The Film Programme Creators & Guests

Ava Marie DuVernay is an American filmmaker and film distributor.

Olivia Williams is a British actress who has appeared in British and American films and television.

Robin Wright is an actress and director.

Mark Gatiss is an actor, comedian, screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist.

Archaeology is rubbish. Ask an Archaeologist podcast @Askanarch. he/him

Ian Russell McEwan is an English novelist and screenwriter.

James Corden, born August 22, 1978, in London, England, is a British actor, comedian, writer, and television host best known for hosting "The Late Late Show with James Corden" from 2015 to 2023. Corden gained early fame in the UK for co-writing and starring in the sitcom "Gavin & Stacey" (2007–2010), which earned him a BAFTA Award. In addition to his television career, Corden has appeared in films like "Into the Woods" (2014) and "Cats" (2019), and has won a Tony Award for his performance in the play "One Man, Two Guvnors" (2012).

Asif Kapadia is a filmmaker and director.

Richard Linklater is an American filmmaker. He is known for his realistic and natural humanist films, which revolve mainly around suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. Linklater's films include Slacker (1990), Dazed and Confused (1993), Before Sunrise (1995), Waking Life (2001), School of Rock (2003), Before Sunset (2004), A Scanner Darkly (2006), Before Midnight (2013), Boyhood (2014), and Everybody Wants Some!! (2016).Linklater raised in Huntsville, Texas. He studied at Sam Houston State University, but dropped out to work on an offshore oil rig. He used his savings to buy a Super-8 camera and editing equipment and moved to Austin, Texas. He enrolled in Austin Community College to study film. He co-founded the Austin Film Society.

Neil Brand (born 18 March 1958) is an English dramatist, composer and author. In addition to being a regular silent film accompanist at London's National Film Theatre, Brand has composed new scores for two restored films from the 1920s, The Wrecker and Anthony Asquith's Underground.Brand has also acted and written plays for the BBC. His book, Dramatic Notes, focuses on the art of composing narrative music for the cinema, theatre, radio and television. For his contribution to music, in 2016, Brand was awarded with a BASCA Gold Badge Award.

Olivia Wilde is an American actress, producer, director, and activist.

Romola Garai is an actress and film director.

Jessie Buckley is an Irish actress.

Kevin Macdonald is a Scottish director. He was born in Glasgow and raised on a sheep farm in Gartocharn, Dunbartonshire. He was educated at Glenalmond College and St Anne's College, Oxford. His first film was a biography of his grandfather, The Life and Death of a Screenwriter in 1994. His films are largely biographies and documentaries.

Laura Snapes is a music journalist, critic, and writer. Currently, she is Deputy Music Editor at The Guardian.Snapes's work has appeared in The Guardian, NME, Q, BBC, and Pitchfork. Her first book, "Phoenix: Liberté, Égalité, Phoenix!," was published in 2019.She produced the radio documentary "The Drop Our Boogie" for BBC Radio 4 in 2016, and an audio documentary called "Mother Tongue" for Audible's Pitch series in 2018.

Rosamund Pike is an English actress who began her acting career by appearing in stage productions such as Romeo and Juliet and Skylight.

Paul Greengrass is a film director, film producer, screenwriter, and former journalist.

Saoirse Una Ronan is an Irish and American actress, and she is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award. She has been nominated for three Academy Awards and four British Academy Film Awards.