Minghella new BFI Chair
by Annika Pham
- Award winning director is the new Chair of the British Film Institute. His goals? Education and training
British filmmaker Anthony Minghella has just been appointed as the new Chair of the British Film Institute (BFI), funded by the Film Council to support education and culture in the UK.
The award winning director of The English Patient and The Talented Mr. Ripley succeeds writer and broadcaster Joan Bakewell for a three-year term at the BFI which is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. Minghella will head the BFI 15-man board and his deputy is vice-chair Rick Senat, an advisor to Warner Bros.
Commenting on his new job Minghella said, “I am delighted and honoured to be joining the BFI as Chair. I want to promote an organisation whose work is better understood by the public and increasingly accessible. The BFI exists to celebrate the art of film by preserving its past and by giving access to the treasure-trove of world cinema. The heart of its remit is education, and as a filmmaker and filmgoer, I have long enjoyed the resources and facilities it provides”.
Film director and producer Alan Parker, a former Chair of the BFI who was subsequently appointed to head up the Film Council, stressed that Minghella’s film career began as a teacher (at the Drama Department of the University of Hull) and so he (Parker) was sure that Minghella’s experience would “resonate particularly well with the cultural and educational aims of the BFI”.
Minghella has just finished shooting Cold Mountain on location in Romania. The film stars Jude Law, Nicole Kidman and Renée Zellweger. Minghella also co-owns the Mirage Enterprises production company together with
US director-producer Sydney Pollack. Mirage produced recent hits like Tom Tykwer’s Heaven [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Richard Eyre’s Iris and Philip Noyce’s The Quiet American.
Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.
