Young Guns 16: Charlotte Regan
By Brett McKenzie on Nov 01, 2018
Showcasing the incredible winners of Young Guns 16
After months of decisions, discussions and debate, The One Club For Creativity is thrilled to unveil the winners of Young Guns 16! These 30 art directors, illustrators, filmmakers, photographers and designers of all types stood above all in this career-making, globe-spanning portfolio-based competition.
Ahead of the Young Guns 16 Ceremony + Party taking place on November 15, we are shining a spotlight on the various superstars who will be honored that evening.
Charlotte Regan
Film Director
London, UK
What does winning this award mean to you?
I love telling my gran about things like this, I grew up with her and she’s always the first person I tell my news to, but honestly there’s no one in the world who would give a less enthusiastic response. I called her all excited and was like "Nan, this is great, it means a lot" and all I got was “I hope that doesn’t mean you are going on a plane again” quickly followed by “what are you making for dinner today?”.But obviously it means much more to me than it does my gran, luckily (laughs)
This was the first time I entered Young Guns, but it was always a goal, for sure. The creatives that have been a part of it in the past are awesome, so to be a part of something they’ve been a part of and to get this kind of response and recognition for a body of work is madness for sure! And my nan is kind of excited because I’m excited and won’t stop banging on about it.
It’s not easy to be a successful creative. What sorts of challenges have you encountered to get where you are today?
I wouldn’t call myself successful at all! My clothes are never ironed and I just accidentally drank some out of date milk because I always forget to throw things out of my fridge. I’m going to make myself sick with how cheesy I sound here, but I honestly always struggle with an answer for this kind of question. No matter how challenging things are, I always feel just mad grateful to be able to do what I love every day. I was rubbish in school and mediocre at best at everything else. So to have found something that I love and people say I’m sometimes good at is a win-win! Plus I never have to dress up, I get to wear jeans and a hoodie every day and say its because I’m ‘creative’ — probably the best part!
How did you decide what to enter into Young Guns? Was it a challenge to curate yourself?
Knucklehead helped a lot with that as I sometimes struggle to see beyond the things that frustrate me about my work! But it ended up entering a lot of my personal/passion projects, and after spending all my wages for the past few years on those projects it’s honestly the best feeling ever for those to have been some of the things we put forward.
Can you name any past Young Guns winners who you look up to, whose work you admire or are even inspired by?
This might be the easy answer because we are with the same company, but I honestly do think Maceo Frost (YG15) is amazing. The Daniels (YG14) too, of course, especially after Swiss Army Man — legends!
What keeps you going, creatively speaking?
Beyond my grandma's overwhelming excitement for all my films “do I really have to watch the whole thing!?” she said when asking her to watch my 5-minute short film. I suppose I just feel like I hopefully have something to say with my work or a perspective that perhaps people haven’t seen before, which I think is true of every creative as it’s our unique perspectives that makes our work our own. I love working with people and collaborating and you get to do so much of that in film whether its new people or people you’ve always worked with. There’s always something new to learn and thats kind of really fun!
Now that you’re a Young Guns winner, what’s next?
To just carry on getting to make stuff would honestly be really great.
The Young Guns 16 Ceremony & Party takes place on Thursday, November 15 in New York City.
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