Mary McMurray

After graduating,Mary planned a musical career, but instead went to Granada Television where after assisting the distinguished documentary filmmaker Denis Mitchell, she began to direct. She won the Best First Film Prize at the Sanremo Film Festival for her feature film The Assam Garden starring Deborah Kerr. "One of the most remarkable directing debuts in post-war British cinema". Films & Filming. Her documentaries include The Human Voice, a portrait of opera singer Elisabeth Soderstrom, described by the critic Hans Keller as "a televisual musical masterpiece". Mary has trained directors for Granada Television and the BBC. She teaches screen acting at the Actors' Centre and Drama Studio London. She is a former Chair of the Directors' and Producers' Rights Society, now Directors UK, and President of the International Committee of Dramatic, Literary and Audio-Visual Authors. She is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Sussex