Biography

Sonita is an independent filmmaker based in London. Her heritage is central to her storytelling. As a daughter of migrant parents, elevating the stories of migrants and marginalised communities is at the forefront of her work.

Hostile, her feature-length directorial debut, premiered at Raindance Film Festival in October 2021. The film exposes the UK's hostile immigration system and sheds light on the human cost of these inhumane policies. Hostile was longlisted both for a BAFTA in the category of Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer, and for three BIFAs in the categories of Best Debut Director, Best Documentary and for the Raindance Discovery Award, and was selected for over 30 international festivals worldwide, including Melbourne Documentary Film Festival and ZagrebDox.

Over the last two years, the impact campaign for Hostile has made significant progress, with over 300 screenings in its first phase. The second phase of the campaign is to bring awareness to the human cost of Home Office policies to a broader swathe of people, with a particular emphasis on young people, local communities and policymakers.

Prior to her debut film, she collaborated with talents such as 2020 Golden Globe-winner Brian Cox. Sonita's first project with Galeforce Films, Andrew Carnegie: Rags to Riches, Power to Peace premiered at the 2015 Edinburgh International Film festival. Other Credits include International Health Service (2020) with Emmy and BAFTA-nominated Director Ursula Macfarlane, and the lockdown comedy web-series Happy Epidemic (2020)

She sat on the jury for the 2023 BAFTAs, in the category of Best Documentary, alongside host Jason Solomons and other acclaimed figures within the industry. Sonita also participated in the BIFA Springboard programme designed to support writers, directors and producers to continue and develop their careers after producing a first feature.

Sonita is currently immersed in the next phase of her filmmaking journey. She is in the process of writing her debut short film which she plans to film in the next year, and is in the process of developing a full-length feature based on this short.

Sonita is developing the story of Andrew Carnegie into a feature film, co-produced with Nicole Ansari. It will feature Brian Cox as the lead, who is also serving as the executive producer. She and her production team are also in the early stages of filming her next documentary, which is currently in pre-production.

- IMDb mini biography by: Sonita Gale