John Maclean is a Scottish film director, screenwriter and musician. He is best known for writing and directing the 2015 film ''

Slow West ''Slow West'' is a 2015 Revisionist Western, revisionist Western film written and directed by John Maclean (film director), John Maclean in his List of directorial debuts, directorial debut. It stars Kodi Smit-McPhee as a young Scotsman searchin ...

''.

Career

Maclean obtained his bachelor's degree ( BA) in drawing and painting from

Edinburgh College of Art Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) is one of eleven schools in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. Tracing its history back to 1760, it provides higher education in art and design, architecture, histor ...

, and his master's degree ( MA) from The

Royal College of Art The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...

in London. After college, he delivered cars by driving them to their new owners around America; seeing so much of the country later inspired his interest to make a Western. Maclean was a founding member of the Scottish indie-rock groups

The Beta Band The Beta Band are a Scottish musical group formed in 1996. Their style is described as being a blend of folk, psychedelia, electronica, post-rock and trip hop, often involving stylistic experimentation and occasional humour. They were praised ...

from 1997 to 2004 and The Aliens from 2005 to 2008. He also directed music videos for these bands, as well as the video for ''Hand of Man'',

Django Django Django Django are a British art rock band based in London, England. Formed in 2009, the band has released five studio albums starting with their self-titled debut in 2012. Their latest album '' Off Planet'' was released on 16 June 2023. Hist ...

's 2013 single. David Maclean, John's brother, is Django Django's drummer and producer. Those videos came to the attention of

Michael Fassbender Michael Fassbender (; born 2 April 1977) is a German-Irish actor. His accolades include nominations for two Academy Awards, four British Academy Film Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. In 2020, he was listed at number nine on ''The Irish Ti ...

, who agreed to be involved in a 2009 short film ''Man on a Motorcycle'', and later in ''Slow West''. ''The Guardian'' described the partnership between Maclean and Fassbender as "not quite up there with Scorsese/De Niro yet, but a good start". Maclean is the son of Scottish artists

Marian Leven Marian Leven RSA (born 1944) is a Scottish artist known for her sculptures, land art and collage work and for painting in oils, acrylics, and watercolour. Biography Leven was born in 1944 and is originally from Auchtermuchty in Fife, Scotl ...

and Will Maclean.

Filmography

Short film Feature film

Reception

Reviewing ''Slow West'', the

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture publication based in Greenwich Village, New York City, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Ma ...

concluded that "Maclean is a supremely promising talent." Maclean won a Best Short Film

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

award in 2012 for ''Pitch Black Heist'', which starred

and

Liam Cunningham Liam Cunningham (born 2 June 1961) is an Irish actor. He is known for playing Davos Seaworth in the HBO epic-fantasy series ''Game of Thrones''. Cunningham has been nominated for the London Film Critics' Circle Award, the British Independent ...

. His first feature film was the 2015 western-drama ''

''. He won the "World Cinema Jury Prize: Dramatic" at the 2015

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

. The same year, BAFTA named him as a "Brit to Watch".

References

External links

* Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Scottish film directors Scottish keyboardists Scottish folk singers British music video directors People educated at Madras College {{UK-film-bio-stub