Asif Kapadia (born 1972) is a British filmmaker of Indian descent. He directed several award-winning films, including The Sheep Thief (1997), winner of the 2nd Prize Cinéfondation for Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival, The Warrior (2001), which won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film and Senna (2010), winner of the World Cinema Audience Award Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival 2011.
BAFTA award winning filmmaker Asif Kapadia is known for his visually striking films which explore the lives of ‘outsiders’, characters living in timeless, extreme and unforgiving circumstances or landscapes. His films have been awarded and distributed internationally and shown how versatile and expressive British cinema can be.
Born in Hackney, London in 1972, Kapadia studied filmmaking at the Royal College of Art where he first gained recognition with his short The Sheep Thief (1997) telling the story of a gifted street kid and the family who take him in, made with non professional actors in Rajasthan, India, the film won many awards including Second Prize at the 1998 Cannes International Film Festival Cinefondation, the Grand Prix at the 1997 European Short Film Festival in Brest & Best Director at the Recontres Henri Langlois Festival International des Ecoles de Cinema in Poitiers 1997.
Kapadia’s distinct visual style continued with his first feature The Warrior (2001, FilmFour), shot in the deserts of Rajasthan and the snow capped Himalaya. The Warrior was championed in the British Press as ‘epic’and ‘stunning’ (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian) and was nominated for three BAFTA awards, winning two the Alexander Korda Award for the outstanding British Film of the Year 2002 and The Carl Foreman Award for Special Achievement by a Director, Screenwriter or Producer in their First Feature.
The Warrior also won the Grand Prix at the Dinard Film Festival, the prestigious Sutherland Award at the London Film Festival, the Evening Standard British Film Awards for the Most Promising Newcomer, the Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Film and the Technical Achievement Award for Cinematography at the British Independent Film Awards and the Jury Prize for the best cinematography at the San Sebastian Film Festival.
Far North (2007, FILM4), premiered at the Venice Film Festival, based on a dark short story by Sara Maitland. Kapadia used the epic and brutal arctic landscape to show how desperation and loneliness drive a woman to harm the person she loves the most.
Winner of the World Cinema Audience Award Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival 2011
Winner of Best Documentary – Audience Award at the Adelaide Film Festival 2011
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