Anthony Minghella Biography

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Director/screenwriter ANTHONY MINGHELLA's (Executive Producer) film The English Patient, which he wrote and directed, won nine 1996 Academy Awards® including those for Best Picture and Best Director. The film, based on the novel by Michael Ondaatje, starred Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Kristin Scott Thomas and Willem Dafoe and was honored with 30 film awards overall, including two Golden Globes, six BAFTA Awards, the Writer's Guild Award for Best Screenplay and the Scripters Award for Best Director.

Minghella most recently wrote and directed the screen adaptation of Charles Frazier's Civil War novel Cold Mountain, starring Nicole Kidman, Jude Law and Renée Zellweger, which was nominated for seven Oscars®. Minghella also won the 1999 Best Director Award from the National Board of Review for his film The Talented Mr. Ripley, based on the classic crime novel by Patricia Highsmith and starring Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law. In 2000, Minghella was named by American Theater Owners as ShoWest's Director of the Year.

His first film as a writer/director, Truly, Madly, Deeply, starred Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman and was a success in Britain and America, winning several prizes including a BAFTA and a Writer's Guild Award. Minghella has also directed Mr. Wonderful with Matt Dillon, Mary Louise Parker and William Hurt.

Anthony Minghella was born in 1954 on the Isle of Wight of Italian parents. Until 1981, he lectured on drama at the University of Hull. His stage plays are Child's Play, Whale Music, A Little Like Drowning, Two Planks and a Passion, Made in Bangkok and Love Bites.

Minghella's television trilogy What If It's Raining? was acclaimed throughout Europe. He created and regularly contributed to the television series Inspector Morse, and wrote all nine of the short television films in The Storyteller series for Jim Henson and NBC, which won an Emmy and a BAFTA Award, as well as the Gold Medal at the New York International Film and Television Festival. Minghella's radio plays include Hang Up and Cigarettes and Chocolate.

Since 2000, he has been with Sydney Pollack joint-owner of Mirage Enterprises, serving as executive producer on the company's films Heaven, Iris and The Quiet American. Since December 2002, Anthony Minghella has been Chairman of the British Film Institute. He holds Honorary Doctorates from the University of Hull (1998), the University of Southampton (2000) and the University of Bournemouth (2001).