Finola Dwyer

Finola Dwyer is an Oscar nominated and BAFTA award winning film and television producer. She runs Wildgaze Films with her producing partner, Amanda Posey.
 
Finola moved to the UK in the early 1990s after having started her career in New Zealand, where she was born. She entered the industry as a film editor, and since turning to producing her feature film credits include Queen City Rocker, Starlight Hotel, which enjoyed great critical acclaim in the US, A Soldier’s Tale with Gabriel Byrne, and producer of the highly acclaimed three-part drama series, The Shadow Trader. Finola produced and conceived the award-winning documentary Raglan by the Sea, which was the inspiration for the top rated documentary series in New Zealand, Heartland. She also conceived one of the most successful chat shows in New Zealand, McCormick Country. She is a former board member of the New Zealand Film Commission.
 
Her first film in the UK was Iain Softley’s BAFTA-winning debut Backbeat. She followed this up with Stephan Elliott’s cult favourite Welcome to Woop Woop; Chris Menges’ The Lost Son, starring Daniel Auteuil and Nastassja Kinski; Sandra Goldbacher’s award-winning and BAFTA-nominated Me Without You, starring Michelle Williams and Anna Friel; Antonia Bird’s EMMY-nominated The Hamburg Cell; Stephen Woolley’s feature debut Stoned; and Golden Globe, EMMY-nominated and BAFTA-winning Tsunami: The Aftermath by Abi Morgan, directed by Bharat Nalluri, starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tim Roth, Sophie Okonedo and Toni Collette which Finola produced for HBO/BBC through Kudos. Finola made her theatre producing debut with ‘Elling’, starring John Simm. The sell-out West End run culminated in a Best New Comedy award and Olivier Award nominations including Best Actor. The Broadway production starred Brendan Fraser and Denis O’Hare.
 
Finola was the Jury President for the Best British Newcomer award at the BFI London Film Festival Awards 2014. She is the former Chair of the BAFTA Film Committee, a BAFTA Trustee and sat on the jury for consecutive Carl Foreman awards and chaired the Orange Rising Star Award. Finola also participated in leading HIV charity Body & Soul’s ‘Life In My Shoes’ project. She has regularly chaired and participated in Script Factory events; chaired the BAFTA/Rocliffe New Writing Forum, and was formerly an advisor to Screen East. In 2012, Finola was voted amongst the top 50 influential women in the UK film industry by WFTV.