Shallow Grave

Shallow Grave was the directorial debut of Danny Boyle, the producing debut of Andrew Macdonald, and the first feature screenplay by John Hodge, a working doctor at the time he wrote it. The trio formed the core production unit Figment Films and, with this film and its immediate follow-up Trainspotting, became one of the most consequential creative groupings in 1990s British cinema.

The cast pairs Ewan McGregor (making his major-feature debut after a few television parts) with Christopher Eccleston and Kerry Fox, the New Zealand-born actress already established by Jane Campion's An Angel at My Table. The film won the BAFTA for Outstanding British Film in 1996 and the Best New Director prize at the San Sebastián Film Festival in 1994. Cinematography is by Brian Tufano, who would also shoot Trainspotting, and the score is by Simon Boswell.

The production was funded by Channel 4 (at that point a regular financier of British low-budget features) for £1 million, with most of the action shot inside a single high-ceilinged Edinburgh flat constructed on a Glasgow soundstage. The film outperformed expectations dramatically in domestic release and built the commercial credibility that allowed Macdonald and Boyle to secure financing for Trainspotting the following year. It is now consistently included on lists of the most important British directorial debuts of the 1990s.