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Martha Fiennes

"Martha Fiennes is an award-winning British film director, screenwriter and also artist. Her recent multi-layered work in the digital fine arts space is informed by technological developments and ideas in contemporary arts practice whilst remaining resolutely the creative expression of a highly gifted filmmaker.” 

Article / Interview by Penny Hall.

Martha Fiennes

Fiennes started out directing music videos having completed 3 years at film school. She was sought thereafter by the TV commercials industry and went on to direct a number of high end TV commercials, garnering several awards. 

Her first feature film was the acclaimed Russian period movie Onegin which starred Liv Tyler and Ralph Fiennes. Onegin won Martha the Tokyo Film Festival and was nominated for a BAFTA for Best British Film and won her the London Critics Award for Best Newcomer. 

Her second feature Chromophobia attracted a star studded cast (Penelope Cruz, Damian Lewis, Kristen Scott Thomas, Harriet Walter, Ian Holm, Rhys Ifans) and was applauded for its powerfully contemporary style and ‘icy and superb script’. Written and directed by Fiennes, the movie closed the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. 

Fiennes’ recent work is a majestic, generative, digital moving-image artwork titled Yugen (2018) which features Oscar-nominated actor Salma Hayek Pinault. The work is comprised of layers of pre-recorded action sequences and digital backgrounds which then use a bespoke AI system to instruct a continuous moving-image experience. The result is a mesmeric work which neither loops or repeats. Fiennes used the same ‘hybrid’ media system with her earlier work Nativity (2011). Both employ pioneering forms of generative digital technologies to produce majestic works which extend the possibilities of film as a medium and art as an experience. 

Both works have exhibited in a number of high profile showcases including the Venice Biennale; Christie’s Art+Tech Summit, New York; The National Gallery, London; V&A London; LACMA / Frieze Los Angeles; The Serpentine Gallery, London; The Science Museum London IMAX, The Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, and at Art Dubai 2022. Yugen was widely reported on at Art Dubai ’22 and gained high accolade, referred to by Vogue Arabia as ‘best in show’. 

Fiennes was awarded a Woman of Excellence award at the House of Lords in 2017. 

Check out some of Martha's work