Gary Sinyor (born

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, 1962) is an English film director, producer, and writer.

Early life

Sinyor was raised in a

Sephardic Jew Sephardic Jews, also known as Sephardi Jews or Sephardim, and rarely as Iberian Peninsular Jews, are a Jewish diaspora population associated with the historic Jewish communities of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) and their descendant ...

ish family of six children, in

West Didsbury Didsbury is a suburb of Manchester, England, on the north bank of the River Mersey, south of Manchester city centre. The population at the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census was 26,788. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of ...

, attended Cambridge University (1983) * * * * and later attended the

National Film and Television School The National Film and Television School (NFTS) is a film, television and games school established in 1971 and based at Beaconsfield Studios in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England. It is featured in the 2024 ranking by ''The Hollywood Repo ...

Career

In 1988, as writer and producer of a ''National Film and Television School'' student-film, ''The Unkindest Cut'' (1988), "a witty look at a guy who's suffering from all his Jewish mates doing far better in life than he is", director Jim Shields was nominated for BAFTA best short film.

"When ''The Unkindest Cut'' went out on the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
,
Eric Idle Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English actor, comedian, songwriter, musician, screenwriter and playwright. He was a member of the British comedy group Monty Python and the parody rock band the Rutles. Idle studied English at Pembroke Co ...
saw it and rang the next day and commissioned Gary's first feature film – ''Leon The Pig Farmer''"

In 1992, as a co-writer, co-producer, and co-director of ''

Leon the Pig Farmer ''Leon the Pig Farmer'' is a 1992 British comedy about a Jewish estate agent in London who discovers that thanks to an artificial insemination mishap, his real father owns a pig farm in Yorkshire. It was directed by Vadim Jean and Gary Sinyor, a ...

'' (1992), he shared the

FIPRESCI The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for ''Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique'') is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the wor ...

International Critics' Prize at the 1992

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

, the Chaplin Award for the best first feature from the 1992

Edinburgh International Film Festival The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF), established in 1947, is the world's oldest continually running film festival. EIFF presents both UK and international films (all titles are World, international, European or UK Premieres), in al ...

, the 1994 Best Newcomer award from the London Critics' Circle, and the Most Promising Newcomer (shared with

Vadim Jean Vadim Jean (born Bristol, 9 December 1963)"Zip up your Rhino suit"
Global Ideas Bank ...

) from the 1994

Evening Standard British Film Awards The Evening Standard British Film Awards were established in 1973 by London's '' Evening Standard'' newspaper. The Standard Awards is the only ceremony "dedicated to British and Irish talent", judged by a panel of "top UK critics". Each ceremony ...

. He has since handed back his Chaplin award, after becoming involved in a dispute between the Edinburgh Festival and the Embassy of Israel in London.