Rob Chiu is a director known for creating emotionally resonant and visually distinctive films for some of the world’s most recognisable brands, including Porsche, McLaren, BMW, Nike, Nikon and Jaeger LeCoultre.
His work is often less concerned with spectacle than with atmosphere, emotional nuance, and immersive world-building. His style is cinematic yet grounded, shaped by a strong photographic sensibility and a background in design and motion.
Rob studied Graphic Design at Manchester Metropolitan University, where his final-year film Journey (the first he ever made) was selected by the BFI to be held in the BFI National Archive. Since then, his short films have screened internationally at BAFTA-qualifying festivals, and he has been supported by both Channel 4 and the BFI, most recently receiving BFI NETWORK production funding for his original script Chinaman. Co-funded by Iconoclast and Agile Films, Chinaman is now complete and currently being submitted to festivals.
He recently served as second unit director on Sacrifice, the forthcoming feature by Romain Gavras, which stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Evans, Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, and John Malkovich.
Rob has spoken at leading design and film conferences including OFFF (Barcelona, New York, Mexico, Madrid), Adobe Max, Toca Me, and FITC Toronto, and has led workshops at creative institutions around the world.
He is currently splitting his time between developing his debut feature film and exploring the creative potential of AI as a conceptual tool, investigating how it can be used to build cinematic worlds that remain emotionally grounded and human.
Rob is represented globally by the Iconoclast network and is a member of the Directors Guild of America (DGA).
Some conversations with Rob...
Signal To Noise
The Wandering DP podcast
Direct2Podcast
Image by Khalid Mohtaseb (Santiago, Chile)