For his feature film directorial debut on Focus Features and Working Title Films' Pride & Prejudice, Joe Wright won BAFTA's Carl Foreman Award for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer in Their First Feature Film. He was also honored with the London Critics' Circle Film Award for British Director of the Year and the Boston Society of Film Critics' award for Best New Filmmaker. Pride & Prejudice was nominated for five additional BAFTA Awards, four Academy Awards (including Best Actress [Keira Knightley]), and two Golden Globe Awards; and won a second London Critics' Circle Film Award, for Best British Supporting Actor (Tom Hollander).
His second feature as director, also for Focus and Working Title, was Atonement. The film received 13 BAFTA Award nominations, including for his direction, winning BAFTA Awards for Best Film and Best Production Design (Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer). Atonement received seven Academy Award nominations, including for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actress (Saoirse Ronan), winning the Oscar for Best Original Score (Dario Marianelli); and also received seven Golden Globe Award nominations, winning Globes for Best Picture [Drama] and Best Original Score. Among the picture's other honors were four Richard Attenborough Film Awards, including Film of the Year and Film Maker of the Year (Mr. Wright).
He won his first BAFTA Award for the miniseries Charles II: The Power & The Passion (which aired in the U.S. as The Last King), which he directed and which starred Rufus Sewell. The project won two additional BAFTA Awards, and was nominated for three more.
His prior credits as director include another highly acclaimed miniseries, the epic drama Nature Boy (for which he was a BAFTA Award nominee), starring Lee Ingleby; the miniseries Bodily Harm, starring Timothy Spall; and episodes of the television series Bob & Rose (which won several international awards).
Mr. Wright's movies as director include The Soloist, starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr.; and, also for Focus Features, the sleeper hit Hanna. The latter reteamed him with actress Saoirse Ronan, who won the IFTA Award as Best Actress for her performance and also received London Critics' Circle Film Award and Critics' Choice Movie Award nominations. The Chemical Brothers' original score for Hanna was nominated for an MTV Movie Award, and won the Los Angeles Film Critics Association's award for Best Score.
Focus Features
