Lindsay Anderson (1923-1994) was a British director, critic, and documentary filmmaker, a prominent figure in post-war British cinema. A pioneer of the Free Cinema movement, which promoted a social realism focused on everyday life, he gained his first major recognition by winning the Academy Award for the documentary short film *Thursday's Children* (1954), co-directed with Guy Brenton. His feature film debut, *This Sporting Life* (1963), is considered a masterpiece of the British New Wave. His international fame is primarily linked to *If....* (1968), an iconoclastic and surreal film that earned him the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and inaugurated the satirical trilogy starring actor Malcolm McDowell. His career, characterized by a sharp critique of British institutions and society, also included extensive work in theatre, particularly at the Royal Court Theatre, and concluded with the film *The Whales of August* (1987).