Browse Movies : Focus Features : Biography

Back to Black will focus on Amy Winehouse's extraordinary genius, creativity and honesty that infused everything she did. A journey that took her from the craziness and colour of 90’s Camden High Street to global adoration - and back again, BACK TO BLACK crashes through the looking glass of celebrity to watch this journey from behind the mirror, to see what Amy saw, to feel what she felt.

True story of Audie Murphy, a man who enlisted in 1942 as a 16-year-old and became one of America’s most decorated combat veterans after seeing intense action in Italy and France. He then went on to star as himself in the 1955 hit “To Hell and Back” and appeared in more than 40 other films.

A human rights activist, sexual revolutionary, and political maverick, Fela Kuti was one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. He was the king of Afrobeat, a fusion of jazz, funk, psychedelic rock, and Yoruba chants and rhythms. Taking on Nigeria’s rapidly changing and often corrupt government in the 1970s, Fela pushed boundaries in art and life. His legacy as a charismatic visionary continues to inspire the contemporary hip-hop world and generations of artists who believe in the power of music to transform people and cultures.

The film, set in the international world of classical music, centers on Lydia Tár, widely considered one of the greatest living composer/conductors and first-ever female chief conductor of a major German orchestra.

Based on the thrilling and inspirational life of an iconic American freedom fighter, HARRIET tells the extraordinary tale of Harriet Tubman's escape from slavery and transformation into one of America’s greatest heroes. Her courage, ingenuity, and tenacity freed hundreds of slaves and changed the course of history.

In 1977, Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, becoming the first openly gay man to be voted into public office in America. His victory was not just a victory for gay rights; he forged coalitions across the political spectrum. From senior citizens to union workers, Harvey Milk changed the very nature of what it means to be a fighter for human rights and became, before his untimely death in 1978, a hero for all Americans. During the last eight years of his life, while living in New York City, he turns 40. Looking for more purpose, he and his lover Scott Smith relocate to San Francisco, where they found a small business, Castro Camera, in the heart of a working-class neighborhood. Then, with support from Scott and from new friends like young activist Cleve Jones, Milk plunges headfirst into the choppy waters of politics. Bolstering his public profile with humor, Milk's actions speak even louder than his gift-of-gab words. When Milk is elected supervisor for the newly zoned District 5, he tries to coordinate his efforts with those of another newly elected supervisor, Dan White. But as White and Milk's political agendas increasingly diverge, their personal destinies tragically converge.

A father and son max out their credit cards to scrape together the cash to reserve a satellite transponder so they can show sporting events nonstop on a 24-hour station. Their venture turns from a 1970s joke that starts with broadcasts of Australian rules football and rodeo, to a dominant brand in the sporting world that broadcast pro football and baseball games and becomes arguably the most profitable cable network ever created.

Follows Eddie Redmayne as theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, world-famous as the author of A Brief History of Time, opposite Felicity Jones. The movie explores the excitement of the 1960s for Stephen as he studies at Cambridge University. At the dawn of a brilliant life’s work, he falls passionately in love with arts student Jane Wilde. Their relationship leads him through personal and scientific challenges and breakthroughs, and as his world opens up he opens up the entire world to new ways of seeing.

A uniquely compelling exploration of fame and identity. The drama, inspired by one of Hollywood's most infamous real-life mysteries, follows a 1950s private detective (Academy Award winner Adrien Brody) who, investigating the mysterious death of "Superman" star George Reeves (Academy Award winner Ben Affleck), uncovers unexpected connections to his own life as the case turns ever more personal. The torrid affair Reeves had with the wife (Diane Lane) of a studio executive (Bob Hoskins) might hold the key to the truth.

Race is based on the incredible true story of Jesse Owens, the legendary athletic superstar whose quest to become the greatest track and field athlete in history thrusts him onto the world stage of the 1936 Olympics, where he faces off against Adolf Hitler’s vision of Aryan supremacy. Race is an enthralling film about courage, determination, tolerance, and friendship, and an inspiring drama about one man’s fight to become an Olympic legend.

On The Basis Of Sex tells an inspiring and spirited true story that follows young lawyer Ruth Bader Ginsburg as she teams with her husband Marty to bring a groundbreaking case before the U.S. Court of Appeals and overturn a century of gender discrimination.

Carrie Hamilton is the daughter of Carol Burnett, one of the most beloved figures on television and in film. Carrie journeys from teenage drug addiction to her sober adult life where she finds happiness and success as an actress and a writer before her untimely passing from cancer at age 38.

Mary Queen of Scots explores the turbulent life of the charismatic Mary Stuart. Queen of France at 16 and widowed at 18, Mary defies pressure to remarry. Instead, she returns to her native Scotland to reclaim her rightful throne. But Scotland and England fall under the rule of the compelling Elizabeth 1. Each young Queen beholds her “sister” in fear and fascination. Rivals in power and in love, and female regents in a masculine world, the two must decide how to play the game of marriage versus independence. Determined to rule as much more than a figurehead, Mary asserts her claim to the English throne, threatening Elizabeth’s sovereignty. Betrayal, rebellion, and conspiracies within each court imperil both thrones – and change the course of history.

Samuel Millar is a member of the Irish Republican Army and spends eight years in tough Irish prisons during the late 1970s and 1980s, where he takes part in the blanket protest in which political prisoners refuse to wear prison garb and are severely punished for it. He then comes to America under a different identity, reinvents himself as a family man and comic book shop owner. But then he helps pull off an armored truck heist, stealing more than $7 million from a Brink's truck and thus executing one of the most successful heists in U.S. history. Millar is eventually pardoned by President Bill Clinton and sent back to Ireland, where he reinvents himself once again, this time as a best-selling author of crime books.

Derek Boogaard, a shy over-sized man, learns to use his fists to make it to the National Hockey League and becomes a renowned hockey enforcer. The hulking 6'7" and 270 pounds Boogaard becomes known as the Boogeyman, and rarely loses a fight while playing for the Minnesota Wild and the New York Rangers. He gets addicted to painkillers from years of damage, and is found dead at age 28 after mixing prescription drugs with booze.