Rita Osei
Born in North London, England to Ghanaian parents, Rita initially trained as a painter and graduated from Camberwell College of Arts with a Joint Honours BA in Visual Arts, where she made her first films. Her debut feature, a rites-of-passage adventure BLISS! starring Freya Parks, had its World Premiere at Edinburgh International Film Festival. Rita directed 2nd Unit on the closing 2 episodes of SISTER/HBO/Sky series, THE BABY. She is developing long form work for Film and TV. Short film directing credits include Screen South part funded THE CURRY CLUB starring Cleo Sylvestre MBE, Ruth Sheen, Claire-Louise Cordwell and Olivier Award Winner Kenneth Cranham CBE and the upcoming AURORA where: "A peri-menopausal vampire is on a quest to kill a habit that won't die". Rita Chaired BAFTA's 2022, 2023 & 2024 British Short Film Award Juries. She is the creator and curator of 225 Film Club, a short film festival "Promoting Female Excellence In Direction" supported by the British Film Institute and LipSync Post. She produced award winning animation for Turner Broadcasting Europe (Cartoon Network, Boomerang, TCM) for 7 years and founded Sugar & Water Films to produce her first short film, Threesome. It screened in the Calling Card Program at Telluride Film Festival and was nominated for a Stella Screen Award. Threesome was distributed by Sky Movies and Canal +.
