Lynne Ramsay
Lynne trained as a cinematographer at the NFTS. She directed and filmed her graduation film Small Deaths, and immediately shot into the limelight, winning the Prix du Jury at Cannes in 1996, and receiving a nomination for the Golden Palm at the same festival. Her next short film, Gasman, received the same plaudits the following year. Choosing to work with fellow graduates Jane Morton, Alwin Kuchler and Lucia Zucchetti had proved to be a success and they decided to continue the relationship.
Lynne’s passion for capturing emotions, spaces and moments in time through the camera has become a trademark of her work. “I enjoy the detail," she says, "and maybe that comes from being a photographer”.
Her distinctive style was developed further in her first feature film Ratcatcher, about a boy’s coming of age on a council estate during the early 80’s miners' strike. For most new directors, making a feature-length art film for mainstream cinema with unknown actors would be too risky to consider but Lynne, once again, had a success on her hands. The film won BAFTA's Carl Foreman Award for the Most Promising Newcomer, the Douglas Hickox Award at the British Independent Film Awards, the Edinburgh Film Festival's New Director's Award and the Silver Hugo for Best Director at the Chicago International Film Festival.
Lynne’s next film, Morvern Callar, which she wrote with fellow NFTS graduate Liana Dognini, won her further awards for her individual style. Despite her success, there followed a period when projects for which she had been tipped went, in the end, to higher-profile directors.
In spring 2010, Lynne went into production on the psychological thriller We Need To Talk About Kevin, with Tilda Swinton, John C Reilly and Ezra Miller in the leading roles. Ramsay worked with co-writer Rory Kinnear to adapt the screenplay from Lionel Shriver's novel about a woman who is forced to question her competence as a mother after her teenage son goes on a horrific rampage two days before his 16th birthday. The film will be released in 2011.
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