In episode 6, we spoke to Amma Asante about growing up in racist London with her Ghanaian parents; being on Grange Hill as a child actor; going to secretarial college where she wrote her first script to get her typing speed up; and her trip to LA where she had a meeting with execs at a big studio. In this episode, we spoke to her about her first directing jobs in TV and then her break directing feature film, A Way of Life and then Belle, A United Kingdom and Where Hands Touch. This is the...

Briony Hanson is British Council’s Director of Film, responsible for promoting UK film internationally. Previously she directed The Script Factory training organisation, headed both Tyneside Cinema and the BFI Programme Unit, and co-programmed London’s LGBTIQ+ Film Festival. She also chairs BAFTA's Original Debut Award Jury, is a frequent film critic for BBC Radio 4’s Front Row, The Film Programme and Saturday Review shows, and is a regular onstage interview host for BAFTA and others.

Multi-award winning film editor, Úna Ní Dhonghaíle ACE, BFE is best known for her work on the Oscar winning film 'Belfast', Bafta winning series 'The Crown' Series 1 and 2 and 'Three Girls', 'Stan and Ollie', 'Wallander', 'The Missing' Series 1, 'Dr Who', Roddy Doyle's 'Rosie', amongst many others. She has worked on the leading lights of British drama in what some are calling "The Golden Age of Television". Having completed a four year degree in Film and Media Studies in her native Dublin,...

Philippa Lowthorpe is a three times Bafta winning TV and Film Director. She became the first woman to win a Bafta for Best Director at the Bafta Television Awards in 2013. She was awarded her second directing BAFTA in 2018 for Three Girls, the highly acclaimed and multi award-winning TV Series which won 5 Baftas in total. She was lead director of the first series of "Call The Midwife", which became an immediate hit, gaining the highest viewing figures of any BBC show for the previous 10...

RTS award winning composer Nainita Desai is a World Soundtrack Awards, Ivor Novello, BIFA and Cinema Eye Honors nominee; a Bafta Breakthrough Brit, and the IFMCA Breakthrough Composer of the Year. Amongst various Bafta, Oscar and Emmy acclaimed productions, Nainita's recent projects include Oscar 2020 nominated and Bafta & Cannes winning feature doc For Sama, Sundance 2020 winning feature The Reason I Jump, Bad Boy Billionaires (No1 Netflix series in India), American Murder Netflix's most...

Amma Asante MBE is a multi-award winning writer and director who won a BAFTA for her first film, A Way of Life (2004). This made Amma the first Black director to win a BAFTA Film Award for writing and directing a feature film. The film went on to garner 17 additional awards worldwide, including FIPRESCI, and Grand Jury prizes. Her follow up movie, Belle (2013) drew widespread critical acclaim, going on to become one of the highest grossing independent films of the year and saw Amma named one...

Gaby Chiappe is an experienced TV writer. She has written extensively for long-running series such as Family Affairs, Doctors, EastEnders, Casualty, Survivors and many more. She also wrote for the series Lark Rise to Candleford, Shetland, Vera and created and wrote (with Alexander Perrin) the series The Level for ITV and more recently The Beast Must Die for BritBox. Gaby’s first feature film was Their Finest (Triple F-Rated, directed by Lone Scherfig), premiered at the London Film Festival it...

Weaving the world around her into intricate stories, Sarah’s many short films have screened internationally and won major awards. Her BAFTA-nominated directorial debut, Brick Lane, earned her The Alfred Dunhill Talent Award at the London Film Festival. Sarah went on to direct, Suffragette, featuring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Meryl Streep, Anne-Marie Duff, Brendan Gleeson and Ben Whishaw. Her first full length drama, the Dennis Potter Award-winning, This Little Life for BBC TV,...

Helen O’Hara has been working as a film journalist for over fifteen years, after qualifying as a barrister and immediately getting bored. She started her film writing career on the staff of Empire, the world’s biggest film magazine, and remains their editor-at-large and co-host of the Empire podcast, where she can be found weekly singing the praises of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and complaining about La La Land. She is also the author of Women Vs Hollywood, "A call to arms from Empire...

Released on International Women's Day 2023 - of course and featuring Buffy the dog (of course she's called Buffy!). Holly Tarquini began her career in television, spending over a decade in London as a Producer/Director of documentaries and unscripted programmes and series. After setting up and running a guest-house for yoga students in India, she moved to the West Country. The multi-tasking skills gleaned in broadcast media combined with the haggling and negotiation talents honed in India...

We hear from producer, Rebecca O’Brien who has been an independent film producer for thirty-five years. Prior to becoming a producer she worked her way up through the industry in various production roles including location manager on MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE (1985) and production manager on some early Channel 4 films. Rebecca has produced fourteen feature films directed by Ken Loach, including LAND AND FREEDOM (European Film Awards winner, 1995), SWEET SIXTEEN (European Critics’ Award 2002 –...

What we have in store for you with our new F(eminist)-Rated Podcast! cf0d315226eae3f30b84347ab8b1e7e76bd1c069