Neil Boyle
After leaving film school, Neil was hired by triple Oscar-winning director Richard Williams to work on the Disney/Spielberg production ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’. Neil became Williams’ protege, and went on to work with him on the legendary animated feature ‘The Thief and the Cobbler’, and the 16 dvd masterclass ‘The Animator’s Survival Kit’.
Between 1992 and 2000, Neil was a founding member of Premier Films Ltd. The company worked as a satellite studio for many Hollywood and European feature films and shorts, including the Oscar-nominated ‘Runaway Brain’ (Disney), ‘The Pebble and the Penguin’ (MGM), ‘Felidae’ (HahnFilm), and ‘Space Jam’ (Warner Bros), for which Neil was a Supervising Animator.
Over a seven year period Neil also collaborated as a co-director with animation legend Sylvain Chomet on six commercials, a music video, and a couch-gag for the iconic TV show ‘The Simpsons’.
Neil’s other commercials clients have included Renault, Citroen, The Bank of America, Felix, Nintendo, Air Canada, Iams, CMA, Winterthur, and a host of others.
In 2011, Neil released his short film ‘The Last Belle’. The film was invited to premiere at The London Film Festival, and went on to be nominated for several awards, winning the Gold Award at the Rhode Island International Film Festival, and gaining the nomination for Best British Short at the Edinburgh Film Festival.
In 2018, Neil was invited to design and animate several hand-drawn sequences in the CG feature ‘Sherlock Gnomes’, visualizing the interior workings of the brain of Sherlock (Johnny Depp). In 2020 Neil became Drawover Consultant on the Warner Bros movie Tom and Jerry, working from the internationally acclaimed and Oscar winning VFX company Framestore.
Currently, Neil has completed directing the feature film ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’ with co-director Kirk Hendry, for Sarah Radclyffe Productions and Lupus Films. The film is based upon the much-loved book by Michael Morpurgo (‘War Horse’), and is adapted by the acclaimed screenwriter Frank Cottrell-Boyce (‘Hilary and Jackie’, ‘Millions’) The film’s star voices include Sally Hawkins, Cillian Murphy, Ken Watanabe, and Raffey Cassidy.