To kick off YDA week, co-editor of shots magazine, Danny Edwards finds out six things about director Lenny Abrahamson.

After abandoning a PHD in philosophy at Stanford University, Lenny returned to his home country of Ireland to take up filmmaking.

He started out in commercial film, notably directing a popular series of adverts for Carlsberg, before making his first feature ‘Adam and Paul’ in 2004.

In 2015 Lenny directed the multi-award winning film Room, based on Emma Donoghue’s novel of the same name. Among others, Room won an Academy Award, several Golden Globes, an Independant Spirit Award, and a BAFTA.

Lenny went on to direct the mini-series adapted from Sally Rooney’s hit novel ‘Normal People’ in 2020 which, like Room, had enormous success both critically and commercially. Earlier this year, Lenny’s series ‘Conversations with Friends’, also based on a Rooney novel, was released.

In the above interview Abrahamson talks about how Kubrick’s 2001 impacted him, his cinematic puritanical streak, the challenges of making movies and why it’s sometimes wise to ‘de-professionalise’ yourself.

Stay tuned for more inspiring talks with directors every day this week!