Joe Hill-Gibbins awarded the £25,000 Genesis Foundation Prize 2025
20 March 2025
The Genesis Foundation is delighted to announce that highly acclaimed British stage director Joe Hill-Gibbins, has been awarded the £25,000 Genesis Foundation Prize 2025. The prestigious award recognises an exceptional mentor in the arts whose work has profoundly impacted the careers of fellow artists. Hill-Gibbins’ selection highlights his commitment to fostering the next generation of creative talent.
Joe works nationally and internationally as a theatre and opera director. Between 2007 and 2013 he was a resident director at the Young Vic Theatre, where he became Deputy Artistic Director to David Lan, and the first Genesis Fellow. His recent productions include Ibsen’s Ghosts at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare’s Globe and Lear at Hannover Staatsoper.
The Genesis Foundation Prize will support Hill-Gibbins’ ambitious short film, This Is Your Five Minute Call, a 15-minute comedy-drama blending a fictional backstage opera crisis with the personal story of a family member’s mental health crisis.
This project, already partially funded, will receive a significant boost from the prize money, enabling its completion. The film boasts an impressive cast, featuring Sir Simon Russell Beale, who appeared in Joe’s production of The Tragedy of Richard the Second at the Almeida, and Gemma Arterton. Half of the film was shot backstage this year at English National Opera during the run of Hill-Gibbins’ own production of The Marriage of Figaro.
Crucially, Hill-Gibbins’ vision extends beyond the film itself. The £25,000 award will also fund a mentorship programme for five emerging artists: Crispin Lord, Jenny Ogilvie, Lucy Wray, Rosanna Vize, and Leo Bill. Crispin Lord is an accomplished director, movement director, and performer with extensive experience in opera and theatre, including assistant director roles with English National Opera; Jenny Ogilvie is a director and movement specialist with extensive experience in opera and theatre internationally, known for her collaborative work in live performance; Lucy Wray is a director and collaborative theatre maker focusing on climate change narratives, and recognised for their award-winning work; Rosanna Vize is an outstanding young stage designer who has worked on numerous high-profile theatre productions; and Leo Bill is an award-winning actor and writer/director known for his work at the National Theatre, Almeida, and Young Vic, and has numerous film and television credits.
These talented individuals, several of whom worked alongside Hill-Gibbins on his Olivier Award nominated production of Bluebeard’s Castle at ENO in 2024, represent a diverse range of creative disciplines within theatre and film, each bringing their unique expertise to the project. Joe Hill-Gibbins’ programme will foster their professional development and provide invaluable hands-on experience.
John Studzinski, Founder & Chairman of the Genesis Foundation, said:
“Joe was our very first Genesis Fellow at the Young Vic Theatre in 2010, and we are delighted now to award him the Genesis Foundation Prize. The Genesis Foundation believes in backing and nurturing talent in the long run, and it is a privilege to support an artist’s work first as an emerging and then as a more established, confident voice. It is important that the five talented individuals Joe has chosen to work with him on his projects will benefit from his mentoring.”
Joe Hill-Gibbins said:
“Alongside the Young Vic, no one has done more to support my development as an artist than the Genesis Foundation. The opportunity, made possible by the Genesis Foundation, to integrate the artistic development of other practitioners into my own process of making work has always been precious to me. I’m delighted to be continuing my relationship with Genesis and to be exploring the creative process, across multiple disciplines, alongside Crispin, Jenny, Leo, Lucy and Rosie – four artists I greatly admire. That freelance artists are able to build their own communities to support and inspire each other, and to actively generate their own experimental work is vital for today’s industry”.
