A double Academy Award nominated and double BAFTA winning screenwriter and film producer of the film THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (2014) as well as a celebrated novelist, New Zealand-born Anthony McCarten is a filmmaker, novelist and playwright. He received early international success with his play Ladies Night, which remains New Zealand’s most commercially successful play of all time.
In 2011, his adaptation of his own novel DEATH OF A SUPERHERO had its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, won the 2011 Les Arcs European Film Festival Audience Choice Prize and Young Jury Prize, and the Audience Award and ‘Special Mention’ of the Jury at the Mamer-en-Mars European Film Festival. Prior to this, VIA SATELLITE, which he adapted from his own stage play, and directed himself, was invited to several film festivals including London, Cannes, Toronto, Melbourne, Hawaii and Seattle. His follow-up feature as writer/director, SHOW OF HANDS(2008), premiered at the Montreal International Film Festival and was an official selection for the Shanghai Film Festival 2009, and was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director at the New Zealand Film Awards.
McCarten produced and wrote THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (2014), concerning the life of Prof. Stephen Hawking, and his first wife, Jane Hawking. On January 15, 2015 the film received 5 Academy Award nominations, with McCarten earning two as producer and screenwriter in the categories of Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. He won two BAFTA awards for his roles as producer Best British Film and screenwriter Best Adapted Screenplay.
He is currently working on several upcoming projects: a biopic of Winston Churchill, another of Freddie Mercury, the 2008 siege of The Taj Palace Hotel in Mumbai, the origin story of bungee jumping, an adaptation of his latest novel Funnygirl, and a project for George Clooney.
In 2015 he was inducted as a Literary Fellow of the New Zealand Society of Authors.
He lives in London.
Writing Masterclass with Anthony McCarten, Sat 10th October, 2.45pm
