STÉPHANIE JOALLAND

Stéphanie is a writer-director. She runs Frenzy Films, a London-based production company which specializes in contained elevated genre films. 

Originally from France, she began her career in story development at TF1 International and Canal Plus. She then worked as a story editor and screenwriter for French TV, creating among others a Sci-Fi animated series for Luc Besson’s Europa Corp: VALERIAN & LAURELINE. 

After studying film at UCLA she wrote and directed her first feature film, THE QUIET HOUR, a sci-fi thriller starring Dakota Blue Richards (The Golden Compass, Skins, Endeavour). THE QUIET HOUR  premiered at Galway Film Fleadh, was nominated Best British Film at Raindance Film Festival, won Best Film at Kansas City Film Fest, showcased at Newport Beach, premiered on Sky Cinema in the UK in 2016 and sold to Amazon Prime in the U.S. 

Stéphanie is now developing ICE,  a grounded sci-fi thriller which was selected for the 2019 JETS Co-Production Initiative during Berlinale where it was voted Best UK Project. ICE was selected as part of the Second Film section of the 2020 Sofia Meetings Co-production Market and has made the Top 50 in the 2020 ISA Fast Track Fellowship competition. 

Stéphanie lectures on screenwriting at the London College of Communication, Central Film School and works as an academic advisor on the Raindance MA in Filmmaking with De Montfort University. She is an alumna of Berlinale Talent and IFP Emerging Narrative in NYC

​Q: Who’s your favourite director?

A: Peter Weir, because he directed one of my favourite films ever, the haunting "Picnic at Hanging Rock" and because he's so versatile yet so consistently brilliant at what he does. 


Q: What’s the best opening in your opinion?

A: I am still under the spell of "Angel Heart"'s opening with the soul-stirring neo-noir atmosphere, probably because it was one of the first supernatural thrillers I ever watched and I had no idea what had just hit me when I saw it. 


Q: What’s the fictional journey you’d most like to take?

A: I'd like to be onboard of the spaceship of  Dan Simmons's  "Hyperion" towards a mysterious planet which reverses time. The spaceship of "2001: A Space Odyssey" would do as well.


Q: What’s the most memorable line of dialogue?

A: The dying replicant Roy Batty reflecting on his mortality, the tragedy of human experience beautifully encapsulated in a few lines.
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die".


Q: What’s your most romantic encounter in a film?

A: Donald Sutherland and Brooke Adams in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (the 1978 version of course). There is so much chemistry between them it's utterly devastating when she falls asleep and her body crumbles after he tries to wake her.

At Euroscript, Stéphanie regularly runs the 3 evenings course Write The Micro-Budget Feature