Lynne Ramsay on NFTS Wall Student Photo Chart (1992) by NFTSNational Film and Television School
Lynne Ramsay is one of the NFTS’s most celebrated graduates. She has won two BAFTAs and awards from the Cannes and London Film Festivals. Actress Tilda Swinton, who starred in Lynne’s film We Need To Talk About Kevin, said of her "She is one of those rare directors who creates the kind of films that just would not be there if she didn't make them."
Small Deaths, Lynne Ramsay Jnr as Anne Marie (1996) by Lynne RamsayNational Film and Television School
Lynne originally came to study cinematography at the NFTS, applying with a series of still photographs. The head of the NFTS at the time immediately recognised she had the eye of a director. Her NFTS graduation film, Small Deaths (1996), which she wrote, directed and shot, won the Cannes jury prize.
Lynne Ramsay and Sandra Hebron (2019) by NFTSNational Film and Television School
Lynne has repeatedly returned to the NFTS to give Masterclasses. Introducing Lynne at one NFTS Masterclass Sandra Hebron, NFTS Head of Screen Arts said “Her films are bold and imaginative – and they allow us, as viewers, to use our imaginations too, because they are also suggestive and subtle.
She writes and directs beautifully crafted works: a combination of sublime imagery seamlessly woven together with affecting and often visceral sound design, and an inspired use of music. We talk a lot at the school about filmmaking being a collaborative process, and of course it is. And yet when we watch a Lynne Ramsay film, we really know and feel these films couldn’t have been made by anyone else.”
Lynne’s debut feature film, Ratcatcher (1999), was hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “One of the most remarkable English-language feature debuts of recent years.” Lynne was awarded the BAFTA for Best Newcomer for Ratcatcher. Her follow up, Morvern Callar (2002), was co-written with fellow NFTS graduate, Liana Dognini. It was edited and shot by NFTS graduates - Lucia Zuchetti and Alwin Kuchler respectively, both of whom also worked with Lynne on Ratcatcher.
Lynne Ramsay, Venetia Hawkes and NFTS Students (2018) by NFTSNational Film and Television School
Her adaptation of Lionel Shriver’s novel, We Need To Talk About Kevin (2011), won the London Film Festival award for Best Film, the British Independent Film Award for Best Director and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain award for Best Screenplay.
It stars Joaquin Phoenix as a military veteran with PTSD who tracks down and recovers missing children, using whatever means necessary. Screen Daily said, “Joaquin Phoenix is simply stupendous in a revenge thriller from the brilliant Scottish filmmaker Lynne Ramsay that gets under your skin and makes it crawl.”
In a Masterclass at the NFTS after a screening of the film, Lynne told students she’d always had Joaquin in mind for the role from the moment she started writing. When a window came up in his schedule they jumped at the chance and shot the film in 27 days over a hot New York summer.
Small Deaths, Jenna Gillian as Anne Marie 2 (1996) by Lynne RamsayNational Film and Television School
Discussing her writing style during the Masterclass, Lynne said: “I write quite visually. Screenwriting is like poetry – it’s a process of boiling something down to its essence, economy is everything.”
Lynne Ramsay (2021) by NFTSNational Film and Television School
During the Masterclass Lynne said “One of the great things about the NFTS is the people you meet – I still work with people I met at the NFTS twenty years ago”. NFTS graduates who worked on "You Were Never Really Here" include cinematographer Tom Townend , Sound Designer, Paul Davies and Additional Sound Editor, Morgan Muse.
Small Deaths Still (1996) by Lynne RamsayNational Film and Television School
She concluded by encouraging the students with their own filmmaking and saying, “Cinema can really blow your mind, it’s like dreams – visceral.”
Lynne Ramsay presented with NFTS Honorary Fellowship by John Hurt (2012) by NFTSNational Film and Television School
"Thank you to the NFTS. There is no school like you in the world! It was wonderful to be able to experiment in such a special environment and make invaluable relationships with the filmmakers I met there and still work with today." (Lynne Ramsay, in her acceptance speech when receiving an NFTS Honorary Fellowship from John Hurt in 2012)
Lynne speaks about her NFTS graduation film Small Deaths below. The film follows.
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