About First Films
First Films Team
Alex Tweddle & Richard Niles bring a wealth of experience, creative achievement, and professional acclaim.
Alex Tweddle - Producer/Director
Alex Tweddle is a multi-award-winning film and documentary writer, producer and director, making acclaimed and innovative high-quality films for over 25 years. His daring, edgy, distinctive filmmaking pushes boundaries both in subject matter and content. Certified to operate in hostile environments he has worked in some of the most dangerous cities in the world. In-competition at over 150 international film festivals, Alex has won over 50 awards.
His most recent film AMR: Dying to Change the World features Brian Cox as AMR itself, revealing to the audience with what the earth could be like in 2050 if we fail to act, now.
Alex continues his uncompromising creative journey with FIRST FILMS.
“Alex is a remarkable filmmaker… There is a real talent in this man.”
Robert Fuest - Screenwriter and Feature Director
“Surviving Burkitts is a powerful and quite extraordinary documentary… informative, poetic, and profoundly moving.”
Ruth Caleb O.B.E - Executive Producer for BBC Television Acting Head of BBC Drama Group 1996 Head of BBC Drama 1992 – 1995
"Honour Me is a powerful and incredibly moving film. Alex Tweddle delivers a revealing story with tenderness and delicacy"
Claire Wilford - Cambridge International Film Festival
“Surviving Burkitts is a vitally important, moving and thoroughly unsentimental documentary.”
Graham Benson - Chairman, Blue Heaven Productions, Executive Producer, BBC
"Alex's work is outstanding. No one takes his work more seriously. He has demonstrated a highly developed filmic story sense and a rare understanding of the human condition in the art of storytelling for the film medium."
Pat Silver-Lasky (Mrs. Jesse L. Lasky, Jr)
Author, Script Consultant and lecturer.
Alex Tweddle Showreel
Richard Niles - Writer/Composer
Richard Niles' career spans pop, rock, jazz, film, television, theatre, radio, and commercials. He holds credits on 28 Platinum and 20 Gold recordings, contributing to over 250 million records sold worldwide with acclaimed artists such as Paul McCartney, Ray Charles, James Brown, Cher, Pat Metheny, Michael McDonald, Grace Jones and Tina Turner.
From 1992 to 2012, Niles was a broadcaster for BBC Radio 2, presenting acclaimed documentary series like the Sony Award nominated “New Jazz Standards”. He has written scripts for 20 music videos and produced directed many videos and documentaries for his YouTube channel.
Niles was born into film history. His father, Tony Romano was a singer/guitarist who worked with icons like Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and acted with Errol Flynn and Ida Lupino. His mother, Pat Silver-Lasky, was an accomplished actress, screenwriter and author. His stepfather, Jesse Lasky Jr., wrote 50 films, including 8 for Cecil B. DeMille. Richard learned screenwriting from his parents.
Niles has worked with many actors including Oliver Reed, Jessie Buckley, Robert Powell and Kate Winslet. His notable scores include “The Strike” (C4 - winner of the Golden Rose of Montreux) and music for “Do the Right Thing”, “Billy Eliot”, “Boys & Girls”, and “The Christmas Carol”. He was Composer & Musical Director on British TV series for Leo Sayer, David Essex, and Michael Ball.
Richard has also released eight albums of his own compositions. An accomplished author with 13 acclaimed books—including “The Invisible Artist” and Amazon Bestseller “Arrange Like a Pro”. His latest project is a book and video series titled “Adventures in Creativity - Strategies for Spontaneous Self-Expression”.
Richard Niles continues to inspire through his multifaceted contributions to music and media with FIRST FILMS.
“Niles pushes ear and imagination to encompass the workings of other people’s minds.” (Daily Telegraph)
“Richard, I can’t believe your lyrics—it sounds like I wrote them!” (Ray Charles)
“Niles is a gently humorous man whose strong work ethic has been rewarded with worldwide success in more than one field.” (Jazz Journal)
