Kathryn Ferguson
5/21/20261 hr 7 min
Robert meets Belfast-born Kathryn Ferguson, an Emmy and BAFTA nominated, BIFA and IFTA winning director whose innovative and boundary-pushing documentary work has screened globally. We explore art as activism and how film has the power to reveal, and amplify, untold stories. Kathryn studied at Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, and in 2022 was awarded the inaugural BFI & Chanel Award for Creative Audacity.
In 2018, Kathryn's short documentary Taking the Waters about Margate’s open water swimming premiered at Sheffield Doc Fest, and was long-listed for a BAFTA. Then, in 2021, Kathryn worked with Passion Pictures on the short Space to Be for The Guardian's acclaimed documentary series.
After a decade of short-form work centred on identity, gender politics, and community, Kathryn recently completed her debut feature documentary Nothing Compares - which takes as its subject Sinéad O'Connor's artistry and activism. The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2022 then toured the international festival circuit, where it picked up multiple awards, before hitting cinemas in October 2022. It has received over thirty award nominations internationally, including Emmy, Critics Choice, IDA, and PGA Awards, and was awarded winner of Best Feature Documentary at BIFA 2022 and IFTA 2023. Nothing Compares is now available to watch on Showtime and Sky.
Her second feature, Bogart: Life Comes in Flashes (Universal), was released in US cinemas in 2024.
In 2024 she also co-founded Tara Films with producer Eleanor Emptage; their latest, Blue Road - The Edna O'Brien Story, premiered at TIFF 2024, and the company is currently developing a slate of non-fiction and drama projects. Alongside her film work, Ferguson has directed campaigns for Nike, Selfridges, Amnesty International, and Air France, and collaborated with artists such as Lady Gaga and Neneh Cherry.
Nostalgie, Kathryn's first drama short starring Aiden Gillen, about a faded 80's pop star, has recently been nominated for a BAFTA and won Best Short Film at the IFTAs 2026. The film is available to watch on Channel 4.
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Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRobert Diament· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Good afternoon, good morning, good evening, wherever you are in the world. I am Robert Diament, and you're listening to Talk Art. Welcome to Talk Art. Now, today I am meditating on a thought, which is one of art being activism. And, um, I've been thinking a lot lately about the power of film in particular, and how often we think of film as entertainment or, you know, like Hollywood or going to the cinema, all that kind of stuff. But I actually connect with film, well, I have been connecting with film over the last few years in a kind of different way. Like, obviously, I've just interviewed Sir Isaac Julien, and I was thinking about, um, exhibition-making and creating film as activism in terms of an art context. But there's a film that I saw a few years ago, which was produced and directed by today's guest, um, Nothing Compares, which was the biography of, uh, Sinead O'Connor, who was such an incredible artist. And it was actually the film that made me realize her artistry beyond just the music, and really how music was a means to her to tell her story and to kind of highlight the plight of others through an artistic platform. But I feel like she could have actually been a painter, or she could have been a writer or, you know, it didn't really matter necessarily the medium that she chose. It was really about what she had to say. And I feel like that about today's guest because I feel like she