Early life

Asif Kapadia was born in 1972 in north London, to a Muslim British Indian family. He attended Newport Film School (formerly part of the University of Wales, Newport, now the University of South Wales), achieved a first-class degree (BA Hons) in Film, TV and Photographic Arts from the University of Westminster and an MA (RCA) in Directing for Film and TV at the Royal College of Art.

Career

Kapadia's first feature film, The Warrior, was shot in the Himalayas and the deserts of Rajasthan. The film caught the attention of The Arts Foundation who in 2001 awarded him a fellowship in Film Directing. Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian described The Warrior as possessing "mighty breadth" and "shimmering beauty"; the film was nominated for three BAFTA awards, winning two: the Alexander Korda Award for the outstanding British Film of the Year 2003 and The Carl Foreman Award for Special Achievement by a Director, Screenwriter or Producer in their First Feature. The Warrior also won the Grand Prix at the Dinard Film Festival, the Sutherland Award at the London Film Festival, the Evening Standard British Film Awards for the Most Promising Newcomer and the Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Film. In 2003

Far North premiered at the Venice Film Festival, based on a dark short story by Sara Maitland. Kapadia used the brutal arctic landscape to show how desperation and loneliness drives a woman to harm the person she loves. Kapadia's fourth feature, Senna, was the life story of Brazilian motor-racing champion, Ayrton Senna. Senna was the highest grossing British documentary of all time (£3.3m, $5.2m), the second highest grossing documentary of all time in the UK (behind Fahrenheit 9/11).

Kapadia's most recent film Amy is a documentary that depicts the life and death of British singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse. The film was released on 3 July 2015 in the United Kingdom, New York and Los Angeles, and worldwide on 10 July. The film has been described as "heartbreaking", "awe-inspiring", "unmissable", "the best documentary of the year" and "a tragic masterpiece". The film has received 5 out of 5 ratings when it was reviewed at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival in May. The film has become the second highest grossing documentary of all time in the United Kingdom, overtaking Kapadia's 2010 movie Senna.

Kapadia is currently working on Supersonic, an Oasis documentary. The feature length film, which is due to reach cinemas this October, has been named after the Mancunian band's 1994 debut single, also titled Supersonic. Featuring up close and personal footage, as well as never before seen archive material and interviews with the band, the Oasis documentary reportedly follows them from the moment Liam and Noel Gallagher began making music together, to the legendary Knebworth gig.

Awards and nominations

List of awards and nominations
Year	Award / Film Festival	Category	Work	Result	Ref(s)
2011	British Independent Film Awards	Best British Documentary	Senna	Won
		Best British Independent Film		Nominated
		Best Technical Achievement		Nominated
	Sundance Film Festival	World Cinema Audience Award: Documentary		Won
	Satellite Awards	Best Documentary Film		Won
	Grierson Awards	Best Cinema Documentary		Nominated
	Los Angeles Film Festival	Audience Award for Best International Feature		Won
	Melbourne International Film Festival	Most Popular Documentary Award		Won
	Moscow International Film Festival	Audience Award		Won
	Adelaide Film Festival	Best Documentary - Audience Award		Won
2012	British Academy Film Awards	Best Documentary	Senna	Won
		Best Editing		Won
		Outstanding British Film		Nominated
	Producers Guild of America Awards	Documentary Feature		Nominated
	Writers Guild of America Awards	Documentary		Nominated
	London Film Critics Circle Awards	Documentary of the Year		Won
		Technical Achievement		Nominated
	Evening Standard British Film Awards	Best Documentary		Won
	Cinema Eye Honors	Outstanding Achievement in Editing		Won
		Outstanding Achievement in non-fiction Feature Filmmaking		Nominated
		Outstanding Achievement in an Original Music Score		Nominated
		Audience Choice Prize		Nominated
	FOCAL International Awards	Best Use of Footage in a Cinema Release		Won
		Best Use of Sports Footage		Won
		Special Award for the contribution to Archive Filmmaking Industry		Won
		Best Use of Footage in a Home Entertainment Release		Nominated
2015	Hollywood Film Awards	Best Documentary of the Year	Amy	Won
2016	British Academy Film Awards	Best Documentary	Amy	Won
		Outstanding British Film		Nominated
	Academy Awards	Best Documentary - Feature		Won

Filmography

• Indian Tales (1994)
• The Waiting Room (1996)
• Wild West (1996)
• The Sheep Thief (1997)
• The Warrior (2001)
• The Return (2006)
• Far North (2007)
• Senna (2010)
• Amy (2015)
• Ali and Nino (2015)
• Supersonic (Oasis Documentary) (2016)
• Earnhardt (TBA)
• Maradona (TBA)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]