Of Danish/Italian decent, (hence the funny name), Steen has not taken the traditional ‘Film School ‘ route into directing.
He started shooting his own films at the age of eight, and pursued the art for the next ten years until Art School intervened at eighteen.
In 1994 he completed ‘TILL ROCKS MELT’, showcased during ‘The Manchester City of Drama’ festival at the Contact Theatre, then on to ‘HIGH LIFE’, for Launch Pad Productions in1995.
In 1999 Steen wrote, directed and produced ‘MOTHERS DAY’. It won plaudits on its premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival as well as Raindance/London. It also made the top ten short films of 2000 in an Empire Magazine sponsored competition.
‘THE PAINTER’, another short, was second out of almost seven hundred entries in the 2003 Twenty Four Hour Film Challenge.
After several more shorts Steen shot his debut feature: ‘SHUT UP AND SHOOT ME’ in 2004. A Cinema release in Czech Republic followed along with stunning reviews and brisk box-office business for this darkly comic tale of ‘Love, Death and Dumplings’. It has just won BEST FILM (Audience Award), BEST FILM (Jury Prize) and BEST ACTOR at the 2006 Cherbourg Film Festival.
Based in Manchester, Steen currently has three feature projects in development along with a children’s book and TV series. |
