A Life in Pictures: Mike Leigh

The subject of this year's exclusive BAFTA: A Life in Pictures event at Brighton Festival was British film auteur Mike Leigh. Five-time Oscar nominee and BAFTA winner, and the only British director to have won top prize at both Cannes (Secrets and Lies) and Venice (Vera Drake), Mike Leigh is unquestionably one of world cinema's pre-eminent figures.

In a packed event the director joined journalist Amy Raphael, the co-writer of Leigh’s forthcoming book, Mike Leigh on Mike Leigh, on stage at The Dome in Brighton.

Reflecting on a body of work that includes such contemporary classics as Naked, Meantime, Life Is Sweet and Abigail's Party, Leigh reveals the methods and motivations behind his film-making and describes how he came to develop his distinctive working methods and techniques. He says, "If an actor can create a character and be absolutely secure in that character then, only then, can he or she improvise and it can be real."

The event was held in partnership with Brighton Festival and Screen South and was sponsored by The Open University.

Download the Event information (1.2 MB)

A Life In Pictures

The Academy's A Life in Pictures strand of events, celebrates the art of film, exploring a major and distinctive contribution to the artistic development of the film form by a BAFTA winner or nominee. This very special strand enables an audience to hear first-hand from a creative force in the industry.

Past focuses have included Anthony Minghella , Tilda Swinton , Paul Greengrass, Cate Blanchett , Amitabh Bachchan , Alfonso Cuarón , Mychael Danna, the Coen Brothers , and Virginia McKenna OBE.

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