Matthew BUTLER-HART – Director, Writer

Matthew Butler-Hart originally trained as an actor at the Rose Bruford College and worked in theatre, film and tv for ten years before in 2013, after being picked out by Screen International for their ‘Stars of Tomorrow’ listing, deciding to concentrate on writing and directing.

Since then with actress/writer wife Tori Butler-Hart he set up Fizz and Ginger Films and has written and directed five feature films collecting 14 awards and 23 nominations at major festivals including six for Best Director. Their latest, Dagr, is a horror movie set in Wales using the found footage cinematic techniques embraced by horror filmmakers and is currently in select cinemas and on Apple, Amazon, Google Play and other svods. The reviews have been outstanding: “One of Empire Magazine’s Best Films of 2024 – expertly assembled with faces-to-watch”; The Guardian “ambitious … clever … impressive”; 5-star review on Filmmakers podcast – “hilarious … a delight”;  Gazettely”a dark puzzle box … somewhere between cheeky mockumentary and thriller … a new horror icon born!’; Bloody Flicks said “the whole thing is handled with a panache that injects new life into a sub genre that everyone – me included – thought had breathed its last”.

Infinitum: Subject Unknown, starring Ian McKellen, Conleth Hill and Tori, opened in the UK in March 2021 and in the USA at the beginning of August that year and after an extended run in cinemas and is now on Amazom Prime, Apple TV and all the major SVOD plateforms. Their first movie, Miss In Her Teens, again starred Ian McKellan plus Simon Callow and Tori herself in the lead role. The film was distributed by eOne. Two Down with Alex Hassell was distributed by CA’s Flix Premiere and was one of Sky Cinema’s rare 5 star listed films and was later screened in China, France and Eastern Europe. The Isle, starring Conleth Hill and Alex Hassell was repped by CA’s Brainstorm Media and had major cinema releases in both the US and UK. Matthew is also keen to expand on his directing work as a director for hire.

In addition to producing his own slate with Tori he has also produced several features for other companies including Symmetry of Love for Aitor Gaizka and Flea Market Pictures and Aki Omoshaybi’s debut picture Real for Small Long Productions which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival and was released in cinemas in 2020.

Tori and Matthew are currently writing and developing a raft of new movies for Fizz and Ginger including; The Curse of The Buxom Strumpet, a 1713 zombie comedy; Mr. Parker, a drama set in the north of England during the 1990’s, Dragheist, about drag queens who help a family take revenge on the banker who ruined their lives, and Infinitum, the large scale sci-fi origin story of Infinitum: Subject Unknown.

He and Tori were commissioned by US publisher Applause to write a book about their indie film making experiences and Full To The Brim with Fizz, Ginger and Sheer Determination has recently been published globally.