Directed by Stephen Frears (The Grifters, My Beautiful Launderette), Dirty Pretty Things is a gritty urban thriller starring Audrey Tautou (Amelie) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Amistad, This Year’s Love). Set in the underground world of asylum seekers and refugees in a London that most people never see, Dirty Pretty Things tells the story of an African night porter (Ejiofor) who enlists the help of a Turkish chambermaid (Tautou) to solve a bizarre murder.

Since its debut at the 2002 Venice Film Festival where it was in competition and where director Stephen Frears won the Sergio Trassatti Award, Dirty Pretty Things has garnered a total of nine awards and was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 76th Annual Academy Awards for its script by Steven Knight.

Awards include Best British Independent Film, Best Director and Best Actor at The British Independent Film Awards, Best Cinema at The South Bank Show Awards, the Humanitas Prize 2004 for Steve Knight's script, and Best Film and Best Actor at The Evening Standard Film Awards.

The film has been met with universal critical acclaim:

"Steven Knight's script for Dirty Pretty Things is one of the best and most influential to emerge from Britain in the past decade."
David Gritten, The Daily Telegraph
28.01.04

“Another masterpiece from Frears.”
Baz Bamigboye, The Daily Mail
06.09.02

“Dirty Pretty Things is a film with a social heartbeat that pumps much needed new blood into British cinema.”
Alexander Walker, Evening Standard
06.09.02

“The excitement surrounding the Frears’s movie gives a much-needed shot in the arm to the UK industry…..The British film world has also found a scriptwriter to rival Richard Curtis of Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill fame – Steve Knight, co-creator of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?”
Hugh Davies, Daily Telegraph
07.09.02

“Though there are some brutally bleak moments in the film (including the preliminaries of a surgical operation that are not for the queasy), it also has a sense of humour and, ultimately, an air of unforced optimism that is testimony to the skills of the writer and director, who managed to leaven their message without compromising its import.”
David Stratton, Variety
10.09.02