Senna

Asif Kapadia (born 1972) is a British filmmaker of Indian descent. 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), which won the BAFTA Award for Best British Film 2003 and Senna (2010), winner of the BAFTA Award for Best Documentary and the BAFTA Award for Best Editing and the World Cinema Audience Award Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival 2011.

BAFTA award winning filmmaker Asif Kapadia is known for his visually striking films which explore the lives of ‘outsiders’, characters living in timeless, extreme and unforgiving circumstances or landscapes. His films have been awarded and distributed internationally and shown how versatile and expressive British cinema can be.

Born in Hackney, London in 1972, Kapadia studied filmmaking at the Royal College of Art where he first gained recognition with his short The Sheep Thief (1997) telling the story of a gifted street kid and the family who take him in, made with non professional actors in Rajasthan, India, the film won many awards including Second Prize at the 1998 Cannes International Film Festival Cinefondation, the Grand Prix at the 1997 European Short Film Festival in Brest and Best Director at the Recontres Henri Langlois Festival International des Ecoles de Cinema in Poitiers 1997.

Within a year of graduating from the Royal College of Art, Kapadia began work on his first feature film, The Warrior (2001, FilmFour). Kapadia’s visual style is seen in The Warrior, which was shot in the deserts of Rajasthan and the snow-capped Himalayas. The Warrior was championed in the British Press as “epic” and “stunning” (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian) and 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 prestigious Sutherland Award at the London Film Festival, the Evening Standard British Film Awards for the Most Promising Newcomer, the Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Film and the Technical Achievement Award for Cinematography at the British Independent Film Awards and the Jury Prize for the best cinematography at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Far North (2007, FILM4), premiered at the Venice Film Festival, based on a dark short story by Sara Maitland. Kapadia used the epic and brutal arctic landscape to show how desperation and loneliness drive a woman to harm the person she loves the most.

Kapadia’s fourth feature Senna, (2010, Working Title / Universal Pictures) the epic story of the monumental life of legendary Brazilian motor-racing Champion, Ayrton Senna. Spanning the decade from his arrival in Formula One in the mid 80’s, the film follows Senna’s struggles both on track against his nemesis, French World Champion Alain Prost, and off it, against the politics which infest the sport. Sublime, spiritual and, on occasion, ruthless – Ayrton Senna conquers and transcends Formula One to become a global superstar. Privately, he is humble and fiercely patriotic, donating millions to his native Brazil and contemplating a life beyond racing. Years on he is revered in Formula One as the greatest motor racing driver of all time – and in Brazil as a Saint.

Senna was released worldwide by Universal Pictures. It is 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). The film had the biggest opening weekend for a documentary ever in the UK (£350k). Senna has a total worldwide box office of over $12m and has become one of the most successful documentaries of all time on DVD and Bluray selling over 750,000 units in the UK alone, making it the fastest selling UK documentary of all time. In the United States Senna had the best opening weekend for a documentary in 2011. ($37k screen ave) and grossed over $1.6m. Senna has a total worldwide box office of over $12m. —Wikipedia