---
name: "Steve McQueen"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/steve-mcqueen"
fi1m_id: "steve-mcqueen"
imdb_id: "nm2588606"
tmdb_id: 72757
wikidata_id: "Q706475"
roles: ["Director","Writer","Producer"]
born: "9 October 1969"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 6
average_fi1m_score: 81
average_as: "director"
average_over: 6
updated: "2026-09-17T09:00:08.692002+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."
---

# Steve McQueen

## Identity

Steve McQueen

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/steve-mcqueen
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** steve-mcqueen
- **IMDb ID:** nm2588606
- **TMDB ID:** 72757
- **Wikidata ID:** Q706475
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_McQueen_(director), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q706475, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2588606/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/72757

Director and writer. Born 9 October 1969 in London, England, UK.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Writer, Producer
- **Born:** 9 October 1969, London, England, UK
- **Active:** 2008–present
- **Also known as:** Sir Steve Rodney McQueen CBE, Sir Steve MᶜQueen, Steve MᶜQueen, Стів МакКуін
- **Frequently works with:** [Michael Fassbender](https://film.one/person/michael-fassbender.md), [Emile Sherman](https://film.one/person/emile-sherman.md), [Iain Canning](https://film.one/person/iain-canning.md)
- **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar (1 won · 1 nominated)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 81, as director, over 6 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 86 (1), 2010s 83 (3), 2020s 76 (2)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 81 to 78 across 6 titles
- **Score spread:** 4 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Drama 6, History 3, Crime 1, Thriller 1, War 1
- **Screen time:** 10 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $270m across 4 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_McQueen_(director), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q706475, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2588606/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/72757

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Small Axe*](https://film.one/tv/small-axe.md) (88)
- **AMC+:** [*Hunger*](https://film.one/film/hunger.md) (86)
- **Apple TV:** [*Blitz*](https://film.one/film/blitz.md) (63)

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

## Fi1m on Steve McQueen

> Steve McQueen gives physical discomfort time to become unbearable, and we rate his patient, exacting filmmaking highly. In *Blitz*, that gift is too often lost as he hurries from one encounter to the next.

In *Hunger* (2008), Steve McQueen leaves us looking at filthy cells long enough to feel how living in them would wear a person down. The early stretches have little dialogue, and routine continues around the violence. We were horrified by how ordinary the brutality seemed amid those prison routines. McQueen's feature debut is a strong reason to seek out his work, though it supplies less historical context than the suffering needs.

The steadiness of Sean Bobbitt's cinematography matters because the violence is not allowed to pass in a blur. Tom McCullagh's production design makes the cells cramped places to endure, rather than convenient spaces for actors. McQueen and co-writer Enda Walsh also give Liam Cunningham's priest enough substance to challenge Michael Fassbender's Bobby Sands. Fassbender makes conviction difficult company. Occasionally the careful composition draws attention to itself, but McQueen mostly keeps us concerned with the people being filmed.

His beginnings in video installation help explain that willingness to hold a shot. *Shame* (2011) returned to Fassbender for an exploration of sex addiction, while *12 Years a Slave* (2013) again trusted sustained attention to a body under duress. With *Widows* (2018), co-written with Gillian Flynn, he took on the heist thriller. Yet the turn towards broader storytelling did not require him to abandon small spaces. *Lovers Rock*, part of *Small Axe* (2020), spends much of its length in a single front room.

That makes the restlessness of *Blitz* (2024) frustrating. Its opening, with firemen losing control of a hose in a bombed street, has the force and clarity of his strongest work. Cinematographer Yorick Le Saux stays low and close, making the men seem small beside the water, while Adam Stockhausen's production design gives London a solidity that makes its destruction more alarming. But as George walks home after leaving an evacuation train, the film struggles to decide between fable and adventure.

Benjamin Clementine's quiet performance as Ife, who walks with George through the dark, gives *Blitz* the human interest its constant movement too often interrupts. We would happily have stayed with those two for longer. The film's reluctance to linger is particularly disappointing from a director who can make us attend so closely to someone sitting still. For a first encounter, choose *Hunger* and take the warning about its violence seriously.

## Biography

Steve McQueen is a British film director, screenwriter and producer. He was born on 9 October 1969 in London. He studied painting at Chelsea College of Art and Design and film at Goldsmiths College, and began making short films before winning the Turner Prize in 1999.

McQueen made his feature debut with *Hunger* (2008). Subsequent films include *Shame* (2011), *12 Years a Slave* (2013), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Picture, *Widows* (2018) and *Blitz* (2024), which he also wrote and produced. He created the anthology series *Small Axe* (2020) for television. He received a BFI Fellowship in 2016 and was knighted in 2020 for services to art and film.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, theguardian.com, britannica.com.*

## On Fi1m (6)

- *Blitz* (2024), Fi1m 63, Screenplay, Songs, Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/blitz.md)
- *Small Axe* (2020), Fi1m 88, Writer, Creator, Story, Screenplay, Editor, Executive Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/tv/small-axe.md)
- *Widows* (2018), Fi1m 83, Screenplay, Director, Producer — [page](https://film.one/film/widows.md)
- *12 Years a Slave* (2013), Fi1m 91, Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/12-years-a-slave.md)
- *Shame* (2011), Fi1m 74, Screenplay, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/shame.md)
- *Hunger* (2008), Fi1m 86, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/hunger.md)

## Complete filmography (37)

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

- *Blitz* (2024), Director, Screenplay, Producer, Songs — Fi1m 63, [page](https://film.one/film/blitz.md)
- *The Shadow Scholars* (2024), Executive Producer
- *Occupied City* (2023), Producer, Director
- *Grenfell* (2023), Director
- *Three Minutes: A Lengthening* (2022), Producer
- *Sunshine State* (2022), Director
- *Uprising* (2021), series, Director, Executive Producer
- *Subnormal* (2021), Executive Producer
- *Black Power: A British Story of Resistance* (2021), Executive Producer
- *Small Axe* (2020), series, Executive Producer, Writer, Director, Story, Screenplay, Editor, Creator — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/tv/small-axe.md)
- *Widows* (2018), Director, Screenplay, Producer — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/film/widows.md)
- *All Day / I Feel Like That* (2015), Director
- *Ashes* (2014), Director
- *12 Years a Slave* (2013), Director, Producer — Fi1m 91, [page](https://film.one/film/12-years-a-slave.md)
- *Shame* (2011), Director, Screenplay — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/shame.md)
- *Giardini* (2009), Director
- *Static* (2009), Director
- *Hunger* (2008), Director, Writer — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/film/hunger.md)
- *Gravesend* (2007), Director
- *Charlotte* (2004), Director
- *Caribs' Leap* (2002), Director
- *Western Deep* (2002), Director
- *Girls, Tricky* (2001), Director, Director of Photography
- *7th Nov.* (2001), Director
- *Illuminer* (2001), Director, Director of Photography
- *Cold Breath* (2001), Director
- *Drumroll* (1998), Director
- *Deadpan* (1997), Director
- *Exodus* (1997), Director, Director of Photography, Editor
- *Just Above My Head* (1996), Director
- *Five Easy Pieces* (1995), Director
- *Bear* (1993), Director
- *Untitled Tupac Shakur Documentary*, Director
- *End Credits*, Director
- *Last Days*, series, Director
- *Untitled Paul Robeson Project*, Director, Writer, Producer
- *Fela*, Screenplay

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 1 won, 1 nominated

- 2014: Best Picture (won), for *12 Years a Slave*
- 2014: Best Director (nominated), for *12 Years a Slave*

### Other awards — 7 won, 4 nominated

- Erasmus Prize 2026: Erasmus Prize (won)
- Rolf Schock Prizes 2024: Rolf Schock Prizes (won)
- European Film Award for Innovative Storytelling 2021: European Film Award for Innovative Storytelling (won), for *Small Axe*
- Knight Bachelor 2020: Knight Bachelor (won)
- European Film Academy Achievement in World Cinema Award 2014: European Film Academy Achievement in World Cinema Award (won)
- European Film Award for Best Director 2012: European Film Award for Best Director (nominated), for *Shame*
- European Film Award for Best Film 2012: European Film Award for Best Film (nominated), for *Shame*
- European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film 2012: European Film Award – People's Choice Award for Best European Film (nominated), for *Shame*
- European Film Award for Best Director 2008: European Film Award for Best Director (nominated), for *Hunger*
- European Film Award for European Discovery of the Year 2008: European Film Award for European Discovery of the Year (won), for *Hunger*
- Turner Prize 1999: Turner Prize (won)

*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/steve-mcqueen