Joanna Hogg

Born in London in 1960, Joanna Hogg practiced photography before attending the National Film and Television School in 1981. She made several experimental Super 8 films at the time. Caprice (1986), her short graduation film with the then-unknown Tilda Swinton made an impression. She went on to shoot several clips for artists and worked in television. It took some years for Joanna Hogg to muster the courage to make a feature film. Her first attempt was masterly. 

With Unrelated (2007), shot at the age of 47, she immediately demonstrated an extremely keen observation of group dynamics and class relations and an equally delicate and vertiginous mastery of directing. The film revealed the actor Tom Hiddleston, who became one of the filmmaker's long-time collaborators. Archipelago (2010) and Exhibition (2013), with Viv Albertine, ex-guitarist of the cult punk group The Slits, and visual artist Liam Gillick, developed the exploration of familial, amorous and social bonds in relation to their immediate environment, ranging from the most natural – the Isles of Scilly, the Italian countryside in summer – to the most refined – a Tuscan villa, a modernist house in London, with original distancing techniques that never demean their subjects. With her first three feature films, Joanna Hogg established herself as one of the leading figures in British film. 

Winner of the grand jury prize at Sundance, selected and a winner at many festivals around the world, The Souvenir (2019) – with Tilda Swinton, her daughter Honor Swinton-Byrne and Tom Burke – recounting a chaotic love affair between a young film student and an older man, an inveterate liar as fascinating as he is toxic, projected her to the forefront of the international scene. The second part of this autofiction, The Souvenir, part II, in which the student mourns the end of this affair with her first film, was selected for the Directors' Fortnight at Cannes in 2021. Martin Scorsese was executive producer, and again for her new film.