Peter Mackie Burns directed Milk, which won the Golden Bear for Best Short film at the Berlin Film Festival in 2005 and played at over one hundred international film festivals. His following short Run was made with BBC, and starred Paprika Stein (Festen). He went on to collaborate with Skins and Glue writer Jack Thorne on the Coming Up short The Spastic King (with Ruth Sheen).

More recently Peter directed the intimate documentary Come Closer, about the private lives of a disparate group of characters who reside in the city of Glasgow. The film premiered at the London Open City Documentary Festival 2012. His latest short Happy Birthday To Me (2014) stars Emily Beecham, who is also attached to his debut feature.

Peter also contributed to a book of essays by writers including Will Self, Terence Hayes, Jackie Kay and others, published by Cargo Books in Autumn 2012.