One of the U.K.'s top producers, Alison Owen shared Academy Award, Critics' Choice, and Golden Globe Award nominations in the Best Picture category as producer of Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth with Working Title Films; and won BAFTA and London Film Critics Circle Awards.
Ms. Owen won an Emmy Award as part of the producing team of Mick Jackson's Temple Grandin; in addition to the Outstanding Made for Television Movie prize, the telefilm won 6 additional Emmy Awards, including for actors Claire Danes, Julia Ormond, and David Strathairn.
Her independent production company, Ruby Film & Television, had two films be invited to screen at the 2010 Cannes International Film Festival; Hideo Nakata's Chatroom, starring Aaron Johnson and Imogen Poots of Jane Eyre, and Stephen Frears' Tamara Drewe, the latter also adapted by Jane Eyre screenwriter Moira Buffini and also made with BBC Films.
Previously through Ruby, Ms. Owen produced Christine Jeffs' Sylvia, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Daniel Craig, also for Focus Features; John Madden's Proof, starring Ms. Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, and Jake Gyllenhaal; Justin Chadwick's The Other Boleyn Girl, starring Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, and Eric Bana; and Sarah Gavron's Brick Lane, which received BAFTA and British Independent Film Award (BIFA) nominations.
She has additionally executive-produced Edgar Wright's breakout hit Shaun of the Dead, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost; Grant Heslov's The Men Who Stare at Goats, starring George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Spacey; and, through Ruby, S.J. Clarkson's Toast, starring Helena Bonham Carter and Freddie Highmore.
Ruby Films' Ruby Television division, formed in 2008, has thus far produced the aforementioned Temple Grandin; andJohn Alexander's telefilm Small Island, which won an International Emmy Award for Best International Series, and for which lead actors Naomie Harris and David Oyelowo won Royal Television Society Awards.
Prior to forming Ruby, Ms. Owen's feature credits as producer include Peter Chelsom's Hear My Song, for which Ned Beatty was a Golden Globe Award nominee; Paul Weiland's Roseanna's Grave (a.k.a. For Roseanna), starring Jean Reno and Mercedes Ruehl; Danny Cannon's The Young Americans, starring Harvey Keitel and Viggo Mortensen; and David Anspaugh's Moonlight and Valentino, starring Whoopi Goldberg, Gwyneth Paltrow, Elizabeth Perkins, and Kathleen Turner.
Focus Features
