Orion Isaacs is a film writer-director and interdisciplinary artist based in London. As a filmmaker, Orion explores character dignity, intergenerational intimacy, migrant and diaspora perspectives, queer desire and memory.
They earned an MA & MFA from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in Writing For Stage & Film, where they are now a lecturer. Orion has exhibited at the V&A Museum, The Southbank Centre, Live Art Development Agency (LADA), WOW! Festival, Rich Mix, Fringe! Film Festival, Rosa Kwir Malta, Battersea Arts Centre, New York Theatre Workshop, Stanley Arts, UK Jewish Film Festival, San Francisco Jewish Film Festival and Sunrise Film Festival. Their work has been featured in Dazed, i-D, The British Journal of Photography, Gay Times, Huck, Them and Candy Transversal Magazine.
Email: o.isaacsproductions@gmail.com
Instagram: @orionisaacs_
Selected Projects
Passage, 2025
‘Passage’ is Orion’s debut fiction short film. It is an intimate story of a displaced father and his son, as they navigate harsh moorlands and seek refuge from an unforgiving wilderness. The film was nominated for Best British Short and Best Story at BIFA qualifying Sunrise Film Festival and is currently on the festival circuit.
t-fags, 2026
‘t-fags’ is a forthcoming photo book created in collaboration with fellow artist and romantic partner El Hardwick, which will be self-published in February 2026. It consists of over fifty photographs, alongside interviews with 21 trans men, transmasc and non-binary people who self-identify with the term ‘fag’.
The project began as an installation for Rosa Kwir Gallery in Malta in 2022, before being developed into a larger body of work in 2024 and 2025. Orion creative directed the project in addition to interviewing participants, whilst El took the photographs.
Featured press: i-D, Huck, Dazed, Gay Times, British Journal of Photography
To Change, 2024
‘To Change’ is a music video that Orion directed and produced for the musician Rubie. The film is a love letter to trans sisterhood and the life-sustaining connections that take place within a chosen family.
The film was selected by QueerIArt’s T4TV screening in NYC. As part of this selection, Orion was invited to participate in a panel discussion with special guest Lilly Wachowski.
You can watch the film here.
Greatest Star, 2023
‘Greatest Star’ is a short documentary about DJ and organiser of Lavender Nights, Jo Gattenberg ~ and how Barbra Streisand has profoundly influenced her life.
Orion directed the film, which was selected to premiere at UK Jewish Film’s BAFTA and BIFA qualifying festival as one of their five Short Doc Fund winners in November, 2023. The film made its international premiere as an official selection for the 44th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival, 2024.
Passing Gloves, 2022
‘Passing Gloves’ is an immersive exhibition supported by Arts Council England that celebrates the lost and forgotten stories of Jewish boxers in the UK. Throughout 2020 and 2021, Orion interviewed Jewish families across London and Manchester, who have a connection to the world of boxing, either first hand or through ancestral ties.
Alongside family archives and oral histories, Orion intersperses their own photo-series and short film in collaboration with Sweatmother. The series is a visual dialogue with the lost Jewish boxing archive, confronting the audience with questions surrounding Jewish masculinity, spiritual and physical endurance, and boxing’s rich history of empowering the marginalised. The combination of soundscape by Giora, theatre lighting techniques, suspended objects and the visual story elements, creates an exhibition that is both intimate and impactful. The exhibition launched with Rich Mix and was produced by and co-curated with Adam R. Hemmings.
Exhibition materials are available upon request.