Justin Edgar

Born in Handsworth, Birmingham, Edgar left school with no qualifications because he regularly played truant to watch movies at the nearby Odeon.

He had a string of dead-end jobs before enrolling on a Sutton College media course from 1991 to 1993 where he used the basic equipment to make films.

Shot on a budget of £1.6 million,[2] Large was backed by Film Four and went straight in at number one in the UK video charts.

His 2005 short Special People won Best Film at the 2005 Chicago International Film Festival, Best Drama at the 2006 Royal Television Society Awards, the BBC New Filmmakers Award and was shortlisted for the 2007 Oscars, BAFTAs and Turner Classic Movies Prize Shorts.

It was released in the UK by Metrodome and Netflix on 25 April 2014[7] Guy Lodge in Variety called the film "crass but cute"[8] and Allan Hunter in Screen Daily said it was a "likeable, breezy British teen comedy".

[9] Andrew Blair in Den of Geek noted the film's "political bent" and "anger bubbling under its surface".

[11] The Wee Review stated it was "A well-crafted noir thriller that satisfies the sadistic cinema goer with its darkly uncompromising take on the genre".

[12] Another critic commented “A shocking, dark, vicious, violent, forceful, engrossing, touching, beautiful film!

[1] He contributed to the book Remaking Birmingham - The Visual Culture of Urban Regeneration in which he outlines the importance of architecture in the city's cinematic representations.

He cites his own short film Round which used the architecture of Birmingham's iconic Rotunda building as a location prior to its renovation in 2003.

[1] [1]He wrote and produced the 2019 short film Verisimilitude for the BBC, directed by David Proud and starring Ruth Madeley, Esther Smith and Alice Lowe[30] which was released in cinemas and received positive reviews from The Guardian and Time Out.

He is a member of the jury for the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer[34] In 2020 Edgar created his first visual arts exhibition about a fictional[35] disabled armed resistance movement, Reasonable Adjustment, funded by the Arts Council of England.