Born Today!
Lynne Ramsay was born on the 5th of December 1969 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Lynne is a Scottish film director, screenwriter, film producer and cinematographer.
She studied fine art and photography at Napier College in Edinburgh, Scotland then attended The National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, England where she specialised in cinematography and direction and graduated in 1995.
Her graduation short student film "Small Deaths" won the Cannes Prix de Jury (which is the Jury prize awarded to a short film) at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival.
Her second short film “Kill The Day” won her the Jury prize at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival in France in 1996.
Her third short “Gasman” won her the Cannes Prix de Jury and the Scottish BAFTA for Best Short Film in 1998.
Ramsay made her debut feature film “Ratcatcher” in 1999 it garnered critical acclaim and won numerous awards. “Ratcatcher” was entered into the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, It was chosen to open the Edinburgh International Film Festival and went on to win her the Guardian new director prize, she won the BAFTA for best newcomer in British Film, won an award at the London Film Festival and the Silver Hugo for best director at the Chicago International Film Festival.
“Ratcatcher” is now part of the prestigious Criterion Collection spine number 162.
In 2002 Ramsay directed the psychological drama “Morvern Callar” starring Samantha Morton and Kathleen McDermott.
The film premiered at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival during the Directors Fortnight and was awarded “The Youth” for best foreign film (I really don’t understand the Cannes Film Festival)
“Morvern Callar” went on to receive seven nominations at the 2002 British Independent Film Awards where Samantha Morton won Best Actress and Kathleen Mcdermott won Best Actress at the Scottish BAFTAs for her performance.
Lynne’s next project was going to be to direct the film adaptation of Alice Sebold’s Novel “Lovely Bones” that didn't pan out and Peter Jackson ended up making that movie and in my opinion, it didn't pan out great for him either.
Ramsay’s next feature-length film was an adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s novel
“We Need to Talk About Kevin” She wrote the screenplay and produced and directed the film.
It stars the formidable Tilda Swinton as a mother dealing with the aftermath of having a spree killer as a son. Tragically Lynne had to fight to get this project funded due to its challenging subject matter and its fragmented, elliptical narrative.
The film premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival Ramsey went on to be nominated for the BAFTA for Best Director as well as winning the Best Director prize and The British Independent Film Awards and won Best Screenplay and the Writers Guild of Great Britain awards.
In 2012 she was co-commissioned by BBC Films, Film4 and the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games to direct a short film “Swimmer” which went on to win Best Short Film at the 66th British Academy Film Awards.
She was hired to direct a movie called “Jane Got A Gun” but quit the project due to justifiable creative differences. She then worked on getting a self-penned project off the ground which has been described as a science fiction reimagining of Herman Melvin's “Moby Dick”. A crew in a spacecraft living in close quarters hunting. The claustrophobia of “Das Boot” but in space.
In 2017 Ramsay directed “You Were Never Really Here” an adaptation of Jonathan Ames's novella of the same name. The film stars Joaquin Phoenix. It premiered to wide critical acclaim in competition at the 70th Cannes Film Festival in 2017, where it received a seven-minute standing ovation, and Ramsay won the Best Screenplay award.
Looking at her career so far I can't help but think how unfair the film industry is that a massively talented Scottish woman can win an award at The Cannes Film Festival for her graduation student film and her first feature is held up as a classic of contemporary cinema still has to fight tooth and nail to get things made. She is a proper filmmaker and seems to have no intention of being swallowed up by Hollywood to make a movie for Marvel, DC or Star Wars. It is just tragic the area of the film industry she obviously thrives in is the part most under pressure at the moment.
Looking into future projects she is attached to is interesting and quite exciting.
There is her own “Moby Dick in Space movie” which sounds great to me.
She is attached to direct an adaptation of the Stephen King book “The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon”.
It was also announced that Ramsey would be directing an adaptation of Ariana Harwicz’s novel “Die, My Love” produced by Martin Scorsese.
She is also attached to direct the film based on Margret Atwood’s “Stone Mattress”
I also see on Letterboxd she is listed as the Writer / Director of a film called “Polaris”
starring Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara. The plot description says
“A Photographer meets the devil in Alaska” I AM IN !!!!
In 2022 Sight and Sound magazine published their "Top 250 films of all time" and Lynne's film "Morvern Callar" was ranked 250th .
She is obviously very much in demand and I hope she has a long and successful career.
Happy Birthday! Lynne Ramsay.
You can check out her films
“Ratcatcher” (1999) - Not available on streaming, you can buy the Criterion Collection Blu-ray for about £30 or HMV sell a DVD for £4.99.
“Morvern Callar” (2002) - streaming on the “Sundance Now” service
or shop on eBay for a used DVD or Blu-ray
“We Need to Talk about Kevin” (2011) - streaming on “CURZON”
or buy the Blu-ray from HMV for £7.99
“You Were Never Really Here” (2017) - Streaming on ITVX with a subscription
or buy the Blu-ray from HMV for £7.99
