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Motif

Michael Nunn

Director, producer and writer

Michael Nunn developed an interest in film and photography whilst training at the Royal Ballet School, where he met his creative partner William Trevitt. In 1987 they graduated into The Royal Ballet company where they danced for twelve years, performing many major roles and working with some of the most important choreographers of the age. During this time a shared interest in photography and film found them creating BalletBoyz, a documentary film series for Channel Four about their lives as classical ballet dancers. Their fascination with the twin strands of stage and screen has continued throughout their careers up to the present day. Leaving The Royal Ballet in 1999 to pursue greater creative freedom and to express themselves in a broader range of styles and genres, they headed first to Japan where they were founding members of K-Ballet. Soon after they returned to London and launched their own contemporary dance company in order to create and perform newly commissioned work for themselves and their group of dancers. During the first 10 years of BalletBoyz Nunn and Trevitt created and performed numerous works with choreographers including William Forsythe, Michael Clark, Akram Khan, Liv Lorent, Matthew Bourne, and Christopher Wheeldon, winning nominations and awards along the way. In 2004 they won the Laurence Olivier Award for Russell Maliphant's Broken Fall which they performed with Sylvie Guillem, returning to the stage at The Royal Opera House as Guest Principal dancers. During this period, Nunn and Trevitt also created numerous arts documentaries and dance films including a sequel to BalletBoyz set in Japan, Rise and Fall - a film featuring the work of Russell Maliphant, a gala performance and short films to celebrate the career of Darcey Bussell, and a digital corps de ballet for Christopher Wheeldon's work for The Royal Ballet, Electric Counterpoint. They won the prestigious Rose D'Or and an International Emmy for their film, Strictly Bolshoi which followed Wheeldon as he became the first Englishman to choreograph a work for the Bolshoi Ballet. This was followed by a film about The Royal Ballet's first visit to perform in Cuba featuring Carlos Acosta and a specially commissioned version of the Rite of Spring for the BBC which won the Grand Jury prize at the Prague International Television festival. Following their unofficial retirement in 2009 Nunn and Trevitt reinvented BalletBoyz, bringing young, inexperienced dancers together to create an all-male dance company that has grown into the award-winning group you see tonight. Working with an eclectic mix of choreographers, including Liam Scarlett, Alexander Whitley, Paul Roberts, Fernanda Lippi and Javier de Frutos, they have continued to add to the repertoire dozens of new works that tour nationally and internationally to great acclaim. Film production continued with the The Next Generation, a film about recreating the new line up of the company and Kama Sutra for Sky Arts along with more than 40 short films for Channel Four. In 2014 they commissioned Young Men, a collaboration between the company, composer Keaton Henson and choreographer Iván Pérez. Based on themes of war and soldiering, it became the foundation for their first movie, a unique combination of film-making and story-telling through the language of dance. Young Men premiered on BBC2 on Armistice Day 2017 and won awards at the Rose D'Or and Prague International Television festivals. Nunn and Trevitt are Associate Artists at Sadler's Wells, Ambassadors for various charities and in 2012 were made OBEs.

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Biography from IMDb.

Works as
Director, producer and writer
Titles
4 on Motif

What are Michael Nunn's films like?

Across a limited sample of 4 Motif titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Survival and Ideas.

Themes

share of theme weight
Survival
42%
Ideas
25%
Bonds
19%
Self
14%

What they feel like to watch

their average across 4 films
ToneFeelDemandtheir average · filled zone: the category

Light 1 · Serious 0 · Dark 3

Grounded 1 · Stylized 2 · Heightened 1

Gentle 1 · Charged 2 · Intense 1

Steady 3 · Shifting 1 · Whiplash 0

Straight-faced 4 · Some laughs 0 · Funny 0

Slow burn 4 · Even-paced 0 · Relentless 0

Casual 1 · Engaged 2 · Full focus 1

A split, not a type: Easy watch 1 · Affecting 1 · Heavy 2

Resolved 2 · Open-ended 1 · Ambiguous 1

Moods and endings

endings shown from 5 titles

Dominant moods · mentions across their titles

Melancholic
3
Contemplative
2
Dread
1
Tense
2
Warm
1
Other
1

AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.

Where can I watch Michael Nunn's films?

As of October 24, 2026, 3 of their 4 Motif titles stream on a subscription or free service.

Subscription and free streaming for Michael Nunn's titles on Motif; rent and buy are not counted.

Filmography

4 credits, 4 with a Motif page.

Career shape

Across a limited sample of 4 Motif titles from 2016 to 2021.

By role

only this rolewith another role
Directing4 of 4: 1 only directing, 3 with another roleWriting2 of 4: 0 only writing, 2 with another roleProducing3 of 4: 0 only producing, 3 with another role

4 titles, 3 with more than one role — directing and producing overlap on 3 of them.

By decade

2010s3 · crew2020s1 · crew

Counts over their Motif titles; a title counts in every role they held on it.

How do Michael Nunn's films land?

Their typical Motif film has a Motif score in the 76th percentile, the median of the 3 of 4 with a score; across a limited sample of 4 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 86th percentile for acclaim.

Acclaim · how much people like their films

86thpercentile
Typical film, the median of 4

Approval · how many liked their films

70thpercentile
Typical film, the median of 4

Reach · how many have seen their films

16thpercentile
Typical film, the median of 4

Motif score across 3 titles, by percentile

  • 75th and up2
  • 50th to 74th1

Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on Motif; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Motif score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their Motif titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.

Who does Michael Nunn work with?

People who share at least 2 of Michael Nunn's Motif titles, grouped by what they did on them; William Trevitt shares the most, 4.

Writers

Editors

Producers