Lenny Crooks

Film Faculty

Lenny Crooks is currently a New York based consultant advising European producers on transatlantic co-production opportunities and working with Killer Films on its development slate. Lenny's recent investments included Lynne Ramsay's WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, Paddy Considine's TYRANNOSAUR and Ben Wheatley's KILL LIST.  Crooks is the former head of the UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund, where he backed Cannes Special Jury Prize winner  Fish Tank and  Bright Star. Crooks also ran the Glasgow Film Fund and the Glasgow Film Office. As director of the Glasgow Film Office, Crooks has supported the city's transformation into an internationally recognized creative hub and has also managed a successful public/private investment fund. 

With 20 years of experience in the film industry, he has supported some of the UK's most exciting filmmakers including Gaby Dellal's  On a Clear Day, Peter Mullan's  The Magdalene Sisters, Ken Loach's  My Name is Joe, Lynne Ramsay's  Morvern Callar, and David Mackenzie's  Young Adam. Crooks has a strong reputation for supporting filmmakers and his instinct has taken him from backing Andrew and Kevin Macdonald and John Hodge whose  Shallow Grave became a spectacular international film debut for director Danny Boyle, to Gilles Mackinnon with  Small Faces, writer Paul Laverty with Ken Loach's  Carla's Song, Peter Mullan with  Orphans, and Saul Metzstein and Jack Lothian with  Late Night Shopping.  He also supported the co-production partnership between Gillian Berrie's Glasgow-based Sigma Films and Peter Aalbeck Jensen's and Lars Von Trier's Danish production house, Zentropa Films and bankrolled the Advance Party slate which led to the production of Andrea Arnold's  Red Road, winner of the Prix du Jury at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. He leads students through script development to completed feature length script, leads script revision workshops and introduces first year students to the award winning Advance Party teaching method.