Alice Waddington

Born as Irene [3] on July 31, 1990 in Bilbao, Spain to a Catalan psychologist and a Galician teacher, Waddington adopted her stage name[3] at sixteen, while assisting director of photography Quique López.[4] At 18, she studied advertising at UPV-EHU University where she started capturing promotion stills and directing fashion films as a photographer and assistant of photography for the Spanish editions of Harper's Bazaar, Neo2[5] and others.

At 20 and for three years, she worked as an advertising creative, a producer and an advertising video editor at the agencies Leo Burnett Iberia and Social Noise also specializing as a digital storyboard artist.

Actress Ana Rujas surrounded by a FX wall of fire on the set of Waddington-directed Disco Inferno.

In 2014, with the help of Mexican executive producer Yadira Ávalos, Waddington took a year off advertising agency work to write and direct a short movie. She found sponsors[6] to help her produce her first narrative 11-minute film,[7] Disco Inferno (2015), which received nominations in 63 international film festivals including genre fan favorites such as Palm Springs,[8] Fantasia, Sitges (Noves Visions Short award[9]) or Fantastic Fest, which first awarded her as Best Director in her category, and second best feature project of the Fantastic Market for her movie Paradise Hills.[10] Eleven other international festival wins ensued, with a considerable comparative presence of the short picture in American and Canadian festivals.

Waddington entered pre-production of her first full-length feature, Paradise Hills in 2017[10] with Spanish production company Nostromo Pictures.[2][11] The film is a science-fiction thriller written by Brian DeLeeuw[12] and Nacho Vigalondo. It was released in 2019.

Waddington has pointed out in interviews that after Paradise Hills she desires to direct biopics, socially metaphorical fantastic horror about minorities[13] and terror stories that have taken place.[14]

In June 2019, it was announced that Waddington is developing her second film Scarlet, from a script written by her and Kristen SaBerre. The film will be distributed by Netflix.[15]

Waddington is a proactive demander for progressive social change regarding causes related to female cooperation [16] and sorority within the arts.[3]

In the context of film, she has been vocal about the need for both more female-led and more diversely-cast films worldwide[17] and about motivating young women to enroll into filmmaking programs.[18] She has also often mentioned the need for film studios around the world to hire more women, with an accent on POC women.[13]

Waddington is fluent in Spanish and English.

Waddington's short film "Disco Inferno" has been presented on 63 plus,[19] genre and conventional film festivals across the world: