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Aline Brosh McKenna: Screenwriters' Lecture

20 December 2011

Watch the BAFTA Guru video of Aline Brosh McKenna (The Devil Wears Prada) speaking as part of the 2011 BAFTA and BFI Screenwriters' Lecture Series.

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The full length Aline Brosh McKenna lecture video is available to watch now on BAFTA Guru.


Relatively new to the industry but with a string of commercial successes to her name already, Aline Brosh McKenna is one of Hollywood’s current ‘It’ writers, with a particular finesse for romantic comedy.

A first feature credit on Three To Tango (1999) led to Laws Of Attraction (2004). McKenna’s feature script for box-office hit The Devil Wears Prada (2006) was adapted from Lauren Weisberger’s novel about the hellish experience of a young woman hired as a personal assistant to a powerful fashion magazine editor. McKenna’s sharp and sassy screenplay was nominated for a BAFTA and a Writers Guild of America award.

I love things that are about smart people.

She followed this success with an original script, 27 Dresses (2008), about a ‘perennial bridesmaid’ who battles with her feelings for her sister’s fiancé.


In the full version of the video, available to watch now on BAFTA Guru, Brosh McKenna explains how the fashion-world setting of The Devil Wears Prada was perfect as it already 'contains its own parody', and requires no exaggeration. She cites Billy Wilder's balancing of the funny and the heartfelt as an inspiration, and answers questions from the audience about her films and techniques.