Mini biography

Asif Kapadia (1972, Hackney, North London, England)

Asif Kapadia (born 1972) is a British filmmaker.

Asif Kapadia was born in 1972 in north London, to a Muslim British Indian family.

He attended Newport Film School (formerly part of the University of Wales, Newport, now the University of South Wales), achieved a first-class degree (BA Hons) in Film, TV and Photographic Arts from the University of Westminster and an MA (RCA) in Directing for Film and TV at the Royal College of Art. 

Kapadia's first feature film, The Warrior, was shot in the Himalayas and the deserts of Rajasthan. The film caught the attention of The Arts Foundation who in 2001 awarded him a fellowship in Film Directing.

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), the BAFTA Award for Best British Film 2003 and Senna (2010), winner of the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary, the BAFTA Award for Best Editing and the World Cinema Audience Award Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival 2011 and Amy (2015) which has become the highest grossing documentary of all time in the United Kingdom and for which he won the Academy Award and Grammy Award in 2016.

Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian described The Warrior as possessing "mighty breadth" and "shimmering beauty"; the film was nominated for three BAFTA awards, winning two: the Alexander Korda Award for the outstanding British Film of the Year 2003 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 Sutherland Award at the London Film Festival, the Evening Standard British Film Awards for the Most Promising Newcomer and the Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Film. In 2003

Far North premiered at the Venice Film Festival, based on a dark short story by Sara Maitland. Kapadia used the brutal arctic landscape to show how desperation and loneliness drives a woman to harm the person she loves. Kapadia's fourth feature, Senna, was the life story of Brazilian motor-racing champion, Ayrton Senna. Senna was the highest grossing British documentary of all time (£3.3m, $5.2m), the second highest grossing documentary of all time in the UK (behind Fahrenheit 9/11).

Kapadia's most recent film Amy is a documentary that depicts the life and death of British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse. The film was released on 3 July 2015 in the United Kingdom, New York and Los Angeles, and worldwide on 10 July. The film has been described as "heartbreaking", "awe-inspiring", "unmissable", "the best documentary of the year" and "a tragic masterpiece". The film has received 5 out of 5 ratings when it was reviewed at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival in May. The film has become the second highest grossing documentary of all time in the United Kingdom, overtaking Kapadia's 2010 movie Senna.

Kapadia is currently working on Supersonic, an Oasis documentary. The feature-length film, which is due to reach cinemas this October, has been named after the Mancunian band's 1994 debut single, also titled Supersonic. Featuring up close and personal footage, as well as never before seen archive material and interviews with the band,[citation needed] the Oasis documentary reportedly follows them from the moment Liam and Noel Gallagher began making music together, to the legendary Knebworth gig

Director - Selected filmography

1. Ali & Nino (2016)