Education
He studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1995-2001. He graduated with a MDES in Visual Communication specializing in Film and Television.
He studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1995-2001. He graduated with a MDES in Visual Communication specializing in Film and Television.
Adrian John McDowall is a British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award-Winning Filmmaker
lieutenant was presented to him and his producers Joern Utkilen and Kara Johnston by actor Leslie Nielsen. In 2001 he formed the screenwriting company Imagine Pictures Limited with filmmaker Joern Utkilen. Adrian has continued to write and direct numerous award winning short films including The Toon Fair, Headbangers, Wise Guys (written by Simon Stephenson), Myself Only More So (written by Nicole Taylor of Secret Diary of a Call Girl), and One Track Mind.
Slice, Ma Bar and Standing Start were co-directed and co-produced with Finlay Pretsell.
Standing Start premièred at the Edinburgh Film Festival and has since screened at numerous other international film festivals. lieutenant was also shortlisted for the Bloomberg Newcomer Award at the 2008 Grierson Documentary Awards.
Ma Bar premièred at the Edinburgh Film Festival and went on to screen in competition at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. This was nominated for XFM Music Video of the year 2004, alongside the artists Eminem, Franz Ferdinand, The Streets and The Killers.
In 2008, Adrian directed 2 episodes (#96 and #102) of the long running Scottish crime drama Taggart for the Independent Television network.
In 2009, Adrian was included in a pool of eight writer directors as part of the filmmakers collective Advance Party II - the successor to Sigma Films and Zentropa’s Advance Party which produced Andrea Arnorld’s Cannes Jury Prize winning feature film Red Road, and Morag McKinnon’s Rounding Up Donkeys. The aim of the collective is to produce eight features films from first-time feature film directors.