Brian Gilbert

BRIAN GILBERT Film Director Born in London, England, in 1949, he spent his formative childhood years in Sydney, Australia. He was a child actor, appearing several times on Australian television. In 1969 he won a scholarship to read English Literature at Oxford University, directing several plays while he was there, and then travelled, as an actor, to the United States with a semi-professional drama company. Returning to England, he appeared in repertory theatre and in the films, VOYAGE OF THE DAMNED and THE EXPLORERS. Gilbert then spent three years at the UK's National Film and Television School, where his graduation film, THE DEVOTEE, won several prizes and attracted a great deal of attention, particularly from David Puttnam. Puttnam then commissioned Gilbert to write and direct his first feature film, SHARMA AND BEYOND, for Channel Four's First Love series. Gilbert went on to direct his first theatrical feature, THE FROG PRINCE (1984) for David Puttnam's Enigma Productions, distributed by Warner Brothers. Following this, Gilbert directed two very successful American studio features, VICE VERSA (1988 Columbia Pictures) starring Fred Savage and Judge Reinhold, and NOT WITHOUT MY DAUGHTER (1991 MGM-Pathé) starring Sally Field and Alfred Molina. NOT WITHOUT MY DAUGHTER caused a great deal of controversy, and achieved extraordinary success worldwide. In 1994 Gilbert returned to the UK to direct TOM & VIV, which was produced by Marc and Peter Samuelson. The film starring Willem Dafoe and Miranda Richardson, was nominated for two Academy Awards for Miranda Richardson as Best Actress and for Rosemary Harris as Best Supporting Actress. TOM & VIV also received Best British Film and Best Actress nominations from the British Academy. The film also won the "Hitchcock" Public prize at the Dinard Film Festival, and was screened at more than ten international film festivals. In addition Miranda Richardson won Best Actress laurels at the National Board of Review and was nominated for a Golden Globe. Rosemary Harris won the Best Supporting Actress award from the National Board of Review. In 1997 Gilbert directed WILDE (Samuelson Productions). The film, based on Richard Ellmann's acclaimed biography of Oscar Wilde, stars Stephen Fry, Jude Law, Vanessa Redgrave and Jennifer Ehle. WILDE has been released in the UK and internationally to critical acclaim and commercial success. It has won the London Evening Standard 1998 Most Promising Newcomer Award for Jude Law, and the Best Technical Achievement Award, was nominated in two categories for the BAFTA British Academy Awards, four categories for the 1998 Awards of the London Film Critics, and won a major Italian literary award, the “Efebo d’Oro” for Best Film Based on a Work of Literature. WILDE has visited numerous festivals around the world including Venice, Edinburgh, Brussels, Hamburg, Belfast, Sitges, San Francisco and Dinard and Seattle, at both of which Stephen Fry won the award for Best Actor. WILDE also achieved a Best Actor nomination for Stephen Fry at the 1998 Golden Globe Awards. Gilbert directed the supernatural thriller THE GATHERING for the Samuelson Productions (2002/3), co-produced with Granada Film, starring Christina Ricci, Stephen Dillane, Simon Russell Beale, Kerry Fox, Robert Hardy and Ioan Grufford. The film was distributed by The Weinstein Company. In 2004/5 Gilbert directed his first documentary LORD HAW-HAW, PORTRAIT OF A FANATIC for Irish Television (RTE) and the History Channel. Gilbert directed Mary Kenny’s history play ALLEGIANCE in an acclaimed production at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival, about the encounter between Winston Churchill and the Irish rebel leader Michael Collins. It starred Mel Smith as Churchill and Michael Fassbender as Collins. From 2004-14 Gilbert has taught directing at England’s National Film & Television School.