Sense and Sensibility premiered in Hollywood, CA on 4 December 1995.
Producer Lindsay Doran began thinking about adapting Jane Austen's 1811 novel for the screen in 1989, and looking for a suitable writer, she came across the comedic sketches written by Emma Thompson. Doran and Thompson would work together on 1991's Dead Again, and a week after completing that film, Doran approached Thompson (who had never written a film script before).
Thompson spent 5 years writing the screenplay (her first draft was more than 300 pages) and credits Doran with teaching her the craft of screenwriting.
Doran then hired Ang Lee to direct (although he was not familiar with Jane Austen). "The idea of a foreign director was intellectually appealing even though it was very scary to have someone who didn't have English as his first language," Doran recalled.
"I thought they were crazy," Lee said. "I was brought up in Taiwan, what do I know about 19th-century England? About halfway through the script it started to make sense why they chose me. In my films I've been trying to mix social satire and family drama. I realised that all along I had been trying to do Jane Austen without knowing it. Jane Austen was my destiny."
Sense and Sensibility was the first English-language film adaptation of a Jane Austen novel in 50 years, and it was both a commercial and critical success. It appeared on numerous "best of" lists at the end of the year and receive numerous awards and nominations, including 7 Academy Award nominations (Best Picture, Best Actress for Emma Thompson, Best Supporting Actress for Kate Winslet, Best Cinematography for Michael Coulter, Best Original Score for Patrick Doyle, and Best Costume Design for Jenny Beavan and John Bright).
Emma Thompson received the only Oscar, for Best Adapted Screenplay, making her the first person to receive the award for both acting and writing (she received Best Actress for 1993's Howard's End).
