Draft:Paris Zarcilla

Philip Julian Zarcilla (born July 1986), known professionally as Paris Zarcilla, is a British film director and writer. His debut feature Raging Grace (2023), the first in a trilogy, was nominated for a British Independent Film Award. He co-founded the company Sudden Black.

Early life
Zarcilla was born in central London to Filipino parents who ran a cafe on Lisson Grove. He studied Digital Animation at the University of Hertfordshire, graduating in 2008.

Career
With Daryl Atkins, Zarcilla co-founded the production company Sudden Black in 2011 and served as creative director until 2016. He directed Feel Flows, which was named Best Music Video at the 2013 London Independent Film Festival and featured in the Cannes Short Film Corner. Pommel (2018) was nominated for a British Independent Film Award (BIFA).

Angered by the treatment of immigrant workers during the COVID-19 pandemic and uptick in anti-Asian racism, Zarcilla channeled that into making his feature directorial debut Raging Grace, a gothic horror film and the first in a trilogy. The film opened at the 2023 South by Southwest (SXSW) in Texas, where it won the Narrative Feature Jury Award and the Thunderbird Rising Award for Best Debut.

The second installment in the trilogy will be titled Domestic and set in 1990s London, while the third, titled Ocean On Fire, will be set in the Philippines. Once he completes the trilogy, Zarcilla intends to go in a different direction with a romantic comedy.

Artistry
On Letterboxd, Zarcilla named nine films that influenced Raging Grace: Joseph Losey's The Servant (1963), Bong Joon Ho's short Shaking Tokyo (2008), Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940), Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander (1982), Alfonso Cuarón's Roma (2018), Peter Medak's The Changeling (1980), Danny DeVito's Matilda (1996), Hirokazu Koreeda's Nobody Knows (2004), and Alejandro Amenábar's The Others (2001).

Personal life
In 2018, Zarcilla went viral on social media when he unexpectedly found a cat and her litter of four kittens in his flat. He ended up taking the cats in and became known online as "cat dad".