Gary Shore

Irish filmmaker Gary Shore was an award-winning commercial director and illustrator before making his feature film debut with the epic fantasy "Dracula Untold" (2014). A native of Artane, on Dublin's north side, Shore's first love was comic books, and he briefly considered working as an artist in that industry before enrolling in his native city's National Film School. While there, he directed a horror-themed short titled "The Draft" for his graduate project while also delving into television commercials, which led to both a Royal Television Society Award for Best Student Drama and a Young Director Award nomination from the Cannes International Advertising Festival in 2006, the same year he graduated from the National Film School. Shore continued working in advertising, helming major spots for top brands like Adidas, Gatorade and UGG, before landing on the "Blacklist," a compilation of the world's most promising up-and-coming filmmakers, as voted by Hollywood studio executives and agents. In 2011, a trailer for his CGI-animated samurai project "The Cup of Tears" was featured in Saatchi & Saatchi's New Directors Showcase at the Cannes Lions advertising awards. The exposure afforded by the showcase led to a three-picture deal for Shore with Universal and his feature film debut on "Dracula Untold." The historical drama-fantasy, which starred Luke Evans as a fictionalized version of the Hungarian military leader Vlad Dracula, was lensed in his native Ireland and drew mixed reviews but a positive box office return.