Hope Dickson Leach

Hope completed her MFA in filmmaking at Columbia University where she made three short films that played at festivals worldwide. While in New York she was assistant to Todd Solondz on his film PALINDROMES. Hope’s award-winning thesis film, THE DAWN CHORUS, was selected for Sundance, Edinburgh, London and many other festivals. Screen International made her a Star of Tomorrow and Filmmaker Magazine named her one of the ’25 New Faces of Independent Film’. Since her return to the UK, she has made further acclaimed short works for Channel 4, Film London, the UK Film Council, NOWNESS and the National Theatre of Scotland. Her debut feature THE LEVELLING, produced as part the iFeatures scheme (funded by BBC Films, the BFI and CreaFve England) had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film FesFval in September 2016 before screening at festivals all over the world. At the London Film FesFval she was awarded the inaugural IWC Filmmaker Bursary Award in Association with the BFI, and in October 2017 she was named a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit. She won a Scottish BAFTA for Best Screenwriter for The Levelling in November 2017. In 2020 she released a new short film, STRONG IS BETTER THAN ANGRY, as part of The Uncertain Kingdom project, and is currently developing several new feature films and television projects. In summer 2020 Hope created a film for the National Theatre of Scotland for the Edinburgh International Festival. GHOST LIGHT premiered to five star reviews across the board and led to a second collaboration with the NTS. Developed over the pandemic, Hope created a hybrid film-theatre production of Jekyll & Hyde – performed and recorded live in Leith Theatre and streamed to cinemas across the UK in February 2022. It is being edited into a feature film. Hope is a co-founder of Raising Films, a campaign to make the film industry more sustainable for parents and carers, and is part of the National Partnership for Culture in Scotland. She lives in Edinburgh with her husband and two sons.