Celebrating Excellence – Meet Tim Marshall

Tim Marshall won the Iris Prize in 2013 with Gorilla, a surreal yet deeply human short film that mixes humour, heartbreak, and unexpected tenderness. The film established his unique voice and visual style, and after winning, he returned to Wales to create Followers, a spiritual comedy-drama exploring faith and loneliness. Followers went on to screen at major festivals, including Sundance, SXSW, BFI Flare, and Encounters, building on Tim’s growing reputation as a bold and emotionally intelligent filmmaker. In 2024, he made an exciting return to Iris with his debut feature In The Room Where He Waits—a haunting, poetic meditation on grief, queerness, and the supernatural.

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We caught up with Tim to reflect on his Iris Prize journey, his evolving themes, and what’s next:

• From the surreal tenderness of Gorilla to the spiritual loneliness of Followers, your films often explore the quiet corners of human connection. What draws you to these quieter emotional spaces?

I'm always wanting to explore something deeper in my films that’s personal to me. Often I'm using my films as a way to ask a question and unpack or explore a theme almost as a way to make sense of it in my own life. Gorilla and Followers  were certainly those types of explorations for me and this process has really become something that's very grounding for me when I write films. There is always an inherent queerness to these themes, but film for me both as a maker as an audience member has always been a way to better understand life.

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Followers Trailer:

• Followers is both darkly funny and deeply spiritual. How did your experience making it in Wales shape the film’s tone and message?

Making Followers in Wales was such a beautiful, memorable, and incredible experience. One that I will cherish forever. I felt the themes I wanted to explore really fit well within the world of Cardiff particularly those of queerness and spirituality. I did research in Cardiff before I made the film in order to understand these communities more and it helped motivate me in the way that I wrote the film and I wrote the characters. Then working with the cast, particularly Valmai Jones, who is a Cardiff local, I was able to further shape the characters and find their inherent Welsh-ness.I really have the cast to think for bringing that wonderful uniqueness to these characters.

• Your feature debut, In The Room Where He Waits, is a meditation on grief and queerness through a supernatural lens. What was the emotional seed of this story?

It was the pandemic when I wrote and made this film and that really shaped a lot of where the film was coming from. It was motivated by a breakup at the time and this fear that I had after that of ending up alone, of never finding love again. During that time I actually did hotel quarantine. I had to spend two weeks in a hotel room by myself and it was then that the film really was born. I've had a lot of conversations with queer people since making that film and realize how deeply it resonates. It was really important to me thought that there was a hopefulness at the end of the film, as, with a lot of the film’s I make, I found catharsis through the project and wanted to reflect that in the film’s end.

• Both Gorilla and In The Room Where He Waits premiered at Iris Prize Festivals more than a decade apart. How has your relationship with Iris changed or deepened over time?

I really have the Iris Prize Festival to thank for launching my career as a filmmaker. Since winning the Iris Prize, and then making Followers and the wonderful journey of that film, it's felt like I am part of this really amazing evolving community, and that’s been a gift. Returning to Iris after 10 years was just the most special experience. Seeing all those people that I had initially connected with, making new friends, and mostly just remembering that incredible feeling of community, family, and lightness that comes with being at Iris, it really reminded why I love being a queer filmmaker. It's been amazing to watch the Iris Prize Festival  grow and I hope I get to screen a film again at Iris in the future!

• Faith, loneliness, longing—these themes echo through your work. Are there any new themes or forms you’re excited to explore next?

A very good question! Yes definitely, and as a queer filmmaker I'm always thinking about how I want to weave queerness into my work and how that evolves with the times and with myself. I actually really want to make something inherently joyous, positive, and celebratory next. A film that really celebrates the beautiful experience of what it is to be queer.

• Lastly, Australia’s had four Iris Prize winners—three back-to-back! What is it about Aussie storytelling that connects so well with Iris… something in the water, or just coincidence?

You know, it's hard to say! The queer filmmaking community in Australia is a really diverse and interesting one and it's been lovely to see how it has evolved since these films won Iris all those years ago. Australian queer storytellers are often very honest and grounded in the ways that they present character and story and I guess that's something that can resonate with audiences both queer and non queer alike.

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Useful links:

• Followers: irisprize.org/film/followers/
• Tim Marshall: www.tdmfilm.com/
• In The Room Where He Waits: irisprize.org/film/in-the-room-where-he-waits/