Nationality Scottish Organization Sigma Films | Occupation Film Producer | |
Castings directed Ratcatcher, My Name Is Joe Movies Perfect Sense, Starred Up, Mister Foe, You Instead, Donkeys Similar Jonathan Asser, Malte Grunert, David Mackenzie, Giles Nuttgens, Sisse Graum Jørgensen | ||
Gillian Berrie is a film producer and co-founder of the Glasgow-based production company Sigma Films with director David Mackenzie.
Berrie also founded Film City Glasgow, the state-of-the-art creative cluster for production, picture and sound post which spearheads independent production in Scotland.
She also created the hugely successful Jumpcut project which is dedicated to giving young and underprivileged people access to working in the film industry through a pop-up film school that creates an intensive, mentor-lead fast track into the industry for those without any chance of access. Jumpcut's films regularly compete internationally. The project is widely regarded as a runaway success.
Career
When starting out, Berrie worked on numerous no budget / low budget productions in many different capacities. Alongside, she wrote and produced David Mackenzie's California Sunshine (1997) and Somersault (2000), both multi-award winning shorts. She then went on to work as a casting director on Ken Loach's My Name is Joe (1998) and Lynne Ramsay's Ratcatcher (1999) and in production on Ken Loach's Carla's Song (1996) and Peter Mullan's Orphans (1998), amongst others.
Berrie then embarked on developing and producing numerous feature projects beginning with David Mackenzie's The Last Great Wilderness (2002) which was co-produced by Zentropa and premiered in Toronto in 2002.
Over the next two years Berrie received producer credits on 3 films including Lone Scherfig's Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002), Lars von Trier's Dogville (2003) and David Mackenzie's Young Adam (2003). The latter two were regarded as groundbreaking, both premiering at Cannes in the same year and going on to win awards around the world. In 2004, Berrie co-produced Shona Auerbach's Dear Frankie starring Emily Mortimer and Gerard Butler. It premiered at Tribeca Film Festival and competed in Un Certain Regard at Cannes. Berrie continued nurturing the relationship with Zentropa by co-producing the likes of Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself (2002), Dogville (2003), Brothers (2004), Dear Wendy (2004), Manderlay (2005) and After the Wedding (2006). This collaboration has received numerous plaudits from critics with awards and recognition from all over the world including BAFTA, Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Awards.
Together with Zentropa's Sisse Graum Jorgensen and Lars von Trier, Berrie developed the Advance Party Project which was specifically designed to give directors their first break at feature film level. It produced Andrea Arnold's Cannes-Jury-Prize-winning debut Red Road (2006) and Morag McKinnon's BAFTA-Scotland-winning Donkeys (2010).
Berrie and Mackenzie's second feature film collaboration was Hallam Foe (2007), starring Jamie Bell and Sophia Myles. It won many awards including a Silver Bear in Berlin 2007, the Golden Hitchcock and Kodak Award at the Dinard Festival of British Cinema 2007, and the 2008 National Board of Review Award for Top Independent Film, as well as numerous other nominations including for Bell and Myles' performances.
Berrie and Zentropa collaborated again to make David Mackenzie's sixth feature film, sci-fi romance Perfect Sense (2011) with Ewan McGregor and Eva Green. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011 and picked up numerous awards at film festivals around the world including Edinburgh, Bratislava and Philadelphia International Film Festivals.
Immediately afterwards Berrie produced the Mackenzie directed the comedy musical You Instead (2011) [released as Tonight You’re Mine in the US]. Remarkably it was filmed over four and a half days at the Scottish music festival T in the Park in 2010 where the cast and crew had to adopt a kind of guerrilla filmmaking approach to shoot amidst the chaos of a music festival alongside over 100,000 revellers. It sold to numerous territories throughout the world and premiered at both T in the Park in 2011 and at Austin's SXSW.
Next, Berrie produced Mackenzie's Starred Up (2013), starring Jack O'Connell, Ben Mendelsohn and Rupert Friend. The story is based on writer Jonathan Asser's real-life experiences as a voluntary therapist in a London prison. The film was critically acclaimed and won numerous awards including the BAFTA Scotland 2014 Best Film and Best Director Awards, seven BIFA nominations and holds a remarkable 99% Rotten Tomatoes score.
Berrie also co-produced Jonathan Glazer's highly regarded Under the Skin (2013) starring Scarlett Johansson. It had its World Premiere at Telluride at the same time as Starred Up, then played Venice Film Festival and has since picked up over 20 awards and 90 nominations internationally.
In late 2016, Berrie EP'd on TV pilot Damnation for the USA Network, directed by Mackenzie. Described as an epic saga of the secret history of the 1930s American heartland, it chronicles the mythic conflict and bloody struggle between big money and the downtrodden, God and greed, charlatans and prophets.
Berrie's company, Sigma Films, regularly produces the debut features of first-time directors including Andrea Arnold (Red Road), Morag MacKinnon (Donkeys), Ciarán Foy (Citadel), Colin Kennedy (Swung) and Robert Carlyle (The Legend of Barney Thomson).
In 2002, Berrie received the BAFTA Scotland Outstanding Contribution Award for her achievements in the Scottish film industry.
In 2014, Berrie received an honorary doctorate from the University of the West of Scotland for her contribution to film, culture and the arts.