Paul Laverty

Scottish screenwriter

Paul Laverty

Paul Laverty on the set of 'The Angels' Share' in 2011

Born| 1957 (age 66-67)

Calcutta, India

Occupation(s)| Screenwriter, lawyer

Paul Laverty (born 1957) is a screenwriter and lawyer best known for his screenplays for films directed by Ken Loach.

## Birth and early career[edit]

Paul Laverty was born in Calcutta, West Bengal, to an Irish mother and Scottish father. He was educated at All Souls' School in Wigtown where he grew up. He obtained a philosophy degree at the Gregorian University in Rome while studying for the priesthood at the Pontifical Scots College.[1] Thereafter he obtained a law degree at Strathclyde Law School, in Glasgow. During the mid-1980s, he travelled to Nicaragua and lived there for almost three years. He worked for a Nicaraguan domestic human rights organisation which provided hard evidence of human rights abuses during the war between the elected Nicaraguan Government (The Sandinistas) and the United States backed "Contras" in which the subject of human rights became highly contested. Every major human rights organisation including Amnesty and Americas Watch accused the US backed contras of systematic abuse against Nicaraguan civilians. He travelled to the war-zones and obtained corroborated eyewitness accounts which were passed on to international human rights organisations. He also travelled widely in El Salvador, during its civil war, and Guatemala, too. (His interests in Latin America affairs continued much later with long research trips to Chiapas in Mexico, and along the US-Mexican border concentrating on the city of Juárez.)

## Scriptwriting[edit]

After his time in Central America Laverty made contact with director Ken Loach for whom he wrote Carla's Song (1996), his first screenplay, which starred Robert Carlyle. For his acting in My Name is Joe (1998), Peter Mullan won the Best Actor award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. Bread and Roses (2000), detailing the experiences of migrant labour, was shot in Los Angeles, and featured Adrien Brody in a leading role. Laverty's next script, Sweet Sixteen (2002) won best screenplay award in the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.[2]

The two men collaborated on The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) which concerns Irish War of Independence in early 1920s. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. Laverty has written eight full-length feature scripts and one short directed by Ken Loach. Both work closely with producer Rebecca O'Brien. Loach's comedy featuring the French footballer Eric Cantona, Looking for Eric (2009), is a collaborative effort with Laverty, as is his film about mercenaries in Iraq, Route Irish (2010).[citation needed]

## Personal life[edit]

Laverty has been in a relationship with Spanish filmmaker and actress Icíar Bollaín since 1995, after meeting on the set of Ken Loach's Land and Freedom (1995).[3] The couple live in Edinburgh with their three children.[4][5]

## Filmography[edit]

* Carla's Song (1996)
* My Name is Joe (1998)
* Bread and Roses (2000)
* Sweet Sixteen (2002)
* 11'09"01 September 11 (2002) (UK Segment)
* Ae Fond Kiss... (2004)
* Tickets (2005)
* Cargo (2006)
* The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)
* It's a Free World... (2007)
* Looking for Eric (2009)
* Route Irish (2010)
* También la lluvia (2010)
* The Angels' Share (2012)
* Jimmy's Hall (2014)
* I, Daniel Blake (2016)
* The Olive Tree (2016)
* Yuli: The Carlos Acosta Story (2018)
* Sorry We Missed You (2019)
* The Old Oak (2023)

## References[edit]

1. ^ "MSC LATIN AMERICA". www.misacor.org.au. Archived from the original on 16 March 2017.
2. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Sweet Sixteen". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 25 October 2009.
3. ^ "Icíar Bollaín:"Tengo una pareja que concilia conmigo al cien por cien"". mujerhoy.com. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
4. ^ "Elle España - Revista de moda, belleza, tendencias y celebrities". ELLE. Archived from the original on 18 February 2017. Retrieved 12 September 2018.
5. ^ McIver, Brian (2 June 2014). "Ken Loach's sidekick Paul Laverty reveals latest film Jimmy's Hall could be their last movie together". dailyrecord.co.uk. Retrieved 12 September 2018.

## External links[edit]

* Paul Laverty at IMDb
* Paul Laverty Interview on The Señales de Humo

Awards for Paul Laverty

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BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film

1940s

* Odd Man Out – Carol Reed (1947)
* The Fallen Idol – Carol Reed (1948)
* The Third Man – Carol Reed (1949)

1950s

* The Blue Lamp – Basil Dearden and Michael Balcon (1950)
* The Lavender Hill Mob – Charles Crichton and Michael Balcon (1951)
* The Sound Barrier – David Lean (1952)
* Genevieve – Henry Cornelius (1953)
* Hobson's Choice – David Lean (1954)
* Richard III – Laurence Olivier (1955)
* Reach for the Sky – Lewis Gilbert and Daniel M. Angel (1956)
* The Bridge on the River Kwai – David Lean and Sam Spiegel (1957)
* Room at the Top – Jack Clayton, John and James Woolf (1958)
* Sapphire – Basil Dearden and Michael Relph (1959)

1960s

* Saturday Night and Sunday Morning – Karel Reisz and Tony Richardson (1960)
* A Taste of Honey – Tony Richardson (1961)
* Lawrence of Arabia – David Lean and Sam Spiegel (1962)
* Tom Jones – Tony Richardson (1963)
* Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb – Stanley Kubrick (1964)
* The Ipcress File – Sidney J. Furie and Harry Saltzman (1965)
* The Spy Who Came In from the Cold – Martin Ritt (1966)
* A Man for All Seasons – Fred Zinnemann (1967)

1990s

* The Crying Game – Neil Jordan and Stephen Woolley (1992)
* Shadowlands – Richard Attenborough and Brian Eastman (1993)
* Shallow Grave – Danny Boyle and Andrew MacDonald (1994)
* The Madness of King George – Nicholas Hytner, Stephen Evans, and David Parfitt (1995)
* Secrets & Lies – Mike Leigh and Simon Channing Williams (1996)
* Nil by Mouth – Gary Oldman, Luc Besson, and Douglas Urbanski (1997)
* Elizabeth – Shekhar Kapur, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Alison Owen (1998)
* East Is East – Damien O'Donnell and Leslee Udwin (1999)

2000s

* Billy Elliot – Stephen Daldry, Greg Brenman, and Jon Finn (2000)
* Gosford Park – Robert Altman, Bob Balaban, and David Levy (2001)
* The Warrior – Asif Kapadia and Bertrand Faivre (2002)
* Touching the Void – Kevin Macdonald and John Smithson (2003)
* My Summer of Love – Paweł Pawlikowski, Chris Collins, and Tanya Seghatchian (2004)
* Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit – Steve Box, Nick Park, Bob Baker, Claire Jennings, and David Sproxton (2005)
* The Last King of Scotland – Kevin Macdonald, Lisa Bryer, Andrea Calderwood, Peter Morgan, and Charles Steel (2006)
* This Is England – Shane Meadows and Mark Herbert (2007)
* Man on Wire – James Marsh and Simon Chinn (2008)
* Fish Tank – Andrea Arnold, Kees Kasander, and Nick Laws (2009)

2010s

* The King's Speech – Tom Hooper, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, and Gareth Unwin (2010)
* Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Tomas Alfredson, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Bridget O'Connor, Robyn Slovo, and Peter Straughan (2011)
* Skyfall – Sam Mendes, Barbara Broccoli, John Logan, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, and Michael G. Wilson (2012)
* Gravity – Alfonso Cuarón, Jonás Cuarón, and David Heyman (2013)
* The Theory of Everything – James Marsh, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, and Anthony McCarten (2014)
* Brooklyn – John Crowley, Finola Dwyer, Nick Hornby, and Amanda Posey (2015)
* I, Daniel Blake – Ken Loach, Paul Laverty, and Rebecca O'Brien (2016)
* Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, and Peter Czernin (2017)
* The Favourite – Yorgos Lanthimos, Deborah Davis, Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday, and Tony McNamara (2018)
* 1917 – Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, Callum McDougall, Jayne-Ann Tenggren, and Krysty Wilson-Cairns (2019)

2020s

* Promising Young Woman – Emerald Fennell, Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, and Josey McNamara (2020)
* Belfast – Kenneth Branagh, Laura Berwick, Becca Kovacik, and Tamar Thomas (2021)
* The Banshees of Inisherin – Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, and Peter Czernin (2022)
* The Zone of Interest \- Jonathan Glazer, James Wilson, and Ewa Puszczyńska (2023)

* v
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Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay

1949–2000|

* Alfred L. Werker, Eugene Ling & Virginia Shaler (1949)
* Terence Rattigan (1951)
* Piero Tellini (1952)
* Pier Paolo Pasolini, Massimo Franciosa & Pasquale Festa Campanile (1958)
* Dumitru Carabat, Henri Colpi & Yves Jamiaque (1963)
* Ray Rigby / Pierre Schoendoerffer (1965)
* Alain Jessua / Elio Petri (1967)
* Steven Spielberg, Hal Barwood & Matthew Robbins (1974)
* Furio Scarpelli, Agenore Incrocci & Ettore Scola (1980)
* István Szabó (1981)
* Jerzy Skolimowski (1982)
* Thanassis Valtinos, Theo Angelopoulos & Tonino Guerra (1984)
* Michel Blanc (1994)
* Jacques Audiard & France Alain Le Henry (1996)
* James Schamus (1997)
* Hal Hartley (1998)
* Yuri Arabov (1999)
* James Flamberg & John C. Richards (2000)

2001–present|

* Danis Tanović (2001)
* Paul Laverty (2002)
* Denys Arcand (2003)
* Agnès Jaoui & Jean-Pierre Bacri (2004)
* Guillermo Arriaga (2005)
* Pedro Almodóvar (2006)
* Fatih Akin (2007)
* Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne (2008)
* Mei Feng (2009)
* Lee Chang-dong (2010)
* Joseph Cedar (2011)
* Cristian Mungiu & Tatiana Niculescu Bran (2012)
* Jia Zhangke (2013)
* Andrey Zvyagintsev & Oleg Negin (2014)
* Michel Franco (2015)
* Asghar Farhadi (2016)
* Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthymis Filippou / Lynne Ramsay (2017)
* Jafar Panahi & Nader Saeivar / Alice Rohrwacher (2018)
* Céline Sciamma (2019)
* Ryusuke Hamaguchi & Takamasa Oe (2021)
* Tarik Saleh (2022)
* Yuji Sakamoto (2023)

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