BAFTA-winning filmmaker Babak Anvari shares creative process behind 'Hallow Road' with LFA students

03 September 2025

London Film Academy recently welcomed BAFTA-winning filmmaker Babak Anvari for a masterclass with our BA6 Filmmaking students, following a screening of his recent ticking-clock thriller Hallow Road.

The film stars Academy Award-nominee Rosamund Pike and Emmy-winner Matthew Rhys, who play parents Maddie and Frank as they race against time to reach their daughter at the scene of a car crash in the woods. Hallow Road released earlier this year to strong reviews and left a lasting impression on LFA students at the screening.

Shortly after the film, eagle-eyed students were quick to quiz Anvari on the methods behind his filmmaking – and the director was all ears.

Filmmaker Babak Anvari posing for picture with LFA students, smiling

 

Differing approaches to writing and directing 

One of the key questions was about Anvari’s approach as a writer, versus as a director. Anvari wrote and directed his first three films, including his debut feature Under the Shadow, for which Anvari scooped up the BAFTA Award for ‘Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer’. However, for Hallow Road, he served only as director and was working to bring a screenplay by William Gillies to life onscreen.

When asked what his personal process is like for writing, and whether he sticks to a set structure or follows his intuition, Anvari said:

For writing, I tend to be more chaotic, sort of just whenever it comes to me.  There’s a lot of thinking and staring at the wall and then waiting and waiting until I'm ready. My ritual is mostly pacing, and at the start, I really force myself, once I have enough ideas, to put words on the page – or screen, in this day and age. 

Babak Anvari

His approach differs for directing, however, at least in the early stages of development:

When it comes to directing, there’s always a pre-prep [phase] where you’re getting a feeling that the finance is coming together. I think that period needs to be more regimented because time is money, literally. When you’re aware a film is low budget, that means you need to spend more and more time thinking about it and planning it, waking up early and going to bed late. 

Babak Anvari

This mentality was applied to Hallow Road, which Anvari shared had just a 17-day shoot and only one week of rehearsal time. This beat his personal record from his first film, which took 20 days – a point of pride for the British-Iranian filmmaker.

Anvari added that he was lucky to have such team players onscreen, as well as off:

[Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys] were very generous. The first day that I spoke with both of them, I was like, ‘You have nowhere to hide, because 90% of this film is going to be your close-up.’ And they both just said, ‘Bring it on.’  

Babak Anvari

 

The methods behind Hallow Road 

The evidence is onscreen, with Hallow Road proving an intensely claustrophobic and, at times, psychedelic experience. Anvari deploys a wide variety of techniques to visualise the imaginary, as Maddie and Frank descend deeper into the forest – and their shared state of hysteria – as they try to find their daughter.

The intense close-ups and hallucinatory visuals were realised by Anvari in collaboration with his longtime cinematographer Kit Fraser, whom he met in film school and remained firm friends with.

Describing how much he values their partnership and friendship to our BA Filmmaking students, Anvari said:

If you're lucky enough, you’ll find like-minded people who you end up collaborating with forever. Kit, my DP, we met at film school 23, 24 years ago. He is not only one of my best friends, but he's shot all of my films so far, and hopefully we'll keep collaborating. We have such a shorthand, it's a wonderful relationship. 

Babak Anvari

One aspect of on-set collaboration that Anvari appreciates being on the same wavelength as his crew on is establishing tone right from the get-go and sowing that into every aspect of their craft during the filmmaking process:

One thing Kit asked for is the tone. ‘What is the tone?’ You need to dictate the tone to all the team, the crew, the heads of department, that's really key. And by tone, I mean, like, ‘What is the visual?’ How you want to visually tell this story, rather than saying, ‘Let's just feel it on the day.’ I mean, even people like Andrea Arnold, she goes with the flow. That's her stuff. That's her tone. She preps enough to be able to go on set and just have the camera be a fly on the wall. It's just so key. I know it sounds easy, right? But it's really important. 

Babak Anvari

Filmmaker Babak Anvari talking to LFA students in cinema

Nowhere was the need for establishing tone – as well as undertaking rigid rehearsal – clearer than in the film’s sixth scene, the car scene, which is 55 pages and comprises almost the entire film. Anvari made clear his desire to start off grounded, only to slide further into the “expressionistic and fantastical” as the scene plays out.

Crucially, Anvari made sure not to overdo it, working closely with his editor Laura Jennings (Edge of Tomorrow, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) to strike the right balance:

We had a lot of tricksy stuff visually, but sometimes, Laura and I, in the edit, if you put it in, it would take you out. It would take the audience out of the moment. Sometimes, it’s just all about leaving it with the performers, staying on them. It's just picking and choosing, killing your darlings. Because ultimately, what's important is the emotional heartbeat of the film. You don't want to ruin that just by suddenly putting some weird 180-turn from the camera [laughs].

Babak Anvari

Anvari left LFA students with some practical advice, stemming from his time working at MTV for several years while he sought to get his filmmaking career off the ground. The director implores students and young filmmakers to throw themselves into any opportunity that comes their way, regardless of how detached from film and TV it may seem at first. Anvari said:

Any job that is close enough to film and TV, you can learn a lot from. These days, you have YouTube, social media, making clips for those platforms. In some ways it’s harder because that workspace is saturated, but it’s also easier because everyone has access. Don't shy away from any opportunity within the film and TV and media world, because you can learn a lot from it, as well as make a bit of money to pay the bills. 

Babak Anvari

We’d like to thank Babak Anvari for coming in and sharing his film wisdom with LFA’s BA Filmmaking students, and for doing so with such infectious enthusiasm and energy.