The Filmmakers

ASIF KAPADIA, Director

BAFTA award-winning filmmaker Asif Kapadia is known for his visually striking films. He has an interest in exploring the lives of ‘outsiders’: characters living in timeless, extreme and unforgiving circumstances or landscapes. His films have been awarded and distributed internationally and show how versatile and expressive British cinema can be.

Born in Hackney, London in 1972, Kapadia studied filmmaking at the Royal College of Art where he first gained recognition with his short film The Sheep Thief (1997), which tells the story of a gifted street kid and the family who take him in, made with non-professional actors in Rajasthan, India. The film won many awards including Second Prize at the 1998 Cannes International Film Festival (Cinéfondation), the Grand Prix at the 1997 European Short Film Festival in Brest and Best Director at the Poitiers Film Festival 1997. Kapadia’s distinct visual style continued with his first feature, The Warrior, shot in the deserts of Rajasthan and the snow-capped Himalayas. The Warrior was championed in the British press as ‘epic’ and ‘stunning’ and won two BAFTA awards for Outstanding British Film of the Year and The Carl Foreman Award for Special Achievement by a Director in their First Feature. Far North (2004), based on a dark short story by Sara Maitland, premiered at the Venice Film Festival. Kapadia used the epic and brutal arctic landscape to show how desperation and loneliness drive a woman to harm the person she loves the most.

JAMES GAY-REES, Producer

After graduating from Southampton University with a degree in Economics and Accountancy, James briefly worked at accountancy firm Arthur Andersen. He then moved to New York, where he convinced Miramax President Harvey Weinstein to give him an extremely menial job. After a year at the company, James joined Orbit Productions on the Paramount lot in LA as Head of Development. James left Orbit to pursue a career as a producer. He worked with Mel Smith and George Lucas on Radioland Murders and line-produced The Real Howard Spitz, starring Kelsey Grammer amongst others. James set up Midfield Films in 1998 that has made films for Working Title and Icon. He recently Executive Produced Exit Through The Gift Shop, which was directed by the underground street artist Banksy. James lives in London with his partner and two daughters.

TIM BEVAN AND ERIC FELLNER, Producers

Working Title Films, co-chaired by TIM BEVAN and ERIC FELLNER since 1992, is one of the world’s leading film production companies. DEBRA HAYWARD (Executive Producer) serves as head of film and is creatively responsible for the company’s slate of motion pictures, in conjunction with her US counterpart, LIZA CHASIN (Executive Producer).

Founded in 1983, Working Title has made more than 90 films that have grossed more than $4.5 billion worldwide. Its films have won six Academy Awards and 26 BAFTAs. Bevan and Fellner have received the Michael Balcon Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema at the Orange British Academy Film Awards, and both have been honored with the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

WORKING TITLE’S EXTENSIVE AND DIVERSE LIST OF CREDITS INCLUDE:

• Seven films with Joel and Ethan Coen: Burn After Reading; Fargo; The Hudsucker Proxy; The Big Lebowski; O Brother, Where ArtThou?; The Man Who Wasn’t There; and A Serious Man
• Six collaborations with writer Richard Curtis: Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Notting Hill, as well as Love Actually and The Boat That Rocked, both of which Curtis also directed
• Bean, directed by Mel Smith; Mr. Bean’s Holiday, directed by Steve Bendelack; and Johnny English, directed by Peter Howitt, all starring Rowan Atkinson
• Pride & Prejudice, Atonement and The Soloist directed by Joe Wright
• United 93 and Green Zone, directed by Paul Greengrass
• Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, directed by Edgar Wright
• About a Boy, directed by Paul Weitz and Chris Weitz
• Definitely, Maybe, directed by Adam Brooks
• The Interpreter, directed by Sydney Pollack
• Dead Man Walking, directed by Tim Robbins
• Elizabeth and Elizabeth The Golden Age, directed by Shekhar Kapur
• Frost/Nixon, directed by Ron Howard
• Nanny McPhee, directed by Kirk Jones and Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, directed by Susanna White
• Billy Elliot, directed by Stephen Daldry

Working Title’s next release will be Paul reuniting Simon Pegg and Nick Frost in a road movie directed by Greg Mottola, followed by Johnny English Reborn directed by Oliver Parker and starring Rowan Atkinson and Everybody Loves Whales, starring Drew Barrymore and John Krasinski directed by Ken Kwapis.

MANISH PANDEY, Writer and Executive Producer

Manish was born in Simla, India, and moved to London aged four. He studied Medicine at Cambridge and pursued a career in Orthopaedic Surgery until his passion for film led to a career in screenwriting. Amongst other projects, he has had several screenplays commissioned by Working Title Films. For Manish—an avid Formula One fan, and an even more avid Ayrton Senna fan, SENNA was a dream project.

KEVIN MACDONALD, Executive Producer

Kevin Macdonald’s first feature, One Day In September, won an Oscar for Best Documentary in 2000. His second feature, Touching The Void, premiered at Telluride 2003. Awards include a BAFTA for Best British Film and the Evening Standard Award for Best British Film, and it is the highest grossing British documentary in UK box office history. Kevin’s first feature-length drama, The Last King of Scotland, starring Forest Whitaker, also premiered at Telluride and was released in the UK and the US in 2006. Awards include BAFTAs for Best British Film (Alexander Korda Award) and Best Adapted Screenplay. Forest Whitaker won an Academy Award and a BAFTA for his portrayal of Idi Amin. Kevin co-edited The Faber Book Documentary (1997), and wrote Emeric Pressburger: The Life and Death of A Screenwriter (1994, winner of BFI film book of the year and shortlisted for the NCR non-fiction prize). His journalism has appeared in numerous publications including the Guardian, Observer and Telegraph. He directed State of Play in 2008 starring Russell Crowe and most recently The Eagle, adapted from Rosemary Sutcliffe’s novel by Jeremy Brock starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Bell and Mark Strong.

GREGERS SALL, Editor

Over the last two decades, Gregers Sall has edited films to both commercial and critical acclaim. His feature documentary credits include Franny Armstrong and Ken Loach’s McLibel, a feature about an Indian family who choose to drown rather than be relocated when a dam is built called Drowned Out, and now Senna. He also has numerous television credits. Sall is currently editing the feature documentary Shadows of Liberty that takes a look at the American news media. It is set to premiere later this year.

CHRIS KING, Editor

Chris King is an award-winning editor with more than 40 films for television and the cinema to his name, including the Academy Award® Nominated Exit Through The Gift Shop, for which he received the 2011 American Cinema Editors® Documentary Award and the Cinema Eye® Editing Award; and Young@Heart, Stephen Walker’s much celebrated documentary about the Massachusetts-based choir of seniors who perform punk, rock and hip-hop numbers. King recently received a BAFTA® Television Award for his work on Welcome To Lagos, the acclaimed BBC mini-series following the lives of Nigerians in the slums of the world’s fastest growing megacity. Other credits include Meet the Natives, for which he received the 2008 Royal Television Society® Award for Sound Editing and a BAFTA® nomination for Best Documentary series; the docu-drama Hiroshima: A Day that Shook the World, for which he received a 2004 BAFTA® nomination for Film Editing, and an Emmy® Award for Sound Editing; and Stephen Walker’s cult pornography documentary Hardcore. King is currently working on Kevin Macdonald’s Marley, a biopic of the reggae superstar.

ANTONIO PINTO, Composer

Brazilian film score composer Antonio Pinto received a Golden Globe nomination in 2008 for Best Original Song Despedida, co-written with Shakira from the film Love in the Time of Cholera, directed by Mike Newell. Previously, Pinto was celebrated for his score to the indie smash City of God (2003). His work can be heard in many award-winning pictures including Central Station (1998), Behind the Sun (2002), and Midnight (2000). He has worked with such directors as Fernando Meirelles, Walter Salles, Sergio Machado, Heitor Dhalia, as well as Ecuadorian director Sebastian Cordero. He also created original music for James Foley’s Perfect Stranger, for Andrew Niccol’s Lord of War, and contributed musical score to Michael Mann’s Collateral. More recently, he scored Adrian Grunberg’s How I Spent My Summer Vacation.