Ronald Harwood (Estate)

Ronald Harwood’s many plays include The Dresser, Taking Sides, Quartet, Mahler’s Conversion, An English Tragedy, Collaboration and Degenerate Art which premiered in Berlin in October 2015.

His films include The Dresser (Academy Award Nomination for Best Screenplay), Taking Sides (XXIX Flaiano Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay), The Pianist (Palme d’Or, 2002 Cannes Film Festival and 2003 BAFTA for Best Film), Being Julia (2004), Oliver Twist (2005), and Love in the Time of Cholera (2007). Harwood’s acclaimed screenplay for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007) was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the Academy Awards, the film also received the Humanitas Prize 2008, Writers’ Guild Award for Best Screenplay, 2008 BAFTA winner for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Prix Jacques Prevert du Scenario 2008. His 2013 film, Quartet was adapted from his play and was directed by Dustin Hoffman, and a TV film of his play The Dresser adapted and directed by Richard Eyre screened on BBC1 in October 2015.

Ronald Harwood’s awards for The Pianist include the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay 2003, the National Society of Film Critics’ Award for Best Screenplay and the Founders’ Award from the Zaki Gordon Institute for Independent Filmmaking. He was also nominated for a BAFTA (Best Adapted Screenplay) and a César (Best Screenplay).

He was made Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1974 and was Visitor in Theatre at Balliol College, Oxford in 1985. He was President of English PEN, 1989-1993, President of International PEN, 1993-97, and Chairman of the Royal Society of Literature. In 1996 he was appointed Chevalier de l’ordre National des Arts et des Lettres. In 1999, he was appointed a CBE. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Letters by Keele University in 2002 and Aberdeen University in 2013. He is President of the Royal Literary Fund 2005-present. He was made an Honorary Fellow of Central School of Speech and Drama in 2006.  He was knighted for Services to Drama in the 2010 Queen’s Birthday honours list.  He received the National Jewish Theatre Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, 2014.