Anthony Minghella Anthony Minghella Anthony Minghella, (6 January 195418 March 2008) was a British film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was chairman of the board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for "The English Patient" (1996). In addition, he received three more Academy Award nominations; he was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for both "The English Patient" (1996) and "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1999), and was posthumously nominated for Best Picture for "The Reader" (2008), as a co-producer. Minghella was born in Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, an
William Fiennes (author) and co-founder of the charity First Story, which promotes writing in challenging schools in Great Britain. William Fiennes is a member of the Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes family of Broughton Castle near Banbury, Oxfordshire. He is the youngest son of Nathaniel Fiennes, 21st Baron Saye and Sele (born 1920) and Mariette "née" Salisbury-Jones. daughter of soldier and courtier Guy Salisbury-Jones. William Fiennes has several older siblings, including the artist Susannah Fiennes. He is a second cousin of the explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes, and a third cousin of the actors Ralph Fiennes and Joseph Fiennes. He is a distant relative of the travel writer