Jonathan Hourigan

I am Programme Director for MA Screenwriting and Senior Lecturer in Screenwriting.

Prior to my appointment at University of Manchester in 2021 I was Course Leader MA Screenwriting and Head of Screenwriting at London Film School (2017-2021), regularly named amongst the best film schools in the world. I have taught at film schools and universities in the UK and internationally.

At University of Manchester I deliver the MA Screenwriting Semester One unit, Genre and Theme and the Semester Two 90 credit dissertation unit, Industry and the Feature Film. I also teach the undergraduate unit, Introduction to Screenwriting and have created a new Advanced Screenwriting undergraduate unit.

In 2023 I chaired the Notes on Bresson conference at University of Manchester (see https://www.youtube.com/@UoMSALC/playlists) and am editing Coming to terms with Robert Bresson, to be published by University of Manchester Press in 2026. I worked as assistant to Robert Bresson on his final film, the 1983 Cannes prize-winning L'Argent. My research focuses on his films and especially on his influential volume of aphorisms, Notes on Cinematography, along with issues around forms of collaboration and improvisation in contemporary screenwriting and filmmaking.

I am a screenwriter and script consultant. In 2024 I had two major prize-winning feature films with screenwriting credits, Bring Them Down (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14186876/) and At The Door of the House Who Will Come Knocking (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt30784023/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1). The latter won the Grand Jury Award in the 2024 International Competition of Sheffield DocFest. I also appear as Head of Script in Joanna Hogg's acclaimed Souvenir I and II (2019 and 2021 respectively).