Tom Hooper (director)
Encyclopedia
Thomas George "Tom" Hooper (born 1972) is a British film and television director of English and Australian background. Hooper began making short films at the age of 13, and had his first professional short, Painted Faces, broadcast on Channel 4
in 1992. At Oxford University Hooper directed plays and television commercials. After graduating, he directed episodes of Quayside
, Byker Grove
, EastEnders
and Cold Feet
.
Into the 2000s, Hooper directed the major BBC costume dramas Love in a Cold Climate
(2001) and Daniel Deronda
(2002), and was selected to helm the 2003 revival of ITV
's Prime Suspect series, starring Helen Mirren
. Hooper made his feature film debut with Red Dust
(2004), a South African drama starring Hilary Swank
and Chiwetel Ejiofor
, before directing Helen Mirren again in the Company Pictures
/HBO Films
historical drama Elizabeth I (2005). He continued working for HBO on the television film Longford
(2006) and in John Adams
(2007), a seven-part serial on the life of the American president
. Hooper returned to features with The Damned United
(2009), a fact-based film about the English football manager Brian Clough
(played by Michael Sheen
). The following year saw the release of the historical drama The King's Speech (2010), starring Colin Firth
and Geoffrey Rush
, which was met with critical acclaim.
Hooper's work was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing
for Prime Suspect and John Adams, won one for Elizabeth I, and was nominated for the British Academy (BAFTA) TV Craft Award
for Best Director for Longford. The King's Speech won multiple awards, including Best Director wins for Hooper from the Directors Guild of America
and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
, and a Best Director nomination from BAFTA
.
and Westminster School
. His initial interest in drama was triggered by his English and drama teacher at Highgate, former Royal Shakespeare Company
actor Roger Mortimer, who produced an annual school play.
At the age of 12, Hooper read a book entitled How to Make Film and Television and decided he wanted to become a director. For the next year Hooper researched filmmaking from publications such as On Camera by Harris Watts. Aged 13, he made his first film, entitled Runaway Dog, using a clockwork 16mm Bolex
camera his uncle had given to him. Hooper said: "The clockwork would run out after thirty seconds, so the maximum shot length was thirty seconds. I could only afford a hundred feet of Kodachrome reversal film, which cost about twenty-five [pounds], and you had to send off for two weeks to be processed. I could only make silent movies, because sound was too expensive and complicated." He slowed down the frame rate of the camera so he could maximise what little film stock he had. Hooper classified the short, about a dog which kept running away from its owner, as a comedy, and filmed it on location in Oxfordshire
.
When Hooper was 14, his film Bomber Jacket came runner-up in a BBC
younger filmmakers' competition. The short starred Hooper's brother as a boy who discovers a bomber jacket and a photograph hidden in a cupboard and learns his grandfather died in World War II
. Another of Hooper's short films, entitled Countryside, depicts a nuclear holocaust.
Hooper finished school aged 16, then wrote the script for his first professional short film, entitled Painted Faces. He spent the next two years raising capital for the short by courting advertisement directors, whose financial dominance during the late 1980s was noticed by Hooper. Director Paul Weiland
invested in the short, which provided Hooper with the equipment he needed. After two years of financing and production, Painted Faces was completed. Hooper wrote, produced, directed and edited it. It was sold to Channel 4
and broadcast on the channel's First Frame strand in 1992, had a screening at the 35th London Film Festival
and had a limited theatrical release.
After taking a gap year
to finance Painted Faces, Hooper read English at University College, Oxford
. He joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society
, where he directed Kate Beckinsale
in A View From the Bridge
and Emily Mortimer
in The Trial. Hooper also had his first paid directing work, earning £200 for a corporate Christmas video, and he directed his first television advertisements, including one for Sega
featuring Right Said Fred
.
, Tony Scott
and Hugh Hudson
did. He was introduced by his father to the television producer Matthew Robinson, who mentored Hooper and gave him his first television directing work. For Robinson, Hooper directed episodes of the short-lived Tyne Tees Television
soap opera Quayside
in 1997, four episodes of the Children's BBC
television series Byker Grove
in the same year, and his first episodes of the BBC One
soap opera EastEnders
in 1998.
Hooper directed several EastEnders episodes between 1998 and 2000, two of which were hour-long specials that represented the soap when it won the British Academy Television Award
for Best Soap Opera in 2000 and 2001; the first was the episode in which Carol Jackson
(Lindsey Coulson
) learns her daughter Bianca
(Patsy Palmer
) had an affair with her fiancé Dan Sullivan (Craig Fairbrass
). The Jackson episode marked the beginning of a week of episodes that lead to Palmer's departure from the soap, and Robinson had hired Hooper to direct the key episodes of that storyline. Hooper worked 10-hour days on EastEnders, and learned to direct with speed. He was influenced in his early career by the cinematic style of American TV series such as ER
, NYPD Blue
and Homicide: Life on the Street
and tried to work that style into his EastEnders episodes; one scene featuring Grant Mitchell
(Ross Kemp
) involved a crane shot
, which Hooper believes he became infamous among the EastEnders production crew for using.
In 1999, Hooper directed two episodes of Granada Television
's comedy-drama television series Cold Feet
, which marked his move to bigger-budget productions. There was initially concern at Granada that Hooper might be an unsuitable director for the series given his background in drama.
In 2000, Hooper directed his first of two costume dramas for the BBC; Love in a Cold Climate
was based on Nancy Mitford
's novels The Pursuit of Love
and Love in a Cold Climate
. Hooper, the writer Deborah Moggach
, and the producer Kate Harwood
researched the period details of the production by interviewing Nancy's sister Deborah
. In 2002, Hooper directed Daniel Deronda
, adapted from George Eliot
's novel. Filming ran for 11 weeks from May to August on locations in England, Scotland and Malta. Hooper said of the production, "The thing I like about this tale is that it's not at all your conventional costume drama; it's far more complex and looks at aspects of love, loss and religion." The Guardian
s Mark Lawson
said of Hooper's two costume dramas, "he brought verve and intelligence to television's most conservative form".
Hooper returned to Granada the next year to direct the revival of Prime Suspect, entitled The Last Witness. The two-part serial was the first Prime Suspect instalment to be made since 1995, when star Helen Mirren
quit. Hooper initially declined to direct the production because he believed the series was tired. Granada's head of drama Andy Harries
introduced Hooper to Mirren, who persuaded him to take the job by promising that he could make the serial his own way. The two-part serial was broadcast on the ITV
network in November 2003. Hooper's direction received praise from Andrew Billen in the New Statesman
: "Tom Hooper proved an outstanding director, imposing a bleak, overlit hyper-realism on the search for a killer in a hospital, isolating Mirren in rows of empty chairs and playing on the eyewitness/optical visual metaphors." The serial was also broadcast on PBS in the United States. Hooper received nominations for the British Academy Television Award
for Best Drama Serial and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special
for his work on Prime Suspect.
(2004), which stars Hilary Swank
, Chiwetel Ejiofor
and Jamie Bartlett
. The film was not widely seen, which Hooper attributed to media coverage of torture during the Iraq War: "When I started making it you could watch the movie with a wonderful sense of 'we'd never do it in our own country…they're the horrible people but it's not us.' By the time the film came out (there were) these revelations that the Americans were torturing, the British were torturing. The film became a lot more uncomfortable for the very audiences it was designed to target. I have learned that sadly the theatrical audience does not run to see films that are openly issue bled." The premiere of the film in the United Kingdom came on BBC Two
in 2005, making it eligible for the BAFTA Television Awards; it was nominated in the Best Single Drama category at the 2006 ceremony.
In 2005, Hooper was asked by Helen Mirren to direct the Company Pictures/HBO Films two-part serial Elizabeth I, in which she was starring. The serial won Hooper his first Emmy Award, for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special. In January 2006, Hooper commenced filming the Granada/HBO television film Longford
. The film dramatises the failed efforts of Lord Longford
(played by Jim Broadbent
) to secure the release from prison of Moors murderer
Myra Hindley (played by Samantha Morton
). Hooper first met with the writer Peter Morgan
about the production in 2005 and the film was broadcast on Channel 4
in October 2006. Seb Morton-Clark for the Financial Times
called Longford one of the most accomplished television dramas of 2006, and praised the writer and director: "Morgan and director Tom Hooper wove a seamless narrative about obsession – and not just that of the misguided philanthropist for the incarcerated Hindley or even that that existed between the sadistic lovers themselves. More significantly, by using chunks of original television footage, they painted a stark picture of the zealotry of a vengeful nation and its press over the supposed embodiment of evil." Hooper's continued successes led him to be ranked at number four in the Directors category of Broadcast magazine's annual Hot 100. The following year he was nominated for the British Academy Television Craft Award for Best Director for Longford.
Elizabeth I and Longford led directly to Hooper being selected by Tom Hanks
to direct the epic miniseries John Adams
for Playtone
and HBO. Hooper had been working on a biographical film with Joan Didion
about Katharine Graham
, publisher of The Washington Post
, since 2006 when he was asked by Hanks to helm the programme. The miniseries, starring Paul Giamatti
as John Adams
, was based on David McCullough
's Adams biography
and was Hooper's first wholly American production. He was surprised to learn that the American Revolutionary War
was not a well-documented period in film and television; Abigail Adams
actress Laura Linney
told him that, for her generation, the musical 1776
was the most well-known depiction of the era. He worked on the miniseries for a total of 16 months; principal photography lasted 110 days on locations in the United States, France, England and Hungary and he controlled a $100 million budget. The Boston Globe
s Matthew Gilbert complimented Hooper's style of direction in the first two episodes "Join or Die" and "Independence":
John Adams received 23 Emmy Award nominations, including another Outstanding Direction nomination for Hooper, and won 13, the highest number for any nominee in a single year. He was also nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement. At the beginning of 2009, he was profiled for The Observer
s film Hotlist.
, reuniting him with Peter Morgan and Andy Harries. The film was an adaptation of David Peace
's novel The Damned Utd
, a fictional version of the 44 turbulent days English football manager Brian Clough
spent as manager of Leeds United
. It was originally developed by Stephen Frears
for Michael Sheen
to play Clough. Frears quit the project after he was unable to translate the book to film. Hooper received a copy of the script while shooting John Adams in Hungary and noticed a similarity between the "egotistical, flawed, brilliant" Adams and the "egotistical, flawed, brilliant" Clough. He was not put off by joining the project later, as Morgan's script was in only its first draft. During pre-production, Hooper engaged in meticulous research, particularly on the locations and the football grounds of the era. He cast Timothy Spall
as Clough's assistant Peter Taylor, Colm Meaney
as Don Revie
and Jim Broadbent as Derby County
chairman Sam Longson. During editing, it was decided to make the tone of the film lighter in order to attract audiences and to appease the real people depicted in the film. The Damned United was released in 2009.
Work on Hooper's next film, The King's Speech, began in the same year. Hooper explained: "It was a stage play, and my mother who's Australian was invited to a fringe [theatre] reading in London because she's part of the Australian community. The play's about the relationship between King George the Sixth and his Australian speech therapist. She came back and said 'you've got to read this play,' and I read it and it was brilliant ...". Hooper cast Colin Firth
as George VI
and Geoffrey Rush
as Lionel Logue
and spent three weeks with the actors reading the script and rehearsing. Principal photography took place on location around the UK from November 2009 to January 2010. During editing, Hooper continued to consult with Firth and Rush by sending them cuts of the film and listening to their feedback.
Hooper completed the final cut of the film at the end of August 2010 and presented it a few days later at the Telluride Film Festival
. The film won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival
and Hooper won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures. In February 2011, he was presented with the Academy Award for Best Director, though lost the BAFTA Award for Best Direction
to David Fincher
. In comparing the two films, Variety
s Adam Dawtrey wrote, "Hooper's 2009 film The Damned United didn't register among awards selectors, but King's Speech is a much more personal project. His Anglo-Australian parentage reflects the culture clash at the heart of the movie, and it pays off with beautifully crafted, crowd-pleasing drama."
Following the success of The King's Speech during the awards season, Hooper signed on to direct a film adaptation of the musical Les Misérables
for Working Title Films
, to star Hugh Jackman
. Filming is scheduled to commence in the UK in February 2012 for scheduled release in December 2012.
In March 2009, Hooper met with Nelson Mandela
in preparation for directing a film adaptation of Mandela's autobiography Long Walk to Freedom
. Producer Anant Singh had been impressed with his direction of Red Dust. Hooper does not expect to begin work on the film until 2012 due to the availability of his intended cast. He has also expressed an interest in directing the next feature for Bedlam Productions, the studio of The King's Speech; The Lady Who Went Too Far will be written by David Seidler
and produced by Gareth Unwin, and based on the Lady Hester Stanhope
biography Star of the Morning.
and advised Hooper of techniques used by Kubrick. Hooper and Smith have worked together on Cold Feet, Love in a Cold Climate, Prime Suspect, Red Dust and Elizabeth I.
Hooper also uses uncommon framing techniques to emphasise story; in John Adams, he wanted to imply American independence seemed unlikely during the Revolutionary War, so he used "a very rough camera style—almost all hand held, wide lenses close to the actors, lots of movement, many cameras shooting at once so there was often not a settled master "point of view", and lots of unmatching dutch tilts so the horizon lines of the frame were often being thrown off." The America-set scenes were contrasted by the scenes set in France, in which more traditional filming techniques were employed to evoke a feel of entrenched values. Similarly, in The Damned United, Hooper began to experiment with using wide-angle lenses and putting actors in the extreme edges of the frame. He was influenced by the unusual framing from social photography of the 1970s, and he and Ben Smithard decided to adopt the framing style while scouting locations. Hooper used the same style in The King's Speech, particularly in the scene where Bertie and Logue meet in Logue's consulting room; Colin Firth is framed to the extreme left of the picture, leaving most of the shot dominated by the rough wall behind Firth.
Another frequently used technique is Hooper's tendency to use a variety of camera lens widths to distort the resulting picture. In The Damned United he used a 10mm lens, notably in the scene where Clough stays inside during the Derby–Leeds match. Hooper operated the camera in this scene himself. In The King's Speech, Hooper used "typically 14mm, 18mm, 21mm, 25mm and 27mm" lenses and put the camera close to the actors' faces. Hooper said the use of this method in the first consulting room scene served to "suggest the awkardness and tension of Logue and Bertie's first meeting".
's mobile phone range, and Dive, a spot for the 2011 Captain Morgan
rum campaign To Life, Love and Loot.
Following his Oscar win in 2011, Hooper joined the 15-person board of governors at the British Film Institute
and was invited to join the directors branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
in 1992. At Oxford University Hooper directed plays and television commercials. After graduating, he directed episodes of Quayside
Quayside (soap opera)
Quayside was a soap opera, based around the lives of young people living on the Newcastle Quayside produced by Zenith North Television and aired in 1997 on Tyne Tees Television in the North East England and Yorkshire Television in Yorkshire....
, Byker Grove
Byker Grove
Byker Grove was a British television series which aired between 1989 and 2006 and was created by Adele Rose. The show was broadcast at 5.10pm after Newsround on CBBC on BBC One...
, EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
and Cold Feet
Cold Feet
Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...
.
Into the 2000s, Hooper directed the major BBC costume dramas Love in a Cold Climate
Love in a Cold Climate (TV serial)
Love in a Cold Climate is a British television serial drama produced by the BBC in association with WGBH Boston, and first broadcast in two parts on BBC One on 4 and 11 February 2001...
(2001) and Daniel Deronda
Daniel Deronda (TV serial)
Daniel Deronda is a British television serial drama adapted by Andrew Davies from the George Eliot novel of the same name. The serial was directed by Tom Hooper, produced by Louis Marks, and was first broadcast in three parts on BBC One from 24 November to 7 December 2002...
(2002), and was selected to helm the 2003 revival of ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
's Prime Suspect series, starring Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
. Hooper made his feature film debut with Red Dust
Red Dust (2004 film)
Red Dust is a 2004 British drama film starring Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Ejiofor. It was directed by Tom Hooper. The story, written by Troy Kennedy-Martin, is based on the novel Red Dust by Gillian Slovo...
(2004), a South African drama starring Hilary Swank
Hilary Swank
Hilary Ann Swank is an American actress. Swank's film career began with a small part in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and then a major part in The Next Karate Kid , as Julie Pierce, the first female protégé of sensei Mr. Miyagi...
and Chiwetel Ejiofor
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Chiwetelu Umeadi "Chiwetel" Ejiofor, OBE is an English actor of stage and screen. He has received numerous acting awards and award nominations, including the 2006 BAFTA Awards Rising Star, three Golden Globe Awards' nominations, and the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his...
, before directing Helen Mirren again in the Company Pictures
Company Pictures
Company Pictures is an independent British television production company which has produced drama programming for many broadcasters. Their productions have included:*drama series Wild at Heart for ITV1, written by Ashley Pharoah....
/HBO Films
HBO Films
HBO Films is a division of the cable television network HBO that produces feature films and miniseries. While much of HBO Films' output is created directly for the television market, such as the film Witness Protection and the mini-series Band of Brothers, Pacific, Generation Kill and Angels in...
historical drama Elizabeth I (2005). He continued working for HBO on the television film Longford
Longford (film)
Longford is a 2006 drama television film directed by Tom Hooper and written by Peter Morgan.The film centres on Labour Party peer Lord Longford and his campaign for the parole of Moors Murderer Myra Hindley....
(2006) and in John Adams
John Adams (TV miniseries)
John Adams is a 2008 American television miniseries chronicling most of President John Adams's political life and his role in the founding of the United States. Paul Giamatti portrays John Adams. The miniseries was directed by Tom Hooper. Kirk Ellis wrote the screenplay based on the book John...
(2007), a seven-part serial on the life of the American president
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
. Hooper returned to features with The Damned United
The Damned United
The Damned United is a 2009 British sports drama film directed by Tom Hooper and adapted by Peter Morgan from David Peace's bestselling novel The Damned Utd, a largely fictional book based on the author's interpretation of Brian Clough's tenure as manager of Leeds United...
(2009), a fact-based film about the English football manager Brian Clough
Brian Clough
Brian Howard Clough, OBE was an English footballer and football manager. He is most notable for his success with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. His achievement of winning back-to-back European Cups with Nottingham Forest, a traditionally moderate provincial English club, is considered to be...
(played by Michael Sheen
Michael Sheen
Michael Christopher Sheen, OBE , is a Welsh stage and screen actor. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England and made his professional debut opposite Vanessa Redgrave in When She Danced at the Globe Theatre in 1991...
). The following year saw the release of the historical drama The King's Speech (2010), starring Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
and Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Roy Rush is an Australian actor and film producer. He is one of the few people who has won the "Triple Crown of Acting": an Academy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award. He has won one Academy Award for acting , three British Academy Film Awards , two Golden Globe Awards and four Screen...
, which was met with critical acclaim.
Hooper's work was nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special
This is a list of the winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special.- Chronology of categories :...
for Prime Suspect and John Adams, won one for Elizabeth I, and was nominated for the British Academy (BAFTA) TV Craft Award
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...
for Best Director for Longford. The King's Speech won multiple awards, including Best Director wins for Hooper from the Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America
Directors Guild of America is an entertainment labor union which represents the interests of film and television directors in the United States motion picture industry...
and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
, and a Best Director nomination from BAFTA
British Academy of Film and Television Arts
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts is a charity in the United Kingdom that hosts annual awards shows for excellence in film, television, television craft, video games and forms of animation.-Introduction:...
.
Early life
Tom Hooper was born in London, England in 1972 to Meredith and Richard Hooper. Meredith was an Australian author and academic and Richard was an English media businessman. Hooper was educated at Highgate SchoolHighgate School
-Notable members of staff and governing body:* John Ireton, brother of Henry Ireton, Cromwellian General* 1st Earl of Mansfield, Lord Chief Justice, owner of Kenwood, noted for judgment finding contracts for slavery unenforceable in English law* T. S...
and Westminster School
Westminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
. His initial interest in drama was triggered by his English and drama teacher at Highgate, former Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
actor Roger Mortimer, who produced an annual school play.
At the age of 12, Hooper read a book entitled How to Make Film and Television and decided he wanted to become a director. For the next year Hooper researched filmmaking from publications such as On Camera by Harris Watts. Aged 13, he made his first film, entitled Runaway Dog, using a clockwork 16mm Bolex
Bolex
Bolex is a Swiss company that manufactures motion picture cameras and lenses, the most notable products of which are in the 16 mm and Super 16 mm formats. The Bolex company was initially founded by Jacques Bogopolsky in 1927. Bolex is derived from his name. He had previously designed cameras for...
camera his uncle had given to him. Hooper said: "The clockwork would run out after thirty seconds, so the maximum shot length was thirty seconds. I could only afford a hundred feet of Kodachrome reversal film, which cost about twenty-five [pounds], and you had to send off for two weeks to be processed. I could only make silent movies, because sound was too expensive and complicated." He slowed down the frame rate of the camera so he could maximise what little film stock he had. Hooper classified the short, about a dog which kept running away from its owner, as a comedy, and filmed it on location in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
.
When Hooper was 14, his film Bomber Jacket came runner-up in a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
younger filmmakers' competition. The short starred Hooper's brother as a boy who discovers a bomber jacket and a photograph hidden in a cupboard and learns his grandfather died in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Another of Hooper's short films, entitled Countryside, depicts a nuclear holocaust.
Hooper finished school aged 16, then wrote the script for his first professional short film, entitled Painted Faces. He spent the next two years raising capital for the short by courting advertisement directors, whose financial dominance during the late 1980s was noticed by Hooper. Director Paul Weiland
Paul Weiland
Paul Weiland is an English motion picture and television director, writer and producer. Weiland is one of Britain's most successful directors and producers of television commercials having made over 500 commercials, including a popular and long-running series for Walkers crisps...
invested in the short, which provided Hooper with the equipment he needed. After two years of financing and production, Painted Faces was completed. Hooper wrote, produced, directed and edited it. It was sold to Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
and broadcast on the channel's First Frame strand in 1992, had a screening at the 35th London Film Festival
London Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is the UK's largest public film event, screening more than 300 features, documentaries and shorts from almost 50 countries. The festival, , currently in its 54th year, is run every year in the second half of October under the umbrella of the British Film Institute...
and had a limited theatrical release.
After taking a gap year
Gap year
An expression or phrase that is associated with taking time out to travel in between life stages. It is also known as sabbatical, time off and time out that refers to a period of time in which students disengage from curricular education and undertake non curricular activities, such as travel or...
to finance Painted Faces, Hooper read English at University College, Oxford
University College, Oxford
.University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m...
. He joined the Oxford University Dramatic Society
Oxford University Dramatic Society
The Oxford University Dramatic Society is the principal funding body and provider of theatrical services to the many independent student productions put on by students in Oxford, England...
, where he directed Kate Beckinsale
Kate Beckinsale
Kathryn Bailey "Kate" Beckinsale is an English actress. After some minor television roles, she made her film debut in Much Ado About Nothing while still a student at Oxford University...
in A View From the Bridge
A View from the Bridge
A View from the Bridge is a play by American playwright Arthur Miller that was first staged on September 29, 1955 as a one-act verse drama with A Memory of Two Mondays at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway. The play was unsuccessful and Miller subsequently revised the play to contain two acts; this...
and Emily Mortimer
Emily Mortimer
Emily Kathleen A. Mortimer is an English actress. She began performing on stage, and has since appeared in several film and television roles, including Scream 3, Match Point, Lars and the Real Girl, and Shutter Island....
in The Trial. Hooper also had his first paid directing work, earning £200 for a corporate Christmas video, and he directed his first television advertisements, including one for Sega
Sega
, usually styled as SEGA, is a multinational video game software developer and an arcade software and hardware development company headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan, with various offices around the world...
featuring Right Said Fred
Right Said Fred
Right Said Fred is an English pop band, formed in 1989 by brothers Richard Fairbrass and Fred Fairbrass, later joined by their friend Rob Manzoli. The group is named after a song of the same name which was a hit for Bernard Cribbins in 1962...
.
BBC and ITV productions
After graduating from Oxford, Hooper directed further television commercials, intending to break into the film industry the same way Ridley ScottRidley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott is an English film director and producer. His most famous films include The Duellists , Alien , Blade Runner , Legend , Thelma & Louise , G. I...
, Tony Scott
Tony Scott
Anthony D. L. "Tony" Scott is an English film director. His films include Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop II, The Last Boy Scout, True Romance, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, Spy Game, Man on Fire, Déjà Vu, The Taking of Pelham 123, and Unstoppable...
and Hugh Hudson
Hugh Hudson
Hugh Hudson is an English film director. His best-known international success is the 1981 multiple Academy Award-winning film, Chariots of Fire.- Early life :...
did. He was introduced by his father to the television producer Matthew Robinson, who mentored Hooper and gave him his first television directing work. For Robinson, Hooper directed episodes of the short-lived Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television is the ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. As of 2009, it forms part of a non-franchise ITV Tyne Tees & Border region, shared with the ITV Border region...
soap opera Quayside
Quayside (soap opera)
Quayside was a soap opera, based around the lives of young people living on the Newcastle Quayside produced by Zenith North Television and aired in 1997 on Tyne Tees Television in the North East England and Yorkshire Television in Yorkshire....
in 1997, four episodes of the Children's BBC
CBBC
CBBC is one of two brand names used for the BBC's children's television strands. Between 1985 and 2002, CBBC was the name given to all the BBC's programmes on TV for children aged under 14...
television series Byker Grove
Byker Grove
Byker Grove was a British television series which aired between 1989 and 2006 and was created by Adele Rose. The show was broadcast at 5.10pm after Newsround on CBBC on BBC One...
in the same year, and his first episodes of the BBC One
BBC One
BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...
soap opera EastEnders
EastEnders
EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End...
in 1998.
Hooper directed several EastEnders episodes between 1998 and 2000, two of which were hour-long specials that represented the soap when it won the British Academy Television Award
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...
for Best Soap Opera in 2000 and 2001; the first was the episode in which Carol Jackson
Carol Jackson
Carol Ann Jackson is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Lindsey Coulson. The character was introduced in 1993 as part of a new problem family. Coulson decided to quit the role in 1997, but she returned temporarily in 1999 as part of a storyline that marked Carol's...
(Lindsey Coulson
Lindsey Coulson
Lindsey Coulson is an English actress, best known for her role as Carol Jackson in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.- Career :...
) learns her daughter Bianca
Bianca Jackson
Bianca Butcher is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera EastEnders, played by Patsy Palmer. The character was introduced by executive producer Leonard Lewis and appeared initially from 1993 to 1999, when Palmer opted to leave. In 2002 executive producer John Yorke brought the character...
(Patsy Palmer
Patsy Palmer
Patsy Palmer is an English actress. Palmer made an early television appearance on the children's drama show Grange Hill, but is best known for playing Bianca Jackson in the popular British television soap opera EastEnders. Originally in the cast from 1993–1999, Palmer returned to EastEnders in...
) had an affair with her fiancé Dan Sullivan (Craig Fairbrass
Craig Fairbrass
Craig Fairbrass is an English actor. He is known for his distinctive Cockney accent.-Life and career:Fairbrass was born in Stepney, London. He made his acting debut in an episode of the television series Shelley in 1980. This was followed by appearances in series such as Emmerdale, Three Up Two...
). The Jackson episode marked the beginning of a week of episodes that lead to Palmer's departure from the soap, and Robinson had hired Hooper to direct the key episodes of that storyline. Hooper worked 10-hour days on EastEnders, and learned to direct with speed. He was influenced in his early career by the cinematic style of American TV series such as ER
ER (TV series)
ER is an American medical drama television series created by novelist Michael Crichton that aired on NBC from September 19, 1994 to April 2, 2009. It was produced by Constant c Productions and Amblin Entertainment, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
, NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue
NYPD Blue is an American television police drama set in New York City, exploring the internal and external struggles of the fictional 15th precinct of Manhattan...
and Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street
Homicide: Life on the Street is an American police procedural television series chronicling the work of a fictional version of the Baltimore Homicide Unit. It ran for seven seasons on NBC from 1993 to 1999, and was succeeded by a TV movie, which also acted as the de-facto series finale...
and tried to work that style into his EastEnders episodes; one scene featuring Grant Mitchell
Grant Mitchell (EastEnders)
Grant Anthony Mitchell is a fictional character from the British soap opera EastEnders, played by Ross Kemp. Grant first appeared in 1990, introduced by producer Michael Ferguson to revamp the show. Kemp remained until 1999 when he opted to leave...
(Ross Kemp
Ross Kemp
Ross James Kemp is a BAFTA award-winning British actor, author and journalist, who rose to prominence in the role of Grant Mitchell in the BBC soap opera, EastEnders...
) involved a crane shot
Crane shot
In filmmaking and video production a crane shot is a shot taken by a camera on a crane. The most obvious uses are to view the actors from above or to move up and away from them, a common way of ending a movie. Some filmmakers like to have the camera on a boom arm just to make it easier to move...
, which Hooper believes he became infamous among the EastEnders production crew for using.
In 1999, Hooper directed two episodes of Granada Television
Granada Television
Granada Television is the ITV contractor for North West England. Based in Manchester since its inception, it is the only surviving original ITA franchisee from 1954 and is ITV's most successful....
's comedy-drama television series Cold Feet
Cold Feet
Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the...
, which marked his move to bigger-budget productions. There was initially concern at Granada that Hooper might be an unsuitable director for the series given his background in drama.
In 2000, Hooper directed his first of two costume dramas for the BBC; Love in a Cold Climate
Love in a Cold Climate (TV serial)
Love in a Cold Climate is a British television serial drama produced by the BBC in association with WGBH Boston, and first broadcast in two parts on BBC One on 4 and 11 February 2001...
was based on Nancy Mitford
Nancy Mitford
Nancy Freeman-Mitford, CBE , styled The Hon. Nancy Mitford before her marriage and The Hon. Mrs Peter Rodd thereafter, was an English novelist and biographer, one of the Bright Young People on the London social scene in the inter-war years...
's novels The Pursuit of Love
The Pursuit of Love
The Pursuit of Love is a novel by Nancy Mitford, first published in 1945. It is the first in a trilogy about an upper-class family in the period between the wars...
and Love in a Cold Climate
Love in a Cold Climate
Love in a Cold Climate is a novel by Nancy Mitford, first published in 1949. The title is a direct quotation from George Orwell's novel Keep The Aspidistra Flying .-Plot summary:...
. Hooper, the writer Deborah Moggach
Deborah Moggach
Deborah Moggach is an English writer. She has written sixteen novels to date, including The Ex-Wives, Tulip Fever, and, most recently, These Foolish Things. She has adapted many of her novels as TV dramas and has also written several film scripts, including the BAFTA-nominated screenplay for Pride...
, and the producer Kate Harwood
Kate Harwood
Kate Harwood is a British television producer. She is currently the Head of Series and Serials at the BBC.-Early life:Kate graduated from the University of Birmingham with a degree in Drama before becoming an Arts Council Trainee director with Century Theatre and then Literary Manager of the Royal...
researched the period details of the production by interviewing Nancy's sister Deborah
Deborah Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire
Deborah Vivien Cavendish, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire DCVO , née The Hon. Deborah Freeman-Mitford is the youngest and last surviving of the six noted Mitford sisters whose political affiliations and marriages were a prominent feature of English culture in the 1930s and 1940s...
. In 2002, Hooper directed Daniel Deronda
Daniel Deronda (TV serial)
Daniel Deronda is a British television serial drama adapted by Andrew Davies from the George Eliot novel of the same name. The serial was directed by Tom Hooper, produced by Louis Marks, and was first broadcast in three parts on BBC One from 24 November to 7 December 2002...
, adapted from George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
's novel. Filming ran for 11 weeks from May to August on locations in England, Scotland and Malta. Hooper said of the production, "The thing I like about this tale is that it's not at all your conventional costume drama; it's far more complex and looks at aspects of love, loss and religion." The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
s Mark Lawson
Mark Lawson
Mark Gerard Lawson is an English journalist, broadcaster and author.-Life and career:Born in Hendon, London, Lawson was raised in Yorkshire and is a Leeds United fan. He was educated at St Columba's College in St Albans and took a degree in English at University College London, where his lecturers...
said of Hooper's two costume dramas, "he brought verve and intelligence to television's most conservative form".
Hooper returned to Granada the next year to direct the revival of Prime Suspect, entitled The Last Witness. The two-part serial was the first Prime Suspect instalment to be made since 1995, when star Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren
Dame Helen Mirren, DBE is an English actor. She has won an Academy Award for Best Actress, four SAG Awards, four BAFTAs, three Golden Globes, four Emmy Awards, and two Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Awards.-Early life and family:...
quit. Hooper initially declined to direct the production because he believed the series was tired. Granada's head of drama Andy Harries
Andy Harries
Andrew D. M. Harries is a British television and film producer. After graduating from Hull University in the 1970s, Harries began his television career on the Granada Television current affairs series World in Action, before moving on to freelance work...
introduced Hooper to Mirren, who persuaded him to take the job by promising that he could make the serial his own way. The two-part serial was broadcast on the ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
network in November 2003. Hooper's direction received praise from Andrew Billen in the New Statesman
New Statesman
New Statesman is a British centre-left political and cultural magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
: "Tom Hooper proved an outstanding director, imposing a bleak, overlit hyper-realism on the search for a killer in a hospital, isolating Mirren in rows of empty chairs and playing on the eyewitness/optical visual metaphors." The serial was also broadcast on PBS in the United States. Hooper received nominations for the British Academy Television Award
British Academy Television Awards
The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:...
for Best Drama Serial and the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special
This is a list of the winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special.- Chronology of categories :...
for his work on Prime Suspect.
Film debut and HBO works
Hooper made his debut as a feature film director with the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission drama Red DustRed Dust (2004 film)
Red Dust is a 2004 British drama film starring Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Ejiofor. It was directed by Tom Hooper. The story, written by Troy Kennedy-Martin, is based on the novel Red Dust by Gillian Slovo...
(2004), which stars Hilary Swank
Hilary Swank
Hilary Ann Swank is an American actress. Swank's film career began with a small part in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and then a major part in The Next Karate Kid , as Julie Pierce, the first female protégé of sensei Mr. Miyagi...
, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Chiwetel Ejiofor
Chiwetelu Umeadi "Chiwetel" Ejiofor, OBE is an English actor of stage and screen. He has received numerous acting awards and award nominations, including the 2006 BAFTA Awards Rising Star, three Golden Globe Awards' nominations, and the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor for his...
and Jamie Bartlett
Jamie Bartlett
Jamie Bartlett is a South African actor best known for his role as the shady Mike O'Reilly on the soap opera television series Isidingo aired on the SABC 3 television channel and Crawford in Prey.-Career:...
. The film was not widely seen, which Hooper attributed to media coverage of torture during the Iraq War: "When I started making it you could watch the movie with a wonderful sense of 'we'd never do it in our own country…they're the horrible people but it's not us.' By the time the film came out (there were) these revelations that the Americans were torturing, the British were torturing. The film became a lot more uncomfortable for the very audiences it was designed to target. I have learned that sadly the theatrical audience does not run to see films that are openly issue bled." The premiere of the film in the United Kingdom came on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
in 2005, making it eligible for the BAFTA Television Awards; it was nominated in the Best Single Drama category at the 2006 ceremony.
In 2005, Hooper was asked by Helen Mirren to direct the Company Pictures/HBO Films two-part serial Elizabeth I, in which she was starring. The serial won Hooper his first Emmy Award, for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special. In January 2006, Hooper commenced filming the Granada/HBO television film Longford
Longford (film)
Longford is a 2006 drama television film directed by Tom Hooper and written by Peter Morgan.The film centres on Labour Party peer Lord Longford and his campaign for the parole of Moors Murderer Myra Hindley....
. The film dramatises the failed efforts of Lord Longford
Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford
Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford KG, PC , known as the Lord Pakenham from 1945 to 1961, was a British politician, author, and social reformer...
(played by Jim Broadbent
Jim Broadbent
James "Jim" Broadbent is an English theatre, film, and television actor. He is known for his roles in Iris, Moulin Rouge!, Topsy-Turvy, Hot Fuzz, and Bridget Jones' Diary...
) to secure the release from prison of Moors murderer
Moors murders
The Moors murders were carried out by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley between July 1963 and October 1965, in and around what is now Greater Manchester, England. The victims were five children aged between 10 and 17—Pauline Reade, John Kilbride, Keith Bennett, Lesley Ann Downey and Edward Evans—at least...
Myra Hindley (played by Samantha Morton
Samantha Morton
Samantha Jane Morton is an English actress and film director. She began her performing career with guest roles in television shows such as Soldier Soldier and Boon before making her film debut in the 1997 drama film This Is the Sea, playing the character of Hazel Stokes...
). Hooper first met with the writer Peter Morgan
Peter Morgan
Peter Morgan may refer to:* Peter Morgan , British sports car manufacturer* Peter Morgan , 1978 British Formula Ford champion* Peter Morgan , Wales and British lions international...
about the production in 2005 and the film was broadcast on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
in October 2006. Seb Morton-Clark for the Financial Times
Financial Times
The Financial Times is an international business newspaper. It is a morning daily newspaper published in London and printed in 24 cities around the world. Its primary rival is the Wall Street Journal, published in New York City....
called Longford one of the most accomplished television dramas of 2006, and praised the writer and director: "Morgan and director Tom Hooper wove a seamless narrative about obsession – and not just that of the misguided philanthropist for the incarcerated Hindley or even that that existed between the sadistic lovers themselves. More significantly, by using chunks of original television footage, they painted a stark picture of the zealotry of a vengeful nation and its press over the supposed embodiment of evil." Hooper's continued successes led him to be ranked at number four in the Directors category of Broadcast magazine's annual Hot 100. The following year he was nominated for the British Academy Television Craft Award for Best Director for Longford.
Elizabeth I and Longford led directly to Hooper being selected by Tom Hanks
Tom Hanks
Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...
to direct the epic miniseries John Adams
John Adams (TV miniseries)
John Adams is a 2008 American television miniseries chronicling most of President John Adams's political life and his role in the founding of the United States. Paul Giamatti portrays John Adams. The miniseries was directed by Tom Hooper. Kirk Ellis wrote the screenplay based on the book John...
for Playtone
Playtone
The Playtone Company is an American film and television production company and record label established in 1996 by actor Tom Hanks and producer Gary Goetzman....
and HBO. Hooper had been working on a biographical film with Joan Didion
Joan Didion
Joan Didion is an American author best known for her novels and her literary journalism. Her novels and essays explore the disintegration of American morals and cultural chaos, where the overriding theme is individual and social fragmentation...
about Katharine Graham
Katharine Graham
Katharine Meyer Graham was an American publisher. She led her family's newspaper, The Washington Post, for more than two decades, overseeing its most famous period, the Watergate coverage that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon...
, publisher of The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
, since 2006 when he was asked by Hanks to helm the programme. The miniseries, starring Paul Giamatti
Paul Giamatti
Paul Edward Valentine Giamatti is an American actor. Giamatti began his career as a supporting actor in several films produced during the 1990s including Private Parts, The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, The Negotiator, and Man on the Moon, before earning lead roles in several projects in the...
as John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
, was based on David McCullough
David McCullough
David Gaub McCullough is an American author, narrator, historian, and lecturer. He is a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian award....
's Adams biography
John Adams (book)
John Adams is a 2001 biography of Founding Father and second U.S. President John Adams written by popular historian David McCullough. It won a 2002 Pulitzer Prize and has been made into a TV miniseries with the same name by HBO Films. Since the TV miniseries debuted, an alternative cover has been...
and was Hooper's first wholly American production. He was surprised to learn that the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
was not a well-documented period in film and television; Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams
Abigail Adams was the wife of John Adams, who was the second President of the United States, and the mother of John Quincy Adams, the sixth...
actress Laura Linney
Laura Linney
Laura Leggett Linney is an American actress of film, television, and theatre. Linney has won three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has been nominated for three times for an Academy Award and once for a BAFTA Award...
told him that, for her generation, the musical 1776
1776 (musical)
1776 is a musical with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and a book by Peter Stone. The story is based on the events surrounding the signing of the Declaration of Independence...
was the most well-known depiction of the era. He worked on the miniseries for a total of 16 months; principal photography lasted 110 days on locations in the United States, France, England and Hungary and he controlled a $100 million budget. The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
s Matthew Gilbert complimented Hooper's style of direction in the first two episodes "Join or Die" and "Independence":
Director Tom Hooper lets his actors shine, as he did so marvelously in Helen Mirren's "Elizabeth I" and the child-killer drama "Longford," but he complements them, too, with this kind of immediate point of view. And when he does give us panoramic shots from afar – of the Adams farm in Braintree, for example – they're askew, to keep us out of the classroom mode. At the end of episode 2 [...] Hooper showcases all his directorial strength with one bold choice. When the long-fretting Congress finally decides to break with Britain, he refrains from using any visual or aural tweaks. Upon the announcement, "The resolution carries," the scene remains perfectly silent for one long moment. The terror of responsibility hangs heavily in the room, while a victorious soundtrack surely would have chased it away.
John Adams received 23 Emmy Award nominations, including another Outstanding Direction nomination for Hooper, and won 13, the highest number for any nominee in a single year. He was also nominated for the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement. At the beginning of 2009, he was profiled for The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
s film Hotlist.
Major feature films
In November 2007, Hooper signed on to direct The Damned UnitedThe Damned United
The Damned United is a 2009 British sports drama film directed by Tom Hooper and adapted by Peter Morgan from David Peace's bestselling novel The Damned Utd, a largely fictional book based on the author's interpretation of Brian Clough's tenure as manager of Leeds United...
, reuniting him with Peter Morgan and Andy Harries. The film was an adaptation of David Peace
David Peace
David Peace is an English author. Known for his novels GB84, The Damned Utd, and Red Riding Quartet, Peace was named one of the Best of Young British Novelists by Granta in their 2003 list...
's novel The Damned Utd
The Damned Utd
The Damned Utd is a novel by British author David Peace. The main plot depicts a fictionalised account of Brian Clough's brief spell as manager of Leeds United football club in 1974.-Plot:...
, a fictional version of the 44 turbulent days English football manager Brian Clough
Brian Clough
Brian Howard Clough, OBE was an English footballer and football manager. He is most notable for his success with Derby County and Nottingham Forest. His achievement of winning back-to-back European Cups with Nottingham Forest, a traditionally moderate provincial English club, is considered to be...
spent as manager of Leeds United
Leeds United A.F.C.
Leeds United Association Football Club are an English professional association football club based in Beeston, Leeds, West Yorkshire, who play in the Football League Championship, the second tier of the English football league system...
. It was originally developed by Stephen Frears
Stephen Frears
Stephen Arthur Frears is an English film director.-Early life:Frears was born in Leicester, England to Ruth M., a social worker, and Dr Russell E. Frears, a general practitioner and accountant. He did not find out that his mother was Jewish until he was in his late 20s...
for Michael Sheen
Michael Sheen
Michael Christopher Sheen, OBE , is a Welsh stage and screen actor. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England and made his professional debut opposite Vanessa Redgrave in When She Danced at the Globe Theatre in 1991...
to play Clough. Frears quit the project after he was unable to translate the book to film. Hooper received a copy of the script while shooting John Adams in Hungary and noticed a similarity between the "egotistical, flawed, brilliant" Adams and the "egotistical, flawed, brilliant" Clough. He was not put off by joining the project later, as Morgan's script was in only its first draft. During pre-production, Hooper engaged in meticulous research, particularly on the locations and the football grounds of the era. He cast Timothy Spall
Timothy Spall
Timothy Leonard Spall, OBE is an English character actor and occasional presenter.-Early life:Spall, the third of four sons, was born in Battersea, London. His mother, Sylvia R. , was a hairdresser, and his father, Joseph L. Spall, was a postal worker...
as Clough's assistant Peter Taylor, Colm Meaney
Colm Meaney
Colm J. Meaney is an Irish actor widely known for playing Miles O'Brien in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He is second only to Michael Dorn in most appearances in Star Trek episodes. He has guest-starred on many TV shows from Law & Order to The Simpsons...
as Don Revie
Don Revie
Donald George 'Don' Revie, OBE, , was an English footballer who played for Leicester City, Hull City, Sunderland, Manchester City and Leeds United as a deep-lying centre forward. After managing Leeds United he managed England from 1974 until 1977...
and Jim Broadbent as Derby County
Derby County F.C.
Derby County Football Club is an English football based in Derby. the club play in the Football League Championship and is notable as being one of the twelve founder members of the Football League in 1888 and is, therefore, one of only ten clubs to have competed in every season of the English...
chairman Sam Longson. During editing, it was decided to make the tone of the film lighter in order to attract audiences and to appease the real people depicted in the film. The Damned United was released in 2009.
Work on Hooper's next film, The King's Speech, began in the same year. Hooper explained: "It was a stage play, and my mother who's Australian was invited to a fringe [theatre] reading in London because she's part of the Australian community. The play's about the relationship between King George the Sixth and his Australian speech therapist. She came back and said 'you've got to read this play,' and I read it and it was brilliant ...". Hooper cast Colin Firth
Colin Firth
SirColin Andrew Firth, CBE is a British film, television, and theatre actor. Firth gained wide public attention in the 1990s for his portrayal of Mr. Darcy in the 1995 television adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice...
as George VI
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
and Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Rush
Geoffrey Roy Rush is an Australian actor and film producer. He is one of the few people who has won the "Triple Crown of Acting": an Academy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award. He has won one Academy Award for acting , three British Academy Film Awards , two Golden Globe Awards and four Screen...
as Lionel Logue
Lionel Logue
Lionel George Logue CVO was an Australian speech therapist and stage actor who successfully treated, among others, King George VI, who had a pronounced stammer.-Early life and family:...
and spent three weeks with the actors reading the script and rehearsing. Principal photography took place on location around the UK from November 2009 to January 2010. During editing, Hooper continued to consult with Firth and Rush by sending them cuts of the film and listening to their feedback.
Hooper completed the final cut of the film at the end of August 2010 and presented it a few days later at the Telluride Film Festival
Telluride Film Festival
The Telluride Film Festival was started in 1974 by Bill and Stella Pence, Tom Luddy and Jim Card in the town of Telluride, Colorado, United States. It is operated by the National Film Preserve....
. The film won the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
and Hooper won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures. In February 2011, he was presented with the Academy Award for Best Director, though lost the BAFTA Award for Best Direction
BAFTA Award for Best Direction
Winners of the BAFTA Award for Best Direction presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.-2010s:* 2010 - David Fincher – The Social Network** Tom Hooper – The King's Speech** Danny Boyle – 127 Hours...
to David Fincher
David Fincher
David Andrew Leo Fincher is an American film and music video director. Known for his dark and stylish thrillers, such as Seven , The Game , Fight Club , Panic Room , and Zodiac , Fincher received Academy Award nominations for Best Director for his 2008 film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and...
. In comparing the two films, Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
s Adam Dawtrey wrote, "Hooper's 2009 film The Damned United didn't register among awards selectors, but King's Speech is a much more personal project. His Anglo-Australian parentage reflects the culture clash at the heart of the movie, and it pays off with beautifully crafted, crowd-pleasing drama."
Following the success of The King's Speech during the awards season, Hooper signed on to direct a film adaptation of the musical Les Misérables
Les Misérables (musical)
Les Misérables , colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz , is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, based on the novel of the same name by Victor Hugo....
for Working Title Films
Working Title Films
Working Title Films is a British film production company, based in London, UK. The company was founded by Tim Bevan and Sarah Radclyffe in 1983. It produces feature films and several television productions, including films starring comic actor Rowan Atkinson...
, to star Hugh Jackman
Hugh Jackman
Hugh Michael Jackman is an Australian actor and producer who is involved in film, musical theatre, and television.Jackman has won international recognition for his roles in major films, notably as action/superhero, period and romance characters...
. Filming is scheduled to commence in the UK in February 2012 for scheduled release in December 2012.
In March 2009, Hooper met with Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999, and was the first South African president to be elected in a fully representative democratic election. Before his presidency, Mandela was an anti-apartheid activist, and the leader of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing...
in preparation for directing a film adaptation of Mandela's autobiography Long Walk to Freedom
Long Walk to Freedom
Long Walk to Freedom is an autobiographical work written by Nelson Mandela, and published in 1995 by Little Brown & Co. The book profiles his early life, coming of age, education and 27 years in prison. Mandela was once regarded as a terrorist but he is now regarded as uncontroversial...
. Producer Anant Singh had been impressed with his direction of Red Dust. Hooper does not expect to begin work on the film until 2012 due to the availability of his intended cast. He has also expressed an interest in directing the next feature for Bedlam Productions, the studio of The King's Speech; The Lady Who Went Too Far will be written by David Seidler
David Seidler
David Seidler is a British-American playwright and film and television writer. He was most successful for writing the play and the screenplay for the film The King's Speech, for which he won the Academy Award and a BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay.-Early life and family:Seidler was born in...
and produced by Gareth Unwin, and based on the Lady Hester Stanhope
Lady Hester Stanhope
Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope , the eldest child of Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope by his first wife Lady Hester Pitt, is remembered by history as an intrepid traveller in an age when women were discouraged from being adventurous.-Early life and travels:Lady Hester was born and grew up at her...
biography Star of the Morning.
Directing style
Hooper uses camera styles "that encode the DNA of the storytelling in some way" and will reuse and develop filming styles in successive productions. Hooper identifies research as being key to his process of directing period dramas such as John Adams in order to make the scenes authentic. For The Damned United, Hooper and director of photography Ben Smithard researched the look of the late 1960s and early 1970s through football photography books. Hooper has also been influenced by cinematographer Larry Smith, who worked with Stanley KubrickStanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
and advised Hooper of techniques used by Kubrick. Hooper and Smith have worked together on Cold Feet, Love in a Cold Climate, Prime Suspect, Red Dust and Elizabeth I.
Hooper also uses uncommon framing techniques to emphasise story; in John Adams, he wanted to imply American independence seemed unlikely during the Revolutionary War, so he used "a very rough camera style—almost all hand held, wide lenses close to the actors, lots of movement, many cameras shooting at once so there was often not a settled master "point of view", and lots of unmatching dutch tilts so the horizon lines of the frame were often being thrown off." The America-set scenes were contrasted by the scenes set in France, in which more traditional filming techniques were employed to evoke a feel of entrenched values. Similarly, in The Damned United, Hooper began to experiment with using wide-angle lenses and putting actors in the extreme edges of the frame. He was influenced by the unusual framing from social photography of the 1970s, and he and Ben Smithard decided to adopt the framing style while scouting locations. Hooper used the same style in The King's Speech, particularly in the scene where Bertie and Logue meet in Logue's consulting room; Colin Firth is framed to the extreme left of the picture, leaving most of the shot dominated by the rough wall behind Firth.
Another frequently used technique is Hooper's tendency to use a variety of camera lens widths to distort the resulting picture. In The Damned United he used a 10mm lens, notably in the scene where Clough stays inside during the Derby–Leeds match. Hooper operated the camera in this scene himself. In The King's Speech, Hooper used "typically 14mm, 18mm, 21mm, 25mm and 27mm" lenses and put the camera close to the actors' faces. Hooper said the use of this method in the first consulting room scene served to "suggest the awkardness and tension of Logue and Bertie's first meeting".
Other work
Since 2001 Hooper has worked with the commercial production company Infinity Productions. Notable advertising campaigns directed by Hooper include 2006's Rooftop Tennis for Sony EricssonSony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....
's mobile phone range, and Dive, a spot for the 2011 Captain Morgan
Captain Morgan
Captain Morgan is a brand of rum produced by alcohol conglomerate Diageo. It is named after the 17th-century, Welsh privateer of the Caribbean, Sir Henry Morgan...
rum campaign To Life, Love and Loot.
Following his Oscar win in 2011, Hooper joined the 15-person board of governors at the British Film Institute
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute is a charitable organisation established by Royal Charter to:-Cinemas:The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and IMAX theatre, both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London...
and was invited to join the directors branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Filmography
| Year(s) | Title | Role | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Painted Faces | Director, writer, producer, editor | Short film |
| 1997 | Quayside Quayside (soap opera) Quayside was a soap opera, based around the lives of young people living on the Newcastle Quayside produced by Zenith North Television and aired in 1997 on Tyne Tees Television in the North East England and Yorkshire Television in Yorkshire.... |
Director | Television series |
| 1997 | Byker Grove Byker Grove Byker Grove was a British television series which aired between 1989 and 2006 and was created by Adele Rose. The show was broadcast at 5.10pm after Newsround on CBBC on BBC One... |
Director | 4 episodes of television series:
|
| 1998–2000 | EastEnders EastEnders EastEnders is a British television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 19 February 1985 and continuing to today. EastEnders storylines examine the domestic and professional lives of the people who live and work in the fictional London Borough of Walford in the East End... |
Director | Episodes of television series |
| 1999 | Cold Feet Cold Feet Cold Feet is a British comedy-drama television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network. The series was created and principally written by Mike Bullen as a follow-up to his award-winning 1997 Comedy Premiere of the same name. The storyline follows three couples experiencing the... |
Director | 2 episodes of television series:
|
| 2001 | Love in a Cold Climate Love in a Cold Climate (TV serial) Love in a Cold Climate is a British television serial drama produced by the BBC in association with WGBH Boston, and first broadcast in two parts on BBC One on 4 and 11 February 2001... |
Director | 2-part television serial |
| 2002 | Daniel Deronda Daniel Deronda (TV serial) Daniel Deronda is a British television serial drama adapted by Andrew Davies from the George Eliot novel of the same name. The serial was directed by Tom Hooper, produced by Louis Marks, and was first broadcast in three parts on BBC One from 24 November to 7 December 2002... |
Director | 3-part television serial |
| 2003 | Prime Suspect 6: The Last Witness | Director | 2-part television serial |
| 2004 | Red Dust Red Dust (2004 film) Red Dust is a 2004 British drama film starring Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Ejiofor. It was directed by Tom Hooper. The story, written by Troy Kennedy-Martin, is based on the novel Red Dust by Gillian Slovo... |
Director | Feature film |
| 2005 | Elizabeth I | Director | 2-part television serial |
| 2006 | Longford Longford (film) Longford is a 2006 drama television film directed by Tom Hooper and written by Peter Morgan.The film centres on Labour Party peer Lord Longford and his campaign for the parole of Moors Murderer Myra Hindley.... |
Director | Television film |
| 2008 | John Adams John Adams (TV miniseries) John Adams is a 2008 American television miniseries chronicling most of President John Adams's political life and his role in the founding of the United States. Paul Giamatti portrays John Adams. The miniseries was directed by Tom Hooper. Kirk Ellis wrote the screenplay based on the book John... |
Director | 7-part television miniseries |
| 2009 | Director | Feature film | |
| 2010 | Director | Feature film | |
| 2012 | Les Misérables Les Misérables (2012 film) Les Misérables is an upcoming 2012 British musical film directed by Tom Hooper, written by William Nicholson and adapted from the popular musical of the same name, which is in turn based on an 1862 French novel by Victor Hugo.-Premise:... |
Director | Feature film – in pre-production |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award | Category | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | IFFI Special Jury Award International Film Festival of India The International Film Festival of India , founded in 1952, is one of the most significant film festivals in Asia. Held annually in the beach town of Goa, in the Western Coast of the country, the festival aims at providing a common platform for the cinemas of the world to project the excellence of... |
Special Award | Red Dust Red Dust (2004 film) Red Dust is a 2004 British drama film starring Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Ejiofor. It was directed by Tom Hooper. The story, written by Troy Kennedy-Martin, is based on the novel Red Dust by Gillian Slovo... |
Won |
| 2004 | Primetime Emmy Award Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming... |
Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special This is a list of the winners of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special.- Chronology of categories :... |
Prime Suspect 6 | Nominated |
| 2005 | BIFF Golden Kinnaree Award Bangkok International Film Festival The Bangkok International Film Festival is an international film festival held annually in Bangkok, Thailand, since 2003. In addition to film screenings, seminars, gala events and the Golden Kinnaree Awards.-First years:... |
Best Film | Red Dust Red Dust (2004 film) Red Dust is a 2004 British drama film starring Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Ejiofor. It was directed by Tom Hooper. The story, written by Troy Kennedy-Martin, is based on the novel Red Dust by Gillian Slovo... |
Nominated |
| 2006 | Primetime Emmy Award Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming... |
Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special | Elizabeth I | Won |
| 2007 | British Academy Television Craft Award | Best Director | Longford Longford (film) Longford is a 2006 drama television film directed by Tom Hooper and written by Peter Morgan.The film centres on Labour Party peer Lord Longford and his campaign for the parole of Moors Murderer Myra Hindley.... |
Nominated |
| 2007 | British Academy Television Award British Academy Television Awards The British Academy Television Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . They have been awarded annually since 1954, and are analogous to the Emmy Awards in the United States.-Background:... |
Best Single Drama | Longford | Won |
| 2008 | Primetime Emmy Award Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards are awards presented by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences in recognition of excellence in American primetime television programming... |
Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special | John Adams John Adams (TV miniseries) John Adams is a 2008 American television miniseries chronicling most of President John Adams's political life and his role in the founding of the United States. Paul Giamatti portrays John Adams. The miniseries was directed by Tom Hooper. Kirk Ellis wrote the screenplay based on the book John... |
Nominated |
| 2009 | Directors Guild of America Award | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television/Miniseries | John Adams | Nominated |
| 2010 | Hollywood Award | Hollywood Film Director | The King's Speech | Won |
| 2010 | British Independent Film Award British Independent Film Awards The Moët British Independent Film Awards is an annual award ceremony celebrating achievement in independently funded British film and cinema. Nominations and jury are announced at the beginning of November with the award ceremony taking place in late November or early December.-History:The British... |
Best Director | The King's Speech | Nominated |
| 2010 | Detroit Film Critics Society Award Detroit Film Critics Society The Detroit Film Critics Society is a film critic organization in Detroit, Michigan, United States.-2007 Awards:The nominees for the Detroit Film Critics Society Awards 2007 were announced on 15 December and the winners were announced on 21 December 2007.-Best Actor:**George Clooney - Michael... |
Best Director | The King's Speech | Nominated |
| 2010 | Chicago Film Critics Association Award Chicago Film Critics Association The Chicago Film Critics Association is an American film critic association.-Members:Current members include:*Sarah Knight Adamson*Zbigniew Banas*Shelley Cameron*Dave Canfield*Vittorio Carli*Erik Childress*Camerin Courtney*Bonnie DeShong... |
Best Director Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Director The Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Director is an annual award given by the Chicago Film Critics Association.-1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-References:... |
The King's Speech | Nominated |
| 2010 | Satellite Award | Best Director Satellite Award for Best Director The Satellite Award for Best Director is one of the annual Satellite Awards given by the International Press Academy.- 1990s :- 2000s :- 2010s :... |
The King's Speech | Nominated |
| 2010 | Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association The Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association is an organization of 35 print, radio/TV and internet journalists from Dallas-Fort Worth-based publications... |
Best Director Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Director The Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Director is an award given by the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association to honor the best achievements in filmmaking.- 2000s :- 2010s :-References:... |
The King's Speech | Nominated |
| 2010 | Sierra Award Las Vegas Film Critics Society The Las Vegas Film Critics Society is a non-profit organization, composed of selected print, television and internet film critics in the Las Vegas metropolitan area.... |
Best Director Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Director The Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Director is one of the annual awards given by the Las Vegas Film Critics Society.-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:... |
The King's Speech | Nominated |
| 2010 | St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association The St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association is an organization of film critics operating in metropolitan St. Louis and adjoining areas of Missouri and Illinois which was founded in 2004.... |
Best Director St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Director The St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award for Best Director is one of the annual awards given by the St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association.-2000s:-2010s:... |
The King's Speech | Nominated |
| 2010 | Central Ohio Film Critics Association Award | Best Director | The King's Speech | Nominated |
| 2010 | EDA Award Alliance of Women Film Journalists The Alliance of Women Film Journalists is a group of female journalists based out of New York, United States that was founded in 2006. The AWFJ is composed of 45 professional female movie critics, reporters and feature writers working in print, broadcast and online media, dedicated to supporting... |
Best Director | The King's Speech | Nominated |
| 2010 | Critics' Choice Movie Award Critics' Choice Movie Awards The Critics' Choice Movie Awards are presented annually since 1995 by the Broadcast Film Critics Association for outstanding achievements in the cinema industry.-List of awards:*Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Action Movie... |
Best Director | The King's Speech | Nominated |
| 2010 | Golden Globe Award Golden Globe Award The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign... |
Best Director | The King's Speech | Nominated |
| 2010 | Directors Guild of America Award | Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures | The King's Speech | Won |
| 2010 | London Film Critics' Circle Award | British Director of the Year | The King's Speech | Won |
| 2010 | British Academy Film Award British Academy Film Awards The British Academy Film Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . It is the British counterpart of the Oscars. As of 2008, it has taken place in the Royal Opera House, having taken over from the flagship Odeon cinema on Leicester Square... |
Best Direction BAFTA Award for Best Direction Winners of the BAFTA Award for Best Direction presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.-2010s:* 2010 - David Fincher – The Social Network** Tom Hooper – The King's Speech** Danny Boyle – 127 Hours... |
The King's Speech | Nominated |
| 2010 | British Academy Film Award British Academy Film Awards The British Academy Film Awards are presented in an annual award show hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . It is the British counterpart of the Oscars. As of 2008, it has taken place in the Royal Opera House, having taken over from the flagship Odeon cinema on Leicester Square... |
Outstanding British Film BAFTA Award for Best Film This page lists the winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best Film, BAFTA Award for Best Film not in the English Language and Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film for each year, in addition to the retired earlier versions of those awards... |
The King's Speech | Won |
| 2010 | Independent Spirit Award Independent Spirit Awards The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit... |
Best Foreign Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film The Independent Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film is one of the annual Independent Spirit Awards.-1980s:* 1985: Kiss of the Spider Woman - Hector Babenco • Brazil/USA** Dreamchild • France/UK** The Hit • UK... |
The King's Speech | Won |
| 2010 | Academy Award | Best Director | The King's Speech | Won |
| 2010 | Empire Award Empire Awards An Empire Award is an accolade bestowed by Empire, Britain's biggest selling film magazine, to recognize excellence of professionals in the locale and global film industry. The awards are voted for by readers of the magazine and in an annual ceremony, the Empire Awards, the winners are presented... |
Best Director | The King's Speech | Nominated |
Further reading
- Davies, Dave (18 November 2010). "Tom Hooper, Putting Words To 'The King's Speech'". NPR. URL retrieved on 18 November 2010.
- Jurgensen, John (19 November 2010). "A Director on the Verge: Tom Hooper". WSJ.com. URL retrieved on 19 November 2010.