About Rebecca O’Brien
Rebecca O’Brien has been an independent film producer for nearly thirty years and runs the British production company, Sixteen Films with Ken Loach and, as associate director, writer Paul Laverty.
She has produced sixteen feature films directed by Ken Loach, including “Land and Freedom” (Best Film EFA 1995), “My Name is Joe” and “Looking for Eric”. In 2006 “The Wind that Shakes the Barley” won the Palme d’Or in Cannes. “The Angels’ Share” won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2012. Her new Ken Loach/Paul Laverty project “I, Daniel Blake” also launched in competition in Cannes and won the team their second Palme d’Or last year.
She has also produced a number of other films including “Bean” (1996), “Princesa” (2001) and “City of Tiny Lights” directed by Pete Travis which launched last year at the Toronto and London Film Festivals. Her feature documentary about Ken Loach’s career, “Versus: the Life and Films of Ken Loach”, directed by Louise Osmond, was released in the UK in 2016. She has also just released an interactive online project called “How to Make a Ken Loach Film” which is supported by Arte. (www.howtomakeakenloachfilm.com/en).
She is currently on the boards of the British producers’ organization PACT and the European Film Academy and is a member of the British Screen Advisory Council.