Transatlantic: Directors in Conversation with Janicza Bravo (ZOLA), Emerald Fennell (PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN), & more

Wendy Mitchell is a seasoned writer/editor who specializes in entertainment coverage for online and print publications. She also consults for film festivals including San Sebastian, Rotterdam, Zurich, Connext, Goteborg, and more. Wendy has moderated many panels, Q&As and masterclasses with filmmakers, actors and industry executives. Her latest book Citizen Canine: Dog in the Movies was published in February 2020 by Laurence King (UK) and Chronicle (US).

Justin Simien is a writer, director, and producer of both television and film based in Los Angeles, California. In 2014 he wrote and directed his first feature film, the critically acclaimed Indie Dear White People, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. After being called “timely and important” by critics and audiences alike, the project won him the Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Talent and was picked up by Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions.

After the theatrical release of Dear White People in the Fall of 2014, Simien was awarded Best First Screenplay and nominated for Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards. The film also earned him a nomination for the Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award at that year’s Gotham Awards, along with a nomination for the Audience Award. Actress Tessa Thompson also garnered a Breakthrough Actor win at the Gotham Awards for her leading performance as the fearless and controversial Sam White. Simien was included in Variety’s “10 Directors to Watch” roundup for that year.

Simien adapted Dear White People into a series for streaming giant Netflix, which debut in 2017, with many of the original cast returning to continue the story. The show, which recently debuted its second season, remains at a coveted and rare 100% on Rotten Tomatoes for both the first & second seasons.

Simien’s next project will be writing and directing his second feature length film entitled Bad Hair. Paralleling the rise of New Jack Swing in 1989, Bad Hair is a horror satire that follows an ambitious young woman who gets a weave in order to survive the image obsessed world of music television. Her professional success comes at a higher cost than anticipated, however, when she discovers her new hair may have a mind of its own…

Janicza Bravo directs theater, film, and TV. She directed the 2017 feature-length dark comedy Lemon, starring her husband Brett Gellman, Michael Cera, Judy Greer, Marcia Gibbs, and Nia Long. She has also directed episodes of Atlanta and Dear White People. Her latest film Zola, starring Taylour Paige, based on the 2015 viral Twitter story about two strippers’ misadventures in Florida, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival.

Emerald Fennell is an Academy Award®, Golden Globe®, Emmy®, DGA, PGA and WGA nominated writer, director, actress and author who has established herself as a prolific multihyphenate in film, television and theatre.

She is gearing up for the release of her highly anticipated comedy-drama thriller, SALTBURN, which she wrote, directed and produced with LuckyChap Entertainment and MRC and stars Rosamund Pike, Jacob Elordi and Barry Keoghan. The film follows student Oliver Quick (Keoghan), struggling to find his place at Oxford University, as finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton (Elordi), who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family’s sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten. SALTBURN will release in theaters on November 17.

Fennell’s feature directorial and screenplay debut, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, which she also produced, was released in theaters December 25, 2020 from Focus Features. The film stars Carey Mulligan, who received a Best Actress Academy Award® nomination for her role, and was a breakout success out of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Fennell’s feminist, timely take on the revenge genre was recognized as one of the top scripts of the 2018 Blacklist. She was later nominated for three Academy Awards®, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won for Best Original Screenplay, received two Golden Globe® nominations for Best Screenplay and Best Director, six BAFTA nominations including Best Film, Outstanding British Film and Original Screenplay, as well as DGA, PGA and WGA nominations and won two Film Independent Spirit Awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay.

Most recently, Fennell wrote the contemporary musical stage version of CINDERELLA alongside Andrew Lloyd Webber, which debuted in 2021 at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in London’s West End. The show continued its run on Broadway in March of 2023 under the name BAD CINDERELLA at the Imperial Theatre in New York.

Her debut short, CAREFUL HOW YOU GO, which she wrote and directed, premiered at Sundance in 2019. She also served as the showrunner on Season 2 of KILLING EVE, for which she was nominated for two Emmys® and the show was nominated for a Golden Globe®.

In front of the camera, she can be seen alongside Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling in Greta Gerwig’s BARBIE releasing on July 21, 2023 from Warner Bros. Fennell starred in Seasons 3 and 4 of Netflix’s award-winning drama series, THE CROWN, playing Camilla Parker Bowles, for which she has received rave reviews, an Emmy® nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series, and the series won the SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Other recent on-camera film credits include THE DANISH GIRL, PAN and ANNA KARENINA.

Off screen, Fennell has published three novels: SHIVERTON HALL along with the sequel, THE CREEPER and MONSTERS (2017 Carnegie Medal nominee), all of which were incredibly well-received and drew comparisons ranging from Roald Dahl to Bret Easton Ellis. 

Romola Garai is an English actress-writer-director who has worked extensively in film, television and theatre. As an actress she is known for her performances in films such as Atonement (2007), Angel (2007), I Capture the Castle (2003) and Suffragette. In television, her work includes her BAFTA-nominated performance in The Crimson Petal and the White (2011), The Hour (2012), Born to Kill (2017) and The Miniaturist (2017). As a director her work includes the Sundance Best International Short Film nominated Scrubber. Her debut feature, the horror film Amulet, premiered in the Midnight Madness section at Sundance 2020.

Julie Taymor is an award-winning theater, opera, and film director best known for being the first woman to win a Tony Award for directing a Broadway Musical: The Lion King. After college, she spent a year studying puppetry in Eastern Europe, Indonesia, and Japan and spent four years in Java. Returning to the United States, her career took off quickly. Her theater and opera credits include: The Haggadah (1980), Liberty’s Taken (1985), The Tempest (1986), The Magic Flute (1993), The Flying Dutchman (1995), The Lion King (1997), Grounded (2015), M. Butterfly (2017). Her film credits include: Titus (1999), Frida (2002). Across the Universe (2007), and The Glorias (2020). Taymor has received dozens of awards in addition to her Tony, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship.