Amma Asante
Director and Writer
“When you walk into a place and you see women, and you see people of colour, and varying abilities and disabilities, it feels like it’s somehow a reflection of the world.”
Amma Asante is a multi-award winning director and writer who became the first Black director to win a BAFTA Film Award for writing and directing a feature film.
British-born to Ghanaian parents, Asante originally trained in dance and drama at the Barbara Speake Stage School in London and appeared in the BBC TV school drama Grange Hill.
She made her directorial debut with A Way of Life (2004), which went on to win multiple prestigious awards worldwide, including Grand Jury and FIPRESCI prizes.
Her follow up film Belle (2013) drew widespread critical acclaim, becoming one of the highest grossing independent films of the year and saw Amma named one of CNN’s Leading Women of 2014, as well as being named one of Variety’s 10 Directors to watch.
In 2016, A United Kingdom, directed by Amma for Pathé and Fox Searchlight US, was released. Its European Premiere saw Amma celebrated as the first Black director to open the BFI London Film Festival in its 60 year history.
The film tells the true story of Seretse Khama, King of Bechuanaland (modern Botswana), and Ruth Williams, the London office worker he married in 1948 in the face of fierce opposition from their families and the British and South African governments.
Asante’s most recent film, Where Hands Touch (2018), is inspired by historical events and set in 1944 Germany. Asante has been awarded with an Honorary Fellowship by the National Film and Television School and is an Honorary Associate of the London Film School.
Images: BFI/Pathé
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