Sally Potter

Sally Potter, also known as Charlotte Sally Potter (OBE), is an renowned English film director and screenwriter celebrated for her work on the film Orlando (1992), which garnered the audience prize for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival. Born and raised in London, her mother was a music teacher and her father was an interior designer and a poet, which contributed to a creative environment that encouraged her to pursue art and film. Potter's career began at the young age of 14, making amateur films and dropped out of school at 16 to fully commit to filmmaking. During the early stages of her career, she worked various jobs to support herself and her work, including being a kitchen worker and a picture researcher for BBC.

Potter became an award-winning performance artist and theatre director, and was a member of several music bands. She directed the internationally distributed Orlando (1992), which granted her greater recognition as a talented writer and director. The film, starring Tilda Swinton, was based on Virginia Woolf's novel and it took her seven years to complete. Potter continued her journey with films like The Tango Lesson (1996), where she also performed with celebrated dancer Pablo Veron. Her later works include critically acclaimed films such as Rage (2009), Ginger & Rosa (2012), and The Party (2017). In 2020, Potter's drama The Roads Not Taken was released after a world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival.