Mike Leigh

“My work is about life as you and I experience it. You're either lucky or you're not lucky; either your relationship works or it doesn't.” Director and screenwriter with an extensive educational background from his time at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Camberwell School of Art, Central School of Art and Design and the London International Film School. He debuted as a director in theater and television, making comedies and social dramas, a stylistic trademark that he will maintain throughout his career. Bleak Moments was his first film for the big screen but it turned out to be a failure, so he returned to work in television. Ten years later he returned to the big screen with High Hopes, a satire awarded at the Venice Film Festival and highlighting Leigh's audacity to problematize and ironize the British way of life in the midst of Margaret Thatcher's era. He continued a career consistent with his values, establishing himself as one of the best British directors with Secrets & Lies, winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes and five Oscar nominations, among other works that marked the cinematographic history of his country.