Ed Perkins is a Grierson award winning documentary filmmaker living and working in London, trading as Stroma Films Limited. In 2015, Ed was named as a BAFTA Breakthrough Brit. Ed has directed, filmed and edited for National Geographic, BBC, Channel 4, The New Yorker, Stateless Media, Vanity Fair, The Guardian and Focus Features. After graduating from the University of North Carolina as a Morehead-Cain scholar in 2009 - where his student documentary ‘For God's Sake’ won ‘Best in Show’ at the Carolina Film Festival and ‘The Eva Marie Saint-Jeffrey Hayden Humanitas Award’ - he then developed and directed a series of TV documentaries for National Geographic Channel as well as directing the behind-the-scenes documentaries for ‘Project Nim, ‘The Eagle’, the BAFTA winning ‘The Imposter’, and the Academy Award winning ‘Seaching for Sugar Man’. Two of Ed's short films have won Vimeo "Short of the Week" and "Staff Pick" accolades, and 'If I Die on Mars' was featured on the frontpage of The Guardian website and has had more than 1,000,000 views over multiple platforms. In 2015 Ed finished directing his first feature documentary Garnet’s Gold, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival 2014, won a Grierson Award for Best Newcomer, won Best International Documentary awards at Docville and Jozi Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at both Tribeca and the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
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Biography from TMDB.
- Director and writer, also cinematographer
- 4 on MovieCove · 8 credits in all
What are Ed Perkins' films like?
Across a limited sample of 4 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Self and Society.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 0 · Wry 0 · Earnest 4
Light 0 · Serious 2 · Dark 2
Grounded 4 · Stylized 0 · Heightened 0
Gentle 1 · Charged 2 · Intense 1
Steady 2 · Shifting 2 · Whiplash 0
Straight-faced 4 · Some laughs 0 · Funny 0
Slow burn 3 · Even-paced 1 · Relentless 0
Casual 0 · Engaged 4 · Full focus 0
A split, not a type: Easy watch 1 · Affecting 1 · Heavy 2
Resolved 3 · Open-ended 1 · Ambiguous 0
Moods and endings
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Ed Perkins' films?
As of October 24, 2026, 3 of their 4 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service.
Subscription and free streaming for Ed Perkins' titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
8 credits, 4 with a MovieCove page.
Clown Panic(2026)
Midcredits score: 5th percentile of all films
The Trouble with Mr Doodle (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2024)
The Princess(2022)
Midcredits score: 83rd percentile of all films
Tell Me Who I Am(2019)
Midcredits score: 94th percentile of all films
Black Sheep (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2018)
Bare Knuckle Fight Club (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2017)
Garnet's Gold(2014)
Midcredits score: 70th percentile of all films
Comic Store Heroes (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(2012)
Career shape
A full career of 7 titles from 2012 to 2024.
Awards
Nominated for an Oscar in 2019, Best Documentary Short Subject.
Major bodies only: the Oscars, Primetime Emmys, Golden Globes, BAFTAs and Screen Actors Guild Awards are named; Cannes, Venice, the Berlinale, Sundance, the directors', writers' and producers' guilds, the Grammys, Critics Choice and the Independent Spirit Awards count as other major bodies. Festival and regional prizes are not counted. Source: IMDb.
How do Ed Perkins' films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 77th percentile, the median of all 4; across a limited sample of 4 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 72nd percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up2
- 50th to 74th1
- Below 25th1
Shape of the crowd
2 of their 4 titles are Crowd Pleasers.
- Universally Loved1
- Crowd Pleaser2
- Mixed1
Reviewers score the atmosphere 73/100 and the pacing 41/100 in their films, across 4 reviewed titles. The element that speaks to their work as a director.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Who does Ed Perkins work with?
People who share at least 2 of Ed Perkins' MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Simon Chinn shares the most, 4.
Producers
- Simon ChinnShared titles: Clown Panic (2026), The Princess (2022), Tell Me Who I Am (2019), Garnet's Gold (2014)See all 4 shared titles with Simon Chinn
- Jonathan ChinnShared titles: Clown Panic (2026), The Princess (2022), Tell Me Who I Am (2019)See all 3 shared titles with Jonathan Chinn
- Vanessa TovellShared titles: Clown Panic (2026), The Princess (2022), Tell Me Who I Am (2019)See all 3 shared titles with Vanessa Tovell