‘Best Live Action Short’.

The film ‘Roy’, written and directed by Ross and long-time collaborator Tom Berkeley, stars the BAFTA winning Harry Potter and ‘Game of Thrones’ actor David Bradley alongside ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ star Rachel Shenton - it tells the story of a reclusive widower who looks for brief moments of companionship by cold calling strangers from the phone book; when he accidentally dials the number for Cara, an unlikely friendship is born. 

Writer and director Ross attended Grosvenor between 2006 and 2013, studying GCSE and A level Drama as well as starring in many of its famed School Productions, before heading off to train as an actor in London. With a long held passion for storytelling, Ross is now pursuing his ambitions in both acting and writing/directing. Speaking of the film, he says: “There was a real poignancy to making a film about isolation just as the country got to grips with the national lockdown - it gave everyone working on the film a real sense of what our central character was living with every day.

On the nomination of ‘Roy’ for the Santa Barbara Film Festival, which has previously screened films such as ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘La La Land’ and ‘I. Tonya’, Ross states: “We are delighted with how it’s been received, so early on in the film’s journey. To have its world premiere at an Academy Award-qualifying festival is so exciting and crazy for us.”

In non-Covid times, Ross, Tom and the actors would have travelled to the US for the festival but, due to the pandemic, they were unable to go. Instead, ‘Roy’ was shown as a virtual screening and the cast and crew took part in an online Q&A.

Not content with the success of ‘Roy’, Ross, along with his collaborator Berkeley, has already received backing for his next film, ‘An Irish Goodbye’, which is going into production later this year, on location in Belfast.

A huge congratulations to Ross on his incredible recent success - we wish him the best of luck as he continues with his burgeoning career and look forward to seeing many more of his projects hit our screens in the near future.

Former Grosvenor pupil Ross White.