Joanna Quinn

Directing

Joanna Quinn

Born

1962-02-04 (64)

Place of birth

Birmingham, England

Known for

Directing

Credits

14 titles

Joanna Quinn is an English film director and prize-winning animator. Quinn was born in Birmingham, England in 1962 and grew up in North London. She went to school at Highgate Wood Secondary School and completed a foundation course in art at Goldsmiths College, University of London before studying for a BA in Graphic Design at Middlesex University.  Quinn's first film Girls Night Out was completed in 1987 and won three awards at the Annecy Film Festival. This film introduced the anti-heroine character of Beryl and follows her antics when she goes to see a male stripper. Beryl appeared in Quinn's next film Body Beautiful (1990) in this film she is the factory union rep and she had to deal with…

Known for

Body Beautiful poster
7.7

A heavyset woman who keeps being harassed by her aerobics instructor and her attempts to get even with him on a Body Beautiful contest.

Body Beautiful

1991

Affairs of the Art poster
5.9

Look out: Beryl's back. With Affairs of the Art, British animator Joanna Quinn recounts another gloriously unhinged chapter in the adventures of Beryl, the comic everywoman she unleashed upon the world with her debut film, Girls' Night Out, which took home three major awards from Annecy in 1987.

Affairs of the Art

2021

Secrets of British Animation poster
6.0

BBC Four’s new documentary takes us on a journey through more than a century of animation. It examines the creative and technical inventiveness of some of the great animation pioneers who have worked in Britain – trailblazing talents such as Len Lye, John Halas and Joy Batchelor, Joanna Quinn, and Bristol’s world-conquering Aardman Animations.

Secrets of British Animation

2018

Wife of Bath poster
7.0

Based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s classic poetry. For attacking a young woman, an arrogant knight of King Arthur’s court is sentenced to death if he cannot answer the question “what do women most desire?” He travels far and wide with no success until he meets an old woman who promises him the answer, but at a price.

Wife of Bath

1998

Britannia poster
6.8

The history of empire. A British bulldog answers his mistress's call. He tacks down the Union Jack to cover the British Isles, then begins playing with a small ball that's the world. At first it's innocent play. The dog discovers tea in India; then, the dog shakes gold out of Africa. Gradually, innocence gives way to more and more ferocious play with the ball. We see terrorized women and children as the dog becomes an enslaving potentate. Harmless English archetypes benefit from colonial riches. Then the world begins to grow, and the dog changes too, from bulldog to effete lap dog.

Britannia

1993

Elles poster
7.0

Two of the models of Toulouse Lautrec take a happy break from their posing.

Elles

1992

Film credits

Behind the camera

Body Beautiful poster
7.7

A heavyset woman who keeps being harassed by her aerobics instructor and her attempts to get even with him on a Body Beautiful contest.

Body Beautiful

1991

Affairs of the Art poster
5.9

Look out: Beryl's back. With Affairs of the Art, British animator Joanna Quinn recounts another gloriously unhinged chapter in the adventures of Beryl, the comic everywoman she unleashed upon the world with her debut film, Girls' Night Out, which took home three major awards from Annecy in 1987.

Affairs of the Art

2021

Wife of Bath poster
7.0

Based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s classic poetry. For attacking a young woman, an arrogant knight of King Arthur’s court is sentenced to death if he cannot answer the question “what do women most desire?” He travels far and wide with no success until he meets an old woman who promises him the answer, but at a price.

Wife of Bath

1998

Britannia poster
6.8

The history of empire. A British bulldog answers his mistress's call. He tacks down the Union Jack to cover the British Isles, then begins playing with a small ball that's the world. At first it's innocent play. The dog discovers tea in India; then, the dog shakes gold out of Africa. Gradually, innocence gives way to more and more ferocious play with the ball. We see terrorized women and children as the dog becomes an enslaving potentate. Harmless English archetypes benefit from colonial riches. Then the world begins to grow, and the dog changes too, from bulldog to effete lap dog.

Britannia

1993

Elles poster
7.0

Two of the models of Toulouse Lautrec take a happy break from their posing.

Elles

1992

Dreams and Desires: Family Ties poster
6.7

Beryl acquires a new Digi Video camera and becomes obsessed with the art of filmmaking, using it to articulate her desires, dreams and thoughts in a video diary. As “cineaste par excellence” she agrees to film her friend’s wedding, seizing the opportunity to “strut her stuff filmically” with disastrous and often hilarious results.

Dreams and Desires: Family Ties

2006

This Land Is a Woman poster
6.0

Inspired by the poem Hamza by the great Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan, compares and connects the mystery of the fertility of the Palestinian land to the mysterious power of it's women.

This Land Is a Woman

2025

Famous Fred poster
5.8

Based on the book by Posy Simmonds. Mischievous kitten Fred grows up to be feline singing superstar, but a case of cat flu threatens to cut short his musical career.

Famous Fred

1996

Famous Fred poster
5.8

Based on the book by Posy Simmonds. Mischievous kitten Fred grows up to be feline singing superstar, but a case of cat flu threatens to cut short his musical career.

Famous Fred

1996

Girls Night Out poster
4.9

When a housewife's girlfriends take her to a male strip club for her birthday, she brings back more than memories.

Girls Night Out

1988

Girls Night Out poster
4.9

When a housewife's girlfriends take her to a male strip club for her birthday, she brings back more than memories.

Girls Night Out

1988