---
name: "Andrea Arnold"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/andrea-arnold"
fi1m_id: "andrea-arnold"
imdb_id: "nm0036349"
tmdb_id: 71082
wikidata_id: "Q457493"
roles: ["Director","Writer","Producer"]
born: "5 April 1961"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 6
average_fi1m_score: 79
average_as: "director"
average_over: 6
updated: "2026-10-01T19:18:03.969266+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Andrea Arnold

## Identity

Andrea Arnold

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/andrea-arnold
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** andrea-arnold
- **IMDb ID:** nm0036349
- **TMDB ID:** 71082
- **Wikidata ID:** Q457493
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Arnold, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q457493, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0036349/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/71082

Director and writer. Born 5 April 1961 in Dartford, Kent, England.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Writer, Producer
- **Born:** 5 April 1961, Dartford, Kent, England
- **Active:** 2006–present
- **Also known as:** Андреа Арнольд
- **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar (1 won)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 79, as director, over 6 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 80 (2), 2010s 80 (3), 2020s 73 (1)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 79 to 76 across 6 titles
- **Score spread:** 3 at 80+, 3 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 6, Comedy 1, Thriller 1
- **Screen time:** 9 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $11m across 4 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrea_Arnold, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q457493, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0036349/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/71082

## Streaming the US now

- **Tubi:** [*Fish Tank*](https://film.one/film/fish-tank.md) (85), [*American Honey*](https://film.one/film/american-honey.md) (81)
- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Transparent*](https://film.one/tv/transparent.md) (82)
- **HBO Max:** [*Big Little Lies*](https://film.one/tv/big-little-lies.md) (78)
- **MUBI:** [*Bird*](https://film.one/film/bird.md) (73)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Andrea Arnold

> Andrea Arnold gives difficult young people time to show what they cannot say. We admire her compassionate, often moving films, though she is more reliable with actors than with stories: the hardship can feel forced, and the comfort can come too easily.

On a squat roof in *Bird* (2024), Bailey films a gull with her headphones in. Nykiya Adams does little to explain the girl, and Arnold does not ask her to. The shot lasts long enough for that small occupation to feel like a means of getting away. Arnold is good at giving such moments time, particularly when a child has little control over what the adults around her will do.

Her early work, from the short *Wasp* (2003) to her first feature, *Red Road* (2006), established her attention to working-class lives. By *Fish Tank* (2009), she was concentrating on a teenager whose aggression could hide uncertainty. The American road story *American Honey* (2016) took her interest in marginalised youth beyond Britain, while *Cow* (2021) marked a move into documentary. With *Bird*, she returns to British adolescence and makes room for a fairy tale.

*Fish Tank* remains our stronger recommendation, because Katie Jarvis makes Mia’s defiance and embarrassment equally believable. We were moved by the dance scenes: Jarvis makes the effort so personal and important that we stopped measuring whether Mia was any good. Michael Fassbender’s Connor brings the unease of adult attention that can flatter before it alarms, and Arnold allows that confusion into their encounters. The writing occasionally adds one difficulty too many, but she never makes Mia’s bad behaviour a reason to stop caring about her.

Cinematographer Robbie Ryan is central to that closeness, keeping Mia near enough for the doubt beneath the aggression to register. Helen Scott’s production design gives the family scenes cramped, convincing rooms, where nobody seems to have much space to themselves. In *Bird*, Ryan’s handheld camera stays by Bailey’s shoulder, where adults can arrive as torsos and noise. The birds and insects she films belong to Arnold’s recurring interest in animals, but here they also give a quiet girl something to look at besides her family.

Adams, making her first film, is a reason to see *Bird* despite its less disciplined storytelling. Barry Keoghan gives Bailey’s feckless father some welcome humour, while Franz Rogowski’s gentle stranger is harder for Arnold to fit into the drama. The fairy tale offers more sweetness than the film has earned. Start with *Fish Tank*; come to *Bird* for the girl, without expecting the story around her to be as persuasive.

## Biography

Andrea Arnold is an English filmmaker and former actor. Born on 5 April 1961 in Dartford, Kent, she began her career in children's television as a presenter and actor on shows including No. 73 before studying at the American Film Institute Conservatory in Los Angeles.

She directed the award-winning short film Wasp (2003), which received an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film. Her feature films include Red Road (2006), Fish Tank (2009), Wuthering Heights (2011) and American Honey (2016), each of which won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. She has also directed episodes of Transparent (2014–2017) and all seven episodes of the second season of Big Little Lies (2017), and made the documentary Cow (2022). Her most recent feature, Bird (2024), for which she wrote the screenplay, premiered at Cannes.

*Sources: imdb.com, screenonline.org.uk, theguardian.com.*

## On Fi1m (6)

- *Bird* (2024), Fi1m 73, Director, Screenplay, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/bird.md)
- *Big Little Lies* (2017), Fi1m 78, Executive Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/big-little-lies.md)
- *American Honey* (2016), Fi1m 81, Writer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/american-honey.md)
- *Transparent* (2014), Fi1m 82, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/transparent.md)
- *Fish Tank* (2009), Fi1m 85, Writer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/fish-tank.md)
- *Red Road* (2006), Fi1m 74, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/red-road.md)

## Complete filmography (17)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Bird* (2024), Screenplay, Director, Producer — Fi1m 73, [page](https://film.one/film/bird.md)
- *Cow* (2022), Director
- *Big Little Lies* (2017), series, Executive Producer, Director — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/tv/big-little-lies.md)
- *American Honey* (2016), Director, Writer — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/american-honey.md)
- *I Love Dick* (2016), series, Director, Executive Producer
- *Transparent* (2014), series, Director — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/tv/transparent.md)
- *Wuthering Heights* (2011), Director, Screenplay
- *Fish Tank* (2009), Director, Writer — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/fish-tank.md)
- *Cinema 16: European Short Films (U.S. Edition)* (2007), Writer, Director
- *Red Road* (2006), Director, Writer — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/red-road.md)
- *Coming Up* (2003), series, Director
- *Wasp* (2003), Director, Writer
- *Dog* (2001), Director, Writer
- *Milk* (1998), Director, Writer
- *Motormouth* (1988), series, Actor
- *No. 73* (1982), series, as Dawn Lodge
- *Featherwood*, Director

## Gallery

- ![Andrea Arnold](https://film.one/media/person/10547/gallery-a01d59407968.jpg) Andrea Arnold — Andrea_Arnold_2012.jpg: Georges Biard
derivative work: César, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/Andrea_Arnold_%28Cannes_Film_Festival_2012%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Andrea Arnold at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival receiving the 2024 Carrosse d’Or.](https://film.one/media/person/10547/gallery-9b55ea633576.jpg) Andrea Arnold at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival receiving the 2024 Carrosse d’Or. — Kevin Payravi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a4/Andrea_Arnold_receiving_2024_Carrosse_d%27Or_Award_at_2024_Cannes_Film_Festival.jpg/1280px-Andrea_Arnold_receiving_2024_Carrosse_d%27Or_Award_at_2024_Cannes_Film_Festival.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Andrea Arnold at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival receiving the 2024 Carrosse d’Or.](https://film.one/media/person/10547/gallery-dc08afe0efb7.jpg) Andrea Arnold at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival receiving the 2024 Carrosse d’Or. — Kevin Payravi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/Andrea_Arnold_receiving_2024_Carrosse_d%27Or_Award_at_2024_Cannes_Film_Festival_group.jpg/1280px-Andrea_Arnold_receiving_2024_Carrosse_d%27Or_Award_at_2024_Cannes_Film_Festival_group.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Andrea Arnold at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival receiving the 2024 Carrosse d’Or.](https://film.one/media/person/10547/gallery-b15110c6f055.jpg) Andrea Arnold at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival receiving the 2024 Carrosse d’Or. — Kevin Payravi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Andrea_Arnold_receiving_2024_Carrosse_d%27Or_Award_at_2024_Cannes_Film_Festival_group_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Andrea Arnold](https://film.one/media/person/10547/gallery-e19af0442a92.jpg) Andrea Arnold — Image via TMDB
- ![Andrea Arnold](https://film.one/media/person/10547/gallery-59e3e8975039.jpg) Andrea Arnold — Image via TMDB
- ![Andrea Arnold](https://film.one/media/person/10547/gallery-1d1c9a7e2176.jpg) Andrea Arnold — Image via TMDB
- ![Andrea Arnold](https://film.one/media/person/10547/gallery-f092ecf9334b.jpg) Andrea Arnold — Image via TMDB
- ![Andrea Arnold](https://film.one/media/person/10547/gallery-8a1d9026ebb8.jpg) Andrea Arnold — Image via TMDB
- ![Andrea Arnold](https://film.one/media/person/10547/gallery-6af3c879f43f.jpg) Andrea Arnold — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 1 won

- 2005: Best Live Action Short Film (won), for *Wasp*

### BAFTA Film Awards — 2 won

- 2010: Best British Film (won), for *Fish Tank*
- 2007: Best Newcomer (won), for *Red Road*

### Other awards — 4 won, 6 nominated

- European Film Award for Best Director 2024: European Film Award for Best Director (nominated), for *Bird*
- Jury Prize 2016: Jury Prize (won), for *American Honey*
- British Independent Film Awards 2009: Best British Independent Film (nominated), for *Fish Tank*
- European Film Award for Best Director 2009: European Film Award for Best Director (nominated), for *Fish Tank*
- European Film Award for Best Film 2009: European Film Award for Best Film (nominated), for *Fish Tank*
- Jury Prize 2009: Jury Prize (won), for *Fish Tank*
- British Independent Film Awards 2006: Best British Independent Film (nominated), for *Red Road*
- Jury Prize 2006: Jury Prize (won), for *Red Road*
- Sutherland Trophy 2006: Sutherland Trophy (won), for *Red Road*
- British Independent Film Awards 2004: Best British Short Film (nominated), for *Wasp*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/andrea-arnold