University of Manchester educated Roland Joffé is a director who has two Academy Award nominations to his name already. His career had a humble beginning as a trainee director on the British soap opera Coronation Street in 1973. After four years of working on various TV programmes, Roland got his break when a BBC producer insisted it was Joffé that direct his television play The Spongers (1978). His work on it helped the programme win the prestigious Prix Italia Award.

Six years later, Roland was offered the chance to direct the 1984 film The Killing Fields. His exceptional work on the film about a journalist in Cambodia during Pol Pot’s cleansing campaign earned him the most prestigious of nominations, an Academy Award nod. Not only that, Roland also earnt himself a Golden Globe nomination as well as a BAFTA nomination for Best Director.

Roland’s next feature film, The Mission (1986), earnt him yet another array of award nominations, including another Academy Award nod. The film, a story of 18th century Spanish Jesuits that try to protect a South African tribe from pro-slavery, starred Oscar-Winning actors Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, and Oscar Nominee Liam Neeson.

Since then, Roland has continued to make a variety of films, including an adaptation of the Nathaniel Hawthorne novel The Scarlet Letter. There Be Dragons (2011) garnered a lot of press attention for Joffé due to the topical nature of its content. Roland’s most recent film, The Forgiven (2017), starred Oscar-Winning actor Forest Whitaker and Eric Bana.

Roland counts double Oscar-Winner Robert De Niro as a close friend, having known each other since they worked together on one of Roland’s projects.