About

Biography

Portrait of Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, photo by Joseph Lynn
Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard are London-based artists and filmmakers. They met and began working collaboratively as students at Goldsmiths in the mid-nineties. Their first feature film, 20,000 Days on Earth, premiered at Sundance in January 2014, winning directing and editing awards. The film, featuring Nick Cave, was also nominated for a BAFTA, an Independent Spirit Award and for three British Independent Film Awards, winning the Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director. In 2025 their film Broken English, about Marianne Faithfull, premiered at the Venice International Film Festival.

Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard are London-based artists and filmmakers. They met and began working collaboratively as students at Goldsmiths in the mid-nineties. Their first feature film, 20,000 Days on Earth, premiered at Sundance in January 2014, winning directing and editing awards. The film, featuring Nick Cave, was also nominated for a BAFTA, an Independent Spirit Award and for three British Independent Film Awards, winning the Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director. In 2025 their film Broken English, about Marianne Faithfull, premiered at the Venice International Film Festival.

Their work as artists is collected by museums worldwide, including the Tate Gallery, Arts Council Collection, Government Art Collection and Museum De Hallen Haarlem. Their work has been commissioned by institutions including the British Film Institute, Channel 4, BBC, Institute of Contemporary Arts and the City of Toronto.

Iain born Manchester, UK, 1973
Jane born Newcastle, UK, 1972

BA Fine Art & Art Theory, Goldsmiths, 1992-95
MA Fine Art, Goldsmiths, 2002-04

News

47 items

Press

130 items
Features · Interviews · Reviews · Video & Audio

Podcasts

12 items

Collaborators

Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard’s highly collaborative practice sees the same people returning, over years and across different kinds of projects. Open the names below to find out more about their regular collaborators.

A

A Mexican and American novelist, writer and activist

B

Typography and creative studio, based in London, renowned for their work with Art Basel and David Bowie, who first worked with Iain & Jane on The Horror Show

Musician (Savages and solo artist) and actor who first collaborated on Requiem for 114 Radios

British graphic designer and calligrapher, whom Iain & Jane met while he was working with Vaughan Oliver at V23 for 4AD

C

British actor and film director, who first worked with Iain & Jane in Radio Mania

Key to shifting Iain & Jane's practice from art into film, they have worked with each other since 2008 on a spectrum of projects

British film editor who first worked on The Extraordinary Miss Flower

Commissioned Kiss My Nauman for his Meltdown in 2007, a regular collaborator on film and music projects.

D

A post-production company that champions independent filmmaking and has worked across Iain & Jane's practice since 2014

E

Film Producer at Rustic Canyon who brought the Marianne Faithfull film to Iain & Jane

Australian musician and composer, member of Dirty Three and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, who has performed in and scored multiple projects with Iain & Jane.

British novelist and short story writer who has collaborated on scripts for films and art projects.

F

English comedian, actor, writer, television personality, and artist who played Alice Cooper in 'The Dali & The Cooper'

G

Commissioned all of Forsyth & Pollard's early live art performance projects at the ICA.

H

British music and portrait photographer who has comprehensively documented Iain & Jane's work

K

Versatile British comedian and actor, who started as the character Dennis Pennis on The Sunday Show

L

British writer, actor and musician, long-time collaborator of Iain & Jane. Almost a mascot.

A psychoanalyst and a member of the Centre for Freudian Analysis and Research who first collaborated on 20,000 Days on Earth

L

English broadcaster, writer, and comedian, first worked on Performer. Audience. Fuck off.

M

The acclaimed British actor has become a regular collaborator and muse to Iain & Jane.

Scottish musician, formerly of Superstar, BMX Bandits and Boy Hairdressers who worked collaboratively with Iain & Jane on EDIT

British actor, author and comedian who has both wriiten for and performed in Iain & Jane's work

N

NYX are an electronic drone choir led by Sian O'Gorman who first met Iain & Jane working on the performance film, Deep England

O

A psychologist specialising in parapsychology and forensic psychology who has collaborated on projects and research since Silent Sound

British musician who taught herself to sing by listening to Marianne Faithfull's 'As Tears Go By'

P

Acoustic specialist and Arup Fellow who has collaborated on numerous projects since Silent Sound in 2006.

London-based artist, designer, member of Klanghaus and long term collaborator of Iain & Jane's

S

Legendary American poet, singer, musician and author who Iain & Jane met in 2009 working on his last album I'm New Here

English musician, frontman of the band Spiritualized and Spacemen 3 who worked with Iain & Jane on Silent Sound

British editor who has collaborated with Iain & Jane since 2017

T

A British cinematographer, member of the British Society of Cinematographers and graduate of the National Film and Television School.

Collaborated on several projects, for her band Daughter, and as a solo artist under the name Ex:Re

W

Iain & Jane met Scott through the 4AD record label and went on to work with him on an ambitious ambisonic piece for Sydney Opera House

An acclaimed Norwegian cinematographer and an accredited member of the British Society of Cinematographers, who first worked on 20,000 Days on Earth

CV

7 films & TV · 42 exhibitions · 158 publications
Latest Film
2025
Broken English — Director and co-writers. Rustic Canyon and Phantoscopic
Latest Exhibition
2026
Miseris Succurrere Disco. Fitzrovia Chapel, London (curated by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard)
Latest Publication
2026
Kermode, Mark. 'Broken English at the Provence Arts Festival du Film'. Kermode on Film (podcast). 18 August

Portraits

Portrait of Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, photo by Joseph Lynn
Photo: Joseph Lynn
Download hi-res (ZIP)
Portrait of Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, photo by Joseph Lynn
Photo: Joseph Lynn
Download hi-res (ZIP)
Portrait of Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, photo by Paul Heartfield
Photo: Paul Heartfield
Download hi-res (ZIP)
Portrait of Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, photo by Paul Heartfield
Photo: Paul Heartfield
Download hi-res (ZIP)
Portrait of Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, photo by Joseph Lynn
Photo: Joseph Lynn
Download hi-res (ZIP)
Portrait of Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, photo by Joseph Lynn
Photo: Joseph Lynn
Download hi-res (ZIP)

Contact

Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard
South Wing, Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA
Agent & Manager
Josh Varney at 42
Palladium House, Argyll Street, London W1F 7TA
+44 (0)20 7292 0554
joshvarney@42mp.com
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Commercials
magna studios
UK: Jack Smith
US: Nick Fuller
jack.smith@magnastudios.com
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'Broken English' Film Sales
Global Constellation
Image Licensing
Artimage
DACS, 33 Old Bethnal Green Road, London E2 6AA
+44 (0)20 7780 7550
licensing@dacs.org.uk
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Moving Image Distribution For Museums And Galleries
LUX
Waterlow Park Centre, Dartmouth Park Hill, London, N19 5JF
+44 (0)20 3141 2961
distribution@lux.org.uk
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