Join us for a Career Retrospective with director Mike Leigh ahead a screening of his newest film 'Hard Truths'.
Writer-director Mike Leigh trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Camberwell and Central Art Schools in London, and at the London Film School. His first feature film BLEAK MOMENTS (1971) won him the Golden Leopard at Locarno Film Festival and the Golden Hugo at Chicago in 1972. This was followed by the full-length television films, HARD LABOUR (1973), NUTS IN MAY (1975), THE KISS OF DEATH (1976), WHO’S WHO (1978), GROWN-UPS (1980), HOME SWEET HOME (1982), MEANTIME (1983), and FOUR DAYS IN JULY (1984). His other feature films are HIGH HOPES (1988), LIFE IS SWEET (1990), NAKED (1993), SECRETS AND LIES (1996), CAREER GIRLS (1997), TOPSY-TURVY (1999), ALL OR NOTHING (2002), VERA DRAKE (2004) HAPPY-GO-LUCKY (2008) ANOTHER YEAR (2010), MR. TURNER (2014) and PETERLOO (2018). His films have been in Competition at Cannes five times, winning the Palme d’Or for SECRETS & LIES, the Best Director prize for NAKED and an Ecumenical Jury special mention for ANOTHER YEAR. Timothy Spall also won the festival’s Best Actor prize for his eponymous role in MR. TURNER. Meanwhile VERA DRAKE won Venice Film Festival‘s Golden Lion for Best Film and the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, and HAPPY-GO-LUCKY secured Sally Hawkins the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for Best Actress. Across his career, Mike’s films have collected 25 BAFTA nominations and seven wins, as well as 16 Oscar nods and two wins. His actors have garnered nods for their performances, and almost all of his HODs have been garlanded for their respective crafts. He has scooped three of those BAFTAs personally, as well as their highest honour, the BAFTA Fellowship, in 2015. He has been personally Oscar-nominated seven times. He has also written and directed over 20 stage plays. These include BABIES GROW OLD (1974), ABIGAIL’S PARTY (1977), ECSTASY (1979), GOOSE-PIMPLES (1981), SMELLING A RAT (1988), GREEK TRAGEDY (1989), IT’S A GREAT BIG SHAME! (1993), TWO THOUSAND YEARS (2005) and GRIEF (2011).
