Niclas Gillis is an award-winning screenwriter and film director from Stockholm, Sweden, currently in pre-production on The Nix, a scandinavian folklore drama film starring Academy Award-winning actor Liv Ullmann. The film is produced by Patrik Andersson (Midsommar), with distribution by Nordisk Film.

Gillis first garnered attention for his drama short film Hold Me Down, which depicted a day in the life of a 19-year-old single mother and sex worker in The Bronx, New York, where Gillis lived for 11 years. The film was based on true events and featured a cast consisting entirely of real life survivors of sexual exploitation and domestic abuse. Through a partnership with the NGO, Project Rousseau, the women involved were able to escape the clutches of prostitution, gain access to safe housing and higher education. Hold Me Down received universal praise by critics, including CNN, and won the award for Best Short Film at the Harlem International Film Festival.

His fashion film for Native Son was compared to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema by New York Magazine, and he has been championed as “the premiere talent to watch” by Nike. He is currently represented by XYZ Films in the US.