Join Danny Sangra as he plays ‘Parlour Games’
Prodigiously multitasking, modern, human, gently bizarre but always with a surrealist touch, Danny Sangra is a new-wave filmmaker who has honed the art of observing modern life.
A graduate of Central Saint Martins at the University of Art London, writer and director Sangra is a creative powerhouse – he is also an established artist, illustrator & photographer.
Half-Sikh, half-Jewish, Sangra grew up in Leeds, Yorkshire, UK, the hardworking son of a hairdresser mother who encouraged his love of art. Sangra’s father watched Kurosawa and Kubrick movies, which made a big impression on the young boy.
Sangra went on to build an enviable creative career. Take a glimpse through his back catalogue of short films, drawings, and multimedia artwork, and you will notice a thread of dark humor as well as a curated, DIY perfection to his pieces.
Sangra’s unique style has earned him loyal audiences online, particularly with the Vimeo crowd, where his short A Lunch Break Romance built a substantial following. The platform went on to release his debut feature film Goldbricks in Bloom through its VOD service.
Starring Zosia Mamet (Girls), Jake Hoffman & Leo Fitzpatrick, Goldbricks in Bloom garnered rave reviews among audiences. IndieWire reported: “Goldbricks in Bloom shares the irreverent wit, heightened reality, and unexpected dark twists of Sangra’s shorts.”
While creating a name for himself by making an immense collection of short-shorts, known as a whole as Voltaville, which form parts of a mysterious larger, interconnected story, he has collaborated with clients such as Burberry, Mercedes-Benz, Samsung, Verizon, Miu Miu, SMART, Vogue, and Balenciaga – the latter taking the second position in the top 10 Fashion Films by Business of Fashion.
“Danny Sangra isn’t your typical filmmaker. His satirical style is novel and makes his films provocative, comedic and foreboding all at once. In oddly subtle ways, his films reconcile the complexities of human nature and address contradictions of life that are common to everyone.” — Studybreaks
“Sangra’s style is witty, playful, irreverent, literate, often surreal and always deadpan cool. He makes a habit of puncturing narrative convention.” — Shots
To celebrate the release of Parlour Games, produced by indie film powerhouse Lief, we were delighted to sit down with the quintessentially British filmmaker and talk craft.
Tell us about your history as a filmmaker. How did you start your journey?
It actually took me longer than most to begin making films. I started out coming from the world of design and illustration. Most people knew me as that, however when I was 28/29 I started making fashion films and got into it that way. Eventually I started writing narrative shorts and making them with friends.
However, my dad was heavily into cinema so I grew up watching Kurosawa and Kubrick. Not that I appreciated it . . . but it clearly had an effect.
Who were your early influences?
When I started making films off my own back it was director William Klein and his film Who Are You Polly Maggoo? He’s a photographer/painter/filmmaker that came through fashion, so that made sense to me. Then Godard films and Cassavetes were a big inspiration. Afterward, I got into Aki Kaurismaki, who is one of my favorite directors.
However, a lot of my approach came from 90s-era TV shows in England, like Reeves and Mortimer.
How was working on Parlour Games?
It was great. It felt more like a piece of theatre at times. It’s slightly different to my other work, but it was my usual crew and friends so nobody questioned anything and we worked smoothly.
Shot-wise it took longer to work out as it was all dolly and track, but we didn’t have much time. I was trying not to make a lot of cuts and have the camera and actors run the scenes, rather than piece it together from a ton of takes.
What did you learn from the experience?
I learned that when you have an idea that you can’t contain, just let it out. And if you want to paint an entire room red, just paint the room red.
Tell us about your career before film.
I studied graphic design at Central St Martins. I’ve designed and collaborated with many clients and companies over the years, brands like Sony, BBC, Nike, and Burberry. I still work in that field as I like to stay busy.
Where did the concept come from for Parlour Games?
I love playing with different styles of dialogue and I’d been playing around with period films. I think I’d watched Barry Lyndon and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead a bit too much. I’d also been reading Albert Camus so everything just mixed together.
It was all supposed to be filmed in a location house until two weeks before the shoot. I happened to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas and there’s a scene that made me want to film everything in an entirely red space.
Tell us about your creative process.
I tend to work really quickly. I write fast and I don’t like spending ages talking about doing something. On many occasions I’ll write something and we will film it a few days later. I look at what I have available and from there write something that I know I can manage.
You’re very hands-on with your projects. How hard is it wearing all the hats?
On my personal projects, I work with a small crew. We’ve made so much together that everyone is used to doing multiple things. It would feel lazy if I only did one thing.
What’s your filmmaking mission? Name the most important thing you want viewers to experience when watching your movies.
I don’t want to suggest they should experience anything specifically, but if they like it, then they should try to watch my other films.
Can we expect to see any episodic television from you anytime soon?
I don’t know what I’m allowed to say. So I’m not saying anything!
What’s your five-year plan?
To spend the next five years thinking of how to complete my thirty-year plan.
What filmmakers should be on our radar?
There’s so many new talented filmmakers, I wouldn’t know where to start.
What’s your favorite film of all time, and what did you learn from it?
Big Trouble In Little China. I have zero idea what I learned from it but I do remember the feeling of being a six-year-old in video store and films feeling like something special.
Tell us about how being from the North of England affected your filmmaking. Who are your great Northern film heroes?
The North of England has a lot of the ‘Kitchen Sink’-era of filmmaking in its history. Billy Liar being one of my favourites of that era. There’s a lot of working class drama up North but there’s so much humour attached to it. In the grimmest scenarios, there’s a joke said with a stone face. You have to earn a smile.
Shane Meadows depicts an England I’ve known all my life, and then there’s Ken Loach.
There’s a work ethic and a way that people work within groups. It’s got more of a community feel to it, rather than a hierarchy.
Recent Filmography and Projects
Sangra’s credits have continued to expand well beyond the 2019 release of Parlour Games. His animated short Donny’s Orange premiered in 2024 as a compact parable about selling out, while Polly Goes Metal also arrived that year. He has kept Thrusters ON, the Palm Springs short, in his personal archives as an example of his location-driven work. Most notably, the feature Mostly Brutal has moved into active development and promotion, with an official trailer already circulating that signals a shift toward longer-form narrative storytelling.
Ongoing Creative Practice and Animation
Sangra’s quick turnaround approach has carried over into recent animation work. The two-minute Donny’s Orange film demonstrates how he still favors concise, pointed pieces that can be written and executed in days rather than months. Brand commissions and personal animation reels continue to appear on his site and social channels, keeping the multi-hyphenate rhythm he described in earlier interviews alive without slowing his pace.
Feature Film Development: Mostly Brutal
The new feature Mostly Brutal centers on a character named Julia who leads a walking tour through New York City’s most gruesome murders. The project marks Sangra’s first major narrative feature push since Goldbricks in Bloom, and the trailer on his official site already showcases the same deadpan tone and heightened situations that marked his earlier shorts. Promotion through Instagram and his management at Brillstein indicates the film is moving steadily toward wider visibility.
Personal Life and Continued Output
Sangra remains active on Instagram under the handle @dannysangra, where his film diary posts stretch into 2025 and 2026. Recent entries note how having a child has shifted his viewing habits, yet the posts still track new projects and daily observations with the same steady rhythm. Representation by Brillstein has given the work a consistent professional pipeline while preserving the community-oriented, hands-on method he learned growing up in the North of England.
Across two decades Sangra has moved from illustration and design into fashion films, narrative shorts, animation, and now a developing feature slate, all while keeping the same fast, instinctive process. His influences from William Klein to Aki Kaurismaki remain visible in the mix of deadpan humor and unexpected structure, and the Northern knack for finding a joke in grim circumstances still colors every frame. The recent output shows a filmmaker who continues to let ideas out quickly rather than containing them, whether the canvas is a red room, a two-minute parable, or a walking tour of the city’s darkest stories.
