Blue Jean is out in cinemas now – Director Georgia Oakley was nominated for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer at the BAFTA’s. Blue Jean also won 4 BIFA’s (Best Lead Performance, Best Supporting Performance, Best Debut Screenwriter & Best Casting).
Blue Jean follows “a closeted teacher in 1988 who is pushed to the brink when a new student threatens to expose her sexuality.”
With Production Design by Soraya Gilanni Viljoen, Blue Jean stars Rosy McEwen (The Alienist), Kerrie Hayes (Black Mirror), Lucy Halliday, Lydia Page (The Larkins) and Stacy Abalogun (Death on the Nile).
Blue Jean premiered at Venice Film Festival and has received glowing reviews since its release:
The Guardian; “Blue Jean is interestingly one of those films which could almost have been made in the era which it’s set: it is very redolent of the 80s.”
Variety; “Blue Jean is a Thatcher-era period piece that crisply evokes that climate of politically propagated homophobia without preserving it in amber: It effectively puts the past in tacit dialogue with the present.”
Slant Magazine; “Blue Jean is most remarkable when it simply observes its main character as she exists in her unmanageable world.”
Attitude; “Queer authenticity is key to formidable lesbian drama Blue Jean.”
Empire; “The world it depicts is one that most of the filmmakers or young cast never experienced first-hand: Section 28 was introduced in 1988, the year Oakley was born. Yet it feels plucked from that time, leaning heavily into its period, for better and only occasionally worse.” “Blue Jean is a gorgeously presented, stirringly performed slice of British queer history that announces director Georgia Oakley and actor Rosy McEwen as major talents to watch.”
NME; “5 stars. A brutal portrait of Thatcher’s homophobic Britain.” “Newcomer Rosy McEwen stars in one of the year’s most moving films.” “It’s a powerful and poignant film that is no mere period piece.”
Financial Times; “Rosy McEwen is a revelation in this punchy drama.” “The feature debut of writer-director Georgia Oakley, Blue Jean has a crisply ironed script that fits its subject snugly.”
iNews; “A closeted teacher navigates Thatcher’s Britain in this big-hearted debut.” “Tender and bittersweet, this is a film in which moral conservatism and hunger for freedom clashes in every shot.”
