Rebecca O'Brien (born 25 October 1957) is a

BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

-winning film producer, known especially for her work with co-producer

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a retiredhttps://variety.com/2024/film/global/ken-loach-retirement-the-old-oak-jonathan-glazer-oscars-speech-1235956589/ English filmmaker. His socially critical directing style and socialist views ar ...

and scriptwriter Paul Laverty. She has twice been the recipient of the

Palme d'Or The (; ) is the highest prize awarded to the director of the Best Feature Film of the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festiv ...

award at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

. She has also won a

BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film The BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film is a film award given annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and presented at the British Academy Film Awards. The award was first given at the 1st British Academy Film Awards, fi ...

Early life

O'Brien was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, England and raised in the town of

Peebles Peebles () is a town in the Scottish Borders, Scotland. It was historically a royal burgh and the county town of Peeblesshire. According to the United Kingdom census, 2011, 2011 census, the population was 8,376 and the estimated population in ...

in Scotland.

Career

Her career began in theatre and children's television and her early cinema work includes '' My Beautiful Laundrette'' (1985), on which she was

location manager The location manager is a member of the film crew responsible for finding and securing locations to be used, obtaining all fire, police and other governmental permits, and coordinating the logistics for the production to complete its work. They a ...

, and ''

Bean A bean is the seed of some plants in the legume family (Fabaceae) used as a vegetable for human consumption or animal feed. The seeds are often preserved through drying (a ''pulse''), but fresh beans are also sold. Dried beans are traditi ...

'' (1997), which she co-produced. She was co-producer on Ken Loach's '' Hidden Agenda'' (1990) and sole producer on his '' Land and Freedom'' (1995) and on many of his subsequent films. Together with Loach and scriptwriter

Paul Laverty Paul Laverty (born 1 April 1957) is an Indian-born Scottish and Irish screenwriter and lawyer best known for his collaborations with Ken Loach. Birth and early career Paul Laverty was born in Calcutta, West Bengal, to an Irish mother and Scot ...

, she runs the production company Sixteen Films, formed in 2002. Two of O'Brien and Loach's films, '' The Wind That Shakes the Barley'' (2006) and '' I, Daniel Blake'' (2016) received the

award at the

. Laverty, Loach and O'Brien received an "outstanding contribution" award from BAFTA Scotland in November 2016 and the trio won the 2017

, for ''I, Daniel Blake''.

Leadership roles

O'Brien served as a member of the board of the

UK Film Council The UK Film Council (UKFC) was a non-departmental public body set up in 2000 to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a private company limited by guarantee, owned by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and ...

, until that body's dissolution in 2010, and of the UK Film Industry Training Board. She is a board member of PACT, the trade body for independent film production companies in the United Kingdom, and of the

European Film Academy The European Film Academy is a group of European film director, filmmakers who come together in Berlin on the occasion of the first presentation of the European Film Awards in November 1988. Every year, the European Film Academy honors films an ...

. She is also a member of The British Screen Advisory Council.

Filmography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

* * *
2012 interview
with the Highlands of Scotland Film Commission
Cannes Winner Ken Loach’s Producer Rebecca O’Brien on Their 30-Year Film Partnership
' - 2016 interview with ' Variety' {{DEFAULTSORT:OBrien, Rebecca British film producers British women film producers 1957 births Living people Businesspeople from London BAFTA winners (people) People from Peebles