---
name: "Paul Greengrass"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/paul-greengrass"
fi1m_id: "paul-greengrass"
imdb_id: "nm0339030"
tmdb_id: 25598
wikidata_id: "Q356275"
roles: ["Director","Writer","Producer"]
born: "13 August 1955"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 11
average_fi1m_score: 74
average_as: "director"
average_over: 10
updated: "2026-10-09T19:22:06.963745+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."
---

# Paul Greengrass

## Identity

Paul Greengrass

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/paul-greengrass
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** paul-greengrass
- **IMDb ID:** nm0339030
- **TMDB ID:** 25598
- **Wikidata ID:** Q356275
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Greengrass, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q356275, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0339030/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/25598

Director and writer. Born 13 August 1955 in Cheam, Surrey, England, UK.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Writer, Producer
- **Born:** 13 August 1955, Cheam, Surrey, England, UK
- **Active:** 1999–present
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 11: 10 directing, 1 producing
- **Frequently works with:** [Matt Damon](https://film.one/person/matt-damon.md), [Gregory Goodman](https://film.one/person/gregory-goodman.md), [Julia Stiles](https://film.one/person/julia-stiles.md), [Eric Fellner](https://film.one/person/eric-fellner.md), [Frank Marshall](https://film.one/person/frank-marshall.md), [Jason Blum](https://film.one/person/jason-blum.md), [Lloyd Levin](https://film.one/person/lloyd-levin.md), [Mark Redhead](https://film.one/person/mark-redhead.md)
- **BAFTA Film Awards:** 1 BAFTA (1 won)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 74, as director, over 10 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 84 (4), 2010s 69 (3), 2020s 68 (4)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 74 to 70 across 10 titles
- **Score spread:** 5 at 80+, 5 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 9, Thriller 7, Action 6, Adventure 3, History 3, Mystery 1
- **Screen time:** 20 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $1,554m across 9 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Greengrass, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q356275, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0339030/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/25598

## Streaming the US now

- **Apple TV:** [*The Bourne Ultimatum*](https://film.one/film/the-bourne-ultimatum.md) (85), [*The Bourne Supremacy*](https://film.one/film/the-bourne-supremacy.md) (81), [*The Lost Bus*](https://film.one/film/the-lost-bus.md) (71), [*Green Zone*](https://film.one/film/green-zone.md) (64)
- **Peacock:** [*United 93*](https://film.one/film/united-93.md) (88), [*News of the World*](https://film.one/film/news-of-the-world.md) (65)
- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Captain Phillips*](https://film.one/film/captain-phillips.md) (83)

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

## Fi1m on Paul Greengrass

> Paul Greengrass makes urgent, involving films by keeping us close to people under pressure. We admire the method, but *The Uprising* shows how readily constant movement can get in the way of a story.

The camera shakes, the framing catches only part of the action, and the next cut arrives before we have settled. Paul Greengrass uses these habits to put us among people trying to keep up with events. His handheld camerawork and zoom lenses come from documentary practice, and the sense of being there is often persuasive. The difficulty is deciding when to stop moving and let a scene develop.

That approach developed through documentary work on *World in Action*, then television drama, before *Bloody Sunday* (2002) brought the feature breakthrough. He took it into Hollywood with *The Bourne Supremacy* (2004); *The Bourne Ultimatum* (2007) showed that fragmented editing need not cost an action film its clarity. Editor Christopher Rouse has collaborated with Greengrass on five films, a substantial working relationship for a director so dependent on the cut. Alongside the studio action, *United 93* (2006) and *Captain Phillips* (2013) continued his work with real events.

*The Uprising* (2026) takes that urgency into a convincing medieval setting, with Andrew Garfield’s Ploughman at its centre. Greengrass approaches the Peasants’ Revolt through physical disorder, but his screenplay gives its participants too little time to make choices that count. Garfield makes Ploughman’s reluctance believable and lets him retain some dignity amid the disorder. He gives the rebellion a human interest that the screenplay cannot maintain on its own, while Katherine Waterston’s chilly Joan of Kent provides a useful contrast. There are people worth watching here, even when the film seems impatient to move on.

William Goldenberg’s energetic editing is part of the problem: successive action sequences arrive with much the same force. We grew weary during *The Uprising*, because another burst of action so often took the place of time with its characters. The crowded ensemble makes it harder to stay with Garfield, who is doing much of the work of making the rebellion matter. Greengrass is right to resist a tidy history lesson, and the film allows the revolt its moral complications. Choose *The Uprising* for Garfield, provided relentless historical action is already your sort of evening.

## Biography

Paul Greengrass (born 13 August 1955) is an English film director, screenwriter and producer. He was born in Cheam, Surrey, and began his career in television journalism before moving into documentary and feature filmmaking.

His early feature *Bloody Sunday* (2002) won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. Greengrass is known for directing *The Bourne Supremacy* (2004), *United 93* (2006), *The Bourne Ultimatum* (2007), *Captain Phillips* (2013) and *Jason Bourne* (2016). He received a BAFTA Award for Best Director for *United 93* and an Academy Award nomination for the same film. In 2007 he co-founded Directors UK and served as its first president until 2014.

Greengrass wrote, directed and produced the historical drama *The Uprising* (2026).

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, washingtonpost.com, variety.com, deadline.com.*

## On Fi1m (11)

### Directed (10) — the average rests on these

- *The Uprising* (2026), Fi1m 62, Writer, Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-uprising.md)
- *The Lost Bus* (2025), Fi1m 71, Screenplay, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-lost-bus.md)
- *News of the World* (2020), Fi1m 65, Screenplay, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/news-of-the-world.md)
- *Jason Bourne* (2016), Fi1m 61, Writer, Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/jason-bourne.md)
- *Captain Phillips* (2013), Fi1m 83, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/captain-phillips.md)
- *Green Zone* (2010), Fi1m 64, Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/green-zone.md)
- *The Bourne Ultimatum* (2007), Fi1m 85, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-bourne-ultimatum.md)
- *United 93* (2006), Fi1m 88, Producer, Writer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/united-93.md)
- *The Bourne Supremacy* (2004), Fi1m 81, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-bourne-supremacy.md)
- *Bloody Sunday* (2002), Fi1m 83, Director, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/bloody-sunday.md)

### Produced (1)

- *Stephen* (2021), Fi1m 72, Executive Producer — [page](https://film.one/tv/stephen.md)

## Complete filmography (24)

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

- *The Uprising* (2026), Director, Producer, Writer — Fi1m 62, [page](https://film.one/film/the-uprising.md)
- *The Lost Bus* (2025), Director, Screenplay — Fi1m 71, [page](https://film.one/film/the-lost-bus.md)
- *Stephen* (2021), series, Executive Producer — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/tv/stephen.md)
- *News of the World* (2020), Director, Screenplay — Fi1m 65, [page](https://film.one/film/news-of-the-world.md)
- *22 July* (2018), Director, Writer
- *Jason Bourne* (2016), Director, Producer, Writer — Fi1m 61, [page](https://film.one/film/jason-bourne.md)
- *Captain Phillips* (2013), Director — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/film/captain-phillips.md)
- *Green Zone* (2010), Director, Producer — Fi1m 64, [page](https://film.one/film/green-zone.md)
- *The Bourne Ultimatum* (2007), Director — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/the-bourne-ultimatum.md)
- *British Film Forever* (2007), series, Actor
- *United 93* (2006), Producer, Director, Writer — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/united-93.md)
- *Omagh* (2005), Producer, Writer
- *The Bourne Supremacy* (2004), Director — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/the-bourne-supremacy.md)
- *Bloody Sunday* (2002), Director, Screenplay — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/film/bloody-sunday.md)
- *The Murder of Stephen Lawrence* (1999), Director, Writer
- *The Theory of Flight* (1999), Director
- *The Fix* (1997), Director, Writer
- *The One That Got Away* (1996), Director, Screenplay
- *Open Fire* (1994), Director, Writer
- *Resurrected* (1989), Director
- *Night of Camp David*, Director, Producer
- *Drowning: The Rescue of Flight 1421*, Producer, Director
- *Untitled Jimi Hendrix Film*, Director
- *Test Drive*, Director

## Gallery

- ![第26回 東京国際映画祭 ポール・グリーングラス トム・ハンクス (キャプテン・フィリップス) 三谷幸喜 役所広司 (清須会議) 安倍晋三 (内閣総理大臣) (2013)](https://film.one/media/person/92708/gallery-cbe09fa8bc0f.jpg) 第26回 東京国際映画祭 ポール・グリーングラス トム・ハンクス (キャプテン・フィリップス) 三谷幸喜 役所広司 (清須会議) 安倍晋三 (内閣総理大臣) (2013) — Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/46/26th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival-_Paul_Greengrass_%26_Tom_Hanks_from_Captain_Phillips%2C_Mitani_Koki_%26_Yakusho_Koji_from_The_Kiyosu_Conference%2C_Prime_Minister_Abe_Shinzo_%2814950282314%29.jpg/1280px-thumbnail.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![第26回 東京国際映画祭 ポール・グリーングラス トム・ハンクス (キャプテン・フィリップス) 三谷幸喜 役所広司 (清須会議) 安倍晋三 (内閣総理大臣) (2013)](https://film.one/media/person/92708/gallery-8a2c6bcc351e.jpg) 第26回 東京国際映画祭 ポール・グリーングラス トム・ハンクス (キャプテン・フィリップス) 三谷幸喜 役所広司 (清須会議) 安倍晋三 (内閣総理大臣) (2013) — Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/26th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival-_Paul_Greengrass_%26_Tom_Hanks_from_Captain_Phillips%2C_Mitani_Koki_%26_Yakusho_Koji_from_The_Kiyosu_Conference%2C_Prime_Minister_Abe_Shinzo_%2815404142178%29.jpg/1280px-thumbnail.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![第26回 東京国際映画祭 ポール・グリーングラス トム・ハンクス (キャプテン・フィリップス) 三谷幸喜 役所広司 (清須会議) 安倍晋三 (内閣総理大臣) (2013)](https://film.one/media/person/92708/gallery-f3d177b39ff4.jpg) 第26回 東京国際映画祭 ポール・グリーングラス トム・ハンクス (キャプテン・フィリップス) 三谷幸喜 役所広司 (清須会議) 安倍晋三 (内閣総理大臣) (2013) — Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/26th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival-_Paul_Greengrass_%26_Tom_Hanks_from_Captain_Phillips%2C_Mitani_Koki_%26_Yakusho_Koji_from_The_Kiyosu_Conference%2C_Prime_Minister_Abe_Shinzo_%2815571869972%29.jpg/1280px-thumbnail.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![第26回 東京国際映画祭 ポール・グリーングラス トム・ハンクス (キャプテン・フィリップス) 三谷幸喜 役所広司 (清須会議) 安倍晋三 (内閣総理大臣) (2013)](https://film.one/media/person/92708/gallery-05bb1e31b061.jpg) 第26回 東京国際映画祭 ポール・グリーングラス トム・ハンクス (キャプテン・フィリップス) 三谷幸喜 役所広司 (清須会議) 安倍晋三 (内閣総理大臣) (2013) — Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/90/26th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival-_Paul_Greengrass_%26_Tom_Hanks_from_Captain_Phillips%2C_Mitani_Koki_%26_Yakusho_Koji_from_The_Kiyosu_Conference%2C_Prime_Minister_Abe_Shinzo_%2815587589941%29.jpg/1280px-thumbnail.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Paul Greengrass](https://film.one/media/person/92708/gallery-ef223a3b8144.jpg) Paul Greengrass — Image via TMDB
- ![第26回 東京国際映画祭 ポール・グリーングラス トム・ハンクス (キャプテン・フィリップス) 三谷幸喜 役所広司 (清須会議) 安倍晋三 (内閣総理大臣) (2013)](https://film.one/media/person/92708/gallery-205e7bdcaa30.jpg) 第26回 東京国際映画祭 ポール・グリーングラス トム・ハンクス (キャプテン・フィリップス) 三谷幸喜 役所広司 (清須会議) 安倍晋三 (内閣総理大臣) (2013) — Dick Thomas Johnson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/26th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival-_Paul_Greengrass_%26_Tom_Hanks_from_Captain_Phillips%2C_Mitani_Koki_%26_Yakusho_Koji_from_The_Kiyosu_Conference%2C_Prime_Minister_Abe_Shinzo_-_14950854923.jpg/1280px-thumbnail.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![第26回 東京国際映画祭 ポール・グリーングラス トム・ハンクス (キャプテン・フィリップス) 安倍晋三 (内閣総理大臣) (2013)](https://film.one/media/person/92708/gallery-ffd5a24611d3.jpg) 第26回 東京国際映画祭 ポール・グリーングラス トム・ハンクス (キャプテン・フィリップス) 安倍晋三 (内閣総理大臣) (2013) — Dick Thomas Johnson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b1/26th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival-_Paul_Greengrass_%26_Tom_Hanks_from_Captain_Phillips%2C_Prime_Minister_Abe_Shinzo_-_15403637089.jpg/1280px-26th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival-_Paul_Greengrass_%26_Tom_Hanks_from_Captain_Phillips%2C_Prime_Minister_Abe_Shinzo_-_15403637089.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated

- 2007: Best Director (nominated), for *United 93*

### BAFTA Film Awards — 1 won

- 2007: Best Direction (won), for *United 93*

### Other awards — 1 won, 3 nominated

- Commander of the Order of the British Empire 2022: Commander of the Order of the British Empire (won)
- European Film Award for Best Film 2002: European Film Award for Best Film (nominated), for *Bloody Sunday*
- European Film Award for Best Screenwriter 2002: European Film Award for Best Screenwriter (nominated), for *Bloody Sunday*
- European Film Award - People's Choice Award for Best Director 2002: European Film Award - People's Choice Award for Best Director (nominated), for *Bloody Sunday*

*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/paul-greengrass