Tilda Swinton started making films with English experimental director Derek Jarman in 1986, with Caravaggio. Together, they made seven more films, including The Last of England; The Garden; War Requiem; Edward II, for which she won the Best Actress Award at the 1991 Venice Film Festival; and Wittgenstein, before Jarman's death in 1994. Swinton gained wider international recognition in 1992 with her portrayal of the title character in Sally Potter's Orlando, based on the novel by Virginia Woolf.
Swinton has established rewarding ongoing filmmaking relationships with Lynn Hershman-Leeson (Conceiving Ada, Teknolust, Strange Culture), John Maybury (Man to Man, Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon), Jim Jarmusch (Only Lovers Left Alive, Broken Flowers, The Limits of Control), Wes Anderson (Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel), Joel and Ethan Coen (Burn After Reading, the upcoming Hail, Caesar!) and Luca Guadagnino (The Love Factory, I Am Love, which Swinton co-produced, A Bigger Splash). Swinton also worked with Bong Joon-ho on the international hit Snowpiercer.
Swinton has appeared in Spike Jonze's Adaptation.; David Mackenzie's Young Adam; Mike Mills' Thumbsucker; Francis Lawrence's Constantine; Béla Tarr's The Man From London; Andrew Adamson's The Chronicles of Narnia series; Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton, for which she received both the Academy Award® and BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress in 2008; and Erick Zonca's Julia, which premiered at the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival. For her performance, Swinton received The Evening Standard's Best Actress Award and was named Best Actress in Indiewire's Critics Poll.
In 2011, Swinton starred in and executive produced Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin. The film debuted in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival to huge critical acclaim and garnered multiple honors for Swinton, including Golden Globe and BAFTA award nominations for Best Actress.
Universal Pictures