Anthony Minghella, CBE was an English film director, playwright and screenwriter. Born on the Isle of Wight in 1984, he was Chairman of the Board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007. His plays include Whale Music, Two Planks and a Passion, A Little Like Drowning (for which he won the Critics Award for Most Promising Playwright, 1984), Made in Bangkok (for which he won the Critics Award for Best New Play, 1986), Hang Up, Cigarettes and Chocolate, and Eyes Down Looking. He was an Oscar-winning director, famous for his adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's novel, The English Patient (1996). He died in 2008. Michael Ondaatje was born in Sri Lanka and lives in Toronto.  The English Patient won the Booker Prize in 1992 and was made into an Oscar-winning film directed by Anthony Minghella.