Georgia Oakley | |
|---|---|
| Born | Georgia Alice Nancy Oakley 31 July 1988 Basingstoke, England |
| Alma mater | Newcastle University |
| Years active | 2012–present |
| Children | 1 |
Georgia Alice Nancy Oakley (born 31 July 1988) is an English director and screenwriter. Her debut feature film Blue Jean (2022) earned her a number of accolades, including a British Academy Film Award nomination and a British Independent Film Award.
Oakley was born in Basingstoke [1] and grew up in a Conservative town in the Oxfordshire countryside. [2] [3] Oakley completed school in 2006, three years after Section 28 was repealed, though she did not realise this until later. [4] She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in English Literature from Newcastle University in 2010. [5]
Oakley has a background in theatre [2] and began her career as an in-house director at Channel 4 and Irresistible Films, directing a piece for the 2012 Random Acts campaign [6] and the short films Hush, Frayed and Callow & Sons. She also started submitting her short films to festivals. [7] Frayed, written by Ayesha Antoine, was selected for a number of them, including the London Short Film Festival and the New York Film Festival. [8]
Her short film Little Bird, written by Emily Taaffe set in World War II Britain, premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival. Taaffe starred in the short opposite Imelda Staunton. [9] [10] She co-directed We Did Not Fall from the Sky with Tabs Breese [11] and directed Coral Amiga and Nicole Hartley's Bored, part of the SXSW Episodic Pilot showcase. [12]
After pitching ideas to the BBC, [13] Oakley started working on her debut feature film about Section 28 around its 30th anniversary in 2018. [14] The film takes place at a 1988 Newcastle girls private school and stars Rosy McEwen as a lesbian gym teacher Jean, who navigates hiding her personal life at work. [15] Oakley interviewed lesbian PE teachers with similar experiences on which to base the film and members the Newcastle LGBT+ community. [16] Two of these sources were Catherine Lee of Anglia Ruskin University and the television presenter Huffty. [17] [4]
The film titled Blue Jean premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival in September 2022, where it won the People's Choice Award. [18] This was followed by further festivals and a theatrical release in 2023. [19] [20] Blue Jean was nominated for the British Academy Film Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer [21] as well as several British Independent Film Awards; Oakley won Best Debut Screenwriter. [22]
Oakley will next direct an adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility written by Diana Reid and starring Daisy Edgar-Jones. [23] [24]
Oakley is primarily influenced by French and Hispanic cinema, naming Lucrecia Martel's La ciénaga (2001) and Céline Sciamma's Water Lilies (2007) and Tomboy (2011) as examples. [7] Other influences include Agnès Varda's Le Bonheur (1965), Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), Joanna Hogg's The Souvenir (2019) as well as Chantal Akerman and Kelly Reichardt. [2] [25] [26] She and cinematographer Victor Seguin used 16 mm film to shoot Blue Jean. [15]
Oakley came out in her mid 20s and moved to East London. [16] She has a stepdaughter. [7] [27]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Hush | Yes | Yes | Short film |
| 2013 | Frayed | Yes | No | Short film |
| 2014 | Callow & Sons | Yes | Yes | Short film |
| 2017 | Little Bird | Yes | No | Short film |
| 2018 | We Did Not Fall from the Sky | Co-director | No | Short film |
| 2019 | Bored | Yes | No | Pilot |
| 2022 | Blue Jean | Yes | Yes | |
| TBA | Sense and Sensibility | Yes | No | |
