#100: Rose Garnett, Director of BBC Film

Best Girl Grip

My guest this week is Rose Garnett, the Director of BBC Film. Since joining the BBC in 2017, Rose has commissioned and Executive Produced a wide range of titles including…

• Joanna Hogg’s THE SOUVENIR and THE SOUVENIR: PART II
• Eliza Hittman’s NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS
• Sean Durkin’s THE NEST
• Steve McQueen’s SMALL AXE
• Jane Campion’s THE POWER OF THE DOG
• Debbie Tucker Green’s EAR FOR EYE

...among many others and is passionate about backing new and emerging filmmakers. Rose was also an EP on BBC Three’s smash hit adaptation of Sally Rooney’s NORMAL PEOPLE, produced by Element Pictures.

After graduating from Cambridge University, Rose worked in theatre before freelancing as a script editor and producer. Then she joined Film4 where she would become Head of Creative. Whilst there, Rose developed and executive produced an array of recent successful UK films, including Yorgos Lanthimos’s THE FAVOURITE, Martin McDonagh’s THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING MISSOURI, Steve McQueen’s WIDOWS, Lenny Abrahamson’s ROOM, Lynne Ramsay’s YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE and Andrea Arnold’s AMERICAN HONEY.

It was an immense pleasure to talk to Rose about a surfeit of topics, from how theatre prepared her for a career in film, what she learned working at Film4, what it means to be a director of a public funder and the considerations that come into play in making that organisation accountable, accessible, inclusive and supportive to what success look like and how she and the BBC Film team back filmmakers. Unsurprisingly, Rose had a lot of wisdom that she was generous enough to share and I know that this is an interview I will be returning to time and time again.

Please note that this was recorded remotely over Zoom and there are some occasional audio glitches.

This is episode 100 of Best Girl Grip.