Alicia Duffy was first marked as a name to watch in 2002 when her short Crow Stone drew the attention of London's Stink. But the union between director and production company certainly wasn't shotgun. Stink had to wait for Duffy to complete a five-month scholarship at the Cannes Film Festival Cinefondation Residence before making a move.

After further acclaim for the fruits of that scholarship, The Most Beautiful Man in the World, she eventually signed with the London rep house in 2003. Last year, two spots - "Hide and Seek" for an anti-landmines charity and "Your Body" for Dutch insurance company ONVZ - served notice that a significant new talent had arrived in the industry.

At Stink, she's been given pretty free reign, which has served her creative output well. "Commercials are a funny marriage of the client's expectations and the script," she says. As such, she takes a lot of time to think how to shoot organically, in relation to the board itself.

Her work thus far shares a graceful touch. Acknowledging her work's wistful quality, she bridles at the suggestion that they somehow define her style. "I like to think I can do all the things a client might require. With "Hide and Seek" I wanted to lure people in on a sensory level and leave them with a chill rather than a bang. The client was very brave to do that."

As a self-confessed tough critic Duffy says, "I like imagining films rather than actually seeing them, because they're so often a disappointment." One she does return to is Victor Erice's 1973 Spanish civil war masterpiece, Spirit of the Beehive. "I tell everyone to see it. I mainly return to films that make me feel things."

Duffy says her tastes are eclectic. Her professional evolution certainly has been. A graduate from Cambridge with a degree in Math and History of Art, Duffy, 34, briefly considered a career as an opera singer before directing took hold. In 1998 she won a place on the NFTS fiction direction course during which she helmed Crow Stone and, on paper, hasn't looked back.

She currently has three features in the pipeline - one, starring Kristin Scott Thomas, may start production in the fall - but finds the idea of combining that with commercials liberating. Preparing for features can be lonely while spots offer the prospect of vital fun. "[With films] you're just writing. I'd like to do both."

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