Michael Kuhn

This year’s jury chair, Michael Kuhn was born in Nairobi, Kenya in 1949. After primary school he left to attend Dover College in England in 1962 and went on to Clare College Cambridge in 1968 to read Law.
He joined Polygram N.V (now part of Universal) in 1975 and in 1991 set up Polygram Filmed Entertainment, which made and distributed over 100 feature films and which between them won 14 Academy Awards. These films included Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill, Dead Man Walking, The Usual Suspects, Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels, Elizabeth, Trainspotting and Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert.
He was awarded the Michael Balcon Award for services to British Cinema in 1999.
Michael married Caroline in 1995 and has two sons. He returned to Britain in 1999, after being based in Los Angeles. He set up Qwerty Films in 1999 and secured finance to produce bigger budget movies and has investments in a music company, theatre and a film development joint venture with the Film Council. Qwerty Films has produced 6 features in its first 4 years of operation, including Stage Beauty, Kinsey and I Heart Huckabees. The Moguls, starring Jeff Bridges is scheduled for release early next year and they are currently in post-production on Severance, directed by Christopher Smith (Creep), and Alien Autopsy directed by Jonny Campbell and starring Declan Donnelly and Ant McPartlin (TVs Ant and Dec).
His book 100 Films and a Funeral was published in 2001. He was appointed Chair of the National Film and Television School in 2002.