The Irish Film and Television Academy is to host an evening ‘In Conversation with..’ director Roger Michell on Wednesday, October 1st in Dublin
Michell is one of the UK’s most acclaimed and diverse filmmakers of the last twenty years, known for helming one of the biggest British films of all time (Notting Hill) and has directed many award-winning actors including Julia Roberts, Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton, Ben Affleck, Daniel Craig, Samuel L. Jackson, Hugh Grant, Vanessa Redgrave, Bill Murray and Peter O’Toole.
With such a successful and diverse career, Michell will share his knowledge and insights with Irish filmmakers at the event, and will talk about his work in both film and TV drama, with his last feature ‘La Weekend’ garnering great acclaim internationally with Variety calling it ‘a bittersweet, charming display of keenly intelligent craftsmanship on all levels”.
After directing several mini-series for the BBC, Michell broke through in 1995 with the Jane Austen period adaptation, ‘Persuasion’. The film was released to British television, winning four BAFTA Awards and theatrically in the United States, being named by The National Board of Review as one of Top Ten Films of 1995. Following the award-winning films, ‘My Name is Reg’ (1996) and ‘Titanic Town’ (1998), Michell directed the Richard Curtis-written ‘Notting Hill’, starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. The film became both the most successful British film and romantic comedy at the time, winning a BAFTA Award in 2000 and today is recognised as a classic of the genre.
Michell’s subsequent release, the dark thriller ‘Changing Lanes’ (2002) starring Ben Affleck and Samuel L. Jackson grossed almost $100 million at the box office and was described by Roger Ebert as “one of the best movies of the year... digging right down into the depths of two men”. Following the May-December romance drama of ‘The Mother’ (2004), which earned leading actress Anne Reid BAFTA, BIFA and EFA Award nominations, Michell directed the film adaptation of Ian McEwan’s ‘Enduring Love’ starring Rhys Ifans, Daniel Craig and Bill Nighy. The film’s celebrated ‘hot air balloon scene’ was unanimously acclaimed by critics and described as “a truly heart-jolting sequence”, winning an Empire Award for Scene of the Year.
In 2006, Michell directed Peter O’Toole (in one of his final screen performances) to Oscar, Golden Globe & BAFTA nominations for the comedy-drama ‘Venus’. In recent years he has directed the newsroom comedy ‘Morning Glory’ (2010) with Harrison Ford, Diane Keaton and Rachel McAdams and the political drama ‘Hyde Park on Hudson’ (2012) which starred Bill Murray as Franklin D. Roosevelt.
The prolific filmmaker has also recently finished filming his latest project, ITV mini series ‘The Lost Honour’, written by BAFTA winning writer Peter Morgan (‘The Queen’, ‘The Last King of Scotland’) which will air later this year.
The IFTA event ‘In Conversation With…’ Roger Michell is due to take place on Wednesday, October 1st at 7pm.