Piotr Szkopiak

On the UK release of his first feature film "Small Time Obsession", both Variety and The Guardian described Piotr as "a director to watch". With no formal training in film and television, Piotr's first break came in 1989 working as an intern at MTV Europe in the News Department. He later joined Sky TV as an intern in Sky Movies and secured a job as an interstitial producer/director. He then co-created the film magazine show "Xposure" which began transmitting in September 1992 and was re-named "The Movie Show" in January 1994. It was first presented by Nadia De Lemeny and Rob Brydon then Richard Jobson. Piotr directed the shows between August 1993 and January 1995, including special reports from New York, Los Angeles and the Cannes, Berlin and Edinburgh Film Festivals. In 1994, Piotr made the short film "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie", which won the Best British Film Award at the Institute of Amateur Cinematographers in 1995. It was also selected to play at the Barcelona Film Festival and was screened on Sky TV in October 1997. In January 1995, Piotr left Sky to work as a freelance director and editor while writing and producing "Small Time Obsession". He then worked exclusively in UK TV drama as a director on many of the nation's top-rated shows while continuing to develop feature films, culminating in him co-writing and directing "The Last Witness". Piotr's parents were born in Poland but were deported when both the German and Soviet armies invaded the country in 1939. Piotr's father and his family were sent to Austria by the Germans as forced labour. His mother and her family were sent to Siberia by the Soviets as enemies of the state. Piotr's grandfather was executed by the Soviet NKVD in the Katyn Massacre in 1940. After the war, Piotr's mother and father found themselves in England but could not return to Poland as it was still occupied by Soviet Russia and under communist rule. They remained in England as political refugees, as did many of their fellow countrymen and women.