Born in Glasgow, Lynne Ramsay is considered one of the boldest British directors in contemporary independent cinema. Cannes Festival acknowledged her talent from the very beginning. In 1996, she won the Jury Prize for the graduation short film Small Deaths, and two years later she received the same distinction for her third short film, Gasman. In 2000, her feature film debut Ratcacher received the Jury’s Special Mention in Cannes’s Un Certain Regard.
In 2011, We Need to Talk About Kevin was the only British production in the Palme d’Or competition. The film was nominated for several BAFTA categories, and won the British Independent Film Award for Best Director, the London Film Festival award for Best Film and the one for best screenplay. In 2012, Swimmer, produced following the proposal of the UK’s Olympic Culture Committee won the BAFTA award for Best Short Film. This year Lynne Ramsay is back on the Croisette, in competition, with You Were Never Really Here, recipient of the awards for screenplay and for best actor (Joaquin Phoenix).