Wildgaze Films is one of the UK’s leading independent film production companies, with a distinguished track record of producing high-quality films. It is a small company with a dedicated and passionate team, headed up by double Oscar-nominated and BAFTA-award-winning producers Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey (for Brooklyn and An Education).
Wildgaze’s most recent film, Dirt Music, premiered at TIFF in September 2019. Developed and financed by Film4, and adapted by Jack Thorne from Tim Winton’s iconic Booker-nominated Australian novel, Dirt Music is a grown-up love story, set against the evocative landscape of Western Australia. The film is directed by Gregor Jordan, and stars Kelly Macdonald, Garrett Hedlund and David Wenham.
Wildgaze’s previous productions include Our Souls At Night, a film for Netflix co-produced by Wildgaze and Robert Redford’s Wildwood Enterprises. Produced by Dwyer and Redford and directed by Ritesh Batra, the film stars Redford and Jane Fonda and received its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September 2017, and is currently available on Netflix internationally. We are executive producers on VS., a feature debut co-written and directed by Ed Lilly, produced by Bennett McGhee, which received its World Premiere at the London Film Festival in October 2018 before Altitude released it across the UK later that month.
Their Finest reunited Finola and Amanda with director Lone Scherfig, and premiered at TIFF in September 2016, followed by the Mayor of London’s Gala Screening at the London Film Festival 2016 and Sundance 2017. Their Finest was adapted for the screen by Gaby Chiappe from Lissa Evan’s novel ‘Their Finest Hour & A Half’ and features a stellar cast led by Gemma Arterton, Bill Nighy and Sam Claflin. It was released in April 2017 by Lionsgate in the UK and STX in the US.
Brooklyn was released in 2015 by Fox Searchlight in the US, and was a critical and box office success, taking $63m worldwide. It was nominated for three Oscars® – Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay – making Academy history with Finola and Amanda being the first female producing duo to have two Best Picture nominations, with their first being for An Education in 2010. The film also received six BAFTA nominations, winning the Outstanding British Film BAFTA. Based on Colm Toibin’s award-winning novel of the same name, adapted for the screen by Nick Hornby and directed by John Crowley, the film starred Saoirse Ronan with Domhnall Gleeson, Emory Cohen, Julie Walters and Jim Broadbent.
Wildgaze’s feature documentary My Nazi Legacy (known as What Our Fathers Did: A Nazi Legacy in the US) premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York in April 2015 to outstanding reviews. Made in association with the BFI and BBC Storyville, the documentary followed international human rights lawyer Philippe Sands as he explored the family background of two sons of senior Nazis and the legacy of their fathers’ actions in WW2. It was released by Altitude in the UK and Oscilloscope in the US in November 2015.
Among their other producing credits are An Education, directed by Lone Scherfig and starring Carey Mulligan in her breakout role, which was nominated for 3 Academy Awards (including Best Film), 9 BAFTAs (including Best Film and Best British Film, winning Best Actress), and winner of Best Foreign Film at the Independent Spirit Awards; A Long Way Down based on the best-selling novel by Nick Hornby, adapted by Jack Thorne, directed by Pascal Chaumeil and starring Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette, Aaron Paul & Imogen Poots; and Dustin Hoffman’s directorial debut Quartet, written by Ronald Harwood, starring Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connelly & Pauline Collins. Quartet was produced by Finola under her Finola Dwyer Productions Ltd banner.
Earlier personal producing highlights for Finola include Backbeat (1994), Me Without You (2001), and Tsunami: The Aftermath (2005), and for Amanda, Fever Pitch (1997) starring Colin Firth, and the US remake (2005) starring Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon.
In 2013, Wildgaze were among the select few companies to be awarded the first BFI Vision Award, giving the company creative autonomy to acquire and develop projects.
Finola and Amanda spearheaded The Story Works 2010/2011, an innovative screenwriting initiative for ten British writers to take their craft to the next level. Run in conjunction with script editor Kate Leys and the Edinburgh International Film Festival, supported by Skillset and Soho House, the scheme opened the writers up to filmmaking processes through mentors and masterclasses. Speakers and mentors included Jane Campion, Ronald Harwood, Paul Greengrass, David Mamet, Christopher Hampton, John Madden, Will Davies, John Mathieson and Pietro Scalia.
Wildgaze have a number of film and television projects in development.