The Cost of the Crown will have its first festival screening next month.
The short film, written by me and Moe Acharki, was filmed at Nu Boyana in 2023. It was completed earlier this year and will premiere at the Leavesden Short Film Festival on April 23rd.
Obviously we’re excited for it to be shown as widely as possible and we’re hoping this is the first of many. I’ll update as and when news comes in.
The Cost of the Crown was filmed at around the same time as The Haunted House Hotel. We’ll have some exciting updates about that one in the coming days as well.
I said in my post about One Step Ahead that I’ve got a lot of updates over the next few days, and I’m not kidding. It’s going to be a busy few weeks!
The creative team behind The Triad of Reality, a feature length psychological thriller, have launched a Kickstarter campaign.
I was sent the script for Triad back in May, and was happy to provide some feedback. I sent my thoughts to writer/director Nicholas Holmes, and this week my social media blew up with some of what he’s been working on in the months since.
The industry is in a bad place, so it’s always nice to see indies defying the odds and making progress. I wish the team a massive good luck and can’t wait to see The Triad of Reality.
My new flash fiction short No Jacket Required? has been published at Flash Fiction North.
It’s the story of the unwritten rules around aging and of a man with a leather jacket. It deals with themes including masculinity, aging, and overcoming your own insecurities.
You can read it over at Flash Fiction North’s recent fiction page. Just search for “Mat Growcott” and it should be the first one to pop up.
I’ve really grown to love writing flash fiction. Character work at this level – around 500 words or less – is about what to leave in and what to take out. It’s a different kind of challenge to longer work.
It’s been a very busy few weeks, and I haven’t had a lot of time to update the website. I’ve finished a few shorts that I’ll go into more detail on in the coming week or so, as I get caught up.
One Step Ahead has been accepted for publication at Close to the Bone.
You’ll be able to read it at some point in early 2026. The flash fiction piece is about a strained encounter between two old friends. The story explores masculinity, those who peaked too soon, and the things left unsaid.
It’s the kind of story I really enjoy writing. Character first, where a layer of bravado just hides what it’s actually about. It’s something I’ve explored elsewhere, in stories like Chosen and Not The One. I’m looking forward to sharing them all.
This comes just a few days after The Caretaker was also picked up, although that one is a decent way away. I’ll be sharing more details on that as soon as I can.
When One Step Ahead is published, I’ll share the link here.
A little while ago The Haunted House Hotel was shown at In The Palace, an Oscar-qualifying festival in Bulgaria. We were in the Best Short Student Fiction category. Director Moe Acharki and actor Bojidar Nikolov gave an interview during the festival. That interview is now available to read on the In The Palace website.
They spelled my name wrong in the transcript, but what Moe and Bojidar said was very flattering.
Moe said:
I asked the British writer Matt Grocott (Sic) to write the script, which he did in two days based on some very odd criteria: 15 minutes, four characters, crime mystery, documentary, and the 1990s. It was a very bizarre combination, but he made it work, and that’s the film we ended up making.
It’s the only comedy I’ve ever made, and I’m still not entirely sure how it worked, but it did. I think it’s mainly because Matt wrote such a beautiful, funny script. He has a great sense of humor. And I had a very passionate, motivated team, especially considering how fast the production was.
And Bojidar added:
We had a lot to manage in only a few days, it was definitely a challenge. But having real professionals in the crew, and having Moe and Matt’s script, made everything easier.
The full interview is very interesting, and goes to show how much we went through putting this film together in only a few days. It really was a small miracle that it turned out at all, and that’s thanks to the hard work of Moe, Bojidar and the rest of the fantastic cast and crew.
