Stephen Daldry to visit Poznań!

Stephen Daldry joins a distinguished group of British filmmakers whose work has been celebrated with retrospectives at the British Film Festival. In previous editions, the festival invited audiences into the cinematic worlds of Lynne Ramsay and Sally Potter. This year, the retrospective is dedicated to one of Britain’s most versatile filmmakers – an artist who moves with equal confidence between cinema, theatre and television.

Daldry began his theatrical career at, among others, Sheffield Crucible Theatre, before becoming Artistic Director of Gate Theatre and Royal Court Theatre in London. He has also directed at National Theatre in London and Public Theater in New York, with his productions going on to major runs in the West End and on Broadway. His 1992 production of An Inspector Calls earned him, among others, Olivier, Drama Desk and Tony Awards for directing.

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19 Oscar nominations and BILLY ELLIOT

Daldry made his feature film debut with a film that became one of the most recognisable British films of the turn of the century. BILLY ELLIOT received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, as well as thirteen (!) BAFTA nominations and three BAFTA wins. His following films – THE HOURS, THE READER and EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE – brought the total number of Academy Award nominations for his first four feature films to 19, with two wins.

BILLY ELLIOT also found a second life on stage as a musical. Daldry’s production was a success in the West End and on Broadway, winning ten Tony Awards in 2009, including Best Musical – more than any previous British production staged on Broadway.

BILLY ELLIOT will be one of the three films Daldry presents as part of his retrospective in Poznań. The timing is particularly special, as the film will return to Polish cinemas in early 2027. His visit to the BFF will therefore offer not only a chance to revisit one of the most important British films of recent decades, but also a unique prelude to its return to cinemas.

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From cinema and The Crown to Broadway

Daldry’s career extends far beyond feature filmmaking. He served as director and Executive Producer of The Crown, which has won a total of 21 Primetime Emmy Awards. Daldry himself received an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for the second season episode Paterfamilias. He also directed, among other projects, the documentary FREEDOM: 50 YEARS OF PRIDE for Channel 4 and BBC.

At the same time, he remains one of the most important theatre directors of his generation. For THE INHERITANCE, he received the Olivier Award for Best Director and, following the production’s transfer to Broadway, the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play. In recent years, he also directed Stranger Things: The First Shadow, which won two Olivier Awards and three Tony Awards.

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His work also extends beyond the traditional stage and screen. Daldry served as Creative Executive Producer for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games, and as Artistic Director of the second edition of Vogue World in London. He is also Chairman of Good Chance, an organisation working at the intersection of arts, culture and the experiences of refugees.

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Three post-screening conversations

The opportunity to meet the filmmaker in person is one of the key elements of the retrospective. The BFF is not only interested in revisiting the most important films of British cinema – it also wants to create a space for conversations with the people who have helped shape it.

“Stephen Daldry is a filmmaker who is difficult to define in a single category. He started in theatre, created BILLY ELLIOT, THE HOURS and THE READER, worked on THE CROWN, and has created major productions and Broadway shows. This diversity is incredibly interesting to us. We want to show not only his best-known films, but also explore how one artist can move between different fields of art,” says Dorota Reksińska, founder and Head Programmer of the British Film Festival.

The full festival programme will be announced on 27 October at 2:00 PM.

Passes and tickets, including tickets for the meetings with Stephen Daldry, will go on sale on 29 October at 2:00 PM.

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