Sam Mendes

Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Film And Television (2017-2018)

The Humanitas Visiting Professorship in Film and Television is a unique initiative at the University of Oxford at the forefront of the serious study of contemporary film.

The Visiting Professorship in Film and Television has been made possible by the generous support of the Woodward Charitable Trust and is hosted by St Anne’s College, Oxford.

Sam Mendes’s work directing theatre and film spans 25 years.

In 1998 he directed his first film American Beauty, winning the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Picture, as well as the Golden Globe and Directors’ Guild Awards. He has since directed the Academy Award-winning Road to Perdition, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road, Away We Go, the BAFTA and Academy Award-winning Skyfall and most recently the latest Bond movie, Spectre.

In 2003 he founded Neal Street Productions with Pippa Harris and Caro Newling. Neal Street has produced the BAFTA award-winning television series Call the Midwife, The Hollow Crown and Penny Dreadful, Britannia and Informer; several movies including Things We Lost in the Fire, Stuart A Life Backwards and Starter for 10; and in the theatre the long-running Shrek The Musical and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Sam’s theatre career began in his early twenties. At 24 years old he became the first Artistic Director of the Minerva Theatre in Chichester. At 27 he founded the Donmar Warehouse in London, which he ran for ten years. It has become one of the world’s leading playhouses.

In 2009 he founded the Bridge Project, a transatlantic classical theatre company, for which he directed The Winter’s Tale, The Cherry Orchard, The Tempest, As You Like It and Richard III. His many theatre awards include: four Olivier Awards, two Tony Awards, five Evening Standard Awards, several Critics’ Choice Awards and the Hamburg Shakespeare Prize.

Other theatre includes:  For the Royal Shakespeare Company: Troilus and Cressida, Richard III, The Tempest and The Alchemist. For the National Theatre: The Sea, The Birthday Party, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Othello and King Lear. For the Royal Court The Ferryman. In the West End: The Cherry Orchard, London Assurance, Kean, Oliver! Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, On Broadway: Cabaret, The Blue Room, Gypsy and The Vertical Hour.

His next project is The Lehman Trilogy at the National Theatre in July 2018.

He was awarded a CBE in 2000 and a Directors’ Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.