---
name: "Lynne Ramsay"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/lynne-ramsay"
fi1m_id: "lynne-ramsay"
imdb_id: "nm0708903"
tmdb_id: 83287
wikidata_id: "Q3269591"
roles: ["Director","Writer","Producer"]
born: "5 December 1969"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 5
average_fi1m_score: 81
average_as: "director"
average_over: 5
updated: "2026-09-17T09:10:32.500917+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."
---

# Lynne Ramsay

## Identity

Lynne Ramsay

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/lynne-ramsay
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** lynne-ramsay
- **IMDb ID:** nm0708903
- **TMDB ID:** 83287
- **Wikidata ID:** Q3269591
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynne_Ramsay, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3269591, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0708903/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/83287

Director and writer. Born 5 December 1969 in Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland, UK.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Writer, Producer
- **Born:** 5 December 1969, Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland, UK
- **Active:** 1999–present
- **Also known as:** 린 램지, 琳恩·拉姆塞
- **Frequently works with:** [Alex Manette](https://film.one/person/alex-manette.md)
- **BAFTA Film Awards:** 2 BAFTAs (2 won · 4 nominated)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 81, as director, over 5 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 88 (1), 2000s 82 (1), 2010s 82 (2), 2020s 71 (1)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 81 to 78 across 5 titles
- **Score spread:** 4 at 80+, 1 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 5, Thriller 2, Crime 1
- **Screen time:** 9 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $33m across 4 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynne_Ramsay, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3269591, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0708903/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/83287

## Streaming the US now

- **The Criterion Channel:** [*Ratcatcher*](https://film.one/film/ratcatcher.md) (88)
- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*You Were Never Really Here*](https://film.one/film/you-were-never-really-here.md) (83)
- **The Roku Channel:** [*Morvern Callar*](https://film.one/film/morvern-callar.md) (82)
- **Peacock:** [*We Need to Talk About Kevin*](https://film.one/film/we-need-to-talk-about-kevin.md) (81)
- **Apple TV:** [*Die My Love*](https://film.one/film/die-my-love.md) (71)

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

## Fi1m on Lynne Ramsay

> Lynne Ramsay's films can be funny and tender in the bleakest surroundings. We rate her highly when she lets us discover what a character notices, but her forceful images sometimes substitute for getting to know the person.

In *Ratcatcher* (1999), rubbish has become part of a Glasgow boy's everyday surroundings, but it has not exhausted his curiosity. James is twelve, and he still has things to laugh at and things he wants to look at. Ramsay's feature debut remains our starting point for her work because she lets the child's life be fuller than its hardships. We can care about him without having every experience explained as a lesson.

*Morvern Callar* (2002) followed, using subjective storytelling and its soundtrack to explore a life after loss. After a long gap, *We Need to Talk About Kevin* (2011) brought a mother's conflicting feelings into a fractured story. *You Were Never Really Here* (2017) examined trauma and violence with Joaquin Phoenix. The louder *Die My Love* (2025) makes the humour and unhurried observation of the debut particularly worth returning to.

In *Ratcatcher*, editor Lucia Zucchetti gives small observations time to accumulate, allowing hardship, humour and imagination to sit comfortably together. Rachel Portman's music warms the tender passages, although the faces need little help. Ramsay gives less attention to the parents played by Tommy Flanagan and Mandy Matthews: their behaviour comes in glimpses that sometimes leave too little to judge. That is a real limitation in a film whose interest in the child is otherwise so patient and precise.

*Die My Love* finds her more forceful, with Jennifer Lawrence playing Grace, a new mother in a rural Montana farmhouse. We were frightened when Grace moved through the long grass on all fours with a kitchen knife, because Ramsay had already encouraged us to see her as an animal. Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey holds her in low gold light, leaving us time to register the threat before anything happens. Lawrence can be funny and frightening in quick succession without asking for sympathy.

Inside, production designer Tim Grimes supplies stained wallpaper and the previous occupant's leftovers, while McGarvey lights night scenes with the open fridge. Editor Toni Froschhammer cuts the days short and out of order, which unsettles us effectively for an hour. But the second hour repeats the parties, fights and distress without telling us much more about Grace, and exhaustion starts to replace involvement. Lawrence and the images make it worth seeing, with that reservation. For a first encounter with Ramsay, choose *Ratcatcher*.

## Biography

Lynne Ramsay is a Scottish film director and screenwriter. Born in Glasgow on 5 December 1969, she studied photography at Napier College, Edinburgh, before graduating from the National Film and Television School, where she specialised in cinematography and direction.

Her feature films include *Ratcatcher* (1999), *Morvern Callar* (2002), *We Need to Talk About Kevin* (2011), *You Were Never Really Here* (2017) and *Die My Love* (2025), on which she also contributed to the screenplay and music. Her early short films *Small Deaths* (1996) and *Gasman* (1998) both won the Prix du Jury at Cannes.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, screenonline.org.uk.*

## On Fi1m (5)

- *Die My Love* (2025), Fi1m 71, Director, Screenplay, Original Music Composer, Music, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/die-my-love.md)
- *You Were Never Really Here* (2017), Fi1m 83, Director, Screenplay, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/you-were-never-really-here.md)
- *We Need to Talk About Kevin* (2011), Fi1m 81, Screenplay, Executive Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/we-need-to-talk-about-kevin.md)
- *Morvern Callar* (2002), Fi1m 82, Writer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/morvern-callar.md)
- *Ratcatcher* (1999), Fi1m 88, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/ratcatcher.md)

## Complete filmography (18)

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

- *Die My Love* (2025), Director, Screenplay, Executive Producer, Original Music Composer — Fi1m 71, [page](https://film.one/film/die-my-love.md)
- *Brigitte* (2019), Director
- *You Were Never Really Here* (2017), Director, Screenplay, Producer — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/film/you-were-never-really-here.md)
- *Swimmer* (2012), Director, Executive Producer
- *We Need to Talk About Kevin* (2011), Director, Screenplay, Executive Producer — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/we-need-to-talk-about-kevin.md)
- *Cinema 16: European Short Films (U.S. Edition)* (2007), Director
- *Cinema16: British Short Films* (2003), Director
- *Morvern Callar* (2002), Director, Writer — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/morvern-callar.md)
- *Ratcatcher* (1999), Director, Writer — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/ratcatcher.md)
- *Renegade TV Gets Dazed* (1998), Director
- *Gasman* (1998), Director, Writer
- *Kill the Day* (1996), Director, Writer
- *Small Deaths* (1996), Director, Writer, Director of Photography
- *Magic Cottage* (1993), Director of Photography
- *Polaris*, Director, Writer
- *Untitled Lynne Ramsay Vampire Film*, Director, Writer
- *Stone Mattress*, Screenplay, Director
- *A Stitch of Vintage*, Executive Producer

## Gallery

- ![Lynne Ramsay](https://film.one/media/person/7750/gallery-126069b5b1ea.jpg) Lynne Ramsay — Dublin International Film Festival, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Lynne_Ramsay_at_ADIFF_2018.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Lynne Ramsay](https://film.one/media/person/7750/gallery-f82edb330454.jpg) Lynne Ramsay — Image via TMDB
- ![Lynne Ramsay](https://film.one/media/person/7750/gallery-d514f82c4941.jpg) Lynne Ramsay — Image via TMDB
- ![Lynne Ramsay](https://film.one/media/person/7750/gallery-5dc5cab2ff7c.jpg) Lynne Ramsay — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### BAFTA Film Awards — 2 won, 4 nominated

- 2013: Best Short Film (won), for *Swimmer*
- 2012: Best British Film (nominated), for *We Need to Talk About Kevin*
- 2012: Best Direction (nominated), for *We Need to Talk About Kevin*
- 2000: Best Newcomer (won), for *Ratcatcher*
- 2000: Best British Film (nominated), for *Ratcatcher*
- 1998: Best Short Film (nominated)

### Other awards — 1 won, 4 nominated

- AACTA International Award for Best Direction 2011: AACTA International Award for Best Direction (nominated), for *We Need to Talk About Kevin*
- AACTA International Award for Best Screenplay 2011: AACTA International Award for Best Screenplay (nominated), for *We Need to Talk About Kevin*
- British Independent Film Awards 2011: Best British Independent Film (nominated), for *We Need to Talk About Kevin*
- British Independent Film Awards 2002: Best British Independent Film (nominated), for *Morvern Callar*
- Sutherland Trophy 1999: Sutherland Trophy (won), for *Ratcatcher*

*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/lynne-ramsay