From 2003 to 2005 Traviss worked on his directorial debut for the big screen
Joy Division, a fictionalised biopic which he wrote with Rosemary Mason, based on real life events set in the last months of World War II and the early years of the Cold War. The film was co-produced by German production company
Dreamtool Entertainment and Traviss' company
Kingsway Films on a budget of $6,000,000. The film starred an ensemble of German, British and Hungarian actors including the rising European stars
Tom Schilling and
Bernadette Heerwagen, British actor
Ed Stoppard, television actress and pop singer
Michelle Gayle, alongside veteran big screen performers
Bernard Hill and
Suzanne von Borsody and was filmed in London, Canada, Hungary, Germany and Slovakia. The story was influenced by the bestselling books
Berlin: The Downfall 1945 by
Antony Beevor and
Armageddon by
Max Hastings.
Joy Division was received at the
Copenhagen International Film Festival in September 2006 and was released in theatres in the UK, Germany, New Zealand and Australia from 2006 to late 2007. The film received good reviews by critics and Film Review magazine in 2007 named Traviss as ''one of the UK's most promising new filmmakers''. The film also attracted the attention of wider review and debate within the cultural press. In 2008 to 2009 Traviss worked on his second film
Psychosis, a psychological-thriller and homage in the style of cult British chillers
Hammer House of Horror and
Tales of the Unexpected. The story was a reworking of the segment
Dreamhouse from the
Michael Armstrong film
Screamtime, and starred
Charisma Carpenter in the lead role, supported by
Ricci Harnett,
Paul Sculfor and rock singer
Justin Hawkins. The film premiered in 2010 at the 'Home of Cult British Horror' Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square, London. In 2010 Traviss directed
Screwed, the film adaptation of Ronnie Thompson's bestselling Prison Officer's memoir
Screwed: The Truth About Life as a Prison Officer, by
Headline Publishing about an ex-British soldier who returns from Iraq to take job in one of England's toughest jails only to find that the Officers are more corrupt than the convicts.
Screwed was released in theatres across the UK in June 2011 and starred acclaimed actors
Noel Clarke and
James D'Arcy alongside tough guy actors
Frank Harper and
Jamie Foreman In the Summer of 2015, a documentary film about Traviss' late former girlfriend
Amy Winehouse entitled
Amy was released. Winehouse's family and Traviss publicly disapproved of the film, saying that it was "downright inaccurate" and contained "basic untruths". Traviss and Winehouse's father Mitch had asked the film crew to edit the film, as it portrays Winehouse's father as the main villain and contains nothing about Traviss when he had completed 6 hours of interviews with the film crew. However, the editors behind the movie declined their request. ==Personal life==