HOME is delighted to announce that its annual British Screenwriters season will be dedicated to Manchester-born and educated Robert Bolt in January 2020. The acclaimed stage and screen writer initially made his name in theatre with his 1960 play about Sir Thomas More, A Man for All Seasons, before developing a powerful creative partnership with director David Lean, collaborating on epic works including Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Dr Zhivago (1965).
Curated by Andy Willis, HOME's Senior Visiting Curator: Film and Professor of Film Studies at the University of Salford, the season will screen three of Bolt’s award-winning collaborations with Lean: Lawrence of Arabia, recipient of seven Oscars in 1963 including Best Film and Best Director, with a Best Screenplay nomination for Bolt; Doctor Zhivago, which won Bolt his first Oscar and Golden Globe; and Ryan's Daughter (1970), a double Oscar-winning epic romance set against a backdrop of war and political turmoil. Also screening is the 1966 screen adaptation of Bolt's internationally successful stage play of the same name, A Man for All Seasons, with Paul Scofield reprising his West End and Broadway role as Sir Thomas More - for which he was awarded an Oscar - alongside a cast including Robert Shaw, Orson Welles, Vanessa Redgrave and John Hurt and directed by Hollywood veteran Fred Zinnemann (High Noon, From Here to Eternity). Rounding off the season is Bolt's final film, The Mission - the haunting, epic tale of a missionary in 18th-century South America starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons and directed by Roland Joffé - winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival as well as a final Golden Globe for Best Screenplay for Bolt.
