Pinny Grylls

Documentaries . Fiction . Commercials . Ethnography

About

Pinny grew up in Hackney, East London and is an award-winning director, editor and ethnographer.

Pinny’s career began by co-founding Birds Eye View Film Festival. Since then her filmmaking has become known for it’s humour, authenticity and strong story telling.

She directs documentaries, commercials and is now moving into fiction. She is always experimenting with form - and her debut feature Grand Theft Hamlet is shot entirely inside a computer game. Her films tend to focus on the uniquely human activity of performing - be it making theatre, singing or dancing.

Pinny is a proud member of the deaf community - and in 2022 she recieved BFI development funding for her debut fiction feature film Hear My Voice about a boy growing up in Hackney who dreams of being an opera singer while navigating his immigrant fathers hearing loss. The screen play is being written by Isaac Tomiczek.

In 2023 she directed and edited her debut documentary feature Grand Theft Hamlet. Shot entirely inside Grand Theft Auto the film tells the story of two out of work actors trying to stage Hamlet inside this notoriously violent game. In Jan 2023 the theatre production won the Stage Innovation Award.The feature film will have its competition catagory world premiere at SXSW in March 2024.

Pinny's avatar Rustless Zither interviews actors inside Grand Theft Auto

Pinny's avatar Rustless Zither interviews actors inside Grand Theft Auto

News….

  • Grand Theft Hamlet wins SXSW best documentary feature award

    Grand Theft Hamlet had it’s world premiere at SXSW Festival in March 2024 where it won the best documentary feature award. It had its European Premier at CPH:Dox in Copenhagen. It had glowing reviews in Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, IndieWire amongst others and 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. The film has been acquired by Altitude for sales an distribution.

  • BFI awards Hear My Voice development funding

    In 2022 the BFI awarded Hear My Voice their highly competitive Development Fund. The story was written in collaboration with Intermission Youth members supported by a kickstarter campaign. Now writer Issac Tomiczec will be creating a script ready for finance.

  • https://www.thestage.co.uk/news/video-games-can-bring-shakespeare-into-the-future--the-stage-awards-winners

    Hamlet in GTA wins Stage Innovation Award

    In January 2023 our Rustic Mascara team won the Stage Innovation Award for our production of Hamlet stages live inside Grand Theft Auto Online.