12 Facts About Mike Figgis

Michael Figgis was born on 28 February 1948 and is an English film director, screenwriter, and composer.

Mike Figgis was nominated for two Academy Awards for his work in Leaving Las Vegas.

Mike Figgis was the founding patron of the independent filmmakers' online community Shooting People.

Mike Figgis was born in Carlisle, Cumberland, and grew up in Nairobi, Kenya until he was eight.

Mike Figgis played trumpet and guitar in The People Band and is audible in their first record in 1968.

Mike Figgis poured his disenchantment with the film industry into Leaving Las Vegas, which starred Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue, which earned Mike Figgis Academy Award nominations for Best Directing and Best Screenplay.

Mike Figgis followed this up with the romantic drama One Night Stand, starring Wesley Snipes and Nastassja Kinski, but the movie received a poor response from critics and was a commercial failure.

In 2007, Mike Figgis shot Love Live Long set between Istanbul and Bratislava on the infamous Gumball 3000 Rally, starring Sophie Winkleman and Daniel Lapaine.

Forays into digital video technology led Mike Figgis to conceive of and direct Timecode, which took advantage of the technology to create an ensemble film shot simultaneously with four cameras all in one take and presented simultaneously and uncut, dividing the screen into four-quarters.

Mike Figgis returned to the Timecode quad-screen approach for his section of Ten Minutes Older, but has worked on documentary pieces including a segment of The Blues and a short piece on flamenco.

Mike Figgis has a well-documented love-hate relationship with the Hollywood system which leads him to often be an outspoken critic of the system while despairing the lack of a better alternative.

Mike Figgis was made an Honorary Associate of London Film School.