{{Short description|Franco-British film director and artist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{promotion|date=April 2026}}{{Infobox artist | image = | name = Charlotte Colbert | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1987}} | birth_place = New York, US | known_for = Feature films and Multimedia Art Installations | alma_mater = London Film School | spouse = Philip Colbert<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jul/08/sisters-youre-flowing-through-me-the-director-whose-horror-film-channels-centuries-of-female-rage |title='Sisters, you're flowing through me!' The director whose horror film channels centuries of female rage |first=Cath |last=Clarke |date=8 July 2022 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |issn=0261-3077 |language=en-GB |access-date=21 May 2026}}</ref> | children = 2 | parents = James Goldsmith (father) | relatives = Jemima Khan (half-sister) }}
'''Charlotte Colbert''' (born 1987<ref>{{Cite web |title= Charlotte Colbert|url=https://www.artsper.com/gb/contemporary-artists/united-kingdom/2839/charlotte-colbert |access-date=2023-12-06 |website= Artsper |language=en}}</ref>) is a British film director and multi-media artist described by the ''Evening Standard'' as "a natural born magician."<ref>{{Cite web |last=O'Sullivan |first=Charlotte |date=2022-07-22 |title=She Will: A horror which seeks to scar rather than scare, and succeeds |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/she-will-movie-review-alice-krige-charlotte-colbert-malcolm-mcdowell-b1013780.html |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=Evening Standard |language=en}}</ref> Her practice ranges from artistic installations which incorporate sculpture, photography and performative elements, to narrative feature-length films. Her directorial debut was praised by the New York Times<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Catsoulis |first=Jeannette |date=2022-07-14 |title='She Will' Review: Payback Is a Witch |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/14/movies/she-will-review.html |access-date=2024-05-31 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> and won the Golden Leopard for Best First Picture.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kiang |first=Jessica |date=2021-08-14 |title=Golden Leopard Winner 'Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash' Heads Impressive Slate Of Locarno Awards |url=https://variety.com/2021/film/news/locarno-film-festival-awards-2021-1235041709/ |access-date=2024-05-31 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}</ref>
Colbert’s work explores themes such as identity, dreams, personal narratives, and the unconscious, often incorporating surreal and fantastical elements. The Design Museum describes her as someone who "conjures fantastical worlds by blending the boundaries between reality and imagination."<ref>{{Cite web |title='Malaska' - Charlotte Colbert |url=https://www.purslane.co.uk/store/malaska-charlotte-colbert |access-date=2024-05-31 |website=Purslane |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Early life ==
Born in New York state,<ref name=airmail>{{cite magazine|last=Arsenault|first=Bridget|date=14 October 2023|title=Artist Charlotte Colbert Discusses Her Frieze London Exhibition|url=https://airmail.news/issues/2023-10-14/charlotte-colbert|magazine=Air Mail|access-date=16 November 2023|url-access=limited}}</ref> Colbert is the seventh of eight children of businessman Sir James Goldsmith, who died in 1997.<ref name=Guardian220708/> Her mother is French journalist Laure Boulay de la Meurthe, with whom Goldsmith openly had a long-term relationship while married to Annabel Goldsmith. Colbert is a half-sibling of Jemima Khan.<ref name=Guardian220708>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jul/08/sisters-youre-flowing-through-me-the-director-whose-horror-film-channels-centuries-of-female-rage |title='Sisters, you're flowing through me!' The director whose horror film channels centuries of female rage |first=Cath |last=Clarke |date=8 July 2022 |newspaper=The Guardian |location=London |issn=0261-3077 |language=en-GB |access-date=9 November 2023}}</ref> She went to 12 different schools and lived with various relatives before graduating high school in France.<ref name=airmail/> She studied philosophy and liberal arts in Montreal and then went on to become European distributor for the ''moon-cup''<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=2020-09-28 |title=Charlotte Colbert |url=https://islafoundation.com/team/charlotte-colbert/ |access-date=2024-04-24 |website=ISLA Foundation |language=en-US}}{{Dead link|date=April 2026}}</ref>''.''
== Art ==
=== Photography ===
Colbert's work has been likened to the surreal work of Toomer, Breton, and Dalí,<ref>{{cite web | url=https://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/photography/articles/2013/november/18/charlotte-colberts-surreal-housewife-shots/ | title=Charlotte Colbert's surreal housewife shots | Photography | Agenda}}{{Dead link|date=April 2026}}</ref> described as "surreal and delicate" and "a gateway into dreams" (Huffington Post), an "exploration into the human mind",<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=http://www.vogue.co.uk/gallery/charlotte-colbert-a-day-at-home-exhibition-preview|title=Charlotte Colbert: A Day At Home|last=Alexander|first=Ella|website=www.vogue.co.uk|date=27 November 2013 }}</ref> and as "existing in that space dreams and nightmares" (Las Ultimas Notices).
Colbert had made short animations when she enrolled at the London Film School to do her MA in screenwriting. While there she was commissioned to write the feature film ''Leave to Remain'' and other scripts for people such as Oliver Dahan, Eric Cantona and Tony Grisoni. "Writing involved a lot of sitting down and I struggle to stay in one place so I took pictures about how crazy the process of writing was for me - it became a series called A Day At Home which was shown at Gazelli Art House.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-11-26 |title=Charlotte Colbert: Do writers and housewives share a common madness |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/charlotte-colbert-do-writers-and-housewives-share-a-common-madness-that-comes-from-their-isolation-8963131.html |access-date=2024-05-01 |website=The Independent |language=en}}</ref>"
The solo show was described by The Huffington Post as "a surreal meditation on domesticity and self-destruction".<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-12-01 |title=Surreal Black-And-White Photos Of A Housewife's Worst Nightmare |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/charlotte-colbert_n_4338375 |access-date=2024-05-01 |website=HuffPost UK |language=en}}</ref>
Her series ''In and Out of Space'' was done in homage to Kubrick's 2001 Space Odyssey and shown at Somerset House. "As opposed to sending an astronaut into space I wanted to send the astronaut into our own past. I was interested in the juxtaposition between the astronaut, symbol of the future, symbol of Man's ambition and power to surpass, and this totally decayed building of faded grandeur."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Parallel {{!}}{{!}} Planets: Charlotte Colbert's Curious Case |url=https://parallelplanets.blogspot.com/2015/04/charlotte-colbert.html |access-date=2024-05-01 |website=Parallel {{!}}{{!}} Planets}}</ref>
Colbert started working on her series ''Ordinary Madness''<ref>{{cite web | url=https://aestheticamagazine.com/charlotte-colbert-ordinary-madness-gazelli-art-house/ | title=Aesthetica Magazine - Charlotte Colbert: Ordinary Madness, Gazelli Art House }}</ref> after seeing her friend's two-year-old press their fingers against a pane of glass where a butterfly had landed and try to zoom into the creature to make it bigger. She was completely baffled by the simplicity of this gesture, which collapsed the physical 3D world and the digital 4D world in an instant. Where did our bodies begin and end in a digital age? She created these emoji-like cyborgs of which Ilaria Puri Purini from Contemporary Arts Society wrote: "Colbert's hybrid figures – partly human partly digital – become ghosts from the future…. Her delicate images hovering between intimacy and distance; desire and repulsion; robotic carcasses and sexualized bodies; creating a dystopic vision of the future where the cyborg emoji – an exotic species – runs through deserted households, its needs crystallized in a state of perpetual surveillance."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ordinary Madness (Series) |url=https://charlottecolbert.com/artworks/photography/ordinary-madness |access-date=2024-05-01 |website=charlottecolbert.com |language=en-GB}}</ref>
Colbert has been exhibited internationally, including Basel, and Istanbul Art Fair, Philip's, Christies and Sothebys as well as Institutions and Museums.
=== Multi-media sculptures and Installations === Colbert, in partnership with Flatiron Nomad, NYCDOTArt and the Meatpacking District installed two of her 30 foot sculptures in Manhattan. They were described as "Radically intimate public art", "an installation that transforms steel into something almost metaphysical".<ref>{{cite web |title=Chasing Rainbows: The radical intimacy of monumental public art |url=https://www.amny.com/entertainment/chasing-rainbows-monumental-public-art/ |website=AMNY |language=en-US}}</ref>
Colbert's multi-media video sculptures are made of layered TV screens encased in rusty metal. ''The'' ''Benefit Supervisor Sleeping'' is a 170 kg video installation, 21st-century reinterpretation of Lucian Freud's famous painting of Sue Tilley. It is described as inverting the male gaze and "re-frame Sue Tilley, the subject of Freud's Benefit Supervisor series, from objectified to objectifier".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/10542/the-artist-liberating-lucian-freuds-most-famous-muse|title=The Artist Liberating Lucian Freud's Most Famous Muse|date=5 February 2018}}</ref> 'I like the idea of turning the tables, subverting the male gaze. Sue is now looking at us.' says Charlotte Colbert.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Charlotte Colbert Archives |url=https://www.twinfactory.co.uk/tag/charlotte-colbert/ |access-date=2024-04-24 |website=Twin Magazine |language=en-GB}}</ref> In 2018 she collaborated with Lily Cole doing a 3-meter video sculpture of the activist and model breastfeeding her child in response to the stigmatisation of breastfeeding in public.
In 2017 she made a video sculpture of ''Lee Soon-Kyu'', a 79-year-old South Korean woman who was abruptly separated from her husband when the Korean War started. She did not see him for 65 years until finally she was allowed a 3-day visit to North Korea during which her son, now in his sixties, was able to see his father for the first time. "Her sitting for a moving image portrait was an extremely moving experience for me."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Walton |first=Millie |date=2019-05-14 |title=In conversation with artist duo Philip and Charlotte Colbert |url=https://www.lux-mag.com/philip-and-chalotte-colbert/ |access-date=2024-04-24 |website=Lux Magazine |language=en-GB}}</ref> Her show Dreamland Siren curated by Simon de Pury and UTA Artist Spac exhibited at Fitzrovia Chapel during Frieze Art Fair. It showcased monumental sculptures.<ref name="Wallpaper">{{Cite web |last=Soward |first=Anne |date=13 October 2023 |title=Fall down the rabbit hole into Charlotte Colbert's Frieze Week dreamland |url=https://www.wallpaper.com/art/exhibitions-shows/charlotte-colbert-dreamland-sirens-fitzrovia-chapel-london |website=wallpaper.com |language=en |access-date=9 November 2023}}</ref> "Loosely inspired by Alice in Wonderland {...} the exhibition invites us to become aware of what we dream and visualise collectively".<ref name="Wallpaper" /> The artist collaborated with composer Isobel Waller-Bridge to devise a soundscape for the exhibition which was released on vinyl and also collaborated with spoken word poet Hollie McNish who wrote a poem called ''dreamland'' for the show.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dreamland Sirens |url=https://www.fitzroviachapel.org/event/dreamland-sirens-2-2/2023-10-12/ |access-date=2024-05-31 |website=The Fitzrovia Chapel |language=en-GB}}</ref> "Colbert conjures fantastical worlds by blending the boundaries between reality and imagination," wrote Rachel Hajek of the Design Museum.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Charlotte Colbert - Seeing Red London Saturday, March 16, 2024 |url=https://www.phillips.com/detail/charlotte-colbert/EX010124/59 |access-date=2024-04-25 |website=Phillips |language=en}}</ref>
=== Lewes FC collaboration === In 2024 Colbert was asked to support Lewes F.C.’s “See Us As We Are Campaign”<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-09-08 |title=A different goal: how women's football is changing the beautiful game |url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/sep/08/a-different-goal-how-womens-football-is-changing-the-beautiful-game |access-date=2025-01-09 |website=the Guardian |language=en}}</ref> and she designed the playing shirts for the female team.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-07-19 |title=Lewes FC launch 'See Us As We Are' shirt |url=https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/sport/football/lewes-fc-launch-see-us-as-we-are-shirt-4709850 |access-date=2025-01-09 |website=SussexWorld |language=en}}</ref> The community owned team are known for their radical stance on gender parity - remunerating their female and male players equally since 2017. Colbert collaborated with singer Kate Nash on a video and song to support the team.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gregory |first=Elizabeth |date=2024-09-16 |title=Kate Nash scores with catchy new song celebrating Lewes FC Women |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/music/kate-nash-lewes-football-eyeconic-b1181422.html#:~:text=The%20song%20and%20its%20music,campaign%20%E2%80%93%20written%20on%20the%20backs |access-date=2025-01-09 |website=The Standard |language=en}}</ref>
== Film ==
Colbert studied screenwriting at the London Film School.<ref name=airmail/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://lfs.org.uk/full-time-study/ma-screenwriting/graduate-achievements|title=Graduate Achievements – London Film School|website=lfs.org.uk|access-date=16 November 2023}}</ref> She is the co-author of feature film ''Leave to Remain'' about underage asylum seekers in Britain<ref>{{cite web|url=http://film.britishcouncil.org/leave-to-remain|title=British Council Film: Leave to Remain|website=British Council Film}}</ref> with a score by Mercury Prize-winning band Alt-J.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/leave-to-remain-teenage-asylum-seekers-star-alongside-toby-jones-in-film-about-refugees-8503302.html|title=Leave to Remain: Teenage asylum seekers star alongside Toby Jones in film about refugees|website=Independent.co.uk |date=20 February 2013}}</ref> It won awards at the BUFF Film Festival<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.buff.se/langfilm/leave-to-remain/|title=Leave to Remain – BUFF Malmö|date=5 February 2014}}</ref> and the Bergamo Film Meeting.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bergamofilmmeeting.it/Texts/view/premi|title=PREMI -Bergamo Film Meeting|website=www.bergamofilmmeeting.it}}</ref>
In 2016, she wrote and directed ''The Silent Man'', described in ID as "the most surreal shorts you'll ever see"<ref>{{cite web|url=https://i-d.co/article/surreal-short-film-the-silent-man-will-leave-you-disturbed/|title=surreal short film 'the silent man' will leave you disturbed|date=23 May 2016}}</ref> with Simon Amstell, Sophie Kennedy-Clark, Ben Miller, and a cameo by Cillian Murphy. She wrote and directed two award winning animated shorts ''The Girl With Liquid Eyes'' with Maryam d'Abo and ''The Man With the Stolen Heart'' with Bill Nighy based on her book of short stories Topsy Turvy Tales.{{citation needed|date=April 2026}}
She is a producer on ''Dali Land'' directed by Mary Harron (American Psycho), co-produced with Pressman Films. It is a biopic about artist Salvador Dalí starring Sir Ben Kingsley, Ezra Miller, Andreja Peijic, and Suki Waterhouse.<ref>{{Cite web |last=DeFore |first=John |date=18 September 2022 |title='Dalíland' Review: Ben Kingsley and Ezra Miller Get Surreal in Mary Harron's Eye-Opening Art-World Portrait |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/daliland-ben-kingsley-ezra-miller-barbara-sukowa-mary-harron-art-world-biopic-1235222595/ |access-date=9 February 2023 |website=The Hollywood Reporter |language=en-US}}</ref>
Colbert directed and co-wrote ''She Will'' with Alice Krige, Kota Eberhart, Malcolm McDowell, and Rupert Everett produced by Dario Argento and Ed Pressman Films with an original score by Clint Mansell. The film was nominated for a BIFA and won the Golden Leopard for the best first film at the Locarno Film Festival. It was Critic's Pick In the ''New York Times'', and Mark Kermode described it as "an edgy psychological horror meets feminist fable".<ref name=":0" /> Jessica Kiang in Variety called it "A Superb, Sly Horror-Drama Debut Delivering Otherworldly Feminist Vengeance",<ref>{{cite web|last=Kiang|first=Jessica|date=15 August 2021|title='She Will' Review: A Superb, Sly Horror-Drama Debut Delivering Otherworldly Feminist Vengeance|url=https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/she-will-review-1235041761/|access-date=9 November 2021|website=Variety|language=en-US}}</ref> Guillermo del Toro wrote it "a remarkable directorial debut, purely cinematic", and Alfonso Cuarón said "it sits in the tradition of great psychological horror films [which] leaves one questioning long after [it] is finished".<ref>{{Cite web | title=Guillermo del Toro on Twitter: "The audiovisual strengths of Charlotte Colbert are not just an evolution of her fine arts training, they are purely cinematic. She co-authored the screenplay and the vocabulary of the images uses a brilliant clash between the modern rigidity and the primal fluidity of the woods." / Twitter | url=https://twitter.com/RealGDT/status/1555573790377218050 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230619134023/https://twitter.com/RealGDT/status/1555573790377218050 | access-date=2026-05-14 | archive-date=2023-06-19}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Yossman|first=K. J.|date=3 August 2021|title='She Will': First Clip of Locarno Selection From Debut Director Charlotte Colbert (EXCLUSIVE)|url=https://variety.com/2021/film/news/she-will-exclusive-clip-locarno-charlotte-colbert-1235033356/|access-date=9 November 2021|website=Variety|language=en-US}}</ref>
For the release Colbert collaborated with designer Ashley Williams and street artist Clayton on capsule collections supporting ''End Violence Against Women and Girls'' and worn by model and activist Lily Cole as well as Adhel Bol.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-03-10 |title=Artist Charlotte Colbert On Empowering Women And Her New Exhibition 'Dreamland Sirens' |url=https://graziadaily.co.uk/life/real-life/charlotte-colbert-artist-interview-dreamland-sirens/ |access-date=2024-04-24 |website=Grazia |language=en}}</ref>
Colbert is the founder of Popcorn Group, a production company known for the short Leading Lady Parts<ref>{{Cite web |last=TBB |title=Must Watch! – Time's Up UK 'Leading Lady Parts' short film Starring Wunmi Mosaku & More… {{!}} The British Blacklist |date=2 August 2018 |url=https://thebritishblacklist.co.uk/must-watch-times-up-uk-leading-lady-parts-short-film-starring-wunmi-mosaku-more/ |access-date=6 January 2023 |language=en-GB}}</ref> (with Emilia Clarke, Florence Pugh and Gemma Chan), as well as for co-producing Fleabag<ref>{{Cite web |title=Fleabag Tickets {{!}} Wyndham's Theatre {{!}} WestendTheatre.com |url=https://www.westendtheatre.com/64166/shows/fleabag/ |access-date=6 January 2023 |website=www.westendtheatre.com |language=en-GB}}</ref> in the WestEnd, and Alice Lowe's time travelling romcom TimeStalker with the BFI.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ntim |first=Zac |date=19 October 2022 |title=Alice Lowe Romcom 'Timestalker' Starts Shooting With Nick Frost, Tanya Reynolds, and Aneurin Barnard Joining Cast |url=https://deadline.com/2022/10/alice-lowe-romcom-timestalker-stars-shooting-with-kate-dickie-dan-skinner-and-mike-wozniak-joining-cast-1235149167/ |access-date=6 January 2023 |website=Deadline |language=en-US}}</ref>
== Publishing ==
Colbert was one of the publishers of ''The Artists Colouring Book of ABCs'' done in support of the Kids Company,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/go/london/exhibitions/easy-as-abc-famous-artists-collaborate-on-childrens-colouring-book-8936385.html|title=Easy as ABC: famous artists collaborate on children's colouring book|date=13 November 2013|website=The Standard}}</ref> featuring works by Grayson Perry, Alex Katz, and Tracey Emin.
== Philanthropy ==
Colbert set up the Popcorn Writing Award in Edinburgh, and now runs it with the BBC Writersroom. The award champions brave and imaginative writing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe every year.<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 August 2022 |title=Popcorn Award for New Writing – Longlist and Judging Committee Announced |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/writersroom/entries/345f63cb-fa8f-477a-aa07-cabb617360f3 |access-date=9 February 2023 |website=BBC |language=en}}</ref>
Colbert also set up the NFTS x Popcorn Writing Award<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wiseman |first=Andreas |date=22 November 2021 |title=NFTS & UK Production Company Popcorn Group Launch New Writers Award; First Winner Is "Bridgerton-esque" TV Pilot 'Silly Girl' |url=https://deadline.com/2021/11/bridgerton-nfts-new-writers-prize-popcorn-group-comedy-1234878706/ |access-date=9 February 2023 |website=Deadline |language=en-US}}</ref> which allocates a prize to the most original script from NFTS film school screenwriting graduates.
Colbert is on the board of the Isla Foundation<ref name=":1" /> and the Ecology Trust.
== Personal life == Colbert has two children with her husband, artist Philip Colbert.<ref name=Guardian220708/>
== References == {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Colbert, Charlotte}} Category:1980s births Category:Living people Category:British filmmakers Category:British women artists Category:British multimedia artists Category:Alumni of the London Film School Category:Goldsmith family Category:British people of French descent Category:British people of German-Jewish descent