Academy award and four time BAFTA award winning Director / Writer / Producer Asif Kapadia is known for his visually striking films exploring characters living in timeless, extreme and unforgiving landscapes. His films have been box office successes around the world as well as being critically lauded and awarded internationally. Born in Hackney in 1972, Kapadia studied filmmaking at the Royal College of Art where he first gained recognition with his short THE SHEEP THIEF , world premiered in Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival and tells the story of Amy Winehouse in her own words. The film was an international box office hit and is the highest grossing UK documentary of all time, overtaking SENNA. AMY won the Academy Award for Feature Documentary, won the BAFTA for Best Documentary as well as being nominated for Outstanding British Film. Amy won Best Documentary at the European Film Awards and was nominated for Best Feature at the International Documentary Association Awards and has received 5 nominations at the BIFA Awards, including for Best Film, Best Documentary and Best Director.
[About directing his film "The Warrior" in a desert in Rajasthan] "The,crew suffered the odd illness along the way; dehydration, sunstroke,heat-stroke, malaria, dysentery, scorpion stings, being bitten by rabid,dogs, the usual kind of thing. ",I made three short films of my own which I wrote, produced, directed . . .
you did everything in those days. My favourite one was something I shot,on VHS . . . a little documentary. I used to live in Pillgwenlly and,there was this old Italian Pizzeria that used to be there with a really,amazing character who ran it. It was really just a starting point.
The Tour de France would make a great movie. Drugs, corruption, political chicanery, guys risking their lives - everything you need for a great sports drama.
I was a sports fan long before I had any interest in film-making.
There are no drivers like Formula One drivers. They are engineers, in a way. They are driving manual cars one-handed at 200 miles per hour around streets in Monaco. These cars use the ultimate in technology.
