Oscar Legends: The Complete Collection
Rows 1-624: Directors
Rows 625-795: Animation Creators
Rows 796-1011: Script Writers
Rows 1012-1174: Producers
Rows 1175-1217: Film Crew/Directors
Rows 1218-1328: Acting and Film Makers
Finally for what is not on the list are famous Best Picture or any Best Feature Film nominated film studios and their Academy Award films that they did work on, that are:
* American Zoetrope (The Godfather, American Graffiti, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation, Star Wars: Episode IV- A New Hope, Apocalypse Now, The Black Stallion, Kagemusha, Dragonslayer, One from the Heart, The Cotton Club, Graffiti, Peggy Sue Got Married, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, The Godfather Part III, Dracula, Don Juan DeMarco, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, My Family, Sleepy Hollow, Being John Malkovich, Lost in Translation, Kinsey, Syriana, The Good Shepherd and Marie Antoinette)
* Regency Enterprises (Brazil, Legend, Pretty Woman, JFK, The Mambo Kings, Under Siege, Six Degrees of Separation, The Client, L.A. Confidential, Fight Club, Bridget Jones' Diary, Unfaithful, Fantastic Mr. Fox, 12 Years a Slave, Philomena, Gone Girl, Birdman, The Revenant, The Big Short, Bohemian Rhapsody, Marriage Story, The Lighthouse, Ad Astra, Little Women (2019) and The Creator)
* Village Roadshow Pictures (The Matrix, Space Cowboys, Training Day, Mystic River, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Happy Feet, Sherlock Holmes, The Great Gatsby, The Lego Movie, The Judge, American Sniper, Mad Max: Fury Road, Sully, Passengers, Ready Player One, Joker and Elvis)
* Alcon Entertainment (The Affair of the Necklace, The Blind Side, Prisoners, Arrival and Blade Runner 2049)
* Plan B Entertainment (Troy, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Departed, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Tree of Life, Moneyball, 12 Years a Slave, Selma, The Big Short, Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk, Vice, Ad Astra, Minari, Blonde and Women Talking)
* Legendary Pictures (Batman Begins, Superman Returns, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Town, Interstellar, Unbroken, Steve Jobs, Straight Outta Compton, Carne y Arena, Kong: Skull Island, BlacKkKlansman and Dune: Part One)
* Bold Films (Drive, Whiplash and Nightcrawler)
* RatPac-Dune Entertainment/Access Entertainment (The Devil Wears Prada, Borat, Australia, Crazy Heart, Avatar, 127 Hours, Black Swan, Unstoppable, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Mirror Mirror, Prometheus, Life of Pi, Hitchcock, Lincoln, The Sessions, Gravity, The Lego Movie, The Judge, Inherent Vice, American Sniper, Birdman, Mad Max: Fury Road, Creed, The Revenant, Suicide Squad, Sully, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Kong: Skull Island, Dunkirk, The Disaster Artist, Ready Player One, Zack Snyder's Justice League and The Zone of Interest)
* Caravan Pictures/Spyglass Entertainment (The Sixth Sense, The Insider, Seabiscuit, Memoirs of a Geisha, Wanted, Star Trek and Invictus)
* TSG Entertainment (The Book Thief, Wild, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Gone Girl, Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Bridge of Spies, Joy, The Martian, Hidden Figures, Logan, War for the Planet of the Apes, The Post, The Shape of Water, The Greatest Showman, Bohemian Rhapsody, Ford v Ferrari, Ad Astra, Jojo Rabbit, Free Guy, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, West Side Story, Nightmare Alley, The Banshees of Inisherin, Empire of Light, Avatar: The Way of Water, Napoleon and Poor Things)
* Imagine Entertainment (Willow, Parenthood, Backdraft, The Paper, Apollo 13, The Nutty Professor, Life, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Beautiful Mind, 8 Mile, Cinderella Man, American Gangster, Changeling, Frost/Nixon, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Hillbilly Elegy and tick, tick...BOOM!)
* Working Title Films (My Beautiful Laundrette, Wild at Heart, Barton Fink, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Dead Man Walking, Fargo, Elizabeth, Billy Elliot, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Bridget Jones's Diary, The Man Who Wasn't There, About a Boy, Thirteen, Pride & Prejudice, United 93, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Atonement, Frost/Nixon, A Serious Man, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Anna Karenina, Les Misérables, The Theory of Everything, The Danish Girl, "Hail, Caesar!", Baby Driver, Victoria & Abdul, Darkest Hour, Mary Queen of Scots, Emma. and Cyrano)
* Media Rights Capital (Babel, Ted, Foxcatcher, Baby Driver, Knives Out and American Fiction)
* Phoenix Pictures (The People vs. Larry Flynt, The Mirror Has Two Faces, The Thin Red Line and Black Swan)
* Cross Creek Pictures (Black Swan, The Ides of March, Hacksaw Ridge, Roman J. Israel, Esq. and The Trial of the Chicago 7)
* New Republic Pictures (Rocketman, 1917, Coming 2 America and Top Gun: Maverick)
* Lakeshore Entertainment (Million Dollar Baby)
* Relativity Media (Monster House, The Pursuit of Happyness, 3:10 to Yuma, Atonement, American Gangster, Charlie Wilson's War, Wanted, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Frost/Nixon, A Serious Man, Nine, The Wolfman, Salt, The Social Network, The Fighter, Bridesmaids, Anonymous, Mirror Mirror, Les Misérables and Beyond the Lights)
* Jersey Films (Hoffa, Pulp Fiction, Gattaca, Out of Sight and Erin Brockovich)
* Castle Rock Entertainment (When Harry Met Sally..., Misery, City Slickers, A Few Good Men, Mr. Saturday Night, In the Line of Fire, The Shawshank Redemption, The American President, Ghosts of Mississippi, Lone Star, Hamlet (1996), Jackie Brown, The Green Mile, A Mighty Wind, Before Sunset, The Polar Express, Michael Clayton and Before Midnight)
* Mandalay Pictures (Donnie Brasco, Sleepy Hollow and The Kids Are All Right)
* Malpaso Productions (Paint Your Wagon, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer, Heartbreak Ridge, The Algonquin Round Table: The Ten Year Lunch, Bird, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, Unforgiven, The Bridges of Madison County, Space Cowboys, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Changeling, Invictus, Hereafter, American Sniper, Sully, A Star Is Born (2018) and Richard Jewell)
* Brooksfilms (The Elephant Man, My Favorite Year, Frances, To Be or Not to Be, The Fly and Empire of Light)
* Jolie Pas Productions (Maleficent, Unbroken, The Breadwinner, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and The One and Only Ivan)
* Scott Rudin Productions (Flatliners, The Addams Family, Searching for Bobby Fischer, The Firm, Addams Family Values, Nobody's Fool, Sabrina, The First Wives Club, Marvin's Room, In & Out, The Truman Show, A Civil Action, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Angela's Ashes, Wonder Boys, The Hours, The Village, Closer, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Queen, Notes on a Scandal, Venus, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Doubt, Revolutionary Road, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Julie & Julia, The Social Network, The Way Back, True Grit, Moneyball, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Moonrise Kingdom, Captain Phillips, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Inherent Vice, Ex Machina, Steve Jobs, Fences, Lady Bird and Isle of Dogs)
* Sidney Kimmel Entertainment (United 93, Lars and the Real Girl, The Kite Runner, Moneyball and Hell or High Water)
* Bing Crosby Productions/Rysher Entertainment (Road to Rio, High Society, High Time, The Magic Pear Tree, Ben, The Great Santini and Primal Fear)
* GK Films (Traffic, Ali, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Blood Diamond, The Young Victoria, The Town, Rango, Hugo, Argo, Allied and Bohemian Rhapsody)
* Mirage Enterprises (Absence of Malice, Tootsie, Out of Africa, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Havana, The Firm, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Sense and Sensibility, Sabrina, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Iris, The Quiet American, Cold Mountain, Michael Clayton and The Reader)
* Recorded Picture Company (The Last Emperor, Sexy Beast, Pina, Kon-Tiki, Pinocchio and EO)
* Scott Free Productions (Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, American Gangster, Unstoppable, Prometheus, The Martian, All the Money in the World, Blade Runner 2049, House of Gucci and Napoleon)
* HandMade Films (Images, Runaway Train, Mona Lisa, 127 Hours and Empire of Light)
* Virgin Films (A Shocking Accident, Salvador, "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" and The Impossible)
* Rhino Films (The Panama Deception and The Sessions)
* MTV Films (Election, Tupac: Resurrection, Hustle & Flow, Murderball, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, St. Louis Superman, Hunger Ward, Love and Monsters, Ascension, The ABCs of Book Banning and The Eternal Memory)
* CBS Films (The Reivers, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, Little Big Man, Scrooge, Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?, The Little Ark, Inside Llewyn Davis, Hell or High Water, At Eternity's Gate and The Holdovers)
* Senator Film Produktion (Heavenly Creatures, The Motorcycle Diaries, Joyeux Noel and Loveless)
* Constantin Film Produktion (Dancer in the Dark, Nowhere in Africa, Downfall, The Baader Meinhof Complex and Paris 36)
* Bioskop Film (The Tin Drum)
* Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) (Hundertwassers Regentag, A Simple Story, The Boat Is Full, The Revolt of Job, Angry Harvest, Colonel Redl, Hanussen, The Nasty Girl, Breaking the Waves, One Day in September, Bowling for Columbine, The Man Without a Past, The Counterfeiters, The Gruffalo, Pina, The Act of Killing, Room on the Broom, The Look of Silence, Mustang, Land of Mine, Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah, The Square (2017), A Fantastic Woman, Quo vadis, Aida?, The Man Who Sold His Skin, When We Were Bullies, Triangle of Sadness, Four Daughters and The Teachers' Lounge)
* Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) (The Sorrow and the Pity, Downfall, The Baader Meinhof Complex and Citizenfour)
* Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) (Das Boot, Schtonk, The Dutch Master, Dancer in the Dark, Winged Migration, Downfall, Darwin's Nightmare, Amour, Toni Erdmann and Loveless)
* Hessischer Rundfunk (Mephisto and Bagdad Cafe)
* Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) (The Glass Cell, Marlene, 38, Bagdad Cafe, Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Algonquin Round Table: The Ten Year Lunch, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, Europa Europa, Beyond Silence, The Story of the Weeping Camel, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, The Lives of Others, The Baader Meinhof Complex, The White Ribbon, Amour, Citizenfour and Never Look Away)
* Studio Babelsberg (Jacob the Liar, A Chef in Love, Kleingeld, The Pianist, The Constant Gardener, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Counterfeiters, The Reader, Inglourious Basterds, In Darkness, Anonymous, The Book Thief, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Bridge of Spies, Never Look Away and Isle of Dogs)
* Pathé (Children of Paradise, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Ballon vole, La Dolce Vita, "Over There, 1914-18", The Leopard, Automania 2000, That's Me, Le poulet, Woman in the Dunes, Time Piece, The War Game, Clay or The Origin of Species, Mural on Our Street, Help! My Snowman's Burning Down, Hypothese Beta, The Anderson Platoon, My Night at Maud's, Queen Margot, Angela's Ashes, The Taste of Others, Lost in Translation, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Chorus, The Queen, Mrs. Henderson Presents, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Slumdog Millionaire, The Duchess, Tropic Thunder, Paris 36, Bright Star, 127 Hours, The Illusionist, The Iron Lady, The Great Beauty, Philomena, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Selma, Youth, Judy, Minari, Parallel Mothers, The Lost Daughter, CODA, Fire of Love, Babylon, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio and Io capitano)
* Canal+ (Hamlet (1990), Terminator 2, JFK, Indochinhe, The Mambo Kings, Under Siege, Basic Instinct, Damage, Chaplin, Cliffhanger, The Scent of Green Papaya, Queen Margot, Three Colors: Red, Farinelli, Burnt by the Sun, Il Postino, A Chef in Love, Ridicule, The Thief, Secrets of the Heart, Central Station, East/West, The Straight Story, Himalaya, Humdrum, U-571, Everybody's Famous!, The Taste of Others, Vatel, Dancer in the Dark, Amélie, No Man's Land, Mulholland Dr., Winged Migration, The Pianist, The Man Without a Past, The Barbarian Invasions, The Triplets of Belleville, The Chorus, The Sea Inside, A Very Long Engagement, Joyeux Noel, March of the Penguins, Days of Glory, The Mozart of Pickpockets, The Queen, La Vie en Rose, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Class, Paris 36, Coco Before Chanel, Logorama, The Secret of Kells, The White Ribbon, A Prophet, The Illusionist, Outside the Law, The Artist, Albert Nobbs, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Amour, The Invisible War, The Great Beauty, Just Before Losing Everything, Philomena, Ida, Timbuktu, Mr. Turner, "Two Days, One Night", Wild Tales, The Lobster, Mustang, Youth, My Life as a Zucchini, The Red Turtle, Elle, Dunkirk, Loveless, The Insult, Faces Places, Cold War, Pain and Glory, Les Misérables (2019), The Father, Wolfwalkers, Pinocchio, No Time to Die, Close, Triangle of Sadness, Io capitano, Anatomy of a Fall and Robot Dreams)
* France 3 (Black and White in Color, A Simple Story, Ridicule, East/West, Amélie, Dancer in the Dark, Winged Migration, The Triplets of Belleville, Days of Glory, The Queen, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Persepolis, Paris 36, The White Ribbon, The Illusionist, Outside the Law, A Cat in Paris, The Artist, Amour, Mr. Turner, My Life as a Zucchini, Genius Loci and No Time to Die)
* France 2 (Birdnesters of Thailand, Queen Margot, Farinelli, All About My Mother, Himalaya, The Taste of Others, Murder on a Sunday Morning, Winged Migration, The Chorus, Days of Glory, Paris 36, The Class, The Secret of Kells, Coco Before Chanel, A Prophet, Outside the Law, The Great Beauty, "Two Days, One Night", Youth, Elle, Nefta Football Club and Anatomy of a Fall)
* TF1 (The Last Metro, My American Uncle, Three Men and a Cradle, Cinema Paradiso, Vatel, A Very Long Engagement, Joyeux Noel, La Vie en Rose and Fire of Love)
* Gaumont (A Cage of Nightingales, Mon Oncle, Il Generale Della Rovere, Cousin Cousine, To Forget Venice, My American Uncle, Three Brothers, Dangerous Moves, Betty Blue, Camille Claudel, The Fifth Element, Vatel, Atonement, Hugo, Babylon and Fire of Love)
* RAI (The Family, Dark Eyes, Au Revoir les Enfants, Cinema Paradiso, Open Doors, The Star Maker, No Man's Land, Downfall, Don't Tell, I Am Love, Fire at Sea, Never Look Away, Pinocchio and Io Capitano)
* Mediaset (Umberto D., Farinelli, The Great Beauty, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Youth and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)
* Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica (La Strada, War and Peace, The Nights of Cabiria, The Great War, The Agony and the Ecstasy, The Bible: In the Beginning..., Romeo and Juliet, Serpico, Three Days of the Condor, King Kong, The Shootist, The Brink's Job, Ragtime, Dune, Pirates, Blue Velvet, Crimes of the Heart, Buster, Backdraft, DragonHeart, Daylight and U-571)
* Cecchi Gori Group Tiger Cinematografica (Sunset, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Mediterraneo, Il Postino, Se7en, The Star Maker, Life Is Beautiful and Silence)
* Medusa Film (Seven Beauties, Trainspotting, Fight Club, Malena, Gosford Park, The Great Beauty and Youth)
* Cineplex-Odeon Films (The Decline of the American Empire, Bagdad Cafe, Street Smart, Dark Eyes, The Last Temptation of Christ, Jesus of Montreal, My Left Foot, The Grifters and Mr. & Mrs. Bridge)
* BRON Studios (Fences, Roman J. Israel, Esq., Joker, Bombshell, Pieces of a Woman, Greyhound, Judas and the Black Messiah, House of Gucci, Cyrano, Licorice Pizza and Babylon)
* RT Features (Call Me by Your Name, Ad Astra and The Lighthouse)
* VideoFilmes (Central Station and City of God)
* Patagonik Film Group (Evita and Son of the Bride)
* Bitters End (Drive My Car and Perfect Days)
* CJ Entertainment (August Rush, Parasite and Past Lives)
* Anonymous Content (21 Grams, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Babel, Winter's Bone, Spotlight, The Revenant, The Wife, The Midnight Sky, Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths and The Boy and the Heron)
* Tollin/Robbins Productions (Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream and Norbit)
* Davis Entertainment (Predator, The Firm, Waterworld, Daylight, "I, Robot", Norbit, Joy and Ferdinand)
* Palomar Pictures/Edgar J. Scherick Associates (For Love of Ivy, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", Murmur of the Heart, Sleuth, The Heartbreak Kid, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin' and Rambling Rose)
* Home Box Office (HBO) (A Passage to India, Soldiers in Hiding, Down and Out in America, Ironweed, The Appointments of Dennis Jennings, You Don't Have to Die, Crack USA: County Under Siege, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, Chimps: So Like Us, I Am a Promise: The Children of Stanton Elementary School, Family Video Diaries: Daughter of the Bride, 4 Little Girls, Amistad, The Canterbury Tales, Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth, Legacy, Murder on a Sunday Morning, LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Bowling for Columbine, Chernobyl Heart, Capturing the Friedmans, American Splendor, Maria Full of Grace, Yesterday, Twist of Faith, A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin, The Blood of Yingzhou District, The Departed, Borat, Smile Pinki, Tropic Thunder, The Conscience of Nhem En, The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, Which Way Home, China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province, GasLand, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, Mondays at Racine, Saving Face, God Is the Bigger Elvis, Dirty Wars, Blue Jasmine, Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall, Iron Man 3, Citizenfour, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, Creed, O.J.: Made in America, Jim: The James Foley Story, Traffic Stop, RBG, Collective, Judas and the Black Messiah, Zack Snyder's Justice League, Malignant, The Suicide Squad, When We Were Bullies, King Richard, Please Hold, Dune: Part One, How Do You Measure a Year?, All That Breathes, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Navalny and The Creator)
* Showtime Network (Gods and Monsters, Tupac: Resurrection, Animal Kingdom and Attica)
* Comedy Central (South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Bowling for Columbine, The Big Short and Don't Look Up)
* British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (The War Game, Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Algonquin Round Table: The Ten Year Lunch, Henry V, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, The Wrong Trousers, Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life, A Close Shave, Anne Frank Remembered, Twelve Monkeys, Independence Day, Jerry Maguire, The Old Lady and the Pigeons, The Canterbury Tales, Primary Colors, Gods and Monsters, A Simple Plan, Hilary and Jackie, One Day in September, Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann, Wonder Boys, Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, Billy Elliot, Shadow of the Vampire, Prisoner of Paradise, Bowling for Columbine, Dirty Pretty Things, The Triplets of Belleville, Match Point, Mrs. Henderson Presents, Notes on a Scandal, The Good Shepherd, Marie Antoinette, Venus, Eastern Promises, American Gangster, Across the Universe, Charlie Wilson's War, Waltz with Bashir, This Way Up, Man on Wire, The Duchess, Revolutionary Road, Milk, An Education, The Cove, Invictus, In the Loop, Bright Star, The Gruffalo, 127 Hours, Jane Eyre, My Week with Marilyn, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Skyfall, The Invisible Woman, Room on the Broom, Philomena, Saving Mr. Banks, Brooklyn, Amy, Florence Foster Jenkins, Victoria & Abdul, Bohemian Rhapsody, Ad Astra, Judy, The Power of the Dog, Belfast, Aftersun, Fire of Love, Avatar: The Way of Water, Triangle of Sadness, Empire of Light, "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse" and The Creator)
* Sky Cinema (Il supplente, Il Divo, Iron Man 3, The Imitation Game and The United States vs. Billie Holiday)
* American Broadcasting Company (ABC)/Disney–ABC Domestic Television (Man in Space, Charly, For Love of Ivy, Krakatoa: East of Java, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", Lovers and Other Strangers, A Christmas Carol, Straw Dogs, Kotch, Cabaret, Nashville, Silkwood, Prizzi's Honor, Journey Into Life: The World of the Unborn, Marvin's Room, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Invictus, The Messenger, Iron Man 3, Nebraska, 20 Feet from Stardom, Ford v Ferrari, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Licorice Pizza and My Year of Dicks)
* National Broadcasting Company (NBC)/NBCUniversal Television Distribution (Say Goodbye, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Splash, Little Shop of Horrors, Scrooged, Avalon, Forrest Gump, Crimson Tide, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, Vanilla Sky, American Splendor, Twin Towers, Lost in Translation, A Mighty Wind, Julie & Julia, Bridesmaids and RBG)
* Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, Back to the Future, Little Shop of Horrors, Crimson Tide, Jerry Maguire, I Am Sam, Vanilla Sky, Catch Me If You Can, An Inconvenient Truth, Salt, Argo, American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street, Beyond the Lights, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Straight Outta Compton, The Martian, Vice, Ready Player One, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Being the Ricardos, Belfast, Elvis, The Whale and The Fabelmans)
* Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (Front Line, Generation on the Wind, Just Another Missing Kid, The Day After Trinity, Brooklyn Bridge, El Norte, Testament, Children of Darkness, Unfinished Business, The Statue of Liberty, Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Algonquin Round Table: The Ten Year Lunch, Bridge to Freedom: 1965, Stand and Deliver, Longtime Companion, Days of Waiting, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, When Abortion Was Illegal: Untold Stories, Liberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II, D-Day Remembered, Hoop Dreams, My Family, The Battle Over Citizen Kane, Scottsboro: An American Tragedy, Sound and Fury, Prisoner of Paradise, Last Days in Vietnam, Interstellar, Abacus: Small Enough for Jail, RBG, For Sama and 20 Days in Mariupol)
* WGBH (Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel with the World, The Bostonians, Radio Bikini, D-Day Remembered, Special Effects: Anything Can Happen, The Battle Over Citizen Kane, Mrs. Brown, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Encounters at the End of the World, "Food, Inc.", Julie & Julia, Abacus: Small Enough for Jail and For Sama)
* Discovery Communications/Warner Bros. Discovery (Crimson Tide, Face/Off, On the Ropes, Talk to Her, Taxi to the Dark Side, Man on Wire, Encounters at the End of the World, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Nebraska, Lone Survivor, Racing Extinction, Hillbilly Elegy and The Whale)
* National Geographic (Instinct for Survival, Journey to the Outer Limits, Ape and Super-Ape, The Incredible Machine, Jaws, The Deep, For All Mankind, Birdnesters of Thailand, Blues Highway, L.A. Confidential, Bowling for Columbine, The Story of the Weeping Camel, March of the Penguins, Restrepo, The Way Back, Chasing Ice, Free Solo, Ad Astra, The Cave, Fire of Love and Bobi Wine: The People’s President)
* The Ladd Company (Outland, Chariots of Fire, Blade Runner, The Right Stuff, Braveheart and Gone Baby Gone)
* Annapurna Pictures (The Master, Zero Dark Thirty, The Grandmaster, Her, American Hustle, Foxcatcher, Joy, 20th Century Women, Phantom Thread, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Vice, Missing Link, Bombshell, House of Gucci and Nimona)
* Revolution Studios (Enemies: A Love Story, Young Guns II, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Last of the Mohicans, Black Hawk Down, Click, The Good Shepherd, Across the Universe, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Up in the Air, The Young Victoria, Black Swan, Hugo, The Ides of March, Hitchcock, Straight Outta Compton and All the Money in the World)
* DC Comics/Entertainment (Superman, Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Catch Me If You Can, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, The Dark Knight, Suicide Squad, Joker, Zack Snyder's Justice League, The Suicide Squad and The Batman)
* Dark Horse Comics (The Mask, American Splendor and Hellboy II: The Golden Army)
* Scholastic (Doctor DeSoto, The Golden Compass and Boyhood)
* Dick Clark Productions (Taxi Driver, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, Peggy Sue Got Married, When Harry Met Sally..., Sleepless in Seattle, Forrest Gump, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Beyond the Lights and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)
* The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Two Arabian Knights, The Racket, Prelude to War, The Bad and the Beautiful, Susan Slept Here, A Star Is Born (1954), Rear Window, Vertigo, Spartacus, My Fair Lady, The Oscar, California Suite, Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Algonquin Round Table: The Ten Year Lunch, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, Chaplin, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, Trumbo and Mank)
* Interscope Communications/Radar Pictures (Burning Down Tomorrow, Roommates, Mr. Holland's Opus, What Dreams May Come, The Pianist and The Last Samurai)
* Hammer Films (When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, The Shawshank Redemption, Frankenweenie and Belfast)
* Empire Pictures (The Twilight Samurai)
* Mission Films (Lady Bird and When We Were Bullies)
* 3 Arts Entertainment ("Girl, Interrupted", The Matrix, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, The Blind Side, Unbroken, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi and American Fiction)
* Brillstein Entertainment Partners (Ghostbusters, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt and Guardians of the Galaxy)
* Carolco Pictures (Tribute, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Pathfinder, Music Box, Total Recall, Hamlet (1990), Terminator 2, Rambling Rose, Basic Instinct, A River Runs Through It, Chaplin and Cliffhanger)
* Propaganda Films (Wild at Heart, Alien³, The Portrait of a Lady, Sleepers, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation.)
* Walden Media (Ray, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Unbroken and Wonder)
* Kickstarter (The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement, Incident in New Baghdad, Sun Come Up, Inocente, Buzkashi Boys, Kings Point, Anomalisa and Hair Love)
* Google (The Final Inch, Blue Valentine, Skyfall, Pearl and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On)
* The Coca-Cola Company (The Great Muppet Caper, The Decline of the American Empire, Malcolm X, Leaving Las Vegas, The Fifth Element, Central Station, Life, Bridget Jones's Diary, Monster's Ball, Pieces of April, Shark Tale and Frost/Nixon)
* The New York Times (The Eruption of Mount St. Helens!, The Killing Fields, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story, Tupac: Resurrection, Half Nelson, Rabbit Hole, 4.1 Miles, First Man, Walk Run Cha-Cha, Bombshell, Time, A Concerto Is a Conversation, The Queen of Basketball, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Island in Between)
* General Motors Corporation (Brooklyn Bridge, Ballet Robotique, The Statue of Liberty, Cars, Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Rabbit Hole and Transformers: Dark of the Moon)
* United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport and The Reader)
* Turner Entertainment (The Jazz Singer, White Shadows in the South Seas, The Divine Lady, The Big House, The Divorcee, The Champ, A Free Soul, The Public Enemy, Emma, Grand Hotel, Gold Diggers of 1933, Morning Glory, Flirtation Walk, Manhattan Melodrama, Viva Villa!, Alice Adams, Captain Blood, Dangerous, David Copperfield, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Naughty Marietta, Born to Dance, Cain and Mabel, Captains Courageous, Conquest, The Good Earth, The Life of Emile Zola, Night Must Fall, The Prisoner of Zenda, Mannequin, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Angels with Dirty Faces, Boys Town, Jezebel, Dark Victory, Babes in Arms, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Juarez, Ninotchka, Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Comrade X, Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, Edison the Man, Northwest Passage, The Philadelphia Story, Strike Up the Band, Puss Gets the Boot, A Wild Hare, Billy the Kid, Citizen Kane, The Chocolate Soldier, The Maltese Falcon, Sergeant York, "Tom, Dick and Harry", Casablanca, Desperate Journey, For Me and My Gal, Mrs. Miniver, Now, Voyager, Once Upon a Honeymoon, Woman of the Year, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Cabin in the Sky, A Guy Named Joe, Lassie Come Home, Madame Curie, Mission to Moscow, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Adventures of Mark Twain, Gaslight, Mr. Skeffington, National Velvet, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Anchors Aweigh, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Pride of the Marines, Rhapsody in Blue, Saratoga Trunk, The Harvey Girls, The Yearling, Adventures of Don Juan, B.F.'s Daughter, I Remember Mama, The Search, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Adam's Rib, Little Women (1949), That Forsyte Woman, White Heat, The Window, Annie Get Your Gun, Father of the Bride, King Solomon's Mines, The Magnificent Yankee, An American in Paris, The Great Caruso, Quo Vadis, The Bad and the Beautiful, Ivanhoe, The Narrow Margin, Singin' in the Rain, All the Brothers Were Valiant, Julius Caesar, The Story of Three Loves, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Bad Day at Black Rock, Blackboard Jungle, The Man with the Golden Arm, I'll Cry Tomorrow, Forbidden Planet, Meet Me in Las Vegas, Lust for Life, Designing Woman, Les Girls, Raintree County, Gigi, Some Came Running, Tom Thumb, Ben-Hur, The Hanging Tree, North by Northwest, The Time Machine (1960), Bachelor in Paradise, How the West Was Won, Lolita, Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), Billy Rose's Jumbo, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, The Americanization of Emily, The Night of the Iguana, Doctor Zhivago, A Patch of Blue, Blow-Up, The Dirty Dozen, Far from the Madding Crowd, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Shaft, The Sunshine Boys, Network, The Goodbye Girl, Fame, Diner, My Favorite Year, Poltergeist, "Yes, Giorgio", Victor/Victoria, The Year of Living Dangerously, 2010, Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Algonquin Round Table: The Ten Year Lunch, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Crimes and Misdemeanors, When Harry Met Sally..., Home Alone, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, The Mask, The American President, Twelve Monkeys, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, The English Patient, One Fine Day, The Green Mile, The Cider House Rules, Angela's Ashes, Sweet and Lowdown, Magnolia, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Wonder Boys, Billy Elliot, Frida, Catch Me If You Can, The Time Machine (2002), Tupac: Resurrection, The Aviator, The Departed, The Savages, Australia, Bolt, Hugo and The Lego Movie)
* Amazon Studios (The Salesman, Manchester by the Sea, I Am Not Your Negro, The Big Sick, Cold War, Les Misérables (2019), Sound of Metal, Time, One Night in Miami, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Being the Ricardos, Cinderella, Coming 2 America, "Argentina, 1985" and American Fiction)
* Netflix (The Square, Virunga, What Happened Miss Simone?, Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom, Extremis, The White Helmets, 13th, Heroin(e), Icarus, Strong Island, On Body and Soul, Mudbound, End Game, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Period. End of Sentence., Roma, American Factory, The Irishman, The Edge of Democracy, The Two Popes, Life Overtakes Me, Marriage Story, Klaus, I Lost My Body, A Love Song for Latasha, Da 5 Bloods, Crip Camp, My Octopus Teacher, The White Tiger, Mank, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Pieces of a Woman, Hillbilly Elegy, The Midnight Sky, The Life Ahead, Two Distant Strangers, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, If Anything Happens I Love You, Over the Moon, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, Audible, The Hand of God, Lead Me Home, The Lost Daughter, Robin Robin, The Power of the Dog, Army of the Dead, Three Songs for Benazir, Don't Look Up, tick, tick...BOOM!, All Quiet on the Western Front, Blonde, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, The Elephant Whisperers, The Sea Beast, The Martha Mitchell Effect, Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, Society of the Snow, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, El Conde, American Symphony, Rustin, The After, Maestro, May December and Nyad)
* Hulu (Minding the Gap, Nomadland, The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), My Year of Dicks and Flamin' Hot)
* Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) (Front Line, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom and Steve Jobs)
* The Australian Film Commission (Front Line, Breaker Morant, The Year of Living Dangerously, Chile: Hasta Cuando?, The Piano, Shine, Oscar and Lucinda, Harvie Krumpet and The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello)
* Australian Film Finance Corporation/Screen Australia (Green Card, The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Shine, Oscar and Lucinda, Bright Star, Miracle Fish, Animal Kingdom, Saving Mr. Banks, Tanna, Hacksaw Ridge, Lion and Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio)
* United Nations (Seeds of Destiny, Journey for Survival, The Constant Gardener and Transformers: Dark of the Moon)
* Golden Harvest Company (The Tempest and Flee)
* Shaw Brothers (Meteor and Blade Runner)
* Huayi Brothers (Molly's Game)
* China Film Co-Production Corporation (The Last Emperor, Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, Farewell My Concubine, The Red Violin, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Hero, House of Flying Daggers, The Kite Runner, Iron Man 3, Her and Mulan (2020))
* Sil-Metropole Organisation (Hero and The Grandmaster)
* Alibaba Pictures (Star Trek Beyond, Free Solo, Green Book and 1917)
* Bona Film Group (Joyeux Noel, The Grandmaster, The Greatest Showman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Ad Astra and A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon)
* Tencent (Kong: Skull Island, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Top Gun: Maverick)
* Media Asia Films (Shine and The Departed)
* Starlight Culture Entertainment Group (Marshall and Malignant)
* The Shanghai Film Group Corporation (Hamlet, Shanghai Triad and The Red Violin)
* Perfect World Pictures (Nocturnal Animals, Victoria & Abdul, Darkest Hour, Phantom Thread, BlacKkKlansman, First Man, Mary Queen of Scots, Harriet, News of the World and Emma.)
* Mosfilm (War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov, Ballad of a Soldier, Sunflower, Tchaikovsky, Dersu Uzala, Tess and Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears)
Also to get to know about this list, check my other Oscar Legends lists that are on IMDb. Finally this list is also to be a resume list of Academy Award films these directors to producers have made.
Final Update: For this list and it's spin-offs I will now add runner up and honorable mention films that were during special moments at Academy Award ceremonies. Although they were not nominees, it would be still nice and a honor to add these runner ups for almost making it to nominations.
Rows 625-795: Animation Creators
Rows 796-1011: Script Writers
Rows 1012-1174: Producers
Rows 1175-1217: Film Crew/Directors
Rows 1218-1328: Acting and Film Makers
Finally for what is not on the list are famous Best Picture or any Best Feature Film nominated film studios and their Academy Award films that they did work on, that are:
* American Zoetrope (The Godfather, American Graffiti, The Godfather Part II, The Conversation, Star Wars: Episode IV- A New Hope, Apocalypse Now, The Black Stallion, Kagemusha, Dragonslayer, One from the Heart, The Cotton Club, Graffiti, Peggy Sue Got Married, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, The Godfather Part III, Dracula, Don Juan DeMarco, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, My Family, Sleepy Hollow, Being John Malkovich, Lost in Translation, Kinsey, Syriana, The Good Shepherd and Marie Antoinette)
* Regency Enterprises (Brazil, Legend, Pretty Woman, JFK, The Mambo Kings, Under Siege, Six Degrees of Separation, The Client, L.A. Confidential, Fight Club, Bridget Jones' Diary, Unfaithful, Fantastic Mr. Fox, 12 Years a Slave, Philomena, Gone Girl, Birdman, The Revenant, The Big Short, Bohemian Rhapsody, Marriage Story, The Lighthouse, Ad Astra, Little Women (2019) and The Creator)
* Village Roadshow Pictures (The Matrix, Space Cowboys, Training Day, Mystic River, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Happy Feet, Sherlock Holmes, The Great Gatsby, The Lego Movie, The Judge, American Sniper, Mad Max: Fury Road, Sully, Passengers, Ready Player One, Joker and Elvis)
* Alcon Entertainment (The Affair of the Necklace, The Blind Side, Prisoners, Arrival and Blade Runner 2049)
* Plan B Entertainment (Troy, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Departed, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The Tree of Life, Moneyball, 12 Years a Slave, Selma, The Big Short, Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk, Vice, Ad Astra, Minari, Blonde and Women Talking)
* Legendary Pictures (Batman Begins, Superman Returns, The Dark Knight, Inception, The Town, Interstellar, Unbroken, Steve Jobs, Straight Outta Compton, Carne y Arena, Kong: Skull Island, BlacKkKlansman and Dune: Part One)
* Bold Films (Drive, Whiplash and Nightcrawler)
* RatPac-Dune Entertainment/Access Entertainment (The Devil Wears Prada, Borat, Australia, Crazy Heart, Avatar, 127 Hours, Black Swan, Unstoppable, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Mirror Mirror, Prometheus, Life of Pi, Hitchcock, Lincoln, The Sessions, Gravity, The Lego Movie, The Judge, Inherent Vice, American Sniper, Birdman, Mad Max: Fury Road, Creed, The Revenant, Suicide Squad, Sully, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Kong: Skull Island, Dunkirk, The Disaster Artist, Ready Player One, Zack Snyder's Justice League and The Zone of Interest)
* Caravan Pictures/Spyglass Entertainment (The Sixth Sense, The Insider, Seabiscuit, Memoirs of a Geisha, Wanted, Star Trek and Invictus)
* TSG Entertainment (The Book Thief, Wild, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Gone Girl, Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Bridge of Spies, Joy, The Martian, Hidden Figures, Logan, War for the Planet of the Apes, The Post, The Shape of Water, The Greatest Showman, Bohemian Rhapsody, Ford v Ferrari, Ad Astra, Jojo Rabbit, Free Guy, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, West Side Story, Nightmare Alley, The Banshees of Inisherin, Empire of Light, Avatar: The Way of Water, Napoleon and Poor Things)
* Imagine Entertainment (Willow, Parenthood, Backdraft, The Paper, Apollo 13, The Nutty Professor, Life, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, A Beautiful Mind, 8 Mile, Cinderella Man, American Gangster, Changeling, Frost/Nixon, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Hillbilly Elegy and tick, tick...BOOM!)
* Working Title Films (My Beautiful Laundrette, Wild at Heart, Barton Fink, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Dead Man Walking, Fargo, Elizabeth, Billy Elliot, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Bridget Jones's Diary, The Man Who Wasn't There, About a Boy, Thirteen, Pride & Prejudice, United 93, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Atonement, Frost/Nixon, A Serious Man, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Anna Karenina, Les Misérables, The Theory of Everything, The Danish Girl, "Hail, Caesar!", Baby Driver, Victoria & Abdul, Darkest Hour, Mary Queen of Scots, Emma. and Cyrano)
* Media Rights Capital (Babel, Ted, Foxcatcher, Baby Driver, Knives Out and American Fiction)
* Phoenix Pictures (The People vs. Larry Flynt, The Mirror Has Two Faces, The Thin Red Line and Black Swan)
* Cross Creek Pictures (Black Swan, The Ides of March, Hacksaw Ridge, Roman J. Israel, Esq. and The Trial of the Chicago 7)
* New Republic Pictures (Rocketman, 1917, Coming 2 America and Top Gun: Maverick)
* Lakeshore Entertainment (Million Dollar Baby)
* Relativity Media (Monster House, The Pursuit of Happyness, 3:10 to Yuma, Atonement, American Gangster, Charlie Wilson's War, Wanted, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Frost/Nixon, A Serious Man, Nine, The Wolfman, Salt, The Social Network, The Fighter, Bridesmaids, Anonymous, Mirror Mirror, Les Misérables and Beyond the Lights)
* Jersey Films (Hoffa, Pulp Fiction, Gattaca, Out of Sight and Erin Brockovich)
* Castle Rock Entertainment (When Harry Met Sally..., Misery, City Slickers, A Few Good Men, Mr. Saturday Night, In the Line of Fire, The Shawshank Redemption, The American President, Ghosts of Mississippi, Lone Star, Hamlet (1996), Jackie Brown, The Green Mile, A Mighty Wind, Before Sunset, The Polar Express, Michael Clayton and Before Midnight)
* Mandalay Pictures (Donnie Brasco, Sleepy Hollow and The Kids Are All Right)
* Malpaso Productions (Paint Your Wagon, Thunderbolt and Lightfoot, The Outlaw Josey Wales, Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer, Heartbreak Ridge, The Algonquin Round Table: The Ten Year Lunch, Bird, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, Unforgiven, The Bridges of Madison County, Space Cowboys, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima, Changeling, Invictus, Hereafter, American Sniper, Sully, A Star Is Born (2018) and Richard Jewell)
* Brooksfilms (The Elephant Man, My Favorite Year, Frances, To Be or Not to Be, The Fly and Empire of Light)
* Jolie Pas Productions (Maleficent, Unbroken, The Breadwinner, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and The One and Only Ivan)
* Scott Rudin Productions (Flatliners, The Addams Family, Searching for Bobby Fischer, The Firm, Addams Family Values, Nobody's Fool, Sabrina, The First Wives Club, Marvin's Room, In & Out, The Truman Show, A Civil Action, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Angela's Ashes, Wonder Boys, The Hours, The Village, Closer, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, The Queen, Notes on a Scandal, Venus, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood, Doubt, Revolutionary Road, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Julie & Julia, The Social Network, The Way Back, True Grit, Moneyball, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Moonrise Kingdom, Captain Phillips, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Inherent Vice, Ex Machina, Steve Jobs, Fences, Lady Bird and Isle of Dogs)
* Sidney Kimmel Entertainment (United 93, Lars and the Real Girl, The Kite Runner, Moneyball and Hell or High Water)
* Bing Crosby Productions/Rysher Entertainment (Road to Rio, High Society, High Time, The Magic Pear Tree, Ben, The Great Santini and Primal Fear)
* GK Films (Traffic, Ali, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, The Departed, Blood Diamond, The Young Victoria, The Town, Rango, Hugo, Argo, Allied and Bohemian Rhapsody)
* Mirage Enterprises (Absence of Malice, Tootsie, Out of Africa, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Havana, The Firm, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Sense and Sensibility, Sabrina, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Iris, The Quiet American, Cold Mountain, Michael Clayton and The Reader)
* Recorded Picture Company (The Last Emperor, Sexy Beast, Pina, Kon-Tiki, Pinocchio and EO)
* Scott Free Productions (Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, American Gangster, Unstoppable, Prometheus, The Martian, All the Money in the World, Blade Runner 2049, House of Gucci and Napoleon)
* HandMade Films (Images, Runaway Train, Mona Lisa, 127 Hours and Empire of Light)
* Virgin Films (A Shocking Accident, Salvador, "Sex, Lies, and Videotape" and The Impossible)
* Rhino Films (The Panama Deception and The Sessions)
* MTV Films (Election, Tupac: Resurrection, Hustle & Flow, Murderball, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, St. Louis Superman, Hunger Ward, Love and Monsters, Ascension, The ABCs of Book Banning and The Eternal Memory)
* CBS Films (The Reivers, A Boy Named Charlie Brown, Little Big Man, Scrooge, Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?, The Little Ark, Inside Llewyn Davis, Hell or High Water, At Eternity's Gate and The Holdovers)
* Senator Film Produktion (Heavenly Creatures, The Motorcycle Diaries, Joyeux Noel and Loveless)
* Constantin Film Produktion (Dancer in the Dark, Nowhere in Africa, Downfall, The Baader Meinhof Complex and Paris 36)
* Bioskop Film (The Tin Drum)
* Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) (Hundertwassers Regentag, A Simple Story, The Boat Is Full, The Revolt of Job, Angry Harvest, Colonel Redl, Hanussen, The Nasty Girl, Breaking the Waves, One Day in September, Bowling for Columbine, The Man Without a Past, The Counterfeiters, The Gruffalo, Pina, The Act of Killing, Room on the Broom, The Look of Silence, Mustang, Land of Mine, Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah, The Square (2017), A Fantastic Woman, Quo vadis, Aida?, The Man Who Sold His Skin, When We Were Bullies, Triangle of Sadness, Four Daughters and The Teachers' Lounge)
* Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) (The Sorrow and the Pity, Downfall, The Baader Meinhof Complex and Citizenfour)
* Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR) (Das Boot, Schtonk, The Dutch Master, Dancer in the Dark, Winged Migration, Downfall, Darwin's Nightmare, Amour, Toni Erdmann and Loveless)
* Hessischer Rundfunk (Mephisto and Bagdad Cafe)
* Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) (The Glass Cell, Marlene, 38, Bagdad Cafe, Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Algonquin Round Table: The Ten Year Lunch, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, Europa Europa, Beyond Silence, The Story of the Weeping Camel, Sophie Scholl: The Final Days, The Lives of Others, The Baader Meinhof Complex, The White Ribbon, Amour, Citizenfour and Never Look Away)
* Studio Babelsberg (Jacob the Liar, A Chef in Love, Kleingeld, The Pianist, The Constant Gardener, The Bourne Ultimatum, The Counterfeiters, The Reader, Inglourious Basterds, In Darkness, Anonymous, The Book Thief, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Bridge of Spies, Never Look Away and Isle of Dogs)
* Pathé (Children of Paradise, Hiroshima Mon Amour, Ballon vole, La Dolce Vita, "Over There, 1914-18", The Leopard, Automania 2000, That's Me, Le poulet, Woman in the Dunes, Time Piece, The War Game, Clay or The Origin of Species, Mural on Our Street, Help! My Snowman's Burning Down, Hypothese Beta, The Anderson Platoon, My Night at Maud's, Queen Margot, Angela's Ashes, The Taste of Others, Lost in Translation, Girl with a Pearl Earring, The Chorus, The Queen, Mrs. Henderson Presents, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Slumdog Millionaire, The Duchess, Tropic Thunder, Paris 36, Bright Star, 127 Hours, The Illusionist, The Iron Lady, The Great Beauty, Philomena, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Selma, Youth, Judy, Minari, Parallel Mothers, The Lost Daughter, CODA, Fire of Love, Babylon, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio and Io capitano)
* Canal+ (Hamlet (1990), Terminator 2, JFK, Indochinhe, The Mambo Kings, Under Siege, Basic Instinct, Damage, Chaplin, Cliffhanger, The Scent of Green Papaya, Queen Margot, Three Colors: Red, Farinelli, Burnt by the Sun, Il Postino, A Chef in Love, Ridicule, The Thief, Secrets of the Heart, Central Station, East/West, The Straight Story, Himalaya, Humdrum, U-571, Everybody's Famous!, The Taste of Others, Vatel, Dancer in the Dark, Amélie, No Man's Land, Mulholland Dr., Winged Migration, The Pianist, The Man Without a Past, The Barbarian Invasions, The Triplets of Belleville, The Chorus, The Sea Inside, A Very Long Engagement, Joyeux Noel, March of the Penguins, Days of Glory, The Mozart of Pickpockets, The Queen, La Vie en Rose, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, The Class, Paris 36, Coco Before Chanel, Logorama, The Secret of Kells, The White Ribbon, A Prophet, The Illusionist, Outside the Law, The Artist, Albert Nobbs, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Amour, The Invisible War, The Great Beauty, Just Before Losing Everything, Philomena, Ida, Timbuktu, Mr. Turner, "Two Days, One Night", Wild Tales, The Lobster, Mustang, Youth, My Life as a Zucchini, The Red Turtle, Elle, Dunkirk, Loveless, The Insult, Faces Places, Cold War, Pain and Glory, Les Misérables (2019), The Father, Wolfwalkers, Pinocchio, No Time to Die, Close, Triangle of Sadness, Io capitano, Anatomy of a Fall and Robot Dreams)
* France 3 (Black and White in Color, A Simple Story, Ridicule, East/West, Amélie, Dancer in the Dark, Winged Migration, The Triplets of Belleville, Days of Glory, The Queen, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Persepolis, Paris 36, The White Ribbon, The Illusionist, Outside the Law, A Cat in Paris, The Artist, Amour, Mr. Turner, My Life as a Zucchini, Genius Loci and No Time to Die)
* France 2 (Birdnesters of Thailand, Queen Margot, Farinelli, All About My Mother, Himalaya, The Taste of Others, Murder on a Sunday Morning, Winged Migration, The Chorus, Days of Glory, Paris 36, The Class, The Secret of Kells, Coco Before Chanel, A Prophet, Outside the Law, The Great Beauty, "Two Days, One Night", Youth, Elle, Nefta Football Club and Anatomy of a Fall)
* TF1 (The Last Metro, My American Uncle, Three Men and a Cradle, Cinema Paradiso, Vatel, A Very Long Engagement, Joyeux Noel, La Vie en Rose and Fire of Love)
* Gaumont (A Cage of Nightingales, Mon Oncle, Il Generale Della Rovere, Cousin Cousine, To Forget Venice, My American Uncle, Three Brothers, Dangerous Moves, Betty Blue, Camille Claudel, The Fifth Element, Vatel, Atonement, Hugo, Babylon and Fire of Love)
* RAI (The Family, Dark Eyes, Au Revoir les Enfants, Cinema Paradiso, Open Doors, The Star Maker, No Man's Land, Downfall, Don't Tell, I Am Love, Fire at Sea, Never Look Away, Pinocchio and Io Capitano)
* Mediaset (Umberto D., Farinelli, The Great Beauty, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Youth and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)
* Dino de Laurentiis Cinematografica (La Strada, War and Peace, The Nights of Cabiria, The Great War, The Agony and the Ecstasy, The Bible: In the Beginning..., Romeo and Juliet, Serpico, Three Days of the Condor, King Kong, The Shootist, The Brink's Job, Ragtime, Dune, Pirates, Blue Velvet, Crimes of the Heart, Buster, Backdraft, DragonHeart, Daylight and U-571)
* Cecchi Gori Group Tiger Cinematografica (Sunset, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Mediterraneo, Il Postino, Se7en, The Star Maker, Life Is Beautiful and Silence)
* Medusa Film (Seven Beauties, Trainspotting, Fight Club, Malena, Gosford Park, The Great Beauty and Youth)
* Cineplex-Odeon Films (The Decline of the American Empire, Bagdad Cafe, Street Smart, Dark Eyes, The Last Temptation of Christ, Jesus of Montreal, My Left Foot, The Grifters and Mr. & Mrs. Bridge)
* BRON Studios (Fences, Roman J. Israel, Esq., Joker, Bombshell, Pieces of a Woman, Greyhound, Judas and the Black Messiah, House of Gucci, Cyrano, Licorice Pizza and Babylon)
* RT Features (Call Me by Your Name, Ad Astra and The Lighthouse)
* VideoFilmes (Central Station and City of God)
* Patagonik Film Group (Evita and Son of the Bride)
* Bitters End (Drive My Car and Perfect Days)
* CJ Entertainment (August Rush, Parasite and Past Lives)
* Anonymous Content (21 Grams, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Babel, Winter's Bone, Spotlight, The Revenant, The Wife, The Midnight Sky, Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths and The Boy and the Heron)
* Tollin/Robbins Productions (Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream and Norbit)
* Davis Entertainment (Predator, The Firm, Waterworld, Daylight, "I, Robot", Norbit, Joy and Ferdinand)
* Palomar Pictures/Edgar J. Scherick Associates (For Love of Ivy, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", Murmur of the Heart, Sleuth, The Heartbreak Kid, I Never Promised You a Rose Garden, He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin' and Rambling Rose)
* Home Box Office (HBO) (A Passage to India, Soldiers in Hiding, Down and Out in America, Ironweed, The Appointments of Dennis Jennings, You Don't Have to Die, Crack USA: County Under Siege, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, Chimps: So Like Us, I Am a Promise: The Children of Stanton Elementary School, Family Video Diaries: Daughter of the Bride, 4 Little Girls, Amistad, The Canterbury Tales, Lenny Bruce: Swear to Tell the Truth, Legacy, Murder on a Sunday Morning, LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Bowling for Columbine, Chernobyl Heart, Capturing the Friedmans, American Splendor, Maria Full of Grace, Yesterday, Twist of Faith, A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin, The Blood of Yingzhou District, The Departed, Borat, Smile Pinki, Tropic Thunder, The Conscience of Nhem En, The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, Which Way Home, China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province, GasLand, Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, Mondays at Racine, Saving Face, God Is the Bigger Elvis, Dirty Wars, Blue Jasmine, Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1, Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall, Iron Man 3, Citizenfour, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, Creed, O.J.: Made in America, Jim: The James Foley Story, Traffic Stop, RBG, Collective, Judas and the Black Messiah, Zack Snyder's Justice League, Malignant, The Suicide Squad, When We Were Bullies, King Richard, Please Hold, Dune: Part One, How Do You Measure a Year?, All That Breathes, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Navalny and The Creator)
* Showtime Network (Gods and Monsters, Tupac: Resurrection, Animal Kingdom and Attica)
* Comedy Central (South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Bowling for Columbine, The Big Short and Don't Look Up)
* British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (The War Game, Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Algonquin Round Table: The Ten Year Lunch, Henry V, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, The Wrong Trousers, Franz Kafka's It's a Wonderful Life, A Close Shave, Anne Frank Remembered, Twelve Monkeys, Independence Day, Jerry Maguire, The Old Lady and the Pigeons, The Canterbury Tales, Primary Colors, Gods and Monsters, A Simple Plan, Hilary and Jackie, One Day in September, Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann, Wonder Boys, Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport, Billy Elliot, Shadow of the Vampire, Prisoner of Paradise, Bowling for Columbine, Dirty Pretty Things, The Triplets of Belleville, Match Point, Mrs. Henderson Presents, Notes on a Scandal, The Good Shepherd, Marie Antoinette, Venus, Eastern Promises, American Gangster, Across the Universe, Charlie Wilson's War, Waltz with Bashir, This Way Up, Man on Wire, The Duchess, Revolutionary Road, Milk, An Education, The Cove, Invictus, In the Loop, Bright Star, The Gruffalo, 127 Hours, Jane Eyre, My Week with Marilyn, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Skyfall, The Invisible Woman, Room on the Broom, Philomena, Saving Mr. Banks, Brooklyn, Amy, Florence Foster Jenkins, Victoria & Abdul, Bohemian Rhapsody, Ad Astra, Judy, The Power of the Dog, Belfast, Aftersun, Fire of Love, Avatar: The Way of Water, Triangle of Sadness, Empire of Light, "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse" and The Creator)
* Sky Cinema (Il supplente, Il Divo, Iron Man 3, The Imitation Game and The United States vs. Billie Holiday)
* American Broadcasting Company (ABC)/Disney–ABC Domestic Television (Man in Space, Charly, For Love of Ivy, Krakatoa: East of Java, "They Shoot Horses, Don't They?", Lovers and Other Strangers, A Christmas Carol, Straw Dogs, Kotch, Cabaret, Nashville, Silkwood, Prizzi's Honor, Journey Into Life: The World of the Unborn, Marvin's Room, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Invictus, The Messenger, Iron Man 3, Nebraska, 20 Feet from Stardom, Ford v Ferrari, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Licorice Pizza and My Year of Dicks)
* National Broadcasting Company (NBC)/NBCUniversal Television Distribution (Say Goodbye, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Splash, Little Shop of Horrors, Scrooged, Avalon, Forrest Gump, Crimson Tide, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, Vanilla Sky, American Splendor, Twin Towers, Lost in Translation, A Mighty Wind, Julie & Julia, Bridesmaids and RBG)
* Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, My Fair Lady, Cabaret, Back to the Future, Little Shop of Horrors, Crimson Tide, Jerry Maguire, I Am Sam, Vanilla Sky, Catch Me If You Can, An Inconvenient Truth, Salt, Argo, American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street, Beyond the Lights, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Straight Outta Compton, The Martian, Vice, Ready Player One, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Being the Ricardos, Belfast, Elvis, The Whale and The Fabelmans)
* Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (Front Line, Generation on the Wind, Just Another Missing Kid, The Day After Trinity, Brooklyn Bridge, El Norte, Testament, Children of Darkness, Unfinished Business, The Statue of Liberty, Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Algonquin Round Table: The Ten Year Lunch, Bridge to Freedom: 1965, Stand and Deliver, Longtime Companion, Days of Waiting, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, When Abortion Was Illegal: Untold Stories, Liberators: Fighting on Two Fronts in World War II, D-Day Remembered, Hoop Dreams, My Family, The Battle Over Citizen Kane, Scottsboro: An American Tragedy, Sound and Fury, Prisoner of Paradise, Last Days in Vietnam, Interstellar, Abacus: Small Enough for Jail, RBG, For Sama and 20 Days in Mariupol)
* WGBH (Robert Frost: A Lover's Quarrel with the World, The Bostonians, Radio Bikini, D-Day Remembered, Special Effects: Anything Can Happen, The Battle Over Citizen Kane, Mrs. Brown, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Encounters at the End of the World, "Food, Inc.", Julie & Julia, Abacus: Small Enough for Jail and For Sama)
* Discovery Communications/Warner Bros. Discovery (Crimson Tide, Face/Off, On the Ropes, Talk to Her, Taxi to the Dark Side, Man on Wire, Encounters at the End of the World, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Nebraska, Lone Survivor, Racing Extinction, Hillbilly Elegy and The Whale)
* National Geographic (Instinct for Survival, Journey to the Outer Limits, Ape and Super-Ape, The Incredible Machine, Jaws, The Deep, For All Mankind, Birdnesters of Thailand, Blues Highway, L.A. Confidential, Bowling for Columbine, The Story of the Weeping Camel, March of the Penguins, Restrepo, The Way Back, Chasing Ice, Free Solo, Ad Astra, The Cave, Fire of Love and Bobi Wine: The People’s President)
* The Ladd Company (Outland, Chariots of Fire, Blade Runner, The Right Stuff, Braveheart and Gone Baby Gone)
* Annapurna Pictures (The Master, Zero Dark Thirty, The Grandmaster, Her, American Hustle, Foxcatcher, Joy, 20th Century Women, Phantom Thread, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Vice, Missing Link, Bombshell, House of Gucci and Nimona)
* Revolution Studios (Enemies: A Love Story, Young Guns II, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, The Last of the Mohicans, Black Hawk Down, Click, The Good Shepherd, Across the Universe, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Up in the Air, The Young Victoria, Black Swan, Hugo, The Ides of March, Hitchcock, Straight Outta Compton and All the Money in the World)
* DC Comics/Entertainment (Superman, Batman, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Catch Me If You Can, Batman Begins, Superman Returns, The Dark Knight, Suicide Squad, Joker, Zack Snyder's Justice League, The Suicide Squad and The Batman)
* Dark Horse Comics (The Mask, American Splendor and Hellboy II: The Golden Army)
* Scholastic (Doctor DeSoto, The Golden Compass and Boyhood)
* Dick Clark Productions (Taxi Driver, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, Peggy Sue Got Married, When Harry Met Sally..., Sleepless in Seattle, Forrest Gump, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Beyond the Lights and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)
* The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Two Arabian Knights, The Racket, Prelude to War, The Bad and the Beautiful, Susan Slept Here, A Star Is Born (1954), Rear Window, Vertigo, Spartacus, My Fair Lady, The Oscar, California Suite, Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Algonquin Round Table: The Ten Year Lunch, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, Chaplin, The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara, Trumbo and Mank)
* Interscope Communications/Radar Pictures (Burning Down Tomorrow, Roommates, Mr. Holland's Opus, What Dreams May Come, The Pianist and The Last Samurai)
* Hammer Films (When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth, The Shawshank Redemption, Frankenweenie and Belfast)
* Empire Pictures (The Twilight Samurai)
* Mission Films (Lady Bird and When We Were Bullies)
* 3 Arts Entertainment ("Girl, Interrupted", The Matrix, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, The Blind Side, Unbroken, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi and American Fiction)
* Brillstein Entertainment Partners (Ghostbusters, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt and Guardians of the Galaxy)
* Carolco Pictures (Tribute, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Pathfinder, Music Box, Total Recall, Hamlet (1990), Terminator 2, Rambling Rose, Basic Instinct, A River Runs Through It, Chaplin and Cliffhanger)
* Propaganda Films (Wild at Heart, Alien³, The Portrait of a Lady, Sleepers, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation.)
* Walden Media (Ray, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Unbroken and Wonder)
* Kickstarter (The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement, Incident in New Baghdad, Sun Come Up, Inocente, Buzkashi Boys, Kings Point, Anomalisa and Hair Love)
* Google (The Final Inch, Blue Valentine, Skyfall, Pearl and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On)
* The Coca-Cola Company (The Great Muppet Caper, The Decline of the American Empire, Malcolm X, Leaving Las Vegas, The Fifth Element, Central Station, Life, Bridget Jones's Diary, Monster's Ball, Pieces of April, Shark Tale and Frost/Nixon)
* The New York Times (The Eruption of Mount St. Helens!, The Killing Fields, Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, The Line King: The Al Hirschfeld Story, Tupac: Resurrection, Half Nelson, Rabbit Hole, 4.1 Miles, First Man, Walk Run Cha-Cha, Bombshell, Time, A Concerto Is a Conversation, The Queen of Basketball, Spider-Man: No Way Home and Island in Between)
* General Motors Corporation (Brooklyn Bridge, Ballet Robotique, The Statue of Liberty, Cars, Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Rabbit Hole and Transformers: Dark of the Moon)
* United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport and The Reader)
* Turner Entertainment (The Jazz Singer, White Shadows in the South Seas, The Divine Lady, The Big House, The Divorcee, The Champ, A Free Soul, The Public Enemy, Emma, Grand Hotel, Gold Diggers of 1933, Morning Glory, Flirtation Walk, Manhattan Melodrama, Viva Villa!, Alice Adams, Captain Blood, Dangerous, David Copperfield, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), Naughty Marietta, Born to Dance, Cain and Mabel, Captains Courageous, Conquest, The Good Earth, The Life of Emile Zola, Night Must Fall, The Prisoner of Zenda, Mannequin, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Angels with Dirty Faces, Boys Town, Jezebel, Dark Victory, Babes in Arms, Goodbye Mr. Chips, Juarez, Ninotchka, Gone with the Wind, The Wizard of Oz, Comrade X, Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet, Edison the Man, Northwest Passage, The Philadelphia Story, Strike Up the Band, Puss Gets the Boot, A Wild Hare, Billy the Kid, Citizen Kane, The Chocolate Soldier, The Maltese Falcon, Sergeant York, "Tom, Dick and Harry", Casablanca, Desperate Journey, For Me and My Gal, Mrs. Miniver, Now, Voyager, Once Upon a Honeymoon, Woman of the Year, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Cabin in the Sky, A Guy Named Joe, Lassie Come Home, Madame Curie, Mission to Moscow, Meet Me in St. Louis, The Adventures of Mark Twain, Gaslight, Mr. Skeffington, National Velvet, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, Anchors Aweigh, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Pride of the Marines, Rhapsody in Blue, Saratoga Trunk, The Harvey Girls, The Yearling, Adventures of Don Juan, B.F.'s Daughter, I Remember Mama, The Search, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Adam's Rib, Little Women (1949), That Forsyte Woman, White Heat, The Window, Annie Get Your Gun, Father of the Bride, King Solomon's Mines, The Magnificent Yankee, An American in Paris, The Great Caruso, Quo Vadis, The Bad and the Beautiful, Ivanhoe, The Narrow Margin, Singin' in the Rain, All the Brothers Were Valiant, Julius Caesar, The Story of Three Loves, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Bad Day at Black Rock, Blackboard Jungle, The Man with the Golden Arm, I'll Cry Tomorrow, Forbidden Planet, Meet Me in Las Vegas, Lust for Life, Designing Woman, Les Girls, Raintree County, Gigi, Some Came Running, Tom Thumb, Ben-Hur, The Hanging Tree, North by Northwest, The Time Machine (1960), Bachelor in Paradise, How the West Was Won, Lolita, Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), Billy Rose's Jumbo, The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao, The Americanization of Emily, The Night of the Iguana, Doctor Zhivago, A Patch of Blue, Blow-Up, The Dirty Dozen, Far from the Madding Crowd, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Shaft, The Sunshine Boys, Network, The Goodbye Girl, Fame, Diner, My Favorite Year, Poltergeist, "Yes, Giorgio", Victor/Victoria, The Year of Living Dangerously, 2010, Isaac in America: A Journey with Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Algonquin Round Table: The Ten Year Lunch, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Crimes and Misdemeanors, When Harry Met Sally..., Home Alone, Waldo Salt: A Screenwriter's Journey, Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles, The Mask, The American President, Twelve Monkeys, Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life, The English Patient, One Fine Day, The Green Mile, The Cider House Rules, Angela's Ashes, Sweet and Lowdown, Magnolia, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Wonder Boys, Billy Elliot, Frida, Catch Me If You Can, The Time Machine (2002), Tupac: Resurrection, The Aviator, The Departed, The Savages, Australia, Bolt, Hugo and The Lego Movie)
* Amazon Studios (The Salesman, Manchester by the Sea, I Am Not Your Negro, The Big Sick, Cold War, Les Misérables (2019), Sound of Metal, Time, One Night in Miami, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Being the Ricardos, Cinderella, Coming 2 America, "Argentina, 1985" and American Fiction)
* Netflix (The Square, Virunga, What Happened Miss Simone?, Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom, Extremis, The White Helmets, 13th, Heroin(e), Icarus, Strong Island, On Body and Soul, Mudbound, End Game, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Period. End of Sentence., Roma, American Factory, The Irishman, The Edge of Democracy, The Two Popes, Life Overtakes Me, Marriage Story, Klaus, I Lost My Body, A Love Song for Latasha, Da 5 Bloods, Crip Camp, My Octopus Teacher, The White Tiger, Mank, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Pieces of a Woman, Hillbilly Elegy, The Midnight Sky, The Life Ahead, Two Distant Strangers, Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, If Anything Happens I Love You, Over the Moon, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, Audible, The Hand of God, Lead Me Home, The Lost Daughter, Robin Robin, The Power of the Dog, Army of the Dead, Three Songs for Benazir, Don't Look Up, tick, tick...BOOM!, All Quiet on the Western Front, Blonde, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, The Elephant Whisperers, The Sea Beast, The Martha Mitchell Effect, Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, Society of the Snow, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, El Conde, American Symphony, Rustin, The After, Maestro, May December and Nyad)
* Hulu (Minding the Gap, Nomadland, The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), My Year of Dicks and Flamin' Hot)
* Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) (Front Line, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom and Steve Jobs)
* The Australian Film Commission (Front Line, Breaker Morant, The Year of Living Dangerously, Chile: Hasta Cuando?, The Piano, Shine, Oscar and Lucinda, Harvie Krumpet and The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello)
* Australian Film Finance Corporation/Screen Australia (Green Card, The Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Shine, Oscar and Lucinda, Bright Star, Miracle Fish, Animal Kingdom, Saving Mr. Banks, Tanna, Hacksaw Ridge, Lion and Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio)
* United Nations (Seeds of Destiny, Journey for Survival, The Constant Gardener and Transformers: Dark of the Moon)
* Golden Harvest Company (The Tempest and Flee)
* Shaw Brothers (Meteor and Blade Runner)
* Huayi Brothers (Molly's Game)
* China Film Co-Production Corporation (The Last Emperor, Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, Farewell My Concubine, The Red Violin, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", Hero, House of Flying Daggers, The Kite Runner, Iron Man 3, Her and Mulan (2020))
* Sil-Metropole Organisation (Hero and The Grandmaster)
* Alibaba Pictures (Star Trek Beyond, Free Solo, Green Book and 1917)
* Bona Film Group (Joyeux Noel, The Grandmaster, The Greatest Showman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Ad Astra and A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon)
* Tencent (Kong: Skull Island, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood and Top Gun: Maverick)
* Media Asia Films (Shine and The Departed)
* Starlight Culture Entertainment Group (Marshall and Malignant)
* The Shanghai Film Group Corporation (Hamlet, Shanghai Triad and The Red Violin)
* Perfect World Pictures (Nocturnal Animals, Victoria & Abdul, Darkest Hour, Phantom Thread, BlacKkKlansman, First Man, Mary Queen of Scots, Harriet, News of the World and Emma.)
* Mosfilm (War and Peace, The Brothers Karamazov, Ballad of a Soldier, Sunflower, Tchaikovsky, Dersu Uzala, Tess and Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears)
Also to get to know about this list, check my other Oscar Legends lists that are on IMDb. Finally this list is also to be a resume list of Academy Award films these directors to producers have made.
Final Update: For this list and it's spin-offs I will now add runner up and honorable mention films that were during special moments at Academy Award ceremonies. Although they were not nominees, it would be still nice and a honor to add these runner ups for almost making it to nominations.
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- Actor
- Writer
- Director
His father, Richard Head Welles, was a well-to-do inventor, his mother, Beatrice (Ives) Welles, a beautiful concert pianist; Orson Welles was gifted in many arts (magic, piano, painting) as a child. When his mother died in 1924 (when he was nine) he traveled the world with his father. He was orphaned at 15 after his father's death in 1930 and became the ward of Dr. Maurice Bernstein of Chicago. In 1931, he graduated from the Todd School in Woodstock, Illinois. He turned down college offers for a sketching tour of Ireland. He tried unsuccessfully to enter the London and Broadway stages, traveling some more in Morocco and Spain, where he fought in the bullring.
Recommendations by Thornton Wilder and Alexander Woollcott got him into Katharine Cornell's road company, with which he made his New York debut as Tybalt in 1934. The same year, he married, directed his first short, and appeared on radio for the first time. He began working with John Houseman and formed the Mercury Theatre with him in 1937. In 1938, they produced "The Mercury Theatre on the Air", famous for its broadcast version of "The War of the Worlds" (intended as a Halloween prank). His first film to be seen by the public was Citizen Kane (1941), a commercial failure losing RKO $150,000, but regarded by many as the best film ever made. Many of his subsequent films were commercial failures and he exiled himself to Europe in 1948.
In 1956, he directed Touch of Evil (1958); it failed in the United States but won a prize at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. In 1975, in spite of all his box-office failures, he received the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, and in 1984, the Directors Guild of America awarded him its highest honor, the D.W. Griffith Award. His reputation as a filmmaker steadily climbed thereafter.Citizen Kane
The Magnificent Ambersons
The Stranger- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Stanley Kubrick was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Sadie Gertrude (Perveler) and Jacob Leonard Kubrick, a physician. His family were Jewish immigrants (from Austria, Romania, and Russia). Stanley was considered intelligent, despite poor grades at school. Hoping that a change of scenery would produce better academic performance, Kubrick's father sent him in 1940 to Pasadena, California, to stay with his uncle, Martin Perveler. Returning to the Bronx in 1941 for his last year of grammar school, there seemed to be little change in his attitude or his results. Hoping to find something to interest his son, Jack introduced Stanley to chess, with the desired result. Kubrick took to the game passionately, and quickly became a skilled player. Chess would become an important device for Kubrick in later years, often as a tool for dealing with recalcitrant actors, but also as an artistic motif in his films.
Jack Kubrick's decision to give his son a camera for his thirteenth birthday would be an even wiser move: Kubrick became an avid photographer, and would often make trips around New York taking photographs which he would develop in a friend's darkroom. After selling an unsolicited photograph to Look Magazine, Kubrick began to associate with their staff photographers, and at the age of seventeen was offered a job as an apprentice photographer.
In the next few years, Kubrick had regular assignments for "Look", and would become a voracious movie-goer. Together with friend Alexander Singer, Kubrick planned a move into film, and in 1950 sank his savings into making the documentary Day of the Fight (1951). This was followed by several short commissioned documentaries (Flying Padre (1951), and (The Seafarers (1953), but by attracting investors and hustling chess games in Central Park, Kubrick was able to make Fear and Desire (1952) in California.
Filming this movie was not a happy experience; Kubrick's marriage to high school sweetheart Toba Metz did not survive the shooting. Despite mixed reviews for the film itself, Kubrick received good notices for his obvious directorial talents. Kubrick's next two films Killer's Kiss (1955) and The Killing (1956) brought him to the attention of Hollywood, and in 1957 he directed Kirk Douglas in Paths of Glory (1957). Douglas later called upon Kubrick to take over the production of Spartacus (1960), by some accounts hoping that Kubrick would be daunted by the scale of the project and would thus be accommodating. This was not the case, however: Kubrick took charge of the project, imposing his ideas and standards on the film. Many crew members were upset by his style: cinematographer Russell Metty complained to producers that Kubrick was taking over his job. Kubrick's response was to tell him to sit there and do nothing. Metty complied, and ironically was awarded the Academy Award for his cinematography.
Kubrick's next project was to direct Marlon Brando in One-Eyed Jacks (1961), but negotiations broke down and Brando himself ended up directing the film himself. Disenchanted with Hollywood and after another failed marriage, Kubrick moved permanently to England, from where he would make all of his subsequent films. Despite having obtained a pilot's license, Kubrick was rumored to be afraid of flying.
Kubrick's first UK film was Lolita (1962), which was carefully constructed and guided so as to not offend the censorship boards which at the time had the power to severely damage the commercial success of a film. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) was a big risk for Kubrick; before this, "nuclear" was not considered a subject for comedy. Originally written as a drama, Kubrick decided that too many of the ideas he had written were just too funny to be taken seriously. The film's critical and commercial success allowed Kubrick the financial and artistic freedom to work on any project he desired. Around this time, Kubrick's focus diversified and he would always have several projects in various stages of development: "Blue Moon" (a story about Hollywood's first pornographic feature film), "Napoleon" (an epic historical biography, abandoned after studio losses on similar projects), "Wartime Lies" (based on the novel by Louis Begley), and "Rhapsody" (a psycho-sexual thriller).
The next film he completed was a collaboration with sci-fi author Arthur C. Clarke. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is hailed by many as the best ever made; an instant cult favorite, it has set the standard and tone for many science fiction films that followed. Kubrick followed this with A Clockwork Orange (1971), which rivaled Lolita (1962) for the controversy it generated - this time not only for its portrayal of sex, but also of violence. Barry Lyndon (1975) would prove a turning point in both his professional and private lives. His unrelenting demands of commitment and perfection of cast and crew had by now become legendary. Actors would be required to perform dozens of takes with no breaks. Filming a story in Ireland involving military, Kubrick received reports that the IRA had declared him a possible target. Production was promptly moved out of the country, and Kubrick's desire for privacy and security resulted in him being considered a recluse ever since.
Having turned down directing a sequel to The Exorcist (1973), Kubrick made his own horror film: The Shining (1980). Again, rumors circulated of demands made upon actors and crew. Stephen King (whose novel the film was based upon) reportedly didn't like Kubrick's adaptation (indeed, he would later write his own screenplay which was filmed as The Shining (1997).)
Kubrick's subsequent work has been well spaced: it was seven years before Full Metal Jacket (1987) was released. By this time, Kubrick was married with children and had extensively remodeled his house. Seen by one critic as the dark side to the humanist story of Platoon (1986), Full Metal Jacket (1987) continued Kubrick's legacy of solid critical acclaim, and profit at the box office.
In the 1990s, Kubrick began an on-again/off-again collaboration with Brian Aldiss on a new science fiction film called "Artificial Intelligence (AI)", but progress was very slow, and was backgrounded until special effects technology was up to the standard the Kubrick wanted.
Kubrick returned to his in-development projects, but encountered a number of problems: "Napoleon" was completely dead, and "Wartime Lies" (now called "The Aryan Papers") was abandoned when Steven Spielberg announced he would direct Schindler's List (1993), which covered much of the same material.
While pre-production work on "AI" crawled along, Kubrick combined "Rhapsody" and "Blue Movie" and officially announced his next project as Eyes Wide Shut (1999), starring the then-married Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. After two years of production under unprecedented security and privacy, the film was released to a typically polarized critical and public reception; Kubrick claimed it was his best film to date.
Special effects technology had matured rapidly in the meantime, and Kubrick immediately began active work on A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), but tragically suffered a fatal heart attack in his sleep on March 7th, 1999.
After Kubrick's death, Spielberg revealed that the two of them were friends that frequently communicated discreetly about the art of filmmaking; both had a large degree of mutual respect for each other's work. "AI" was frequently discussed; Kubrick even suggested that Spielberg should direct it as it was more his type of project. Based on this relationship, Spielberg took over as the film's director and completed the last Kubrick project.
How much of Kubrick's vision remains in the finished project -- and what he would think of the film as eventually released -- will be the final great unanswerable mysteries in the life of this talented and private filmmaker.Spartacus
Lolita
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
2001: A Space Odyssey
A Clockwork Orange
Barry Lyndon
Full Metal Jacket- Producer
- Writer
- Director
One of the most influential personalities in the history of cinema, Steven Spielberg is Hollywood's best known director and one of the wealthiest filmmakers in the world. He has an extraordinary number of commercially successful and critically acclaimed credits to his name, either as a director, producer or writer since launching the summer blockbuster with Jaws (1975), and he has done more to define popular film-making since the mid-1970s than anyone else.
Steven Allan Spielberg was born in 1946 in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Leah Frances (Posner), a concert pianist and restaurateur, and Arnold Spielberg, an electrical engineer who worked in computer development. His parents were both born to Russian Jewish immigrant families. Steven spent his younger years in Haddon Township, New Jersey, Phoenix, Arizona, and later Saratoga, California. He went to California State University Long Beach, but dropped out to pursue his entertainment career. Among his early directing efforts were Battle Squad (1961), which combined World War II footage with footage of an airplane on the ground that he makes you believe is moving. He also directed Escape to Nowhere (1961), which featured children as World War Two soldiers, including his sister Anne Spielberg, and The Last Gun (1959), a western. All of these were short films. The next couple of years, Spielberg directed a couple of movies that would portend his future career in movies. In 1964, he directed Firelight (1964), a movie about aliens invading a small town. In 1967, he directed Slipstream (1967), which was unfinished. However, in 1968, he directed Amblin' (1968), which featured the desert prominently, and not the first of his movies in which the desert would feature. Amblin' also became the name of his production company, which turned out such classics as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Spielberg had a unique and classic early directing project, Duel (1971), with Dennis Weaver. In the early 1970s, Spielberg was working on TV, directing among others such series as Rod Serling's Night Gallery (1969), Marcus Welby, M.D. (1969) and Murder by the Book (1971). All of his work in television and short films, as well as his directing projects, were just a hint of the wellspring of talent that would dazzle audiences all over the world.
Spielberg's first major directorial effort was The Sugarland Express (1974), with Goldie Hawn, a film that marked him as a rising star. It was his next effort, however, that made him an international superstar among directors: Jaws (1975). This classic shark attack tale started the tradition of the summer blockbuster or, at least, he was credited with starting the tradition. His next film was the classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), a unique and original UFO story that remains a classic. In 1978, Spielberg produced his first film, the forgettable I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978), and followed that effort with Used Cars (1980), a critically acclaimed, but mostly forgotten, Kurt Russell/Jack Warden comedy about devious used-car dealers. Spielberg hit gold yet one more time with Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), with Harrison Ford taking the part of Indiana Jones. Spielberg produced and directed two films in 1982. The first was Poltergeist (1982), but the highest-grossing movie of all time up to that point was the alien story E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Spielberg also helped pioneer the practice of product placement. The concept, while not uncommon, was still relatively low-key when Spielberg raised the practice to almost an art form with his famous (or infamous) placement of Reese's Pieces in "E.T." Spielberg was also one of the pioneers of the big-grossing special-effects movies, like "E.T." and "Close Encounters", where a very strong emphasis on special effects was placed for the first time on such a huge scale. In 1984, Spielberg followed up "Raiders" with Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), which was a commercial success but did not receive the critical acclaim of its predecessor. As a producer, Spielberg took on many projects in the 1980s, such as The Goonies (1985), and was the brains behind the little monsters in Gremlins (1984). He also produced the cartoon An American Tail (1986), a quaint little animated classic. His biggest effort as producer in 1985, however, was the blockbuster Back to the Future (1985), which made Michael J. Fox an instant superstar. As director, Spielberg took on the book The Color Purple (1985), with Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey, with great success. In the latter half of the 1980s, he also directed Empire of the Sun (1987), a mixed success for the occasionally erratic Spielberg. Success would not escape him for long, though.
The late 1980s found Spielberg's projects at the center of pop-culture yet again. In 1988, he produced the landmark animation/live-action film Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). The next year proved to be another big one for Spielberg, as he produced and directed Always (1989) as well as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), and Back to the Future Part II (1989). All three of the films were box-office and critical successes. Also, in 1989, he produced the little known comedy-drama Dad (1989), with Jack Lemmon and Ted Danson, which got mostly mixed results. Spielberg has also had an affinity for animation and has been a strong voice in animation in the 1990s. Aside from producing the landmark "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", he produced the animated series Tiny Toon Adventures (1990), Animaniacs (1993), Pinky and the Brain (1995), Freakazoid! (1995), Pinky, Elmyra & the Brain (1998), Family Dog (1993) and Toonsylvania (1998). Spielberg also produced other cartoons such as The Land Before Time (1988), We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (1993), Casper (1995) (the live action version) as well as the live-action version of The Flintstones (1994), where he was credited as "Steven Spielrock". Spielberg also produced many Roger Rabbit short cartoons, and many Pinky and the Brain, Animaniacs and Tiny Toons specials. Spielberg was very active in the early 1990s, as he directed Hook (1991) and produced such films as the cute fantasy Joe Versus the Volcano (1990) and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991). He also produced the unusual comedy thriller Arachnophobia (1990), Back to the Future Part III (1990) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990). While these movies were big successes in their own right, they did not quite bring in the kind of box office or critical acclaim as previous efforts. In 1993, Spielberg directed Jurassic Park (1993), which for a short time held the record as the highest grossing movie of all time, but did not have the universal appeal of his previous efforts. Big box-office spectacles were not his only concern, though. He produced and directed Schindler's List (1993), a stirring film about the Holocaust. He won best director at the Oscars, and also got Best Picture. In the mid-90s, he helped found the production company DreamWorks, which was responsible for many box-office successes.
As a producer, he was very active in the late 90s, responsible for such films as The Mask of Zorro (1998), Men in Black (1997) and Deep Impact (1998). However, it was on the directing front that Spielberg was in top form. He directed and produced the epic Amistad (1997), a spectacular film that was shorted at the Oscars and in release due to the fact that its release date was moved around so much in late 1997. The next year, however, produced what many believe was one of the best films of his career: Saving Private Ryan (1998), a film about World War Two that is spectacular in almost every respect. It was stiffed at the Oscars, losing best picture to Shakespeare in Love (1998).
Spielberg produced a series of films, including Evolution (2001), The Haunting (1999) and Shrek (2001). he also produced two sequels to Jurassic Park (1993), which were financially but not particularly critical successes. In 2001, he produced a mini-series about World War Two that definitely *was* a financial and critical success: Band of Brothers (2001), a tale of an infantry company from its parachuting into France during the invasion to the Battle of the Bulge. Also in that year, Spielberg was back in the director's chair for A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), a movie with a message and a huge budget. It did reasonably at the box office and garnered varied reviews from critics.
Spielberg has been extremely active in films there are many other things he has done as well. He produced the short-lived TV series SeaQuest 2032 (1993), an anthology series entitled Amazing Stories (1985), created the video-game series "Medal of Honor" set during World War Two, and was a starting producer of ER (1994). Spielberg, if you haven't noticed, has a great interest in World War Two. He and Tom Hanks collaborated on Shooting War: World War II Combat Cameramen (2000), a documentary about World War II combat photographers, and he produced a documentary about the Holocaust called Eyes of the Holocaust (2000). With all of this to Spielberg's credit, it's no wonder that he's looked at as one of the greatest ever figures in entertainment.Jaws
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1941
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Poltergeist
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
The Color Purple (1985 film)
Empire of the Sun
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Hook
Jurassic Park
Schindler's List
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Amistad
Saving Private Ryan
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Minority Report
Catch Me If You Can
War of the Worlds
Munich
Memoirs of a Geisha
Flags of Our Fathers
Letters from Iwo Jima
The Adventures of Tintin
War Horse
Lincoln
Bridge of Spies
The Post
Ready Player One
West Side Story (2021 film)
The Fabelmans
Maestro
The Color Purple (2023 film)- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Francis Ford Coppola was born in 1939 in Detroit, Michigan, but grew up in a New York suburb in a creative, supportive Italian-American family. His father, Carmine Coppola, was a composer and musician. His mother, Italia Coppola (née Pennino), had been an actress. Francis Ford Coppola graduated with a degree in drama from Hofstra University, and did graduate work at UCLA in filmmaking. He was training as assistant with filmmaker Roger Corman, working in such capacities as sound-man, dialogue director, associate producer and, eventually, director of Dementia 13 (1963), Coppola's first feature film. During the next four years, Coppola was involved in a variety of script collaborations, including writing an adaptation of "This Property is Condemned" by Tennessee Williams (with Fred Coe and Edith Sommer), and screenplays for Is Paris Burning? (1966) and Patton (1970), the film for which Coppola won a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award. In 1966, Coppola's 2nd film brought him critical acclaim and a Master of Fine Arts degree. In 1969, Coppola and George Lucas established American Zoetrope, an independent film production company based in San Francisco. The company's first project was THX 1138 (1971), produced by Coppola and directed by Lucas. Coppola also produced the second film that Lucas directed, American Graffiti (1973), in 1973. This movie got five Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. In 1971, Coppola's film The Godfather (1972) became one of the highest-grossing movies in history and brought him an Oscar for writing the screenplay with Mario Puzo The film was a Best Picture Academy Award-winner, and also brought Coppola a Best Director Oscar nomination. Following his work on the screenplay for The Great Gatsby (1974), Coppola's next film was The Conversation (1974), which was honored with the Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and brought Coppola Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay Oscar nominations. Also released that year, The Godfather Part II (1974), rivaled the success of The Godfather (1972), and won six Academy Awards, bringing Coppola Oscars as a producer, director and writer. Coppola then began work on his most ambitious film, Apocalypse Now (1979), a Vietnam War epic that was inspired by Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness (1993). Released in 1979, the acclaimed film won a Golden Palm Award at the Cannes Film Festival, and two Academy Awards. Also that year, Coppola executive produced the hit The Black Stallion (1979). With George Lucas, Coppola executive produced Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980), directed by Akira Kurosawa, and Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), directed by Paul Schrader and based on the life and writings of Yukio Mishima. Coppola also executive produced such films as The Escape Artist (1982), Hammett (1982) The Black Stallion Returns (1983), Barfly (1987), Wind (1992), The Secret Garden (1993), etc.
He helped to make a star of his nephew, Nicolas Cage. Personal tragedy hit in 1986 when his son Gio died in a boating accident. Francis Ford Coppola is one of America's most erratic, energetic and controversial filmmakers.Is Paris Burning?
You're a Big Boy Now
Finian's Rainbow
Patton
The Godfather
American Graffiti
The Great Gatsby (1974 film)
The Conversation
The Godfather: Part II
Apocalypse Now
One from the Heart
The Cotton Club
Peggy Sue Got Married
Tucker: The Man and His Dream
The Godfather: Part III
Dracula
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
Don Juan DeMarco- Producer
- Director
- Actor
Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942 in Queens, New York City, to Catherine Scorsese (née Cappa) and Charles Scorsese, who both worked in Manhattan's garment district, and whose families both came from Palermo, Sicily. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later provided the inspiration for several of his films. Scorsese earned a B.S. degree in film communications in 1964, followed by an M.A. in the same field in 1966 at New York University's School of Film. During this time, he made numerous prize-winning short films including The Big Shave (1967), and directed his first feature film, Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967).
He served as assistant director and an editor of the documentary Woodstock (1970) and won critical and popular acclaim for Mean Streets (1973), which first paired him with actor and frequent collaborator Robert De Niro. In 1976, Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976), also starring De Niro, was awarded the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and he followed that film with New York, New York (1977) and The Last Waltz (1978). Scorsese directed De Niro to an Oscar-winning performance as boxer Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull (1980), which received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, and is hailed as one of the masterpieces of modern cinema. Scorsese went on to direct The Color of Money (1986), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Goodfellas (1990), Cape Fear (1991), The Age of Innocence (1993), Casino (1995) and Kundun (1997), among other films. Commissioned by the British Film Institute to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of cinema, Scorsese completed the four-hour documentary, A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995), co-directed by Michael Henry Wilson.
His long-cherished project, Gangs of New York (2002), earned numerous critical honors, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Director; the Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator (2004) won five Academy Awards, in addition to the Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for Best Picture. Scorsese won his first Academy Award for Best Director for The Departed (2006), which was also honored with the Director's Guild of America, Golden Globe, New York Film Critics, National Board of Review and Critic's Choice awards for Best Director, in addition to four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. Scorsese's documentary of the Rolling Stones in concert, Shine a Light (2008), followed, with the successful thriller Shutter Island (2010) two years later. Scorsese received his seventh Academy Award nomination for Best Director, as well as a Golden Globe Award, for Hugo (2011), which went on to win five Academy Awards.
Scorsese also serves as executive producer on the HBO series Boardwalk Empire (2010) for which he directed the pilot episode. Scorsese's additional awards and honors include the Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival (1995), the AFI Life Achievement Award (1997), the Honoree at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's 25th Gala Tribute (1998), the DGA Lifetime Achievement Award (2003), The Kennedy Center Honors (2007) and the HFPA Cecil B. DeMille Award (2010). Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio have worked together on five separate occasions: Gangs of New York (2002), The Aviator (2004), The Departed (2006), Shutter Island (2010) and The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).Woodstock
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
Taxi Driver
Raging Bull
The Color of Money
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Grifters
Goodfellas
Cape Fear
The Age of Innocence
Casino
Kundun
Gangs of New York
The Aviator
The Departed
The Young Victoria
Hugo
The Wolf of Wall Street
Silence
The Irishman
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Born in 1954 in Pingtung, Taiwan, Ang Lee has become one of today's greatest contemporary filmmakers. Ang graduated from the National Taiwan College of Arts in 1975 and then came to the U.S. to receive a B.F.A. Degree in Theatre/Theater Direction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a Masters Degree in Film Production at New York University. At NYU, he served as Assistant Director on Spike Lee's student film, Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983). After Lee wrote a couple of screenplays, he eventually appeared on the film scene with Pushing Hands (1991), a dramatic-comedy reflecting on generational conflicts and cultural adaptation, centering on the metaphor of the grandfather's Tai-Chi technique of "Pushing Hands". The Wedding Banquet (1993) (aka The Wedding Banquet) was Lee's next film, an exploration of cultural and generational conflicts through a homosexual Taiwanese man who feigns a marriage in order to satisfy the traditional demands of his Taiwanese parents. It garnered Golden Globe and Oscar nominations, and won a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The third movie in his trilogy of Taiwanese-Culture/Generation films, all of them featuring his patriarch figure Sihung Lung, was Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) (aka Eat Drink Man Woman), which received a Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination. Lee followed this with Sense and Sensibility (1995), his first Hollywood-mainstream movie. It acquired a Best Picture Oscar nomination, and won Best Adapted Screenplay, for the film's screenwriter and lead actress, Emma Thompson. Lee was also voted the year's Best Director by the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle. Lee and frequent collaborator James Schamus next filmed The Ice Storm (1997), an adaptation of Rick Moody's novel involving 1970s New England suburbia. The movie acquired the 1997 Best Screenplay at Cannes for screenwriter James Schamus, among other accolades. The Civil War drama Ride with the Devil (1999) soon followed and received critical praise, but it was Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) (aka Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) that is considered one of his greatest works, a sprawling period film and martial-arts epic that dealt with love, loyalty and loss. It swept the Oscar nominations, eventually winning Best Foreign Language Film, as well as Best Director at the Golden Globes, and became the highest grossing foreign-language film ever released in America. Lee then filmed the comic-book adaptation, Hulk (2003) - an elegantly and skillfully made film with nice action scenes. Lee has also shot a short film - Chosen (2001) (aka Hire, The Chosen) - and most recently won the 2005 Best Director Academy Award for Brokeback Mountain (2005), a film based on a short story by Annie Proulx. In 2012 Lee directed Life of Pi which earned 11 Academy Award nominations and went on to win the Academy Award for Best Director. In 2013 Ang Lee was selected as a member of the main competition jury at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.The Wedding Banquet
Eat Drink Man Woman
Sense and Sensibility
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Brokeback Mountain
Life of Pi- Director
- Producer
- Actress
A very talented painter, Kathryn spent two years at the San Francisco Art Institute. At 20, she won a scholarship to the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program. She was given a studio in a former Offtrack Betting building, literally in an old bank vault, where she made art and waited to be critiqued by people like Richard Serra, Robert Rauschenberg and Susan Sontag. Later she earned a scholarship to study film at Columbia University School of Arts, graduating in 1979. She was also a member of the British avant garde cultural group, Art and Language. Kathryn is the only child of the manager of a paint factory and a librarian.The Hurt Locker
Zero Dark Thirty- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Steve McQueen was born on 9 October 1969 in London, England, UK. He is a director and producer, known for 12 Years a Slave (2013), Shame (2011) and Hunger (2008). He is married to Bianca Stigter. They have two children.12 Years a Slave- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Barry Jenkins was born on 19 November 1979 in Miami, Florida, USA. He is a producer and director, known for If Beale Street Could Talk (2018), Moonlight (2016) and Aftersun (2022).Moonlight
If Beale Street Could Talk
Aftersun- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Jordan Peele is an Oscar- and Emmy-winning director, writer, actor, producer, and founder of Monkeypaw Productions. Peele's first feature film, "Get Out," was a critically acclaimed blockbuster, recognized with four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture. The film would earn Peele the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. His second feature, "Us," broke numerous box-office records, becoming the biggest opening for an R-rated original film in history when released in March of 2019 to widespread critical praise. Peele's third feature, the original horror epic, "Nope," opened in the summer of 2022 to rave reviews, the No. 1 slot at the box office, and once again becoming a widely discussed cultural phenomenon. Five years in the making, Peele produced and co-wrote Henry Selick's stop-motion animated feature, "Wendell & Wild," to which he also lent his voice as one of the title characters. Under the Monkeypaw banner, Peele co-wrote and produced Nia DaCosta's "Candyman" which made history as the first film helmed by a Black woman director to open at No. 1 at the box office. He also produced Spike Lee's "BlacKkKlansman," which earned a nomination for Best Picture and won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. He has also served as executive producer for numerous television series, including "Hunters" (Amazon), "Lovecraft Country" (HBO), and "The Twilight Zone" (CBS). Prior to becoming a filmmaker, Peele was a celebrated comedian who was the co-star and co-creator of "Key & Peele" on Comedy Central.Get Out
BlacKkKlansman- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco was born on November 28th 1961 in Mexico City, Mexico. From an early age, he yearned to be either a film director or an astronaut. However, he did not want to enter the army, so he settled for directing. He didn't receive his first camera until his twelfth birthday, and then immediately started to film everything he saw, showing it afterwards to everyone. In his teen years, films were his hobby. Sometimes he said to his mother he would go to a friend's home, when in fact he would go to the cinema. His ambition was to know every theatre in the city. Near his house there were two studios, Studios Churubusco and Studios 212. After finishing school, Cuarón decided to study cinema right away. He tried to study at C.C.C. (Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica) but wasn't accepted because at that time they weren't accepting students under twenty-four years old. His mother didn't support that idea of cinema, so he studied philosophy in the morning and in the afternoon he went to the C.U.E.C. (Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos). During that time he met many people who would later become his collaborators and friends. One of them was Luis Estrada. Cuaron also became good friends with Carlos Marcovich and Emmanuel Lubezki. Luis Estrada directed a short called "Vengance is Mine", on which Alfonso and Emmanuel collaborated. The film was in English, a fact which bothered many teachers of the C.U.E.C. such as Marcela Fernández Violante. The disagreement caused such arguments that in 1985, Alfonso was expelled from the university.
During his time studying at C.U.E.C. he met Mariana Elizondo, and with her he had his first son, Jonás Cuarón. After Alfonso was expelled, he thought he could never be a director and so went on to work in a Museum so he could sustain his family. One day, José Luis García Agraz and Fernando CáMara went to the museum and made an offer to Cuarón. They asked him to work as cable person in "La víspera (1982)", a job which was to prove to be his salvation. After that he was assistant director in Garcia Agraz's "Nocaut (1984)", as well as numerous other films.
He was also second unit director in "Gaby: A True Story (1987)", and co-wrote and directed some episodes in the series "A Hora Marcada (1967)". One New Year's Eve, he decided he would not continue to be an assistant director, and with his brother Carlos started writing what would be his first feature film: "Love in the Time of Hysteria (1991)" (Love in the time of Hysteria). After the screenplay was written, the problem became how to get financial backing for the movie. I.M.C.I.N.E. (Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografia), which supports movies financially, had already decided which projects it would support that year, much to Alfonso's initial chagrin. However, the director of one of those already-chosen projects was unable to direct it, so his project was canceled, and "Sólo con tu pareja" took its place. Despite this being chosen, there was a lot of tension between Alfonso and the I.M.C.I.N.E. executives. Nevertheless, after the movie was finished, it was a huge success. In Toronto festival the films won many awards, and Alfonso started to be noticed by Hollywood producers. Sydney Pollack was the first one to invite him to shoot in Hollywood. He proposed a feature film to be directed by Alfonso, but the project didn't work and was canceled. Alfonso moved to Los Angeles without anything concrete, and stayed with some friends, as he had no money. Soon after that, Pollack called him again to direct an episode called "Murder, Obliquely (1993)" of the series "Fallen Angels (1993)", that was the first job he had in U.S., and also the first time he worked with Alan Rickman.
After a while, and no real directing jobs, Alfonso wanted to direct something as he needed money. He finally signed a contract with Warner Brothers to direct the film Addicted to Love (1995). However, one night, he read the screenplay for another film, A Little Princess (1995) and fell in love with it. He talked to Warner Brothers and after some meetings he gave up directing "Addicted to Love" in order to do "A Little Princess". Even thought it wasn't a great box office success, the film received two nominations for the Oscars, and won many other awards. After "A Little Princess" Alfonso developed a project with Richard Gere starring. The project was canceled, but Cuarón got an offer from Twentieth Century Fox to direct the modern adaptation of the Charles Dickens' classic Great Expectations (1998). He initially didn't want to direct it but the studio insisted, and in the end he accepted it. The experience was very painful and difficult for him mainly because there was never a definitive screenplay.
He then reunited with producer Jorge Vergara and founded both Anhelo Productions and Moonson Productions. Anhelo's first picture was also Alfonso's next film, the erotic road movie "And Your Mother Too (2001)", which was a huge success. During the promotion of the film in Venice, Alfonso met the cinema critic Annalisa Bugliani. They started dating and married that same year. "Children of Men (2006)" was to be Alfonso's next film, a futuristic, dystopian story. During the pre-production of the film, Warner Brothers invited Alfonso to direct the third Harry Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)", an offer which he accepted after some consideration. The film would prove to be the greatest box office success of his career.
In 2003, he had a daughter named Bu Cuaron, and in February 2005 another son, called Olmo Teodoro Cuarón. Alfonso Cuarón signed a three-year first-look deal with Warner Brothers, which allowed his films to be distributed world-wide. He directed one five-minute segment of the anthology film Paris, I Love You (2006) with Nick Nolte and Ludivine Sagnier. His next project, the futuristic film Children of Men (2006) with Clive Owen, Julianne Moore and Michael Caine premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2006 having been nominated for three Academy Awards. After his youngest son was diagnosed with autism and the divorce from Annalisa Bugliani he took a break from directing and settled in London where he plans to work on his next projects.
In 2013, Alfonso directed the space thriller Gravity (2013), which would go win 7 academy awards.
Alfonso is the only filmmaker to have ever won twice for a clean sweep for the awards, for "Gravity" and "Roma", for Best Director at the Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, and DGA Awards.A Little Princess
Y Tu Mamá También
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Children of Men
Pan's Labyrinth
Gravity
Roma
Le Pupille- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Alejandro González Iñárritu (ih-nyar-ee-too), born August 15th, 1963, is a Mexican film director.
González Iñárritu is the first Mexican director to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and by the Directors Guild of America for Best Director. He is also the first Mexican-born director to have won the Prix de la mise en scene or best director award at Cannes (2006), the second one being Carlos Reygadas in 2012. His six feature films, 'Amores Perros' (2000), '21 Grams' (2003), 'Babel' (2006), 'Biutiful' (2010), 'Birdman' (2014) and 'The Revenant' (2015), have gained critical acclaim world-wide including two Academy Award nominations.
Alejandro González Iñárritu was born in Mexico City.
Crossing the Atlantic Ocean on a cargo ship at the ages of seventeen and nineteen years, González Iñárritu worked his way across Europe and Africa. He himself has noted that these early travels as a young man have had a great influence on him as a film-maker. The setting of his films have often been in the places he visited during this period.
After his travels, González Iñárritu returned to Mexico City and majored in communications at Universidad Iberoamericana. In 1984, he started his career as a radio host at the Mexican radio station WFM, a rock and eclectic music station. In 1988, he became the director of the station. Over the next five years, González Iñárritu spent his time interviewing rock stars, transmitting live concerts, and making WFM the number one radio station in Mexico. From 1987 to 1989, he composed music for six Mexican feature films. He has stated that he believes music has had a bigger influence on him as an artist than film itself.
In the nineties, González Iñárritu created Z films with Raul Olvera in Mexico. Under Z Films, he started writing, producing and directing short films and advertisements. Making the final transition into T.V Film directing, he studied under well-known Polish theatre director Ludwik Margules, as well as Judith Weston in Los Angeles.
In 1995, González Iñárritu wrote and directed his first T.V pilot for Z Films, called Detras del dinero, -"Behind the Money", starring Miguel Bosé. Z Films went on to be one of the biggest and strongest film production companies in Mexico, launching seven young directors in the feature film arena. In 1999, González Iñárritu directed his first feature film Amores perros, written by Guillermo Arriaga. Amores perros explored Mexican society in Mexico City told via three intertwining stories. In 2000, Amores perros premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Critics Weeks Grand Prize. It also introduced audiences for the first time to Gael García Bernal. Amores perros went on to be nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards.
After the success of Amores Perros, González Iñárritu and Guillermo Arriaga revisited the intersecting story structure of Amores perros in González Iñárritu's second film, 21 Grams. The film starred Benicio del Toro, Naomi Watts and Sean Penn, and was presented at the Venice Film Festival, winning the Volpi Cup for actor Sean Penn. At the 2004 Academy Awards, Del Toro and Watts received nominations for their performances.
In 2005 González Iñárritu embarked on his third film, Babel, set in 4 countries on 3 continents, and in 4 different languages. Babel consists of four stories set in Morocco, Mexico, the United States, and Japan. The film stars Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Adriana Barraza. The majority of the rest of the cast, however, was made up of non-professional actors and some new actors, such as Rinko Kikuchi. It was presented at Cannes 2006, where González Iñárritu earned the Best Director Prize (Prix de la mise en scène). Babel was released in November 2006 and received seven nominations at the 79th Annual Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. González Iñárritu is the first Mexican director nominated for a DGA award and for an Academy Award. Babel went on to win Best Motion Picture in the drama category at the Golden Globe Awards on January 15, 2007. Gustavo Santaolalla won the Academy Award that year for Best Original Score. After Babel, Alejandro and his writing partner Guillermo Arriaga professionally parted ways, following González Iñárritu barring Arriaga from the set during filming (Arriaga told the LA Times in 2009 "It had to come to an end, but I still respect González Iñárritu").
In 2008 and 2009, González Iñárritu directed and produced Biutiful, starring Javier Bardem, written by González Iñárritu, Armando Bo, and Nicolas Giacobone. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festial on May 17, 2010. Bardem went on to win Best Actor (shared with Elio Germano for La nostra vita) at Cannes. Biutiful is González Iñárritu's first film in his native Spanish since his debut feature Amores perros. For the second time in his career his film was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards. It was also nominated for the 2011 Golden Globes in the category of Best Foreign Film, for the 2011 BAFTA awards in the category of Best Film Not in the English Language and Best Actor. Javier Bardem's performance was also nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor.
In 2014, González Iñárritu directed Birdman, starring Michael Keaton, Naomi Watts, Edward Norton, Emma Stone, Zach Galifianakis, and Andrea Riseborough. The film is Iñárritu's first comedy. Birdman is about an actor who played an iconic superhero, and who tries to revive his career by doing a play based on the Raymond Carver short story What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. The film was released on October 17, 2014.
In April 2014, it was announced that González Iñárritu's next film as a director will be The Revenant, which he co-wrote with Mark L. Smith. It is based on the novel of same name by Michael Punke. The film stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy and Will Poulter with shooting began in September 2014, for a December 25, 2015 release.The Revenant is being filmed in Alberta and B.C. with production scheduled to wrap in February 2015. The film will be a 19th Century period piece, and is described as a "gritty thriller" about a fur trapper who seeks revenge against a group of men who robbed and abandoned him after he was mauled by a grizzly bear.
From 2001 to 2011, González Iñárritu directed several short films.
In 2001, he directed an 11 minute film segment for 11.09.01- which is composed of several short films that explore the effects of the 9/11 terrorist attacks from different points of view around the world.
In 2007, he made ANNA which screened at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival inside Chacun son cinéma. It was part of the 60th anniversary of the film festival and it was a series of shorts by 33 world-renown film directors.
In 2012, he made the experimental short film Naran Ja: One Act Orange Dance - inspired by L.A Dance Project's premiere performance. The short features excerpts of the new choreography Benjamin Millepied crafted for Moving Parts. The story takes place in a secluded, dusty space and centers around LADP dancer Julia Eichten.
In 2001/2002, González Iñárritu directed "Powder Keg", an episode for the BMW film series The Hire, starring Clive Owen as the driver.
In 2010, González Iñárritu directed Write the Future, a football-themed commercial for Nike ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which went on to win Grand Prix at the Cannes Lions advertising festival.
In 2012, he directed Procter and Gamble's "Best Job" commercial spot for the 2012 Olympic Ceremonies. It went on to win the Best Primetime Commercial Emmy at Creative Arts Emmy Awards.Amores Perros
21 Grams
Babel
Biutiful
Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
The Revenant
Carne y Arena
Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Guillermo del Toro was born October 9, 1964 in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Raised by his Catholic grandmother, del Toro developed an interest in filmmaking in his early teens. Later, he learned about makeup and effects from the legendary Dick Smith (The Exorcist (1973)) and worked on making his own short films. At the age of 21, del Toro executive produced his first feature, Dona Herlinda and Her Son (1985). Del Toro spent almost 10 years as a makeup supervisor, and formed his own company, Necropia in the early 1980s. He also produced and directed Mexican television programs at this time, and taught film.
Del Toro got his first big break when Cronos (1992) won nine Ariel Awards (the Mexican equivalent of the Oscars), then went on to win the International Critics Week Prize at Cannes. Following this success, del Toro made his first Hollywood film, Mimic (1997), starring Mira Sorvino.
Del Toro had some unfortunate experiences working with a demanding Hollywood studio on Mimic (1997), and returned to Mexico to form his own production company, The Tequila Gang.
Next for del Toro, was The Devil's Backbone (2001), a Spanish Civil War ghost story. The film was hailed by critics and audiences alike, and del Toro decided to give Hollywood another try. In 2002, he directed the Wesley Snipes vampire sequel, Blade II (2002).
On a roll, Del Toro followed up Blade II (2002) with another successful comic-book inspired film, Hellboy (2004), starring one of Del Toro's favorite actors, Ron Perlman.
Del Toro is divorced, has a daughter and a son and lives in Los Angeles and Toronto.Pan's Labyrinth
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
The Shape of Water
Nightmare Alley
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Bernardo Bertolucci, the Italian director whose films were known for their colorful visual style, was born in Parma, Italy. He attended Rome University and became famous as a poet. He served as assistant director for Pier Paolo Pasolini in the film Accattone (1961) and directed The Grim Reaper (1962). His second film, Before the Revolution (1964), which was released in 1971, received an Academy Award nomination for best screenplay. Bertolucci also received an Academy Award nomination as best director for Last Tango in Paris (1972), and the best director and best screenplay for the film The Last Emperor (1987), which walked away with nine Academy Awards.The Conformist
Last Tango in Paris
The Last Emperor- Writer
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater creative freedom. Drunken Angel (1948) was the first film he made without extensive studio interference, and marked his first collaboration with Toshirô Mifune. In the coming decades, the two would make 16 movies together, and Mifune became as closely associated with Kurosawa's films as was John Wayne with the films of Kurosawa's idol, John Ford. After working in a wide range of genres, Kurosawa made his international breakthrough film Rashomon (1950) in 1950. It won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, and first revealed the richness of Japanese cinema to the West. The next few years saw the low-key, touching Ikiru (1952) (Living), the epic Seven Samurai (1954), the barbaric, riveting Shakespeare adaptation Throne of Blood (1957), and a fun pair of samurai comedies Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962). After a lean period in the late 1960s and early 1970s, though, Kurosawa attempted suicide. He survived, and made a small, personal, low-budget picture with Dodes'ka-den (1970), a larger-scale Russian co-production Dersu Uzala (1975) and, with the help of admirers Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, the samurai tale Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980), which Kurosawa described as a dry run for Ran (1985), an epic adaptation of Shakespeare's "King Lear." He continued to work into his eighties with the more personal Dreams (1990), Rhapsody in August (1991) and Madadayo (1993). Kurosawa's films have always been more popular in the West than in his native Japan, where critics have viewed his adaptations of Western genres and authors (William Shakespeare, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Maxim Gorky and Evan Hunter) with suspicion - but he's revered by American and European film-makers, who remade Rashomon (1950) as The Outrage (1964), Seven Samurai (1954), as The Magnificent Seven (1960), Yojimbo (1961), as A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and The Hidden Fortress (1958), as Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977).Rashomon
Seven Samurai
Yojimbo
Dodes'ka-den
Dersu Uzala
Kagemusha
Ran
Runaway Train- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Writer
Born in Takaoka, Toyama, Yojiro Takita came to international audiences' attention with the release of Okuribito ('Departures'), which won the Best foreign Language film awards at the Oscars in 2009. He had begun his directorial career in the 1980s with the 'chikan' ('molester') series depicting gropers in settings like trains. Still in the 'ping eiga' adult sub-genre he also completed the Serial Rape thriller in 1983. He diversified to comedy and TV serial work and, at the turn of the century, directed the mainstream Onmyoji. More recently he has been less prolific.Departures- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Former female impersonator who entered films in 1917 as an actor, turned to directing in 1922 and made some of the most formally brilliant Japanese films of the following decades. The few of Kinugasa's early works to have reached the West betray a highly mature, sophisticated talent. His best-known silent films are _Kurutta Ippeji (1926)_, an old print of which was found by Kinugasa in his attic and re-released in the 1970s, and Crossroads (1928), the first Japanese film to be commercially released in Europe. Both have been hailed for their inventive camera work, which has been compared to that of the celebrated German expressionist films being made during the same period. (It was not until 1929 that Kinugasa himself traveled abroad and encountered European directors and their films.) In the 1950s and 60s Kinugasa made a number of period dramas noted for their sumptuous color and imaginative use of the wide screen; Gate of Hell (1953) was named best film at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival and won an Oscar for best foreign film.Gate of Hell- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Inagaki's career in film began as an actor--a child actor, in fact, appearing in numerous silent films beginning at the very dawn of Japanese cinema. This is probably why he was promoted to director at the unusually (for Japan) young age of 22. Along with producer Mansaku Itami (later the father of another acclaimed director, Juzo Itami), Inagaki concerned himself with the genre of Japanese period films. He also wrote (under a pseudonym) similar films for the short-lived director Sadao Yamanaka. The work of Inagaki, Itami and Yamanaka, singly and together, directly influenced the likes of Kenji Mizoguchi later, and helped define the very genre of the period film. Inagaki would direct dozens of them over his career, including two versions of Chushingura, and the Oscar winner for Best Foreign Film Samurai (1954, released in Japan as Miyamoto Musashi). For all his success, Inagaki grew more and more frustrated with his assignments over the years. Although proud of his final effort, Furin Kazan (Samurai Banners, 1969), he was unable to find financing in the increasingly conservative atmosphere of 1970s Japan. Once he had been at the top of his profession, second at Toho only to Akira Kurosawa; now, like Kurosawa, he was being cast aside as an old man whose time had passed, and whose kind of movie was now too expensive to produce. In his despair, Inagaki turned to alcohol, which helped contribute to his lonely and painful death. Of all the dozens of films he made, he often said, only a handful had he actually wanted to make: the Samurai trilogy (1954-6) and Furin Kazan. Whatever his opinion, much of his other work remains estimable, including Nippon Tanjo (1959) and Muhomatsu no Issho (The Life of Matsu the Untamed, 1958).Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Benjamin Géza "Ben" Affleck-Boldt was born on August 15, 1972 in Berkeley, California and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to mother Chris Anne (Boldt), a school teacher, and father Timothy Byers "Tim" Affleck, a social worker. Ben has a younger brother, actor Casey Affleck, who was born in 1975. He is of mostly English, Irish, German, and Scottish ancestry. His middle name, Géza, is after a Hungarian family friend who was a Holocaust survivor.
Affleck wanted to be an actor ever since he could remember, and his first acting experience was for a Burger King commercial, when he was on the PBS mini-series, The Voyage of the Mimi (1984). It was also at that age when Ben met his lifelong friend and fellow actor, Matt Damon. They played little league together and took drama classes together. Ben's teen years consisted of mainly TV movies and small television appearances including Hands of a Stranger (1987) and The Second Voyage of the Mimi (1988). He made his big introduction into feature films in 1993 when he was cast in Dazed and Confused (1993). After that, he did mostly independent films like Kevin Smith's Mallrats (1995) and Chasing Amy (1997) which were great for Ben's career, receiving renowned appreciation for his works at the Sundance film festival. But the success he was having in independent films didn't last much longer and things got a little shaky for Ben. He was living in an apartment with his brother Casey and friend Matt, getting tired of being turned down for the big roles in films and being given the forgettable supporting ones. Since Matt was having the same trouble, they decided to write their own script, where they could call all the shots. So, after finishing the script for Good Will Hunting (1997), they gave it to their agent, Patrick Whitesell, who showed it to a few Hollywood studios, finally being accepted by Castle Rock. It was great news for the two, but Castle Rock wasn't willing to give Ben and Matt the control over the project they were hoping for. It was friend Kevin Smith who took it to the head of Miramax who bought the script giving Ben and Matt the control they wanted and, in December 5, 1997, Good Will Hunting (1997) was released, making the two unknown actors famous. The film was nominated for 9 Academy Awards and won two, including Best Original Screenplay for Ben and Matt. The film marked Ben's breakthrough role, in which he was given for the first time the chance to choose roles instead of having to go through grueling auditions constantly.
Affleck chose such roles in the blockbusters Armageddon (1998), Shakespeare in Love (1998), and Pearl Harbor (2001). In the early years of the 2000s, he also starred in the box office hits Changing Lanes (2002), The Sum of All Fears (2002), and Daredevil (2003), as well as the disappointing comedies Gigli (2003) and Surviving Christmas (2004). While the mid 2000s were considered a career downturn for Affleck, he received a Golden Globe nomination for his performance in Hollywoodland (2006). In the several years following, he played supporting roles, including in the films Smokin' Aces (2006), He's Just Not That Into You (2009), State of Play (2009), and Extract (2009). He ventured into directing in 2007, with the thriller Gone Baby Gone (2007), which starred his brother, Casey Affleck, and was well received. He then directed, co-wrote, and starred in The Town (2010), which was named to the National Board of Review Top Ten Films of the year. For the political thriller Argo (2012), which he directed and starred in, Affleck won the Golden Globe Award and BAFTA Award for Best Director, and the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and BAFTA Award for Best Picture (Affleck's second Oscar win).
In 2014, Affleck headlined the book adaptation thriller Gone Girl (2014). He starred as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the superhero film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016), Suicide Squad (2016), and Justice League (2017). He reprised the role in Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) and he will next appear as Batman in Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023) and The Flash (2023).
Recently he has given praise-worthy performances in The Way Back (2020) as a recovering alcoholic, The Last Duel (2021) (notably he also co-wrote the script), and a scene-stealing golden globe nominated performance in The Tender Bar (2021).Good Will Hunting
Gone Baby Gone
The Town
Argo- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Robert Douglas Benton is an American screenwriter and filmmaker from Waxahachie, Texas who is known for screenwriting Bonnie & Clyde, Kramer vs. Kramer and Superman. He won two Academy Awards for writing and directing Kramer vs. Kramer. He directed other feature films including Twilight, Bad Company and Nobody's Fool. He is married to Sallie Rendig since 1964.Bonnie and Clyde
The Late Show
Superman
Kramer vs. Kramer
Places in the Heart
Nobody's Fool- Writer
- Producer
- Additional Crew
James L. Brooks was born on 9 May 1940 in Brooklyn, New York, USA. He is a writer and producer, known for Broadcast News (1987), As Good as It Gets (1997) and Terms of Endearment (1983). He was previously married to Holly Holmberg Brooks and Marianne Catherine Morrissey.Starting Over
Terms of Endearment
Broadcast News
Big
Jerry Maguire
As Good as It Gets
The Longest Daycare- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Vittorio De Sica grew up in Naples, and started out as an office clerk in order to raise money to support his poor family. He was increasingly drawn towards acting, and made his screen debut while still in his teens, joining a stage company in 1923. By the late 1920s he was a successful matinee idol of the Italian theatre, and repeated that achievement in Italian movies, mostly light comedies. He turned to directing in 1940, making comedies in a similar vein, but with his fifth film The Children Are Watching Us (1943), he revealed hitherto unsuspected depths and an extraordinarily sensitive touch with actors, especially children. It was also the first film he made with the writer Cesare Zavattini with whom he would subsequently make Shoeshine (1946) and Bicycle Thieves (1948), heartbreaking studies of poverty in postwar Italy which won special Oscars before the foreign film category was officially established. After the box-office disaster of Umberto D. (1952), a relentlessly bleak study of the problems of old age, he returned to directing lighter work, appearing in front of the camera more frequently. Although Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963) won him another Oscar, it was generally accepted that his career as one of the great directors was over. However, just before he died he made The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970), which won him yet another Oscar, and his final film A Brief Vacation (1973). He died following the removal of a cyst from his lungs.Shoeshine
Bicycle Thieves
Umberto D.
Indiscretion of an American Wife
A Farewell to Arms
Two Women
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Marriage Italian Style
Sunflower
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Giuseppe Tornatore was born on 27 May 1956 in Bagheria, Sicily, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for The Best Offer (2013), Cinema Paradiso (1988) and The Legend of 1900 (1998). He is married to Roberta Pacetti.Cinema Paradiso
The Star Maker
Malèna- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Woody Allen was born on November 30, 1935, as Allen Konigsberg, in The Bronx, NY, the son of Martin Konigsberg and Nettie Konigsberg. He has one younger sister, Letty Aronson. As a young boy, he became intrigued with magic tricks and playing the clarinet, two hobbies that he continues today.
Allen broke into show business at 15 years when he started writing jokes for a local paper, receiving $200 a week. He later moved on to write jokes for talk shows but felt that his jokes were being wasted. His agents, Charles Joffe and Jack Rollins, convinced him to start doing stand-up and telling his own jokes. Reluctantly he agreed and, although he initially performed with such fear of the audience that he would cover his ears when they applauded his jokes, he eventually became very successful at stand-up. After performing on stage for a few years, he was approached to write a script for Warren Beatty to star in: What's New Pussycat (1965) and would also have a moderate role as a character in the film. During production, Woody gave himself more and better lines and left Beatty with less compelling dialogue. Beatty inevitably quit the project and was replaced by Peter Sellers, who demanded all the best lines and more screen-time.
It was from this experience that Woody realized that he could not work on a film without complete control over its production. Woody's theoretical directorial debut was in What's Up, Tiger Lily? (1966); a Japanese spy flick that he dubbed over with his own comedic dialogue about spies searching for the secret recipe for egg salad. His real directorial debut came the next year in the mockumentary Take the Money and Run (1969). He has written, directed and, more often than not, starred in about a film a year ever since, while simultaneously writing more than a dozen plays and several books of comedy.
While best known for his romantic comedies Annie Hall (1977) and Manhattan (1979), Woody has made many transitions in his films throughout the years, transitioning from his "early, funny ones" of Bananas (1971), Love and Death (1975) and Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972); to his more storied and romantic comedies of Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979) and Hannah and Her Sisters (1986); to the Bergmanesque films of Stardust Memories (1980) and Interiors (1978); and then on to the more recent, but varied works of Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989), Husbands and Wives (1992), Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Celebrity (1998) and Deconstructing Harry (1997); and finally to his films of the last decade, which vary from the light comedy of Scoop (2006), to the self-destructive darkness of Match Point (2005) and, most recently, to the cinematically beautiful tale of Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008). Although his stories and style have changed over the years, he is regarded as one of the best filmmakers of our time because of his views on art and his mastery of filmmaking.What's New Pussycat
Annie Hall
Interiors
Manhattan
Zelig
Broadway Danny Rose
The Purple Rose of Cairo
Hannah and Her Sisters
Radio Days
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Alice
Husbands and Wives
Bullets Over Broadway
Mighty Aphrodite
Deconstructing Harry
Sweet and Lowdown
Match Point
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Midnight in Paris
Blue Jasmine- Producer
- Writer
- Actor
Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. His father, Tony Tarantino, is an Italian-American actor and musician from New York, and his mother, Connie (McHugh), is a nurse from Tennessee. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.
In January of 1992, first-time writer-director Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992) appeared at the Sundance Film Festival. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend immediately. Two years later, he followed up Dogs success with Pulp Fiction (1994) which premiered at the Cannes film festival, winning the coveted Palme D'Or Award. At the 1995 Academy Awards, it was nominated for the best picture, best director and best original screenplay. Tarantino and writing partner Roger Avary came away with the award only for best original screenplay. In 1995, Tarantino directed one fourth of the anthology Four Rooms (1995) with friends and fellow auteurs Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Allison Anders. The film opened December 25 in the United States to very weak reviews. Tarantino's next film was From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), a vampire/crime story which he wrote and co-starred with George Clooney. The film did fairly well theatrically.
Since then, Tarantino has helmed several critically and financially successful films, including Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Inglourious Basterds (2009), Django Unchained (2012) and The Hateful Eight (2015).Pulp Fiction
Jackie Brown
Inglourious Basterds
Django Unchained
The Hateful Eight
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Martin McDonagh was born on 26 March 1970 in Camberwell, London, England, UK. He is a writer and director, known for In Bruges (2008), Seven Psychopaths (2012) and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017).Six Shooter
In Bruges
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Banshees of Inisherin- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Clinton Eastwood Jr. was born May 31, 1930 in San Francisco, to Clinton Eastwood Sr., a bond salesman and later manufacturing executive for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, and Ruth Wood (née Margret Ruth Runner), a housewife turned IBM clerk. He grew up in nearby Piedmont. At school Clint took interest in music and mechanics, but was an otherwise bored student; this resulted in being held back a grade. In 1949, the year he is said to have graduated from high school, his parents and younger sister Jeanne moved to Seattle. Clint spent a couple years in the Pacific Northwest himself, operating log broncs in Springfield, Oregon, with summer gigs life-guarding in Renton, Washington. Returning to California in 1951, he did a two-year stint at Fort Ord Military Reservation and later enrolled at L.A. City College, but dropped out to pursue acting.
During the mid-1950s he landed uncredited bit parts in such B-films as Revenge of the Creature (1955) and Tarantula (1955) while digging swimming pools and driving a garbage truck to supplement his income. In 1958, he landed his first consequential acting role in the long-running TV show Rawhide (1959) with Eric Fleming. Although only a secondary player the first seven seasons, he was promoted to series star when Fleming departed--both literally and figuratively--in its final year, along the way becoming a recognizable face to television viewers around the country.
Eastwood's big-screen breakthrough came as The Man with No Name in Sergio Leone's trilogy of excellent spaghetti westerns: A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966). The movies were shown exclusively in Italy during their respective copyright years with Enrico Maria Salerno providing the voice of Eastwood's character, finally getting American distribution in 1967-68. As the last film racked up respectable grosses, Eastwood, 37, rose from a barely registering actor to sought-after commodity in just a matter of months. Again a success was the late-blooming star's first U.S.-made western, Hang 'Em High (1968). He followed that up with the lead role in Coogan's Bluff (1968) (the loose inspiration for the TV series McCloud (1970)), before playing second fiddle to Richard Burton in the World War II epic Where Eagles Dare (1968) and Lee Marvin in the bizarre musical Paint Your Wagon (1969). In Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970) and Kelly's Heroes (1970), Eastwood leaned in an experimental direction by combining tough-guy action with offbeat humor.
1971 proved to be his busiest year in film. He starred as a sleazy Union soldier in The Beguiled (1971) to critical acclaim, and made his directorial debut with the classic erotic thriller Play Misty for Me (1971). His role as the hard edge police inspector in Dirty Harry (1971), meanwhile, boosted him to cultural icon status and helped popularize the loose-cannon cop genre. Eastwood put out a steady stream of entertaining movies thereafter: the westerns Joe Kidd (1972), High Plains Drifter (1973) and The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) (his first of six onscreen collaborations with then live-in love Sondra Locke), the Dirty Harry sequels Magnum Force (1973) and The Enforcer (1976), the action-packed road adventures Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) and The Gauntlet (1977), and the prison film Escape from Alcatraz (1979). He branched out into the comedy genre in 1978 with Every Which Way But Loose (1978), which became the biggest hit of his career up to that time; taking inflation into account, it still is. In short, The Eiger Sanction (1975) notwithstanding, the 1970s were nonstop success for Eastwood.
Eastwood kicked off the 1980s with Any Which Way You Can (1980), the blockbuster sequel to Every Which Way but Loose. The fourth Dirty Harry film, Sudden Impact (1983), was the highest-grossing film of the franchise and spawned his trademark catchphrase: "Make my day." He also starred in Bronco Billy (1980), Firefox (1982), Tightrope (1984), City Heat (1984), Pale Rider (1985) and Heartbreak Ridge (1986), all of which were solid hits, with Honkytonk Man (1982) being his only commercial failure of the period. In 1988, he did his fifth and final Dirty Harry movie, The Dead Pool (1988). Although it was a success overall, it did not have the box office punch the previous films had. About this time, with outright bombs like Pink Cadillac (1989) and The Rookie (1990), it seemed Eastwood's star was declining as it never had before. He then started taking on low-key projects, directing Bird (1988), a biopic of Charlie Parker that earned him a Golden Globe, and starring in and directing White Hunter Black Heart (1990), an uneven, loose biopic of John Huston (both films had a limited release).
Eastwood bounced back big time with his dark western Unforgiven (1992), which garnered the then 62-year-old his first ever Academy Award nomination (Best Actor), and an Oscar win for Best Director. Churning out a quick follow-up hit, he took on the secret service in In the Line of Fire (1993), then accepted second billing for the first time since 1970 in the interesting but poorly received A Perfect World (1993) with Kevin Costner. Next was a love story, The Bridges of Madison County (1995), where Eastwood surprised audiences with a sensitive performance alongside none other than Meryl Streep. But it soon became apparent he was going backwards after his brief revival. Subsequent films were credible, but nothing really stuck out. Absolute Power (1997) and Space Cowboys (2000) did well enough, while True Crime (1999) and Blood Work (2002) were received badly, as was Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997), which he directed but didn't appear in.
Eastwood surprised again in the mid-2000s, returning to the top of the A-list with Million Dollar Baby (2004). Also starring Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman, the hugely successful drama won four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director for Eastwood. He scored his second Best Actor nomination, too. His next starring vehicle, Gran Torino (2008), earned almost $30 million in its opening weekend and was his highest grosser unadjusted for inflation. 2012 saw him in a rare lighthearted movie, Trouble with the Curve (2012), as well as a reality show, Mrs. Eastwood & Company (2012).
Between acting jobs, he chalked up an impressive list of credits behind the camera. He directed Mystic River (2003) (in which Sean Penn and Tim Robbins gave Oscar-winning performances), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) (nominated for the Best Picture Oscar), Changeling (2008) (a vehicle for Angelina Jolie), Invictus (2009) (again with Freeman), Hereafter (2010), J. Edgar (2011), Jersey Boys (2014), American Sniper (2014) (2014's top box office champ), Sully (2016) (starring Tom Hanks as hero pilot Chesley Sullenberger) and The 15:17 to Paris (2018). Back on screens after a considerable absence, he played an unlikely drug courier in The Mule (2018), which reached the top of the box office with a nine-figure gross, then directed Richard Jewell (2019). At age 91, Eastwood made history as the oldest actor to star above the title in a movie with the release of Cry Macho (2021).
Away from the limelight, Eastwood has led an aberrant existence and is described by biographer Patrick McGilligan as a cunning manipulator of the media. His convoluted slew of partners and children are now somewhat factually acknowledged, but for the first three decades of his celebrity, his personal life was kept top secret, and several of his families were left out of the official narrative. The actor refuses to disclose his exact number of offspring even to this day. He had a longtime relationship with similarly abstruse co-star Locke (who died aged 74 in 2018, though for her entire public life she masqueraded about being younger), and has fathered at least eight children by at least six different women in an unending string of liaisons, many of which overlapped. He has been married only twice, however, with a mere three of his progeny coming from those unions.
His known children are: Laurie Murray (b. 1954), whose mother is unidentified; Kimber Eastwood (b. 1964) with stuntwoman Roxanne Tunis; Kyle Eastwood (b. 1968) and Alison Eastwood (b. 1972) with his first ex-wife, Margaret Neville Johnson; Scott Eastwood (b. 1986) and Kathryn Eastwood (b. 1988) with stewardess Jacelyn Reeves; Francesca Eastwood (b. 1993) with actress Frances Fisher; and Morgan Eastwood (b. 1996) with his second ex-wife, Dina Eastwood. The entire time that he lived with Locke she was legally married to sculptor Gordon Anderson.
Eastwood has real estate holdings in Bel-Air, La Quinta, Carmel-by-the-Sea, Cassel (in remote northern California), Idaho's Sun Valley and Kihei, Hawaii.The Outlaw Josey Wales
Heartbreak Ridge
Bird
Unforgiven
The Bridges of Madison County
Space Cowboys
Mystic River
Million Dollar Baby
Flags of Our Fathers
Letters from Iwo Jima
Changeling
Invictus
Hearafter
American Sniper
Sully
Richard Jewell- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Oliver Stone has become known as a master of controversial subjects and a legendary film maker. His films are filled with a variety of film angles and styles, he pushes his actors to give Oscar-worthy performances, and despite his failures, has always returned to success.
William Oliver Stone was born in New York City, to Jacqueline (Goddet) and Louis Stone, a stockbroker. His American father was from a Jewish family (from Germany and Eastern Europe), and his mother, a war bride, was French (and Catholic). After dropping out of Yale University, he became a soldier in the Vietnam War. Serving in two different regiments (including 1rst Cavalry), he was introduced to The Doors, drugs, Jefferson Airplane, and other things that defined the sixties. For his actions in the war, he was awarded a Bronze Star for Gallantry and a Purple Heart. Returning from the war, Stone did not return to graduate from Yale. His first film was a student film entitled Last Year in Viet Nam (1971), followed by the gritty horror film Seizure (1974) for which he also wrote the screenplay. The next seven years saw him direct two films: Mad Man of Martinique (1979) and The Hand (1981), starring Michael Caine. He also wrote many screenplays for films such as Midnight Express (1978), Conan the Barbarian (1982), and Scarface (1983). Stone won his first Oscar for Midnight Express (1978), but his fame was just beginning to show.
1986 was the year that brought him much fame to the U.S.A. and the world. He directed the political film Salvador (1986) starring Oscar-nominated James Woods. However, his big hit was the Vietnam war film Platoon (1986) starring Charlie Sheen,Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger, and Francesco Quinn. Berenger and Dafoe received Oscar nominations for their roles as the polar opposite sergeants who each influence the tour of duty of Chris Taylor (Sheen). Stone won his first Oscar for directing this film, which won Best Picture and was a hit at the box office. After Platoon (1986), Stone followed up with the critically acclaimed Wall Street (1987). The movie, starring Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas, focuses on the business world of tycoons and stock brokers. The film was well received and won an Oscar for Douglas' portrayal of the villainous Gordon Gekko. Stone returned immediately the following year with Talk Radio (1988), which talked of a foul-mouthed radio host (played by Eric Bogosian) who never fails to talk about the serious issues. Although it was not as successful as his last three films, Stone did not slow down at all. He directed Tom Cruise into an Oscar-nominated role in Born on the Fourth of July (1989).
The movie talked about the return of an embittered, crippled Vietnam soldier from the war. Although it failed to win Best Picture or Best Actor, Oliver Stone won an Academy Award for Directing, his third win to date. After Born on the Fourth of July (1989), Stone took a hand in producing several movies, including the Academy Award-winning film Reversal of Fortune (1990). He returned to the director's chair in 1991, once again with two films. Val Kilmer starred as the legendary and controversial Jim Morrison in Stone's psychedelic film The Doors (1991).
Despised by former Doors member Ray Manzarek, the film is nevertheless a wonderful achievement, with Kilmer pulling off an almost flawless impersonation of Morrison. Regardless of opinion, The Doors (1991) was overshadowed by Stone's colossal film JFK (1991), which Stone himself considers the best of his films. In Stone's movie, Jim Garrison tackles the conspiracy behind the murder of America's president John F. Kennedy. The large cast featured such well-known names as Kevin Costner, Tommy Lee Jones, John Candy, Joe Pesci, Donald Sutherland, and Walter Matthau. This film represented a change in Stone's works, because it was with this film that he really began to explore the different camera styles and combining them together to create a multi-dimensional way of showing a movie. JFK (1991), as with Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989), earned eight Oscar nominations and was one of Stone's most successful films. However, he failed to win a third Oscar for Best Director.
After this film, Stone directed his third Vietnam film to date. Heaven & Earth (1993) was a film about the war from the viewpoint of a Vietnamese girl, and also co-starred Tommy Lee Jones (who had received an Oscar nomination for JFK (1991)). Despite its new woman's perspective and several positive reviews, it was a box office failure. Stone was unfazed; his next film is perhaps his most notorious film to date. Adapting a screenplay by Quentin Tarantino, Stone made Natural Born Killers (1994) starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore and Rodney Dangerfield in his only dramatic performance. The film was received well at the box office, while review were very mixed. Because of the violence that people claimed was inspired by the film, it was compared to Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971). As usual, Stone was at the center of controversial subjects; his next film Nixon (1995) was no exception. The film focused on the life of President Richard Nixon, played by Anthony Hopkins, while featuring another well-known cast, including Joan Allen in the role of Nixon's wife. Both went on to receive Oscar nominations, while Stone received his sixth Oscar nomination for Screenwriting. The film got mixed reviews, and failed to recoup its budget.
Aside from directing, Stone has worked as a producer on several different films. There was, of course, the successful film Reversal of Fortune (1990), which won Jeremy Irons an Oscar and also nominated the director for an Oscar. There was also the highly praised and successful emotional drama The Joy Luck Club (1993) which centered around four Chinese immigrant women whose relationships with their daughters is affected by their own lives. Another highly praised Oscar nominated film was Milos Forman's classic film The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996) starring Woody Harrelson, Edward Norton, and Courtney Love. Whether the crime/action film The Corruptor (1999) or the brilliant war epic Savior (1998), Stone has worked in a variety of film genres.
Stone had directed ten films in nine years; now however, he began to slow down. He directed the film U Turn (1997) starring Sean Penn and Jennifer Lopez. As with Natural Born Killers (1994), it was a dark and twisted satire on violence, but did not have the same success as the former. Stone was set to direct several projects in the late 90's but they fell through and were not made. However, success came back to Stone in the Al Pacino film Any Given Sunday (1999). This sports movie centered on the life behind the game of football, and it starred an impressive cast that included frequent Stone collaborators James Woods and John C. McGinley. This film was one of his most successful box office films, and put him back on track.
The following years brought Stone no new theatrical films, though he did make three fascinating TV documentaries. Two of them, 'Looking for Fidel' and Comandante (2003) were interviews of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, while 'Persona Non Grata' was an interview of several Palestinian leaders. Stone was also set to direct American Psycho (2000) with Leonardo DiCaprio and Beyond Borders (2003), starring Angelina Jolie and at the time, Ralph Fiennes. However, Stone dropped out of both projects, as did a number of the actors mentioned. Finally, five years after Any Given Sunday (1999), Stone directed a film he'd long wanted to make; the colossal epic Alexander (2004). Starring Colin Farrell as the Macedonian leader, Stone attempted to capture the essence of Alexander the Great through his conquests of the known world. The film focused on Alexander's relationships with his parents (a brilliant performance by Val Kilmer and a less impressive one by Angelina Jolie) and his relationships with his wife and childhood friend/ gay lover (played by Rosario Dawson and Jared Leto respectively).
Alexander (2004) was a critical failure, and failed to win back its budget domestically. Despite being one of 2004's highest grossing films internationally, and recouping its budget through DVD sales, Stone's pet project was heavily criticized. Despite a far superior version (Alexander Revisited) being released on DVD, the film's reputation remains low by the majority. Stone was personally stung at these attacks, but managed to rebound, if mildly, with his hopeful film World Trade Center (2006). The film centers on two firefighters trapped in the rubble of the twin towers. It received good reviews, and allowed Oliver to step forward from his failure towards the possibility of more films.
In late 2007, besides a number of projects Stone was set to direct "Pinkville", which would have been his fourth Vietnam film to date. It was set to star a large number of well known actors such as Bruce Willis, Toby Jones, Channing Tatum, Michael Pitt, Woody Harrelson, and Michael Peña. However, a week before shooting was to begin, the Writer's Strike was started, and the finance for the film was cut, using the strike as an excuse. After Willis backed out of the project, it was eventually scuttled, much like Stone's early productions of Platoon (1986) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). Stone turned to another project he had worked on with former Wall Street (1987) collaborator Stanley Weiser. The project was W. (2008), a biography on president George W. Bush. Stone initially cast Christian Bale in the role of Bush but the actor dropped out at the last minute. Josh Brolin was cast, and this followed with a large cast of well known Oscar nominated character actors such as Richard Dreyfuss, James Cromwell, and Ellen Burstyn. The film was made in a record four months, starting in June and released in October. The film opened to mixed reviews, and though film's budget was recouped, it was not a financial hit.
Stone then made the documentary South of the Border (2009), a documentary which focused on bringing to light the positive aspects of the left-wing governments in South America, particularly Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Stone was much less critical than usual, instead making the documentary as a response to the harsh reputation that Chavez has in the States. The documentary was poorly received in the States. Stone also began work on Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010). Starring Michael Douglas, Shia LaBeouf, Josh Brolin, Carey Mulligan, and Eli Wallach, the film focuses on the 2008 economic crisis, and the return of Gordon Gekko from prison. The film was screened at Cannes to positive reception, and hailed as Stone's triumphant return. After this, Stone made a film adaptation of "Savages", a novel by Don Winslow . The movie follows two highly successful marijuana growers (Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Taylor-Johnson ), whose shared girlfriend (Blake Lively) is kidnapped by a Mexican cartel and held for ransom. The movie also starred Salma Hayek, Benicio Del Toro, John Travolta, and Emile Hirsch. The film was a return to the tense action and violence of Stone's earlier films, though it polarized many audience members due to the colorful narrations of Lively's vapid and naive character, as well as the film's ending.
After completing the ambitious and well-received television project The Untold History of the United States (2012), as well as a documentary on Hugo Chavez, Stone finally returned to feature films with Snowden (2016). Based on the life of American whistle blower Edward Snowden, Stone's film depicted his awakening to the truth behind the massive surveillances conducted by the NSA, and his attempt to warn the general public of what they did not know. The film was done independently, financed by Europeans on a low budget. It was also a return to form for Stone in a way that had not been seen since "Alexander". Joseph Gordon-Levitt, delivered a very strong performance as Snowden, with the supporting cast including Shailene Woodley, Rhys Ifans, Melissa Leo, Timothy Olyphant, and Nicolas Cage. Sadly, the film received a mixed response from critics, and was a box office disappointment.
Since then, Stone has returned to television for his next two projects. One is a series of interviews with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and the other is directing a new fictional series based on the abusive Guantanamo prison. It will be his first venture into fictional television.
Oliver Stone is a three-time Oscar winner, and although he has mostly been stung by critics of his films, he remains a well-known name today in the film industry. The films he directed have been nominated for 31 Academy Awards, including eight for acting, six for screen writing, and three for directing. There is no denying that Stone has cemented himself a position among the legends of Hollywood.Midnight Express
Salvador
Platoon
Wall Street
Born on the Fourth of July
Reversal of Fortune
JFK
Nixon
Evita
The People vs. Larry Flynt- Producer
- Writer
- Director
A whiz-kid with special effects, Robert is from the Spielberg camp of film-making (Steven Spielberg produced many of his films). Usually working with writing partner Bob Gale, Robert's earlier films show he has a talent for zany comedy (Romancing the Stone (1984), 1941 (1979)) and special effect vehicles (Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Back to the Future (1985)). His later films have become more serious, with the hugely successful Tom Hanks vehicle Forrest Gump (1994) and the Jodie Foster film Contact (1997), both critically acclaimed movies. Again, these films incorporate stunning effects. Robert has proved he can work a serious story around great effects.1941
Romancing the Stone
Back to the Future
Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Back to the Future Part II
Back to the Future Part III
Death Becomes Her
Forrest Gump
Contact
Cast Away
The Polar Express
Flight
Allied- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Sir Peter Jackson made history with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, becoming the first person to direct three major feature films simultaneously. The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and The Return of the King were nominated for and collected a slew of awards from around the globe, with The Return of the King receiving his most impressive collection of awards. This included three Academy Awards® (Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture), two Golden Globes (Best Director and Best Motion Picture-Drama), three BAFTAs (Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film and Viewers' Choice), a Directors Guild Award, a Producers Guild Award and a New York Film Critics Circle Award.
As a follow up to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, in 2005, Jackson directed, wrote, and produced King Kong, for Universal Pictures. The film grossed over $500 million and won three Oscars®.
Jackson previously received widespread acclaim for his 1994 feature Heavenly Creatures, which received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Screenplay. Other film credits include The Frighteners, starring Michael J. Fox; the adult puppet feature Meet the Feebles; and Braindead, which won 16 international science fiction awards, including the Saturn. Jackson also co-directed the television documentary Forgotten Silver, which also hit the film festival circuit.
Jackson directed the Academy Award®-nominated The Lovely Bones, an adaptation of the acclaimed best-selling novel by Alice Sebold and produced the worldwide sci-fi hit District 9. He was a producer on Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn in 2011, with two more films set to come out in the future.
His most recent films include producer of 2018's action film Mortal Engines, based on a post-apocalyptic world where cities ride on wheels and consume each other to survive. Following Mortal Engines, he produced They Shall Not Grow Old, a documentary on World War I with never-before-seen footage. BAFTA nominated the film for Best Documentary, and it won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing from the Motion Picture Sound Editors.
Jackson's next project is the music documentary The Beatles: Get Back, which he directed and produced, due to be released August, 2021.
Jackson works closely with partner Dame Fran Walsh, with whom he shares his writing and producing credits, as well as a family. Jackson has a special interest in WWI memorabilia and is the proud owner of several aircraft from that era.Heavenly Creatures
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
King Kong (2005 film)
District 9
The Lovely Bones
The Adventures of Tintin
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Sydney Pollack was an Academy Award-winning director, producer, actor, writer and public figure, who directed and produced over 40 films.
Sydney Irwin Pollack was born July 1, 1934 in Lafayette, Indiana, USA, to Rebecca (Miller), a homemaker, and David Pollack, a professional boxer turned pharmacist. All of his grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. His parents divorced when he was young. His mother, an alcoholic, died at age 37, when Sydney was 16. He spent his formative years in Indiana, graduating from his HS in 1952, then moved to New York City.
From 1952-1954 young Pollack studied acting with Sanford Meisner at The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre in New York. He served two years in the army, and then returned to the Neighborhood Playhouse and taught acting. In 1958, Pollack married his former student Claire Griswold. They had three children. Their son, Steven Pollack, died in a plane crash on November 26, 1993, in Santa Monica, California. Their daughter, Rebecca Pollack, served as vice president of film production at United Artists during the 1990s. Their youngest daughter, Rachel Pollack, was born in 1969.
Pollack began his acting career on stage, then made his name as television director in the early 1960s. He made his big screen acting debut in War Hunt (1962), where he met fellow actor Robert Redford, and the two co-stars established a life-long friendship. Pollack called on his good friend Redford to play opposite Natalie Wood in This Property Is Condemned (1966). Pollack and Redford worked together on six more films over the years. His biggest success came with Out of Africa (1985), starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep. The movie earned eleven Academy Award nominations in all and seven wins, including Pollack's two Oscars: one for Best Direction and one for Best Picture.
Pollack showed his best as a comedy director and actor in Tootsie (1982), where he brought feminist issues to public awareness using his remarkable wit and wisdom, and created a highly entertaining film, which was nominated for ten Academy Awards. Pollack's directing revealed Dustin Hoffman's range and nuanced acting in gender switching from a dominant boyfriend to a nurse in drag, a brilliant collaboration of director and actor that broadened public perception about sex roles. Pollack also made success in producing such films as The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), The Quiet American (2002) and Cold Mountain (2003). Pollack returned to the director's chair in 2004, when he directed The Interpreter (2005), the first film ever shot on location at the United Nations Headquarters and within the General Assembly in New York City.
In 2000, Sydney Pollack was honored with the John Huston Award from the Directors Guild of America as a "defender of artists' rights." He died from cancer on May 26, 2008, at his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Pacific Palisades, California.The Slender Thread
They Shoot Horses, Don't They
The Way We Were
Three Days of the Condor
The Electric Horseman
Absence of Malice
Tootsie
Songwriter
Out of Africa
Havana
The Firm
Sabrina (1995 film)
Cold Mountain
Michael Clayton
The Reader- Script and Continuity Department
- Writer
- Producer
Anthony Minghella was the son of immigrants from Italy, who own an ice-cream factory on the Isle of Wight, where Anthony was born on January 6, 1954. He and his two siblings, Edana Minghella and Dominic Minghella, grew up there, a popular British holiday spot. After graduating from the University of Hull, Minghella took a position as a university lecturer, but quit academia to focus on the theater and songwriting. He oversaw the music in many of his movies.
Minghella was employed as a scriptwriter on the British TV series Maybury (1981) and Inspector Morse (1987) and, as a script editor on the British TV series Grange Hill (1978), before succeeding as a dramatist in the West End, London's equivalent of Broadway. In 1984, the London Theatre Critics named him Most Promising Playwright of the Year and, two years later, his drama "Made in Bangkok" won the the London Theatre Critics' award for best play.
An Anthony Minghella film assured movie-goers would enjoy a film blessed with a literate script, superlative performances and first-rate production values. His great craftsmanship was apparent from the beginning, with the bittersweet comedy Truly Madly Deeply (1990), in which the ghost of Alan Rickman comes back to his lady love, Juliet Stevenson, with unintended consequences. The theme of a ghostly love also was present in The English Patient (1996) his greatest success.
It is for that film he will be best remembered. Minghella claimed that with The English Patient (1996), which won nine Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, that he had reached the heights of his directing career.
In addition to his theater and film awards, in 2001, Anthony Minghella was appointed a Commander of the British Empire, a step just below knighthood, in the Queen's Birthday Honors List.
Anthony Minghella died of a hemorrhage on the morning of March 18, 2008 at Charing Cross Hospital in London, England. The 54-year-old Minghella had undergone an operation to remove a growth on his neck the previous week. He was survived by his wife, Carolyn Choa, and their two children, Max Minghella, who is an actor, and Hannah Minghella, who worked as a production assistant.The English Patient
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Cold Mountain
The Reader
Nine- Director
- Actor
- Writer
George Roy Hill was never able to 'hit it off' with the critics despite the fact that 2 of his films - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), and The Sting (1973) - had remained among the top 10 box office hits by 1976. His work was frequently derided as 'impersonal' or lacking in stylistic trademarks. Andrew Sarris famously referred to it as 'idiosyncratic, odious, oiliness'. Hill, himself didn't help his own cause by shunning the limelight, avoiding appearances on chat shows and often keeping the press off his sets.
In a rare interview for a book by Edward Shores in 1983, he declared: "I find publicity distasteful, and I don't think it does the picture any good to focus on the director" (LA Times, Dec. 28 2002). Conversely, Hill was 'commercially reliable', a winner with the public and with the academy, picking up an Oscar and a Director's Guild Award for "The Sting" and a BAFTA for "Butch". At his best, Hill was an 'actor's director': a gifted storyteller, with a powerful sense of narrative, and a nostalgic flair for detail. His world was inhabited by individualists, often outsiders, or loners, harbouring unattainable ideals or fantasies, or trying to escape from the realities of a humdrum existence. According to biographer Andrew Horton, Hill framed "a serious view of life in a comic-ironic vein, manipulating genres for his own purposes" (A. Horton, "The Films of George Roy Hill", p.7).
Hill was born to a wealthy Roman Catholic family of Irish background (owners of the Minneapolis Tribune) and educated at private school, followed by graduate studies in music at Yale under the auspices of composer Paul Hindemith. While at university, he became involved with the Yale Dramatic Society and was at one time elected its president. After his graduation, he served as a transport pilot with the U.S. Marines for the duration of World War II. Hill was recalled as a night fighter pilot for the Korean War, rising to the rank of major. From this, Hill developed a lifelong passion for flying which often reflected in his films (he held a pilot's license from the age of seventeen and later acquired a 1930 Waco biplane, which he took on spins in his spare time -- whenever he was not indulging his other favourite pastimes of reading history or listening to recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach). In 1949, he gained his B.A. in literature from Trinity College, Dublin.
Remaining in Ireland, Hill first acted on stage with Cyril Cusack's company, making his debut in "The Devil's Disciple" at the Gaiety Theatre. He then appeared on Broadway in "Richard II" and "The Taming of the Shrew". After Korea, he divided his time between writing/directing live anthology TV (1954-59) and directing plays on and off Broadway (1957-62).
Hill's cinematic breakthrough came with Period of Adjustment (1962), featuring an up-and-coming Jane Fonda (Hill had previously directed the original Tennessee Williams play on Broadway, featuring Barbara Baxley in the Fonda part). After eliciting strong performances from both Geraldine Page and Wendy Hiller in his filming of Lillian Hellman's Toys in the Attic (1963), he followed up with a moderately successful comedy The World of Henry Orient (1964) which centred around a second rate pianist (Peter Sellers) as the object of fantasies by 2 teenage girls. This films put him on the map.
However, his fourth film, Hawaii (1966), shot at the cost of $15 million (a little bit more than $100 million, adjusted for inflation), was a critical and box office failure, though quickly redeemed by the exuberant Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), one of the best musicals of the 1960's (and possibly the zaniest ever made!). It was Hill's next pair of films - using the same pair of actors - which was to firmly cement his place at the top.
Hill was instrumental in securing the serendipitous pairing of Paul Newman with Robert Redford for the first of his two massive box office hits: "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid". He tenaciously fought studio executives who envisaged more seasoned performers like Jack Lemmon and Warren Beatty (or, possibly, Steve McQueen) in the respective parts. Hill's military discipline and predilection for stubbornness prevailed, while it was Newman who worked on Hill in setting the humorous tone for the picture. "Butch and Sundance" effectively reinvigorated the western genre. The Newman-Redford chemistry resumed with the best caper comedy of its day, "The Sting", which was inspired by the exploits of Fred and Charlie Gondorf, famous practitioners of the 'big store' confidence racket in the early 1900's. Complete with a clever trick ending, this was, arguably, Hill's crowning achievement.
To lend the film authenticity, Hill used very little camera movement and shot the picture in the 'flat-camera' style so typical of Warner Brothers gangster films of the 30's and 40's. The inter-titles - with drawings reminiscent of The Saturday Evening Post - helped lend the film a bit of 'retro-cachet' as well. Aided by Henry Bumstead's elaborately constructed, 'aged' sets, rotogravure cinematography by Robert Surtees and costumes by Edith Head, the film grossed some $68.4 million (almost $315million, adjusted for inflation, in '17) during its initial run. It went on to garner seven Oscars.
Sadly, none of Hill's later efforts ever came close to emulating these successes, not even a pet project -- The Great Waldo Pepper (1975) -- for which Hill provided the original story (about a pioneer flying ace (Redford) whose quest to prove himself is stymied by progress and changing values). Slap Shot (1977), a drama about minor league ice hockey, was another near miss. It failed to find mass audience support despite the star power of Paul Newman, mainly because of its excessive violence and crass language. However, it gained something of a cult following among sports enthusiasts in later years. Hill sadly rounded off his career with a lame duck farce, misleadingly titled Funny Farm (1988).
By then, Hill had left Hollywood to teach drama at Yale. He also donated original materials, including story boards, interviews, stills, scene sketches and set designs from the making of "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) to the Sterling Memorial Library in New Haven, Connecticut. One of few entirely unpretentious, self-effacing film makers whose directness and confrontational manner unnerved actors (Newman and Redford excepted!) and studio execs alike, Hill died in New York from Parkinson's Disease on December 27, 2002.Period of Adjustment
Toys in the Attic
Hawaii
Through Modern Millie
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Sting
A Little Romance
The World According to Garp- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Roman Polanski is a Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few truly international filmmakers. Roman Polanski was born in Paris in 1933.
His parents returned to Poland from France in 1936, three years before World War II began. On Germany's invasion in 1939, as a family of mostly Jewish heritage, they were all sent to the Krakow ghetto. His parents were then captured and sent to two different concentration camps: His father to Mauthausen-Gusen in Austria, where he survived the war, and his mother to Auschwitz where she was murdered. Roman witnessed his father's capture and then, at only 7, managed to escape the ghetto and survive the war, at first wandering through the Polish countryside and pretending to be a Roman-Catholic kid visiting his relatives. Although this saved his life, he was severely mistreated suffering nearly fatal beating which left him with a fractured skull.
Local people usually ignored the cinemas where German films were shown, but Polanski seemed little concerned by the propaganda and often went to the movies. As the war progressed, Poland became increasingly war-torn and he lived his life as a tramp, hiding in barns and forests, eating whatever he could steal or find. Still under 12 years old, he encountered some Nazi soldiers who forced him to hold targets while they shot at them. At the war's end in 1945, he reunited with his father who sent him to a technical school, but young Polanski seemed to have already chosen another career. In the 1950s, he took up acting, appearing in Andrzej Wajda's A Generation (1955) before studying at the Lodz Film School. His early shorts such as Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958), Le gros et le maigre (1961) and Mammals (1962), showed his taste for black humor and interest in bizarre human relationships. His feature debut, Knife in the Water (1962), was one of the first Polish post-war films not associated with the war theme. It was also the first movie from Poland to get an Oscar nomination for best foreign film. Though already a major Polish filmmaker, Polanski chose to leave the country and headed to France. While down-and-out in Paris, he befriended young scriptwriter, Gérard Brach, who eventually became his long-time collaborator. The next two films, Repulsion (1965) and Cul-de-sac (1966), made in England and co-written by Brach, won respectively Silver and then Golden Bear awards at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 1968, Polanski went to Hollywood, where he made the psychological thriller, Rosemary's Baby (1968). However, after the brutal murder of his wife, Sharon Tate, by the Manson Family in 1969, the director decided to return to Europe. In 1974, he again made a US release - it was Chinatown (1974).
It seemed the beginning of a promising Hollywood career, but after his conviction for the sodomy of a 13-year old girl, Polanski fled from he USA to avoid prison. After Tess (1979), which was awarded several Oscars and Cesars, his works in 1980s and 1990s became intermittent and rarely approached the caliber of his earlier films. It wasn't until The Pianist (2002) that Polanski came back to full form. For that movie, he won nearly all the most important film awards, including the Oscar for Best Director, Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or, the BAFTA and Cesar Award.
He still likes to act in the films of other directors, sometimes with interesting results, as in A Pure Formality (1994).Knife in the Water
Rosemary's Baby
Chinatown
Tess
Pirates
The Pianist- Producer
- Actor
- Writer
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Ron Howard is one of this generation's most popular directors. From the critically acclaimed dramas A Beautiful Mind (2001) and Apollo 13 (1995) to the hit comedies Parenthood (1989) and Splash (1983), he has created some of Hollywood's most memorable films.
Howard made his directorial debut in 1978 with the comedy Grand Theft Auto (1977). He began his career in film as an actor. He first appeared in The Journey (1959) and The Music Man (1962), then as Opie on the long-running television series The Andy Griffith Show (1960). Howard later starred in the popular series Happy Days (1974) and drew favorable reviews for his performances in American Graffiti (1973) and The Shootist (1976).
Howard and long-time producing partner Brian Grazer first collaborated on the hit comedies "Night Shift" and "Splash." The pair co-founded Imagine Entertainment in 1986 to create independently produced feature films.
Howard's portfolio includes some of the most popular films of the past 20 years. In 1991, Howard created the acclaimed drama "Backdraft", starring Robert De Niro, Kurt Russell and William Baldwin. He followed it with the historical epic Far and Away (1992), starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. Howard directed Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Gary Sinise and Delroy Lindo in the 1996 suspense thriller Ransom (1996). Howard worked with Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Ed Harris, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise and Kathleen Quinlan on "Apollo 13," which was re-released recently in the IMAX format.
Howard's skill as a director has long been recognized. In 1995, he received his first Best Director of the Year award from the DGA for "Apollo 13." The true-life drama also garnered nine Academy Award nominations, winning Oscars for Best Film Editing and Best Sound. It also received Best Ensemble Cast and Best Supporting Actor awards from the Screen Actor's Guild. Many of Howard's past films have received nods from the Academy, including the popular hits Backdraft (1991), "Parenthood" and Cocoon (1985), the last of which took home two Oscars.
Howard directed and produced Cinderella Man (2005) starring Oscar winner Russell Crowe, with whom he previously collaborated on "A Beautiful Mind," for which Howard earned an Oscar for Best Director and which also won awards for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress. The film garnered four Golden Globes as well, including the award for Best Motion Picture Drama. Additionally, Howard won Best Director of the Year from the Directors Guild of America. Howard and producer Brian Grazer received the first annual Awareness Award from the National Mental Health Awareness Campaign for their work on the film.
Howard was honored by the Museum of Moving Images in December 2005, and by the American Cinema Editors in February 2006. Howard and his creative partner Brian Grazer, were honored by the Producers Guild of America with the Milestone Award in January 2009, NYU's Tisch School of Cinematic Arts with the Big Apple Award in November 2009 and by the Simon Wiesenthal Center with their Humanitarian Award in May 2010. In June 2010, Howard was honored by the Chicago Film Festival with their Gold Hugo - Career Achievement Award. In March 2013, Howard was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. In December 2015, Howard was honored with a star in the Motion Pictures category, making him one of the very few to have been recognized with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Howard also produced and directed the film adaptation of Peter Morgan's critically acclaimed play Frost/Nixon (2008). The film was nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, and was also nominated for The Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures by the PGA.
Howard has also served as an executive producer on a number of award-winning films and television shows, such as the HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon (1998), Fox's Emmy Award winner for Best Comedy, Arrested Development (2003), a series which he also narrated, Netflix's release of new episodes of "Arrested Development," and NBC's "Parenthood."
Howard's recent films include the critically acclaimed drama Rush (2013), staring Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl, written by Peter Morgan; and Made in America (2013), a music documentary he directed staring Jay-Z for Showtime.
Howard's other films include In the Heart of the Sea (2015), based on the true story that inspired Moby Dick; his adaptation of Dan Brown's best-selling novels Angels & Demons (2009), and The Da Vinci Code (2006) staring Oscar winner Tom Hanks; the blockbuster holiday favorite "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000)" starring Jim Carrey; "Parenthood" starring Steve Martin; the fantasy epic Willow (1988); Night Shift (1982) starring Henry Winkler, Michael Keaton and Shelley Long; and the suspenseful western, The Missing (2003), staring Oscar winners Cate Blanchett and Tommy Lee Jones.
Recently, Howard directed Inferno (2016), the third installment of Dan Brown 's Robert Langdon franchise and The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years (2016), a documentary about the rock legends The Beatles. He also produced the second season of Breakthrough (2015), Mars (2016), and directed the first episode of Genius (2017), based on the life of Albert Einstein, all for NatGeo.Splash
Cocoon
Willow
Parenthood
Backdraft
The Paper
Apollo 13
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
A Beautiful Mind
Cinderella Man
Changeling
Frost/Nixon
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Hillbilly Elegy
tick, tick...BOOM!- Writer
- Director
- Producer
The most internationally acclaimed Spanish filmmaker since Luis Buñuel was born in a small town (Calzada de Calatrava) in the impoverished Spanish region of La Mancha. He arrived in Madrid in 1968, and survived by selling used items in the flea-market called El Rastro. Almodóvar couldn't study filmmaking because he didn't have the money to afford it. Besides, the filmmaking schools were closed in early 70s by Franco's government. Instead, he found a job in the Spanish phone company and saved his salary to buy a Super 8 camera. From 1972 to 1978, he devoted himself to make short films with the help of of his friends. The "premieres" of those early films were famous in the rapidly growing world of the Spanish counter-culture. In few years, Almodóvar became a star of "La Movida", the pop cultural movement of late 70s Madrid. His first feature film, Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls Like Mom (1980), was made in 16 mm and blown-up to 35 mm for public release. In 1987, he and his brother Agustín Almodóvar established their own production company: El Deseo, S. A. The "Almodóvar phenomenon" has reached all over the world, making his films very popular in many countries.Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
All About My Mother
Talk to Her
Volver
Wild Tales
Pain and Glory
Parallel Mothers- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Richard Attenborough, Baron Attenborough of Richmond-upon-Thames, was born in Cambridge, England, the son of Mary (née Clegg), a founding member of the Marriage Guidance Council, and Frederick Levi Attenborough, a scholar and academic administrator who was a don at Emmanuel College and wrote a standard text on Anglo-Saxon law. The family later moved to Leicester where his father was appointed Principal of the university while Richard was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).
His film career began with a role as a deserting sailor in In Which We Serve (1942), a part that contributed to his being typecast for many years as a coward in films like Dulcimer Street (1948), Operation Disaster (1950) and his breakthrough role as a psychopathic young gangster in the film adaptation of Graham Greene's novel, Brighton Rock (1948). During World War II, Attenborough served in the Royal Air Force.
He worked prolifically in British films for the next 30 years, and in the 1950s appeared in several successful comedies for John Boulting and Roy Boulting, including Private's Progress (1956) and I'm All Right Jack (1959). Early in his stage career, Attenborough starred in the London West End production of Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap", which went on to become one of the world's longest-running stage productions. Both he and his wife were among the original cast members of the production, which opened in 1952 and (as of 2007) is still running.
In the 1960s, he expanded his range of character roles in films such as Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964) and Guns at Batasi (1964), for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the regimental Sergeant Major. He appeared in the ensemble cast of The Great Escape (1963), as Squadron Leader "Roger Bartlett" ("Big X"), the head of the escape committee.
In 1967 and 1968, he won back-to-back Golden Globe Awards in the category of Best Supporting Actor, the first time for The Sand Pebbles (1966), starring Steve McQueen, and the second time for Doctor Dolittle (1967), starring Rex Harrison. He would win another Golden Globe for Best Director, for Gandhi (1982), in 1983. Six years prior to "Gandhi", he played the ruthless "Gen. Outram" in Indian director Satyajit Ray's period piece, The Chess Players (1977). He has never been nominated for an Academy Award in an acting category.
He took no acting roles following his appearance in Otto Preminger's The Human Factor (1979), until his appearance as the eccentric developer "John Hammond" in Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993). The following year, he starred as "Kris Kringle" in Miracle on 34th Street (1994), a remake of the 1947 classic. Since then, he has made occasional appearances in supporting roles, including the historical drama, Elizabeth (1998), as "Sir William Cecil".
In the late 1950s, Attenborough formed a production company, "Beaver Films", with Bryan Forbes and began to build a profile as a producer on projects, including The League of Gentlemen (1960), The Angry Silence (1960) and Whistle Down the Wind (1961), also appearing in the first two of these as an actor.
His feature film directorial debut was the all-star screen version of the hit musical, Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), and his acting appearances became more sporadic - the most notable being his portrayal of serial killer "John Christie" in 10 Rillington Place (1971). He later directed two epic period films: Young Winston (1972), based on the early life of Winston Churchill, and A Bridge Too Far (1977), an all-star account of Operation Market Garden in World War II. He won the 1982 Academy Award for Directing for his historical epic, Gandhi (1982), a project he had been attempting to get made for many years. As the film's producer, he also won the Academy Award for Best Picture. His most recent films, as director and producer, include Chaplin (1992), starring Robert Downey Jr. as Charles Chaplin, and Shadowlands (1993), based on the relationship between C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham. Both films starred Anthony Hopkins, who also appeared in three other films for Attenborough: "Young Winston", "A Bridge Too Far" and the thriller, Magic (1978).
Attenborough also directed the screen version of the hit Broadway musical, "A Chorus Line" (A Chorus Line (1985)), and the apartheid drama, Cry Freedom (1987), based on the experiences of Donald Woods. He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director for both films. His most recent film as director was another biographical film, Grey Owl (1999), starring Pierce Brosnan.
Attenborough is the President of RADA, Chairman of Capital Radio, President of BAFTA, President of the Gandhi Foundation, and President of the British National Film and Television School. He is also a vice patron of the Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund.
He is also the patron of the UWC movement (United World Colleges), whereby he continually contributes greatly to the colleges that are part of the organization. He has frequented the United World College of Southern Africa(UWCSA) Waterford Kamhlaba. His wife and he founded the "Richard and Sheila Attenborough Visual Arts Center". He also founded the "Jane Holland Creative Center for Learning" at Waterford Kamhlaba in Swaziland in memory of his daughter, who died in the Tsunami on Boxing Day, 2004. He passionately believes in education, primarily education that does not judge upon color, race, creed or religion. His attachment to Waterford is his passion for non-racial education, which were the grounds on which Waterford Kamhlaba was founded. Waterford was one of his inspirations for directing Cry Freedom (1987), based on the life of Steve Biko.
He was elected to the post of Chancellor of the University of Sussex on 20 March 1998, replacing the Duke of Richmond and Gordon. A lifelong supporter of Chelsea Football Club, Attenborough served as a director of the club from 1969-1982 and, since 1993, has held the honorary position of Life Vice President. He is also the head of the consortium, "Dragon International", which is constructing a film and television studio complex in Llanilid, Wales, often referred to as "Valleywood".
In 1967, he was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was knighted in 1976 and, in 1993, he was made a life peer as Baron Attenborough, of Richmond-upon-Thames in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames.
On 13 July 2006, Attenborough and his brother, David Attenborough, were awarded the titles of Distinguished Honorary Fellows of the University of Leicester "in recognition of a record of continuing distinguished service to the University". Lord Attenborough is also listed as an Honorary Fellow of Bangor University for his continued efforts to film making.
Attenborough has been married to English actress Sheila Sim, since 1945. They had three children. In December 2004, his elder daughter, Jane Holland, as well as her daughter Lucy and her mother-in-law, also named Jane, were killed in the tsunami caused by the Indian Ocean earthquake. A memorial service was held on 8 March 2005, and Attenborough read a lesson at the national memorial service on 11 May 2005. His grandson, Samuel Holland, and granddaughter, Alice Holland, also read in the service.
Attenborough's father was principal of University College, Leicester, now the city's university. This has resulted in a long association with the university, with Lord Attenborough a patron. A commemorative plaque was placed on the floor of Richmond Parish Church. The university's "Richard Attenborough Centre for Disability and the Arts", which opened in 1997, is named in his Honor.
His son, Michael Attenborough, is also a director. He has two younger brothers, the famous naturalist Sir David Attenborough and John Attenborough, who has made a career in the motor trade.
He has collected Pablo Picasso ceramics since the 1950s. More than 100 items went on display at the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery in Leicester in 2007; the exhibition is dedicated to his family members lost in the tsunami.The Angry Silence
The L-Shaped Room
Seance on a Wet Afternoon
Young Winston
Gandhi
A Chorus Line
Cry Freedom
Chaplin
Shadowlands- Director
- Producer
- Actor
Franklin J. Schaffner was one of the most innovative creative minds in the early days of American network television, utilizing a moving camera in the days when most television directors kept the camera static. His eye for visuals was developed in the dozens of live television programs he directed on prestigious shows such as Studio One (1948) and Playhouse 90 (1956), not to mention his work in news and public affairs on "March of Time" and as one of the directors of TV coverage of the 1948 political conventions in Philadelphia. His visual sense came to be one of the important attributes of his work in feature films, such as the trek taken across the desert by the astronauts at the start of Planet of the Apes (1968). In addition to his Oscar and DGA Awards for Patton (1970), Schaffner also won Sylvania Awards in 1953 and 1954, Emmy Awards in 1954, 1955 and 1962 and a Variety Critics Poll Award in 1960.The Stripper
The Best Man
Planet of the Apes
Patton
Nicholas and Alexandra
Papillon
Island in the Stream
The Boys from Brazil
Yes, Giorgio- Producer
- Director
- Cinematographer
Steven Andrew Soderbergh was born on January 14, 1963 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, the second of six children of Mary Ann (Bernard) and Peter Soderbergh. His father was of Swedish and Irish descent, and his mother was of Italian ancestry. While he was still at a very young age, his family moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where his father was a professor and the dean of the College of Education at Louisiana State University. While still in high school, around the age of 15, Soderbergh enrolled in the university's film animation class and began making short 16-millimeter films with second-hand equipment, one of which was the short film "Janitor". After graduating high school, he went to Hollywood, where he worked as a freelance editor. His time there was brief and, shortly after, he returned home and continued making short films and writing scripts.
His first major break was in 1986 when the rock group Yes assigned him to shoot a full-length concert film for the band, which eventually earned him a Grammy nomination for the video, Yes: 9012 Live (1985). Following this achievement, Soderbergh filmed Winston (1987), the short-subject film that he would later expand into Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), a film that earned him the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or Award, the Independent Spirit Award for Best Director, and an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Over the next six years, he was married to actress Betsy Brantley and had a daughter named Sarah Soderbergh, who was born in 1990.
Also during this time, he made such films as Kafka (1991), King of the Hill (1993), The Underneath (1995) and Gray's Anatomy (1996), which many believed to be disappointments. In 1998, Soderbergh made Out of Sight (1998), his most critically and commercially successful film since Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989). Then, in 2000, Soderbergh directed two major motion pictures that are now his most successful films to date: Erin Brockovich (2000) and Traffic (2000). These films were both nominated for Best Picture Oscars at the 2001 Academy Awards and gave him the first twin director Oscar nomination in almost 60 years and the first ever win. He won the Oscar for Best Director for Traffic (2000) at the 2001 Oscars.Sex, Lies, and Videotape
Out of Sight
Pleasantville
Erin Brockovich
Traffic
The Good German- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Mel Brooks was born Melvin Kaminsky on June 28, 1926 in Brooklyn, New York. He served in WWII, and afterwards got a job playing the drums at nightclubs in the Catskills. Brooks eventually started a comedy act and also worked in radio and as Master Entertainer at Grossinger's Resort before going to television.
He was a writer for, Your Show of Shows (1950) Caesar's Hour (1954) and wrote the Broadway show Shinbone Alley. He also worked in the creation of The 2000 Year Old Man (1975) and Get Smart (1965) before embarking on a highly successful film career in writing, acting, producing and directing.
Brooks is famous for the spoofs of different film genres that he made such as Blazing Saddles (1974), History of the World: Part I (1981), Silent Movie (1976), Young Frankenstein (1974), Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993), High Anxiety (1977), Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995), and Spaceballs (1987).The Critic
The Producers
Young Frankenstein
Blazing Saddles
To Be or Not to Be
The Fly- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Barry Lee Levinson was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Violet (Krichinsky) and Irvin Levinson, who worked in furniture and appliance. He is of Russian Jewish descent. Levinson graduated from high school in 1960, attended college at American University in Washington, DC. He did well, but decided he wanted to go to Los Angeles. In LA, Levinson worked for the Oxford Company, studying acting, improvisation, and production; worked in comedy clubs, where he learned how to write; and began dating Valerie Curtin. In 1967, won a job writing for a local TV comedy show. He eventually performed his material on the show, winning a local Emmy. In the 70s, Levinson wrote for The Carol Burnett Show (1967) -- and won two Emmys in three years. Mel Brooks hired him for Silent Movie (1976), then, High Anxiety (1977). Levinson and Curtin married in 1975. They co-wrote: _...And Justice for All (1979)_, and other scripts. While Curtin performed in San Francisco, he wrote Diner (1982). MGM bought it and, with a budget of under $5 million, Levinson directed. Curtin and Levinson divorced in 1982. Levinson met Dianna Rhodes while he was filming Diner (1982). She lived in Baltimore, with her two children Patrick and Michelle Levinson. Levinson and Rhodes later married and had two more children, Sam Levinson and Jack Levinson. Proving himself as a director with The Natural (1984), he tackled his most ambitious project to that time in Rain Man (1988). Levinson went on to place his stamp on films like Good Morning, Vietnam (1987), and Bugsy (1991). After his many successes, Toys (1992) did poorly. Levinson had a hit with Disclosure (1994) in 1994, the same year the Levinsons moved to Marin County in Northern California to get away from the Hollywood scene....And Justice for All
Inside Moves
Diner
Best Friends
The Natural
Young Sherlock Holmes
Good Morning Vietnam
Rain Man
Avalon
Bugsy
Toys
Sleepers
Wag the Dog
Donnie Brasco- Director
- Writer
- Actor
René Clément was one of the leading French directors of the post-World War II era. He directed what are regarded as some of the greatest films of the time, such as The Battle of the Rails (1946), Forbidden Games (1952) and The Day and the Hour (1963). He was later almost forgotten as a director. He was back in public attention briefly when his epic Is Paris Burning? (1966) (with an all-star cast of famous actors) was released in 1966, but it was much criticized.
During the 1960s and 1970s Clement directed a number of unnoticed international productions, always with his usual brio and technical virtuosity. Indeed, what characterizes most of his films is how, even to serve sometimes very unexceptional scripts, the directing is always breathtakingly original, inventive, featuring technical virtuosity and the use of special effects. When a remarkable script is associated with these qualities, a film such as Forbidden Games (1952) is the result: the masterpiece of a lifetime. I think we can say that René Clément was one of the most unlucky talented filmmakers who existed, but unfortunate career choices damaged his legacy.
He died in March 1996.The Walls of Malapaga
Forbidden Games
Gervaise
Is Paris Burning?- Writer
- Director
- Actor
A true master of his craft, Michael Haneke is one of the greatest film artists working today and one who challenges his viewers each year and work goes by, with films that reflect real portions of life in realistic, disturbing and unforgettable ways. One of the most genuine filmmakers of the world cinema, Haneke wrote and directed films in several languages: French, German and English, working with a great variety of actors, such as Juliette Binoche, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Toby Jones, Ülrich Muhe, Arno Frisch and the list goes on.
This grand figure from Austrian cinema was born in Germany on 23 March 1942, from a German father and an Austrian mother, with both parents being from the artistic world working as actors, a career that Michael also tried but without much success. At the University of Vienna he studied drama, philosophy and psychology, and after graduation he went on to become a film critic and TV editor. His career behind camera started with After Liverpool (1974), which he wrote and directed. He went on to direct five more TV films and two episodes from the miniseries "Lemminge" (1979)_.
The years spent on television works prompted him to finally direct his first cinema feature, during his early 40's, which is somewhat unusual for film directors. But it was worth waiting. In The Seventh Continent (1989), Haneke establishes the foundation of what his future cinema would be about: a cinema that doesn't provides answers but one that dares to throw more and more questions, a cinema that reflects and analyses the human condition in its darkest and unexpected ways outside of any Hollywood formula. Films that exist to confront audiences and not comfort them. In it, Haneke deals with the duality of social values vs. internal values while exposing an apparent perfect family that runs into physical and material disintegration for reasons unknown. It was the first time a film of his was sent to the Cannes Film Festival (out of competition lineup) but he managed to cause some commotion in the audience with polemic scenes that were meant to extract all possible reactions from the crowd.
His next ventures at the decade's turn was in dealing with disturbed youth and the alienation they have in separating reality from fiction, trying to intersect both to drastic results. In Benny's Video (1992), it's the disturbing story of a teen boy who experiences killing for the first time capturing the murder on tape, impressed by the power of detachment that films and videos can cause to people; and later on the highly controversial Funny Games (1997), where two teens hold a family hostage to play sadistic games just for their own sick amusement. The film cemented Haneke's name as one of the greatest authors of his generation but sparkled a great debate with its themes of violence, sadism and the influence those things have in audiences. At the 1997's Cannes Film Festival, it was the film that had the most walk-out's by the audience. In between both films, he released 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance (1994) and Kafka's The Castle (1997), the latter being one of the rare times when Haneke developed an adapted work.
In the 2000's, he strongly continued in producing more outstanding works prone to debate and reflection in what would become his most prolific decade with the following films: Code Unknown (2000), The Piano Teacher (2001), Time of the Wolf (2003), Caché (2005), an American remake shot-by shot of Funny Games (2007) and The White Ribbon (2009). His study about romance versus masochism in The Piano Teacher (2001) was an intense work, with powerful performances by Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Magimel, that the Cannes jury in the year were so impressed that Haneke managed to actually reverse their award rules where it was decided that film entries at the festival couldn't win more than one main award (the two lead actors won awards and Haneke got the Grand Prize of the Jury, just lost the Palme d'Or). With The White Ribbon (2009), an enigmatic black-and-white masterpiece following the inception of Nazism in this pre WWI and WWII story focusing on repressed children living in this small village where strange events happen all the time and without any possible reasoning, Haneke conquered the world and audiences with an artistic and daring work that won his first Palme d'Or a Golden Globe as Best Foreign Language Film and received an Oscar nomination for the same category plus the cinematography work of Christian Berger.
2012 was the year that marked his supremacy in the film world with the release of the bold and beautiful Amour (2012), a love story with powerful real drama and one where Haneke removed most of his usual dark characteristics to present more quiet and calm elements without losing input in creating controversy. The touching story of George and Anne provided one the greatest moments of that year and earned Haneke his second and consecutive Palme d'Or at Cannes and his first Oscar nominations for Best Direction and Best Original Screenplay - and it was one of the several nominees for Best Picture Oscar, winning as Best Foreign Language Film.
After abandoning a flash-mob film project, he returned to the screen with Happy End (2017), a film dealing with the refugee crisis in Europe and again he debuted his film at Cannes, receiving mildly positive reviews.
Besides his film work, Haneke also directs theatre productions, from drama to opera, from Così fan tutte to Don Giovanni.The White Ribbon
Amour- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Jean-Jacques Annaud is a French film director, screenwriter and producer, best known for directing Quest for Fire (1981), The Name of the Rose (1986), The Lover (1992), Seven Years in Tibet (1997) and Wolf Totem (2015). Annaud has received numerous awards for his work, including four César Awards, one David di Donatello Award, and one National Academy of Cinema Award. Annaud's first film, Black and White in Color (1976), received an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.Black and White in Color
Quest for Fire
The Bear
The Lover- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Michel Hazanavicius was born and raised in Paris, France. His grandparents were originally from Lithuania, but relocated to France in the 1920s. Hazanavicius attended art school, and moved on to work as a director for commercials and television projects. In 1999, he wrote and directed his first feature film Mes amis (1999), which featured his brother Serge Hazanavicius. His next feature film, spy parody, OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006) was a success at the French box office, and warranted a sequel, OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2009), which was also a hit. Hazanavicius came to the attention of international audiences with the release of an almost wordless film, The Artist (2011), which starred his wife, Bérénice Bejo and OSS 117 star Jean Dujardin. The film was a critical and popular hit, garnering many major nominations and awards.The Artist- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Neil Jordan was born on 25 February 1950 in Sligo, Ireland. He is a writer and producer, known for The Crying Game (1992), Greta (2018) and Breakfast on Pluto (2005). He has been married to Brenda Rawn since 30 June 2004. They have two children. He was previously married to Vivienne Shields.Mona Lisa
The Crying Game
Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles
Michael Collins
The End of the Affair- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Samuel Alexander Mendes was born on August 1, 1965 in Reading, England, UK to parents James Peter Mendes, a retired university lecturer, and Valerie Helene Mendes, an author who writes children's books. Their marriage didn't last long, James divorced Sam's mother in 1970 when Sam was just 5-years-old. Sam was educated at Cambridge University and joined the Chichester Festival Theatre following his graduation in 1987. Afterwards, he directed Judi Dench in "The Cherry Orchard", for which he won a Critics Circle Award for Best Newcomer. He then joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he directed such productions as "Troilus and Cressida" with Ralph Fiennes and "Richard III". In 1992, he became artistic director of the reopened Donmar Warehouse in London, where he directed such productions as "The Glass Menagerie" and the revival of the musical "Cabaret", which earned four Tony Awards including one for Best Revival of a Musical. He also directed "The Blue Room" starring Nicole Kidman. In 1999, he got the chance to direct his first feature film, American Beauty (1999). The movie earned 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Mendes, which is a rare feat for a first-time film director.American Beauty
Road to Perdition
Revolutionary Road
Skyfall
Spectre
1917
Empire of Light- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Bill Condon was born on 22 October 1955 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a director and writer, known for Dreamgirls (2006), Gods and Monsters (1998) and Kinsey (2004).Gods and Monsters
Chicago
Kinsey
Dreamgirls
Beauty and the Beast (2017 film)
The Greatest Showman- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Davis Guggenheim was born on 3 November 1963 in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Training Day (2001), Waiting for Superman (2010) and An Inconvenient Truth (2006). He has been married to Elisabeth Shue since August 1994. They have three children.An Inconvenient Truth- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Kevin Macdonald was born on 28 October 1967 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He is a director and producer, known for The Last King of Scotland (2006), The Mauritanian (2021) and How I Live Now (2013). He has been married to Tatiana Macdonald since 2 July 1999. They have three children.One Day in September
The Last King of Scotland- Director
- Animation Department
- Writer
John Korty was born on 22 June 1936 in Lafayette, Indiana, USA. He was a director and writer, known for Who Are the DeBolts? and Where Did They Get Nineteen Kids? (1977), The Music School (1974) and Farewell to Manzanar (1976). He was married to Jane Silvia, Beulah Chang Korty and Carol E Tweedie. He died on 9 March 2022 in Point Reyes Station, California, USA.Breaking the Habit
Who Are the DeBolts? [And Where Did They Get 19 Kids?]- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Producer
Louie Psihoyos was born on 15 April 1957 in Dubuque, Iowa, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Racing Extinction (2015), Mission: Joy - Finding Happiness in Troubled Times (2021) and The Cove (2009).The Cove
Racing Extinction- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Michael Francis Moore was born in Flint, Michigan on April 23, 1954, and was raised in its Davison suburb. He is the son of Helen Veronica (Wall), a secretary, and Francis Richard Moore, who worked on an auto assembly line. He has Irish, as well as English and Scottish, ancestry.
Moore studied journalism at the University of Michigan-Flint, and also pursued other hobbies such as gun shooting, for which he even won a competition. Michael began his journalistic career writing for the school newspaper "The Michigan Times," and after dropping out of college briefly worked as editor for "Mother Jones."
He then turned to filmmaking, and to earn the money for the budget of his first film Roger & Me (1989) he ran neighborhood bingo games. The success of this film launched his career as one of America's best-known and most controversial documentarians. He has produced a string of documentary films and TV series predominantly about the same subject: attacks on corrupt politicians and greedy business corporations. He landed his first big hit with Bowling for Columbine (2002) about the bad points of the right to bear arms in America, which earned him an Oscar and a big reputation. He then shook the world with his even bigger hit Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004), making fun of President George W. Bush. This is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. Michael is known for having the guts to give his opinion in public, which not many people are courageous enough to do, and for that is respected by many.Bowling for Columbine
Sicko- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Rob Epstein was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA as Robert P. Epstein. He is a producer and director, known for The Celluloid Closet (1995), Paragraph 175 (2000) and The Times of Harvey Milk (1984).
Rob has produced films that have screened worldwide, in cinemas, on television, home video and digital platforms, at museums, and at leading film festivals such as Sundance, Berlin, Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York. Rob has received two Academy Awards®, five Emmy Awards, three Peabodys and both a Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowship.
Rob moved by bus from New York City to San Francisco at age 19. His first job in the city was as an usher at the Castro Theater back when there was still a smoking section. While taking a filmmaking class at San Francisco State University, he became a production assistant on a documentary in early development where he met his mentor, Peter Adair. He quickly rose to co-director, with the other members of the Mariposa Film Group. The film became the landmark documentary Word Is Out, released in theaters in 1978, airing nationally on prime-time public television, and recently restored and re-released by Milestone.
Rob's next project was the Oscar-winning feature documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, which he conceived, directed, co-produced and co-edited. The film touched audiences immediately, becoming an international festival sensation starting at Berlinale, and winning the Academy Award® for Best Feature Documentary as well as the New York Film Critics Award for Best Non-Fiction Film of 1985. In 2013, the Library of Congress selected it for the National Film Registry, and the film is now part of the prestigious Criterion Collection. Harvey Milk was recently named one of "25 most influential documentaries of all time" by the Cinema Eye honors and in 2017 received the Legacy Award.
Since 1987, Rob and his producing partner Jeffrey Friedman have worked under the Telling Pictures banner, traversing the worlds of non-fiction and scripted narrative. Rob won his second Oscar for the documentary Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, made with Jeffrey Friedman. Rob's other films with Jeffrey include the box office hit The Celluloid Closet (Emmy Award for directing), the HBO documentary Paragraph 175 (Sundance Film Festival Jury Award for Directing), Where Are We?, And the Oscar Goes to for Turner Classic Movies and most recently Killing the Colorado, a feature documentary about the drought in the Western U.S. premiering on Discovery Channel in August 2016.
In moving from documentary to dramatic narrative, Rob and Jeffrey collaborated on the narrative feature HOWL, starring James Franco, followed by Lovelace, starring Amanda Seyfried, Peter Sarsgaard and Sharon Stone, and released by The Weinstein Company's Radius-TWC. Both films premiered at the Sundance and Berlin Film Festivals. HOWL was developed at the Sundance Institute Writer's Lab, where Rob and Jeffrey were Sundance Screenwriting Fellows in 2009, and was released theatrically by Oscilloscope Laboratories. It received the Freedom of Expression Award from the National Board of Review.
In addition to his Oscars for The Times of Harvey Milk and Common Threads, Rob has received several Peabody and Emmy Awards, as well as Guggenheim and Rockefeller Fellowships. In 2008, Rob was recognized with the Pioneer Award from the International Documentary Association (IDA) for distinguished lifetime achievement. He has also received achievement awards from Frameline (1990), Outfest (2000) and the Provincetown International Film Festival. In 2016, Epstein was awarded the Kenneth Rainin Foundation Screenwriting Grant by the San Francisco Film Society for his original screenplay Dogpatch (working title).
Career retrospectives honoring Rob's work have been presented at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London (ICA), the Taipei International Film Festival in Taiwan, the Cinémathéque Québécoise in Montreal, and the Pink Apple Film Festival in Zurich.
In addition to his filmmaking career, Rob is a professor at California College of the Arts, where he serves as Co-chair of the Film program. He has been a visiting professor at the Graduate Film Program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. He serves on the Sundance Institute's Board of Trustees and is a member of the Directors Guild of America as well as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Documentary Branch where he served as an elected member of the Board of Governors for three terms.The Times of Harvey Milk
Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt
End Game- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Morgan Neville was born on 10 October 1967 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a producer and director, known for Best of Enemies: Buckley vs. Vidal (2015), Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018) and The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble (2015).20 Feet from Stardom- Director
- Producer
- Writer
He grew up in Versailles with a family who was very influenced by pop music. When he was young, Gondry wanted to be a painter or an inventor. In the 80s he entered in an art school in Paris where he could develop his graphic skills and where he also met friends with whom he created a pop-rock band called Oui-Oui. The band released 2 albums ('Chacun tout le monde' and 'Formidable') and several singles until their separation in 1992. Gondry was the drummer of the band and also directed their video clips in which it was possible to see his strange world, influenced by the 60s and by his childhood. One of his videos was shown on MTV and when Björk saw it, she asked him to make her first solo video for 'Human Behaviour'. The partnership is famous: Gondry directed five other Björk's videos, benefiting by the huge budgets. This led to commissions for other artists around the world, including Massive Attack. He also made a lot of commercials for Gap, Smirnoff, Air France, Nike, Coca Cola, Adidas, Polaroid and Levi - the latter making him the most highly-awarded director for a one-off commercial.
Hollywood became interested in Gondry's success and he directed his first feature movie Human Nature (2001), adapting a Charlie Kaufman's scenario, which was shown in the 2001 Cannes Festival. Although it wasn't a big success, this film allowed him to direct Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), for which he again collaborated with Charlie Kaufman. The movie became a popular independent film and he and his co-writers won an Oscar for it.Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Daniel Francis Boyle is a British filmmaker, producer and writer from Radcliffe, Greater Manchester. He is known for directing 28 Days Later, 127 Hours, Trainspotting, T2 Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire, Millions, Shallow Grave, The Beach, Yesterday, and Steve Jobs. He won many awards for Slumdog Millionaire. He was in a relationship with Gail Stevens and had three children.Trainspotting
Slumdog Millionaire
127 Hours
Steve Jobs- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Gavin Hood was born on 12 May 1963 in Johannesburg, South Africa. He is an actor and director, known for Official Secrets (2019), Tsotsi (2005) and Eye in the Sky (2015). He was previously married to Janine Eser.Tsotsi- Director
- Writer
- Script and Continuity Department
Marleen Gorris was born on 9 December 1948 in Roermond, Limburg, Netherlands. She is a director and writer, known for Antonia's Line (1995), A Question of Silence (1982) and Broken Mirrors (1984).Antonia's Line- Director
- Actress
- Writer
Sofia Coppola was born on May 14, 1971 in New York City, New York, USA as Sofia Carmina Coppola. She is a director, known for Somewhere (2010), Lost in Translation (2003), and Marie Antoinette (2006). She has been married to Thomas Mars since August 27, 2011. They have two daughters, Romy and Cosima. She was previously married to Spike Jonze.Lost in Translation
Marie Antoinette- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Though Academy Award®, Golden Globe Award and Emmy Award winning writer and director Susanne Bier's work often plays out against a wide-reaching global backdrop, its focus is intimate, carefully exploring the explosive emotions and complexities of familial bonds. This unique combination is part of the formula that has made her Denmark's leading female filmmaker and a powerhouse worldwide.
Bier's 2010 film In a Better World won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011, as well as an Italian Golden Globe Award® for Best European Film and Best Director at the European Film Awards. She previously helmed the multi-award-winning After the Wedding (2006), which was also an Academy Award® nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, and was remade as an English-language film in 2019 starring Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, and Billy Crudup.
Bier won an Emmy Award in 2016 for directing the six-part AMC mini-series The Night Manager, based on the 1993 novel of the same name by John le Carré, with stars Tom Hiddleston, Hugh Laurie, and Olivia Colman all winning Golden Globes for their work.
Bier followed this with the 2018 Netflix film Bird Box, starring Sandra Bullock, which went on to become the most-watched film in Netflix history. In 2020, she directed the six-part HBO series The Undoing, starring Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant, the network's first original series to grow its audience each week.
Prior to this, Bier co-wrote and directed the romantic comedy The One and Only (1999), which won Best Film at the Danish Robert Awards and was the most watched domestic film in Denmark in 20 years, with one-fifth of the country's population having seen it at the cinema.
In 2002, she directed Open Hearts, shot in accordance with the Dogme '95 filmmaking aesthetic. The film won numerous awards, including the Audience Award at the Robert Festival (Danish Academy Award) and the International Film Critics' Award at the Toronto International Film Festival. Bier followed this with Brothers (2004), which won, among others, the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
In 2007, Bier directed the award-winning Things We Lost in the Fire, starring Halle Berry and Benicio Del Toro, her first English-language film.
In 2012, Bier made her triumphant return to the genre with the 2013 winner of the European Film Award for Best Comedy, Love Is All You Need, starring Pierce Brosnan and Trine Dyrholm. In 2014, Bier directed A Second Chance, starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Most recently, Susanne Bier directed the Showtime limited series The First Lady, starring Viola Davis, Michelle Pfieffer, and Gillian Anderson.After the Wedding
In a Better World- Director
- Writer
- Editor
An important British filmmaker, David Lean was born in Croydon on March 25, 1908 and brought up in a strict Quaker family (ironically, as a child he wasn't allowed to go to the movies). During the 1920s, he briefly considered the possibility of becoming an accountant like his father before finding a job at Gaumont British Studios in 1927. He worked as tea boy, clapper boy, messenger, then cutting room assistant. By 1935, he had become chief editor of Gaumont British News until in 1939 when he began to edit feature films, notably for Anthony Asquith, Paul Czinner and Michael Powell. Amongst films he worked on were Pygmalion (1938), Major Barbara (1941) and One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942).
By the end of the 1930s, Lean's reputation as an editor was very well established. In 1942, Noël Coward gave Lean the chance to co-direct with him the war film In Which We Serve (1942). Shortly after, with the encouragement of Coward, Lean, cinematographer Ronald Neame and producer 'Anthony Havelock-Allan' launched a production company called Cineguild. For that firm Lean first directed adaptations of three plays by Coward: the chronicle This Happy Breed (1944), the humorous ghost story Blithe Spirit (1945) and, most notably, the sentimental drama Brief Encounter (1945). Originally a box-office failure in England, "Brief Encounter" was presented at the very first Cannes film festival (1946), where it won almost unanimous praises as well as a Grand Prize.
From Coward, Lean switched to Charles Dickens, directing two well-regarded adaptations: Great Expectations (1946) and Oliver Twist (1948). The latter, starring Alec Guinness in his first major movie role, was criticized by some, however, for potential anti-Semitic inflections. The last two films made under the Cineguild banner were The Passionate Friends (1949), a romance from a novel by H.G. Wells, and the true crime story Madeleine (1950). Neither had a significant impact on critics or audiences.
The Cineguild partnership came to an end after a dispute between Lean and Neame. Lean's first post-Cineguild production was the aviation drama The Sound Barrier (1952), a great box-office success in England and his most spectacular movie so far. He followed with two sophisticated comedies based on theatrical plays: Hobson's Choice (1954) and the Anglo-American co-production Summertime (1955). Both were well received and "Hobson's Choice" won the Golden Bear at the 1954 Berlin film festival.
Lean's next movie was pivotal in his career, as it was the first of those grand-scale epics he would become renowned for. The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) was produced by Sam Spiegel from a novel by 'Pierre Boulle', adapted by blacklisted writers Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman. Shot in Ceylon under extremely difficult conditions, the film was an international success and triumphed at the Oscars, winning seven awards, most notably best film and director.
Lean and Spiegel followed with an even more ambitious film, Lawrence of Arabia (1962), based on "Seven Pillars of Wisdom", the autobiography of T.E. Lawrence. Starring relative newcomer Peter O'Toole, this film was the first collaboration between Lean and writer Robert Bolt, cinematographer Freddie Young and composer Maurice Jarre. The shooting itself took place in Spain, Morocco and Jordan over a period of 20 months. Initial reviews were mixed and the film was trimmed down shortly after its world première and cut even more during a 1971 re-release. Like its predecessor, it won seven Oscars, once again including best film and director.
The same team of Lean, Bolt, Young and Jarre next worked on an adaptation of Boris Pasternak's novel "Dr. Zhivago" for producer Carlo Ponti. Doctor Zhivago (1965) was shot in Spain and Finland, standing in for revolutionary Russia and, despite divided critics, was hugely successful, as was Jarre's musical score. The film won five Oscars out of ten nominations, but the statuettes for film and director went to The Sound of Music (1965).
Lean's next movie, the sentimental drama Ryan's Daughter (1970), did not reach the same heights. The original screenplay by Robert Bolt was produced by old associate Anthony Havelock-Allan, and Lean once again secured the collaboration of Freddie Young and Maurice Jarre. The shooting in Ireland lasted about a year, much longer than expected. The film won two Oscars; but, for the most part, critical reaction was tepid, sometimes downright derisive, and the general public didn't really respond to the movie.
This relative lack of success seems to have inhibited Lean's creativity for a while. But towards the end of the 1970s, he started to work again with Robert Bolt on an ambitious two-part movie about the Bounty mutiny. The project fell apart and was eventually recuperated by Dino De Laurentiis. Lean was then approached by producers John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin to adapt E.M. Forster's novel "A Passage to India", a book Lean had been interested in for more than 20 years. For the first time in his career; Lean wrote the adaptation alone, basing himself partly on Santha Rama Rau's stage version of the book. Lean also acted as his own editor. A Passage to India (1984) opened to mostly favourable reviews and performed quite well at the box-office. It was a strong Oscar contender, scoring 11 nominations. It settled for two wins, losing the trophy battle to Milos Forman's Amadeus (1984).
Lean spent the last few years of his life preparing an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's meditative adventure novel "Nostromo". He also participated briefly in Richard Harris' restoration of "Lawrence of Arabia" in 1988. In 1990, Lean received the American Film Institute's Life Achievement award. He died of cancer on April 16, 1991 at age 83, shortly before the shooting of "Nostromo" was about to begin.
Lean was known on sets for his extreme perfectionism and autocratic behavior, an attitude that sometimes alienated his cast or crew. Though his cinematic approach, classic and refined, clearly belongs to a bygone era, his films have aged rather well and his influence can still be found in movies like The English Patient (1996) and Titanic (1997). In 1999, the British Film Institute compiled a list of the 100 favorite British films of the 20th century. Five by David Lean appeared in the top 30, three of them in the top five.In Which We Serve
Blithe Spirit
Brief Encounters
Great Expectations
Breaking the Sound Barrier
Summertime
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Lawrence of Arabia
Doctor Zhivago
Ryan's Daughter
A Passage to India- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Jonathan Demme was born on 22 February 1944 in Baldwin, Long Island, New York, USA. He was a director and producer, known for The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Rachel Getting Married (2008) and Philadelphia (1993). He was married to Joanne Howard and Evelyn Purcell. He died on 26 April 2017 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.Melvin and Howard
Swing Shift
Married to the Mob
The Silence of the Lambs
Philadelphia
That Thing You Do!
Mandela
Ulee's Gold
Beloved
Adaptation.
Rachel Getting Married- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Tom Hooper was educated at one of England's most prestigious schools, Westminster. His first film, Runaway Dog, was made when he was 13 years old and shot on a Clockwork 16mm Bolex camera, using 100 feet of film. At age 18, he wrote, directed and produced the short film Painted Faces (1992), which premiered at the London Film Festival; it was released theatrically and later shown on Channel 4. He studied English at England's top university, Oxford. At Oxford University, he directed theatre productions starring his contemporaries Kate Beckinsale and Emily Mortimer, and directed his first television commercials. His father was a non-executive director at United News and Media, which owned an ITV franchise.
Hooper's father introduced him to one of British television's top directors and producers, Matthew Robinson, who gave him breaks by employing him to direct episodes of Byker Grove (1989) and EastEnders (1985), both series produced by Robinson. Further success came when he was approved by Helen Mirren to direct her in Prime Suspect: The Last Witness (2003). He then worked with her again on Elizabeth I (2005). Hooper made the difficult transition from television to film with apparent ease, directing Michael Sheen in the Brian Clough biopic The Damned United (2009) and Colin Firth in The King's Speech (2010). Both films were critical and commercial successes, quickly establishing Hooper as one of the most in demand directors of his generation.
Hooper has garnered numerous awards in his career. He won an Academy Award for directing The King's Speech. The 2010 film was nominated for 12 Oscars, more than any other film of that year, and also won the Best Picture, Best Actor (Colin Firth), and Best Original Screenplay Oscars. The King's Speech received seven BAFTA Awards, including Best Film and Outstanding British Film. Hooper also won a Directors Guild of America Award for his direction. Among other accolades worldwide, The King's Speech additionally was honored with the People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival; the Best British Film prize at the British Independent Film Awards; the Spirit Award for Best Foreign Film; the Producers Guild of America Awards' top prize; and the European Film Award for Best Film. The King's Speech earned $414 million at the worldwide box office.
Hooper was recently again a Directors Guild of America Award nominee for directing Working Title Films' Les Misérables. The 2012 film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won the Best Supporting Actress (Anne Hathaway), Best Sound, and Best Make-up and Hair Styling Academy Awards. Les Misérables received those same accolades at the BAFTA Awards, as well as the BAFTA for Best Production Design. Among other accolades worldwide, Les Misérables was named one of the year's 10 Best Films by the American Film Institute with an AFI Award; won three Golden Globe Awards including Best Picture [Musical/Comedy]; was voted the Best Acting by an Ensemble award by the National Board of Review; and was nominated for four Screen Actors Guild Awards. Les Misérables earned $442 million at the worldwide box office.
The Damned United received a South Bank Show Award nomination for Best British Film; and he gained acclaim for the BAFTA Award-nominated Red Dust, starring Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Hooper had an unprecedented run of success at the Golden Globe Awards with his works for HBO, which won the Golden Globe for Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television three years in a row. The actors and actresses starring in these productions - respectively, Elizabeth I, Longford, and John Adams - also won Golden Globes for their performances three years running.
Hooper won an Emmy Award for directing Elizabeth I. The HBO Films/Channel 4 miniseries won three Golden Globes and nine Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Miniseries.
Longford, written by Peter Morgan, starred Jim Broadbent and Samantha Morton. The HBO Films/Channel 4 Telefilm won three Golden Globe Awards and was nominated for five Emmy Awards.
John Adams (2008), starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney, won four Golden Globes and 13 Emmy Awards - the most Emmys ever awarded to a program in one year. Hooper, receiving his first Directors Guild of America Award nomination, directed all nine hours of the HBO Films miniseries.
Hooper was nominated for an Emmy Award for helming ITV's miniseries Prime Suspect 6. His television work also includes Daniel Deronda (2002), which won the award for Best Miniseries at the 2003 Banff Television Festival; the miniseries Love in a Cold Climate (2001), for which star Alan Bates received a BAFTA Award nomination; episodes of the multi-award-winning ITV comedy/drama Cold Feet (1997); and EastEnders (1985) one-hour specials that garnered BAFTA Awards two years in a row.The King's Speech
Les Misérables (2012 film)
The Danish Girl- Actor
- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Oscar-winning director John Schlesinger, who was born in London, on February 16, 1926, was the eldest child in a solidly middle-class Jewish family. Berbard Schlesinger, his father, was a pediatrician, and his mother, Winifred, was a musician. He served in the Army in the Far East during World War II. While attending Balliol College at Oxford, Schlesinger was involved with the Undergraduate Dramatic Society and developed an interest in photography. While at Oxford, he made his first short film, "Black Legend," in 1948. He took his degree in 1950 after reading English literature and then went into television. From 1958 through 1961, he made documentaries for the British Broadcasting Corp.
His 1960 documentary, Terminus (1961), which was sponsored by British-Transport, won him a British Academy Award and the Gold Lion at the Venice Film Festival. He made the transition to feature films in 1962, with the "kitchen sink" drama A Kind of Loving (1962), which got him noticed on both sides of the Atlantic. His next film, the Northern comedy Billy Liar (1963), was a success and began his association with actress Julie Christie, who had a memorable turn in the film. Christie won the Best Actress Academy Award and international superstardom and Schlesinger his first Oscar nomination as Best Director with his next film, the watershed Darling (1965), which dissected Swinging London. Subsequently, Schlesinger and Christie collaborated on Far from the Madding Crowd (1967), an adaptation of Thomas Hardy's classic novel, in 1967. The movie was not a success with critics or at the box office at the time, though its stature has grown over time. His next film, Midnight Cowboy (1969), earned him a place in cinema history, as it was not only a huge box office hit but also widely acclaimed as a contemporary classic. It won the Oscar for Best Picture and garnered Schlesinger an Oscar for Best Director.
Schlesinger earned his third, and last, Oscar nomination for the highly acclaimed Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971). He continued to operate at a high state of aesthetic and critical achievement with The Day of the Locust (1975), Marathon Man (1976) and Yanks (1979), but his 1981 comedy, Honky Tonk Freeway (1981), was one of the notable flops of its time, bringing in only $2 million on a $24-million budget when breakeven was calculated as three times negative cost. Although Schlesinger continued to work steadily as a director in movies and TV, he never again tasted the sweet fruits of success that he had for more than a decade, beginning in the mid-'60s.
Schlesinger's artistic fulfillment increasingly came from directing for the stage and, specifically, opera. He directed William Shakespeare's "Timon of Athens" for the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 1964, and after his movie career faded, he directed plays, musicals, and opera productions. After Laurence Olivier was eased out of the National Theatre in 1973, Schlesinger was named an associate director of the NT under Olivier's successor, Sir Peter Hall of the RSC.
Schlesinger suffered a stroke in December 2000. His life partner, Michael Childers, took him off life support, and he died the following day, July 24, 2003, in Palm Springs, Claifornia. He was 77 years old.Darling
Far from the Madding Crowd
Midnight Cowboy
Sunday Bloody Sunday
The Day of the Locust
Marathon Man- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Known for his creative stage direction, Elia Kazan was born Elias Kazantzoglou on September 7, 1909 in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (now Istanbul, Turkey). Noted for drawing out the best dramatic performances from his actors, he directed 21 actors to Oscar nominations, resulting in nine wins. He directed a string of successful films, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), On the Waterfront (1954), and East of Eden (1955). During his career, he won two Oscars as Best Director and received an Honorary Oscar, won three Tony Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards.
His films were concerned with personal or social issues of special concern to him. Kazan writes, "I don't move unless I have some empathy with the basic theme." His first such "issue" film was Gentleman's Agreement (1947), with Gregory Peck, which dealt with anti-Semitism in America. It received 8 Oscar nominations and three wins, including Kazan's first for Best Director. It was followed by Pinky (1949), one of the first films in mainstream Hollywood to address racial prejudice against black people. A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), an adaptation of the stage play which he had also directed, received 12 Oscar nominations, winning four, and was Marlon Brando's breakthrough role. In 1954, he directed On the Waterfront (1954), a film about union corruption on the New York harbor waterfront. In 1955, he directed John Steinbeck's East of Eden (1955), which introduced James Dean to movie audiences.
A turning point in Kazan's career came with his testimony as a witness before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1952 at the time of the Hollywood blacklist, which brought him strong negative reactions from many liberal friends and colleagues. His testimony helped end the careers of former acting colleagues Morris Carnovsky and Art Smith, along with ending the work of playwright Clifford Odets. Kazan later justified his act by saying he took "only the more tolerable of two alternatives that were either way painful and wrong." Nearly a half-century later, his anti-Communist testimony continued to cause controversy. When Kazan was awarded an honorary Oscar in 1999, dozens of actors chose not to applaud as 250 demonstrators picketed the event.
Kazan influenced the films of the 1950s and 1960s with his provocative, issue-driven subjects. Director Stanley Kubrick called him, "without question, the best director we have in America, and capable of performing miracles with the actors he uses." On September 28, 2003, Elia Kazan died at age 94 of natural causes at his apartment in Manhattan, New York City. Martin Scorsese co-directed the documentary film A Letter to Elia (2010) as a personal tribute to Kazan.A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Boomerang!
Gentleman's Agreement
Pinky
Panic in the Streets
A Streetcar Named Desire
Viva Zapata!
On the Waterfront
East of Eden
Baby Doll
Splendor in the Grass
America America
The Last Tycoon- Producer
- Director
- Writer
Director, producer and screenwriter Alexander Payne was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents, Peggy (Constantine) and George Payne, ran a Greek restaurant. His father is of Greek and German ancestry, and his mother is of Greek descent; the family name was originally Papadopoulos. He is the youngest of three brothers.
Alexander attended Stanford University, where he majored in Spanish and History. He then went on to study film at UCLA Film School. His university thesis film was screened at the Sundance film festival, which led to him being backed by Miramax to write and direct Citizen Ruth (1996). Payne prefers to have control over his movies, from scripts to cast.Election
About Schmidt
Sideways
The Descendants
Nebraska
The Holdovers- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Jan Sverak spent his studies at FAMU Documentary Department and graduated in 1988. Sverak's talent first attracted attention through his short films Space Odyssey II. and Oil Gobblers above all - documentary fiction dealing with "newly discovered species" received the American Academy's Student Oscar (1988).
Director's first feature film Elementary School (1991), a heart-warming period film set in post-war Czechoslovakia, engaged American Academy's attention again and brought a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. It was Kolya (1997) to confirm international success of Sverak's films. Story of a five year old Russian boy humanizing a philandering middle-aged Czech cellist won both Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
Also other Jan's films reached wide audience: road movie Ride (1994), action fantasy Accumulator 1 (1994) or Dark Blue World (2001) - drama about the injustice done to Czechoslovak pilots who fought for RAF and were made to suffer by the communist regime back home. Papa (2004)is a documentary dedicated to Jan's father Zdenek Sverak, screenplay writer and actor popular with Czech audience. Above all Zdenek Sverak is an author of few Jan's films screenplays and casted main characters in Kolya, Elementary School and Empties (2007).
Year 2007 was a busy year for Sverak - apart from comedy Empties he produced Alice Nelliss's movie Little Girle Blue. Kooky (2010), featuring both live action and puppetry, is an enjoyable adventure for both kids and adults. Sverak's latest film, fairy tale Three Brothers (2014) presents classic marvels of Central Europe within musical background and reached record-breaking audience in 2014 Czech box office.Kolya- Producer
- Director
- Writer
In addition to helming the iconic feature hits An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), Against All Odds (1984), Ray (2004), and the cult thriller The Devil's Advocate (1997), Taylor Hackford has directed the films Dolores Claiborne (1995), Everybody's All-American (1988), and Proof of Life (2000). Taylor developed and produced La Bamba (1987), the most successful Latin-themed feature film in history. Mr. Hackford has been an active member of the Directors Guild of America for over 40 years, including twice as elected President of the DGA, beginning in 2009.Teenage Father
An Officer and a Gentleman
Against All Odds
White Nights
When We Were Kings
Ray- Actor
- Director
- Writer
An eccentric rebel of epic proportions, this Hollywood titan reigned supreme as director, screenwriter and character actor in a career that endured over five decades. The ten-time Oscar-nominated legend was born John Marcellus Huston in Nevada, Missouri, on August 5, 1906. His ancestry was English, Scottish, Scots-Irish, distant German and very remote Portuguese. The age-old story goes that the small town of his birth was won by John's grandfather in a poker game. John's father was the equally magnanimous character actor Walter Huston, and his mother, Rhea Gore, was a newspaperwoman who traveled around the country looking for stories. The only child of the couple, John began performing on stage with his vaudevillian father at age 3. Upon his parents' divorce at age 7, the young boy would take turns traveling around the vaudeville circuit with his father and the country with his mother on reporting excursions. A frail and sickly child, he was once placed in a sanitarium due to both an enlarged heart and kidney ailment. Making a miraculous recovery, he quit school at age 14 to become a full-fledged boxer and eventually won the Amateur Lightweight Boxing Championship of California, winning 22 of 25 bouts. His trademark broken nose was the result of that robust activity.
John married his high school sweetheart, Dorothy Harvey, and also took his first professional stage bow with a leading role off-Broadway entitled "The Triumph of the Egg." He made his Broadway debut that same year with "Ruint" on April 7, 1925, and followed that with another Broadway show "Adam Solitaire" the following November. John soon grew restless with the confines of both his marriage and acting and abandoned both, taking a sojourn to Mexico where he became an officer in the cavalry and expert horseman while writing plays on the sly. Trying to control his wanderlust urges, he subsequently returned to America and attempted newspaper and magazine reporting work in New York by submitting short stories. He was even hired at one point by mogul Samuel Goldwyn Jr. as a screenwriter, but again he grew restless. During this time he also appeared unbilled in a few obligatory films. By 1932 John was on the move again and left for London and Paris where he studied painting and sketching. The promising artist became a homeless beggar during one harrowing point.
Returning again to America in 1933, he played the title role in a production of "Abraham Lincoln," only a few years after father Walter portrayed the part on film for D.W. Griffith. John made a new resolve to hone in on his obvious writing skills and began collaborating on a few scripts for Warner Brothers. He also married again. Warners was so impressed with his talents that he was signed on as both screenwriter and director for the Dashiell Hammett mystery yarn The Maltese Falcon (1941). The movie classic made a superstar out of Humphrey Bogart and is considered by critics and audiences alike--- 65 years after the fact--- to be the greatest detective film ever made. In the meantime John wrote/staged a couple of Broadway plays, and in the aftermath of his mammoth screen success directed bad-girl 'Bette Davis (I)' and good girl Olivia de Havilland in the film melodrama In This Our Life (1942), and three of his "Falcon" stars (Bogart, Mary Astor and Sydney Greenstreet) in the romantic war picture Across the Pacific (1942). During WWII John served as a Signal Corps lieutenant and went on to helm a number of film documentaries for the U.S. government including the controversial Let There Be Light (1980), which father Walter narrated. The end of WWII also saw the end of his second marriage. He married third wife Evelyn Keyes, of "Gone With the Wind" fame, in 1946 but it too lasted a relatively short time. That same year the impulsive and always unpredictable Huston directed Jean-Paul Sartre's experimental play "No Exit" on Broadway. The show was a box-office bust (running less than a month) but nevertheless earned the New York Drama Critics Award as "best foreign play."
Hollywood glory came to him again in association with Bogart and Warner Brothers'. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948), a classic tale of gold, greed and man's inhumanity to man set in Mexico, won John Oscars for both director and screenplay and his father nabbed the "Best Supporting Actor" trophy. John can be glimpsed at the beginning of the movie in a cameo playing a tourist, but he wouldn't act again on film for a decade and a half. With the momentum in his favor, John hung around in Hollywood this time to write and/or direct some of the finest American cinema made including Key Largo (1948) and The African Queen (1951) (both with Bogart), The Asphalt Jungle (1950), The Red Badge of Courage (1951) and Moulin Rouge (1952). Later films, including Moby Dick (1956), The Unforgiven (1960), The Misfits (1961), Freud (1962), The Night of the Iguana (1964) and The Bible in the Beginning... (1966) were, for the most part, well-regarded but certainly not close to the level of his earlier revered work. He also experimented behind-the-camera with color effects and approached topics that most others would not even broach, including homosexuality and psychoanalysis.
An ardent supporter of human rights, he, along with director William Wyler and others, dared to form the Committee for the First Amendment in 1947, which strove to undermine the House Un-American Activities Committee. Disgusted by the Hollywood blacklisting that was killing the careers of many talented folk, he moved to St. Clerans in Ireland and became a citizen there along with his fourth wife, ballet dancer Enrica (Ricki) Soma. The couple had two children, including daughter Anjelica Huston who went on to have an enviable Hollywood career of her own. Huston and wife Ricki split after a son (director Danny Huston) was born to another actress in 1962. They did not divorce, however, and remained estranged until her sudden death in 1969 in a car accident. John subsequently adopted his late wife's child from another union. The ever-impulsive Huston would move yet again to Mexico where he married (1972) and divorced (1977) his fifth and final wife, Celeste Shane.
Huston returned to acting auspiciously with a major role in Otto Preminger's epic film The Cardinal (1963) for which Huston received an Oscar nomination at age 57. From that time forward, he would be glimpsed here and there in a number of colorful, baggy-eyed character roles in both good and bad (some positively abysmal) films that, at the very least, helped finance his passion projects. The former list included outstanding roles in Chinatown (1974) and The Wind and the Lion (1975), while the latter comprised of hammy parts in such awful drek as Candy (1968) and Myra Breckinridge (1970).
Directing daughter Angelica in her inauspicious movie debut, the thoroughly mediocre A Walk with Love and Death (1969), John made up for it 15 years later by directing her to Oscar glory in the mob tale Prizzi's Honor (1985). In the 1970s Huston resurged as a director of quality films with Fat City (1972), The Man Who Would Be King (1975) and Wise Blood (1979). He ended his career on a high note with Under the Volcano (1984), the afore-mentioned Prizzi's Honor (1985) and The Dead (1987). His only certifiable misfire during that era was the elephantine musical version of Annie (1982), though it later became somewhat of a cult favorite among children.
Huston lived the macho, outdoors life, unencumbered by convention or restrictions, and is often compared in style or flamboyancy to an Ernest Hemingway or Orson Welles. He was, in fact, the source of inspiration for Clint Eastwood in the helming of the film White Hunter Black Heart (1990) which chronicled the making of "The African Queen." Illness robbed Huston of a good portion of his twilight years with chronic emphysema the main culprit. As always, however, he continued to work tirelessly while hooked up to an oxygen machine if need be. At the end, the living legend was shooting an acting cameo in the film Mr. North (1988) for his son Danny, making his directorial bow at the time. John became seriously ill with pneumonia and died while on location at the age of 81. This maverick of a man's man who was once called "the eccentric's eccentric" by Paul Newman, left an incredibly rich legacy of work to be enjoyed by film lovers for centuries to come.Jezebel
Juarez
Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet
The Maltese Falcon
Sergeant York
Report from the Aleutians
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre
Key Largo
The Asphalt Jungle
The African Queen
Moulin Rouge
Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison
Freud
The Cardinal
The Night of the Iguana
The Bible: In the Beginning...
Casino Royale
The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean
Fat City
The Man Who Who Be King
Annie
Under the Volcano
Prizzi's Honor
The Dead- Director
- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Carol Reed was the second son of stage actor, dramatics teacher and impresario founder of the Royal School of Dramatic Art Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. Reed was one of Tree's six illegitimate children with Beatrice Mae Pinney, who Tree established in a second household apart from his married life. There were no social scars here; Reed grew up in a well-mannered, middle-class atmosphere. His public school days were at King's School, Canterbury, and he was only too glad to push on with the idea of following his father and becoming an actor. His mother wanted no such thing and shipped him off to Massachusetts in 1922, where his older brother resided on--of all things--a chicken ranch.
It was a wasted six months before Reed was back in England and joined a stage company of Dame Sybil Thorndike, making his stage debut in 1924. He forthwith met British writer Edgar Wallace, who cashed in on his constant output of thrillers by establishing a road troupe to do stage adaptations of them. Reed was in three of these, also working as an assistant stage manager. Wallace became chairman of the newly formed British Lion Film Corp. in 1927, and Reed followed to become his personal assistant. As such he began learning the film trade by assisting in supervising the filmed adaptations of Wallace's works. This was essentially his day job. At night he continued stage acting and managing. It was something of a relief when Wallace passed on in 1932; Reed decided to drop the stage for film and joined historic Ealing Studios as dialog director for Associated Talking Pictures under Basil Dean.
Reed rose from dialog director to second-unit director and assistant director in record time, his first solo directorship being the adventure Midshipman Easy (1935). This and his subsequent effort, Laburnum Grove (1936), attracted high praise from a future collaborator, novelist/critic Graham Greene, who said that once Reed "gets the right script, [he] will prove far more than efficient." However, Reed would endure the sort of staid, boilerplate filmmaking that characterized British "B" movies until he left this behind with The Stars Look Down (1940), his second film with Michael Redgrave, and his openly Hitchcockian Night Train to Munich (1940), a comedy-thriller with Rex Harrison. It has often been seen as a sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938) with the same screenwriters and comedy relief--Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne, who would just about make careers as the cricket zealots Charters and Caldicott, from "Vanishes".
The British liked these films and, significantly, so did America, where Hollywood still wondered whether their patronage of the British film industry was worth the gamble of a payoff via the US public. Dean was just one of several powerhouse producers rising in Britain in the 1930s. Other names are more familiar: Alexander Korda and J. Arthur Rank stand out. For Reed, who would wisely decide to start producing his own films in order to have more control over them, finding his niche was still a challenge into the 1940s. He was only too well aware that the film director led a team effort--his was partly a coordinator's task, harmonizing the talents of the creative team. The modest Reed would admit to his success being this partnership time and again. So he gravitated toward the same scriptwriters, art directors and cinematographers as his movie list spread out.
There were more thrillers and some historical bios: The Remarkable Mr. Kipps (1941) with Redgrave and The Young Mr. Pitt (1942) with Robert Donat. He did service and war effort fare through World War II, but these were more than flag wavers, for Reed dealt with the psychology of transitioning to military life. His Anglo-American documentary of combat (co-directed by Garson Kanin), The True Glory (1945), won the 1946 Oscar for Best Documentary. With that under his belt, Reed was now recognized as Britain's ablest director and could pick and choose his projects. He also had the clout--and the all-important funds--to do what he thought was essential to ensure realism on a location shoot, something missing in British film work prior to Reed.
Odd Man Out (1947) with James Mason as an IRA hit man on the run did just that and was Reed's first real independent effort, and he had gone to Rank to do it. All too soon, however, that organization began subjugating directors' wishes to studio needs, and Reed made perhaps his most important associative decision and joined Korda's London Films. Here was one very important harmony--he and Korda thought along the same lines. Though Anthony Kimmins had scripted four films for Reed, it was time for Korda to introduce the director to Graham Greene. Their association would bring Reed his greatest successes. The Fallen Idol (1948) was based on a Greene short story, with Ralph Richardson as a do-everything head butler in a diplomatic household. Idolized by the lonely, small son of his employer, he becomes caught up in a liaison with a woman on the work staff, who was much younger than his shrewish wife. It may seem slow to an American audience, but with the focus on the boy's wide-eyed view of rather gloomy surroundings, as well as the adult drama around him, it was innovative and a solid success.
What came next was a landmark--the best known of Reed's films. The Third Man (1949) was yet another Greene story, molded into a gem of a screenplay by him, though Reed added some significant elements of his own. The film has been endlessly summarized and analyzed and, whether defined as an international noir or post-war noir or just noir, it was cutting-edge noir and unforgettable. This was Reed in full control--well, almost-- and the money was coming from yet another wide-vision producer, David O. Selznick, along with Korda. Tension did develop in this effort keep a predominantly Anglo effort in this Anglo-American collaboration.
There were complications, though. For one thing, Korda--old friend and somewhat kindred spirit of wunderkind director Orson Welles--had a gentlemen's agreement with the latter for three pictures, but these were not forthcoming. Korda could be as evasive as Welles was known to be, and Welles had come to Europe to further his inevitable film projects after troubles in Hollywood. Always desperate for seed money, Welles was forced to take acting parts in Europe to build up his bank account in order to finance his more personal projects. He thus accepted the role of the larger-than-life American flim-flam man turned criminal, Harry Lime. The extended time spent filming the Vienna sewer scenes on location and at the elaborate set for them at Shepperton Studios in London, entailed the longest of the ten minutes or so of Welles' screen time. Here was a potential source of directorial intimidation if ever there was one. Welles took it upon himself to direct Reed's veteran cinematographer Robert Krasker with his own vision of some sewer sequences in London (after leaving the location shoot in Vienna), using many takes. Supposedly, Reed did not use any of Welles' footage, and in fact whatever there was got conveniently lost. Yet Citizen Kane (1941)'s shadow was so looming that Welles was given credit for a lot of camera work, atmospherics and the chase scenes. He had referred to the movie as "my film" later on and had said he wrote all his dialog. Some of the ferris wheel dialog with its famous famous "cuckoo clock" speech (which Reed and Greene both attributed to him) was probably the essence of Welles' contributions.
Krasker's quirky angles under Reed's direction perfectly framed the ready-made-for-an-art designer bombed-out shadows and stark, isolated street lights of postwar Vienna and its underworld. Unique to cinema history, the whole score (except for some canned incidental café music) was just the brilliant zither playing of Anton Karas, adding his nuances to every dramatic transition. Krasker won an Oscar, and Karas was nominated for one.
Reed's attention to detailed casting also paid off, particularly in casting German-speaking actors and background players. Selznick insisted on Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins, the benighted protagonist, and his clipped and sharp voice and subterranean drawl were perfect for the part. Reed had wanted James Stewart--definitely a different perception than Americans of its leading men. Selznick parted ways with Reed on other issues, however; there was a laundry list of reasons for his re-editing and changing some incidentals for the shorter American version, partly based on negative comments from sneak preview responses. Perhaps it was the constant interruptions from the other side of the Atlantic that drove Reed to personally narrate the introduction describing Martins in the British version of the film (given the basic tenets of noir films, the star always played narrator to introduce the story and voice over where appropriate). Selznick showed himself--in this instance, anyway--to have a better directorial sense by substituting Cotten introducing himself in the American cut. It made far more sense and was much more effective. On the other hand, Selznick's editing of the pivotal railway café scenes with Cotten and Alida Valli had continuity problems.
Nonetheless, the film was an international smash, and all the principal players reaped the rewards. Reed did not get an Oscar, but he did win the Cannes Film Grand Prix. Greene was motivated enough to take the story and expand it into a best-selling novel. Even Welles, with his minimum screen time--he was spending most of his time in Europe trying to obtain financing for his newest project, Othello (1956)--milked the movie for all it was worth. He did not deny directorial influences (though in a 1984 interview he did), and even developed a Harry Lime radio show back home.
However, the movie had its detractors. It was called too melodramatic and too cynical. The short scenes of untranslated German dialog were also criticized, yet that lent to the atmosphere of confusion and helplessness of Martins caught in a wary, potentially dangerous environment--something the audience inevitably was able to share. It was all too ironic that Reed, now declared by some as the greatest living director of the time, found his career in decline thereafter. Of his total output, four were based on plays, three on stories and 15 on novels. With less than half of them to go, he was to be disappointed for the most part. His The Man Between (1953) with James Mason was too much of a "Third Man" reprise, and A Kid for Two Farthings (1955) was too sentimental.
By now Reed was being sought by enterprising Hollywood producers. He had--as he usually did--the material for a first-rate movie with two popular American actors, Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis for Trapeze (1956). However, it suffered from a slow script, as would the British-produced The Key (1958), despite another international cast. Things finally picked up with his venture into another Greene-scripted film from his novel, with Alec Guinness in the lead in the UK spy spoof Our Man in Havana (1959) with yet another winning international cast.
When Hollywood called again, the chance at such a British piece of history as Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) with a mostly British cast and Marlon Brando seemed bound for success. It was the second version of the movie produced by MGM (the first being the Clark Gable starrer Mutiny on the Bounty (1935)). However, Brando's history of being temperamental was much in evidence on location in Tahiti. Reed shot a small part of the picture but finally left, having more than his fill of the star's ego (and, evidently, being allowed too much artistic control by the studio) and the film was finished by Lewis Milestone. Reed would ultimately be branded as a failure in directing historical movies, but it was an unfair appraisal based on the random aspect of film success and such forces of nature as Brando, not artistic and technical expertise.
The opportunity to make another film came knocking again with Reed and American money forming the production company International Classics to produce Irving Stone's best-selling story of Michelangelo and the painting of the Sistine Chapel, The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965). Here is perhaps the prime example of Reed being given short shrift for a really valiant effort at an historical, artistically significant and cultural epic because it was a "flop" at the box office. Shot on location in Rome and its environs, the film had a first-rate cast headed by Charlton Heston doing his method best as the temperamental artist with Rex Harrison, an effortless standout as the equally volatile Pope Julius II. Diane Cilento did fine work as the Contessina de Medici, with the always stalwart Harry Andrews as architect rival Donato Bramante. Most of the other roles were filled by Italians dubbed in English, but they all look good.
Reed's attention to historical detail provided perhaps the most accurate depiction of early 16th-century Italy--from costumes and manners to military action and weapons (especially firearms)--ever brought to the screen. The script by Philip Dunne was brisk and always entertaining in the verbal battle between the artist and his pontiff. Yet by the 1960s costume epics were going out of style and bigger flops, such as Cleopatra (1963) (talk about agony) despite the wealth of stars which included Harrison, tended to spread like a disease to those few that came later. Despite a high-powered distribution campaign by Twentieth Century-Fox, Reed's exemplary effort would ultimately be appreciated by art scholars and historians--not the stuff of Hollywood's money mentality.
For Reed the only remaining triumph was, of all things, a musical--his first and only--yet again he was working with children. However, the adaptation of the great Charles Dickens novel "Oliver Twistt" top the screen (as Oliver! (1968)) was a sensation with a lively script and music amid a realistic 19th-century London that was up to Reed's usual standards. The film was nominated for no less than 11 Oscars, wining five and two of the big ones--Best Picture and Best Director. Reed had finally achieved that bit of elusiveness. He could never be so simplistically stamped with an uneven career; Reed had always kept to a precise craftsman's movie-making formula.
Fellow British director Michael Powell had said that Reed "could put a film together like a watchmaker puts together a watch". It was Graham Greene, however, who gave Reed perhaps the more important personal accolade: "The only director I know with that particular warmth of human sympathy, the extraordinary feeling for the right face in the right part, the exactitude of cutting, and not least important the power of sympathizing with an author's worries and an ability to guide him."Night Train to Munich
A Letter from Home
The True Glory
Odd Man Out
The Fallen Idol
The Third Man
The Agony and the Ecstasy
Oliver!- Producer
- Writer
- Director
Zwick moves deftly between the roles of writer, director and producer. He was nominated for a Golden Globe for his direction of the 1989 critically acclaimed Civil War drama, Glory. He received his second Golden Globe nomination as a director for Legends of the Fall. Zwick received an Academy Award as one of the producers of Shakespeare in Love, as well as a second nomination for Traffic. He wrote, directed and produced the feature film The Last Samurai. Zwick continues to work with his partner, Marshall Herskovitz, at their company Bedford Falls where they created Thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, Once and Again and Blood Diamond.Glory
Legends of the Fall
Shakespeare in Love
Traffic
I Am Sam
The Last Samurai
Blood Diamond
Defiance- Director
- Writer
- Producer
William Wellman, the Oscar-winning screenwriter-director of the original A Star Is Born (1937), was called "Wild Bill" during his World War I service as an aviator, a nickname that persisted in Hollywood due to his larger-than-life personality and lifestyle.
A leap-year baby born in 1896 on the 29th of February in Brookline, MA, Wellman was the great-great-great grandson of Francis Lewis, one of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence. Wellman's father was a stockbroker and his mother, the former Cecilia McCarthy, was born in Ireland. Despite an upper-middle-class upbringing, the young Wellman was a hell-raiser. He excelled as an athlete and particularly enjoyed playing ice hockey, but he also enjoyed joyriding in stolen cars at nights.
Cecilia Wellman served as a probation officer for "wayward boys" (juvenile delinquents) for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and was such a success in her field that she was asked to address Congress on the subject of delinquency. One of her charges was her own son, as the young Bill was kicked out of school at the age of 17 for hitting his high school principal on the head with a stink bomb. He tried making a living as a candy salesman and a cotton salesman, but failed. He worked for a lumber yard but was fired after losing control of a truck and driving it through the side of a barn. Eventually he wound up playing professional ice hockey in Massachusetts. While playing at the Colonial Theatre in Boston, an actor named Douglas Fairbanks took note of him. Impressed by Wellman's good looks and the figure he cut on ice, the soon-to-be silent-film superstar suggested to him that he had what it took to become a movie actor. Wellman's dream was to become an aviator, but since his father "didn't have enough money for me to become a flier in the regular way . . .I went into a war to become a flier."
When he was 19 years old, through the intercession of his uncle, Wellman joined the air wing of the French Foreign Legion, where he learned to fly. In France he served as a pilot with the famous Lafayette Flying Corps (better known as the Lafayette Escadrille), where he won his nickname "Wild Bill" due to his devil-may-care style in the air. He and fellow pilot Tom Hitchcock, the great polo player, were in the Black Cat group. Wellman was shot down by anti-aircraft fire and injured during the landing of his plane, which had lost its tail section. Out of 222 Escadrille pilots 87 were killed, but Wellman was fated to serve out the duration of the war. In the spring of 1918 he was recruited by the US Army Air Corps, joining "because I was broke, and they were trying to get us in." Commissioned an officer, he was sent back to the US and stationed at Rockwell Field, in San Diego, CA, to teach combat fighting tactics to the new AAC pilots.
Wellman would fly up to Hollywood and land on Fairbanks' polo fields to spend the weekend. Fairbanks told the returning hero that he would help him break into the movies when the war was over, and he was as good as his word. Fairbanks envisioned Wellman as an actor and cast him as the juvenile in The Knickerbocker Buckaroo (1919) and as a young officer in Evangeline (1919), but acting was something Wellman grew to hate, a hatred he later transferred to actors in his employ. He was fired by fellow macho director Raoul Walsh from "Evangeline" for slapping the lead actress, who Wellman didn't know was Walsh's wife. Disgusted with acting, Wellman told Fairbanks he wanted to be a director, and Fairbanks helped him into the production end of the business. It was a purely financial decision, he later recalled, as directors made more money than supporting actors at the time.
Goldwyn Pictures hired him as a messenger in 1920 and he soon worked his way up the ladder, first as an assistant cutter, then as an assistant property man, property man, assistant director and second-unit director before making his uncredited directorial debut later that year at Fox with Twins of Suffering Creek (1920) starring Dustin Farnum (the silent film B-Western star whom Dustin Hoffman's star-struck mother named the future double-Oscar winner after). Wellman later remembered the film as awful, along with such other B-Westerns as Cupid's Fireman (1923), starring Buck Jones, whose westerns he began directing in 1923 after serving his apprenticeship.
Fox Films gave Wellman his first directing credit in 1923 with the Buck Jones western Second Hand Love (1923) and, other than the Dustin Farnum picture The Man Who Won (1923), he turned out Jones pictures for the rest of his time at Fox. The studio fired him in 1924 after he asked for a raise after completing The Circus Cowboy (1924), another Buck Jones film. Moving to Columbia, he helmed When Husbands Flirt (1925), then went over to MGM for the slapstick comedy The Boob (1926) before landing at Famous Players-Lasky (now known as Paramount Pictures after its distribution unit), where he directed You Never Know Women (1926) and The Cat's Pajamas (1926). It was as a contract director at the now renamed Paramount-Famous Players-Lasky Corp. that he had his breakout hit, due to his flying background. Paramount entrusted its epic WW I flying epic Wings (1927) to Wellman, and the film went on to become the first Academy Award-winning best picture.
Paramount paid Wellman $250 a week to direct "Wings". He also gave himself a role as a German pilot, and flew one of the German planes that landed and rolled over. The massive production employed 3,500 soldiers, 65 pilots and 165 aircraft. It also went over budget and over schedule due to Wellman's perfectionism, and he came close to being fired more than once. The film took a year to complete, but when it was released it turned out to be one of the most financially successful silent pictures ever released and helped put Gary Cooper, whom Wellman personally cast in a small role, on the path to stardom. "Wings" and Wellman's next flying picture, The Legion of the Condemned (1928)--in which Cooper had a starring role--initiated the genre of the World War One aviation movie, which included such famous works as Howard Hughes' Hell's Angels (1930) and Howard Hawks' The Dawn Patrol (1930). Despite his success in bringing in the first Best Picture Oscar winner, Paramount did not keep Wellman under contract.
Wellman's disdain for actors already was in full bloom by the time he wrapped "Wings". Many actors appearing in his pictures intensely disliked his method of bullying them to elicit an performance. Wellman was a "man's man" who hated male actors due to their narcissism, yet he preferred to work with them because he despised the preparation that actresses had to go through with their make-up and hairdressing before each scene. Wellman shot his films fast. The hard-drinking director usually oversaw a riotous set, in line with his own lifestyle. He married five women, including a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl, before settling down with Dorothy Coonan Wellman, a former Busby Berkeley dancer. Wellman believed that Dorothy saved him from becoming a caricature of himself. She appeared as a tomboy in Wild Boys of the Road (1933), a Depression-era social commentary picture made for the progressive Warner Bros. studio (and which is a favorite of Martin Scorsese). It came two years after Wellman's masterpiece, The Public Enemy (1931), one of the great early talkies, one of the great gangster pictures and the film that made James Cagney a superstar. Scorsese says that Wellman's use of music in the film influenced his own first gangster picture, Mean Streets (1973) .
Wellman was as adept at comedy as he was at macho material, helming the original A Star Is Born (1937) (for which he won his only Oscar, for best original story) and the biting satire Nothing Sacred (1937)--both of which starred Fredric March--for producer David O. Selznick. Both movies were dissections of the fame game, as was his satire Roxie Hart (1942), which reportedly was one of Stanley Kubrick's favorite films.
During World War Two Wellman continued to make outstanding films, including The Ox-Bow Incident (1942) and Story of G.I. Joe (1945), and after the war he turned out another war classic, Battleground (1949). In the 1950s Wellman's best later films starred John Wayne, including the influential aviation picture The High and the Mighty (1954), for which he received his third and last best director Oscar nomination. His final film hearkened back to his World War One service, Lafayette Escadrille (1958), which featured the unit in which Wellman had flown. He retired as a director after making the film, reportedly enraged at Warner Bros.' post-production tampering with a film that meant so much to him.
Other than David O. Selznick, not many people in Hollywood particularly liked the hell-raising iconoclast Wellman. Louis B. Mayer's daughter Irene Mayer Selznick, the first wife of David O. Selznick, said that Wellman was "a terror, a shoot-up-the-town fellow, trying to be a great big masculine I-don't-know-what". The Directors Guild of America in 1973 honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
William Wellman died (from leukemia) in 1975.Wings
The Public Enemy
The Star Witness
A Star Is Born (1937 film)
Beau Geste
Lady of Burlesque
The Ox-Bow Incident
Story of G.I. Joe
Battleground
The High and the Mighty- Director
- Writer
- Additional Crew
A successful child actor (on stage from 1907) and rather less successful romantic lead, baby-faced Norman Taurog found being behind the camera a more rewarding experience. Before becoming a director, he paid his dues as a prop man and editor. By 1919, he was put in charge of two-reel comedies, starring the comic Larry Semon. These films were made on the East Coast and it was not until 1926, that Taurog moved to Hollywood. His directing career really took off with the coming of sound, and he soon acquired a reputation as a specialist in light comedy. He also developed a singular penchant for working with children, often giving them chocolate rewards for good acting. They, in turn, called him 'Uncle Norman'. Taurog became the youngest-ever director to win an Oscar. This was for the film Skippy (1931), which featured child actor Jackie Cooper, his real-life nephew.
Taurog was under contract at Paramount from 1930 to 1936. The pick-of-the-bunch among his films - and a solid box office hit - was Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934), starring the noted stage actress Pauline Lord, comedienne Zasu Pitts and the irrepressible, idiosyncratic W.C. Fields. On loan to David O. Selznick, he also did justice to Mark Twain by creating just the right atmosphere for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938), eliciting a strong performance from Jackie Moran in the role of Huck Finn. Initial footage had been in black & white, but Taurog discarded this and re-shot the film in Technicolor, which worked particularly well with art director Lyle R. Wheeler.
After a stint with Fox (1936-37), Taurog then had his best (and longest) spell with MGM (1938-51). His A-grade assignments for the studio included the iconic Boys Town (1938), the exuberant Broadway Melody of 1940 (1940) and the thoroughly entertaining Judy Garland musical Presenting Lily Mars (1943), based on a best-selling novel by Booth Tarkington. In 1952, he returned to Paramount, where he was utilised on the strength of his proven ability to make films economically and on time. Taurog made the most out of the feather-light scripts he was handed for a string of comedies with Dean Martin and/or Jerry Lewis. He was also a favorite of Elvis Presley, directing in total nine of his films.
As the law of diminishing returns applied, Taurog retired in 1968. He later taught at the University of California School of Cinema and remained a board member of the Director's Guild. He became blind towards the end of his life, but for his last years served as director of the Braille Institute in Los Angeles.Skippy
The Big Broadcast of 1936
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Mad About Music
Boys Town
The Toast of New Orleans
Rich, Young and Pretty
The Caddy
Visit to a Small Planet- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on February 11, 1909, Joseph Leo Mankiewicz first worked for the movies as a translator of intertitles, employed by Paramount in Berlin, the UFA's American distributor at the time (1928). He became a dialoguist, then a screenwriter on numerous Paramount productions in Hollywood, most of them Jack Oakie vehicles. Still in his 20s, he produced first-class MGM films, including The Philadelphia Story (1940). Having left Metro after a dispute with studio chief Louis B. Mayer over Judy Garland, he then worked for Darryl F. Zanuck at 20th Century-Fox, producing The Keys of the Kingdom (1944), when Ernst Lubitsch's illness first brought him to the director's chair for Dragonwyck (1946). Mankiewicz directed 20 films in a 26-year period, successfully attempted every kind of movie from Shakespeare adaptation to western, from urban sociological drama to musical, from epic film with thousands of extras to a two-character picture. A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and All About Eve (1950) brought him wide recognition along with two Academy Awards for each as a writer and a director, seven years after his elder brother Herman J. Mankiewicz won Best Screenplay for Citizen Kane (1941). His more intimate films like The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), The Barefoot Contessa (1954)--his only original screenplay--and The Honey Pot (1967) are major artistic achievements as well, showing Mankiewicz as a witty dialoguist, a master in the use of flashback and a talented actors' director (he favored English actors and had in Rex Harrison a kind of alter-ego on the screen).Skippy
Manhattan Melodrama
Fury
The Gorgeous Hussy
Mannequin (1937 film)
Three Comrades
The Philadelphia Story
Woman of the Year
The Keys of the Kingdom
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir
A Letter to Three Wives
No Way Out
All About Eve
5 Fingers
Julius Caesar
The Barefoot Contessa
Guys and Dolls
Suddenly, Last Summer
Cleopatra (1963 film)
Sleuth- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Certainly idiosyncratic as a writer, Cameron Crowe has created a series of scripts that, while liked by the critics, were considered offbeat and difficult to market.
Cameron Bruce Crowe was born in Palm Springs, California, to Alice Marie Crowe (née George), a teacher and activist, and James A. Crowe, a real estate/telephone business owner. Cameron began his writing career as a 15-year-old high-school student, with articles on music submitted to Rolling Stone magazine, and only a few years later had his first script, for Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). This movie was important for more than his career - his future wife Nancy Wilson had a small role in the film. Music remained important to him, with the rock band Pearl Jam playing a bit role in Singles (1992) well before they were "discovered". His next movie, Jerry Maguire (1996), took over five years to develop - a chance photograph of a football player and his agent was the initial inspiration. It took some 20 drafts and near terminal discouragement that he would ever get it right before the film finally made it to the screen. And this time his wife composed the music.Jerry Maguire
Almost Famous
Vanilla Sky- Director
- Producer
- Actor
William Wyler was an American filmmaker who, at the time of his death in 1981, was considered by his peers as second only to John Ford as a master craftsman of cinema. The winner of three Best Director Academy Awards, second again only to Ford's four, Wyler's reputation has unfairly suffered as the lack of an obvious "signature" in his diverse body of work denies him the honorific "auteur" that has become a standard measure of greatness in the post-"Cahiers du Cinéma" critical community.
His directorial career spanned 45 years, from silent pictures to the cultural revolution of the 1970s. Nominated a record 12 times for the Academy Award for Best Director, he won three and in 1966, was honored with the Irving Thalberg Award, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' ultimate accolade for a producer. So high was his reputation in his lifetime that he was the fourth recipient of the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, after Ford, James Cagney and Welles. Along with Ford and Welles, Wyler ranks with the best and most influential American directors, including Griffith, DeMille, Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg.
Born Willi Wyler on July 1, 1902, in Mulhouse, Alsace (then a possession of Germany), to Jewish parents. His Swiss-born father, Leopold, started as a traveling salesman but later became a thriving haberdasher in Mulhouse. His mother, Melanie (née Auerbach; died February 13, 1955, Los Angeles, aged 77), was German-born, and a cousin of Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Pictures. Melanie Wyler often took him and his older brother Robert to concerts, opera, and the theatre, as well as the early cinema. Sometimes at home his family and their friends would stage amateur theatricals for personal enjoyment.
He used his family connections to establish himself in the film industry. Upon being offered a job by his mother's first cousin, Universal Studios head Carl Laemmle, Wyler emigrated to the US in 1920 at the age of 18. After starting in Universal's New York offices as an errand boy, he moved his way up through the organization, ending up in the California operation in 1922. Wyler was given the opportunity to direct in July 1925, with the two-reel western The Crook Buster (1925). It was on this film that he was first credited as William Wyler, though he never officially changed his name and would be known as "Willi" all his life. For almost five years he performed his apprenticeship in Universal's "B" unit, turning out a score of low-budget silent westerns. In 1929 he made his first "A" picture, Hell's Heroes (1929), Universal's first all-sound movie shot outside a studio. The western, the first version of the "Three Godfathers" story, was a commercial and critical success.
The initial years of the Great Depression brought hard times for the film industry, and Universal went into receivership in 1932, partially due to financial troubles brought about by rampant nepotism and the runaway production costs rung up by producer Carl Laemmle Jr., the son of the boss. There were 70 Laemmle family members on the Universal payroll at one point, including Wyler. In 1935 "Uncle" Carl was forced to sell the studio he had created in 1912 with the 1912 merger of his Independent Motion Picture Co. with several other production companies. Wyler continued to direct for Universal up until the end of the family regime, helming Counsellor at Law (1933), the film version of Elmer Rice's play featuring one of John Barrymore's more restrained performances, and The Good Fairy (1935), a comedy adapted from a Ferenc Molnár play by Preston Sturges and starring Margaret Sullavan, who was Wyler's wife for a short time. Both films were produced by his cousin, "Junior" Laemmle. Emancipated from the Laemmle family, Wyler subsequently established himself as a major director in the mid-1930s, when he began directing films for independent producer Samuel Goldwyn. During this key period, he alternated between adaptations of famous plays and filming versions of classic novels. Willi would soon find his freedom fettered by the man with the fabled "Goldwyn touch," which entailed bullying his directors to recast, rewrite and re-cut their films, and sometimes even replacing them during shooting.
The first of the Wyler-Goldwyn collaborations was These Three (1936), based on Lillian Hellman's lesbian-themed play "The Children's Hour" (the Sapphic theme was jettisoned and sanitized into a conventional heterosexual love triangle due to censorship concerns, but it resurfaced intact when Wyler remade the film a quarter-century later). His first unqualified success for Goldwyn was Dodsworth (1936), an adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' portrait of a disintegrating American marriage, a marvelous film that still resonates with audiences in the 21st century. He received his first Best Director Oscar nomination for this picture. The film was nominated for Best Picture, the first of seven straight years in which a Wyler-directed movie would earn that accolade, culminating with Oscars for both William Wyler and Mrs. Miniver (1942) in 1942.
Wyler's potential greatness can be seen as early as "Hell's Heroes," an early talkie that is not constrained by the restrictions of the new technology. The climax of the picture, with Charles Bickford's dying badman walking into town, is a long tracking shot that focuses not on the actor himself but the detritus that he shucks off to lighten his load as he brings a baby back to a cradle of civilization. The scene is a harbinger of the free-flowing style that would become a hallmark of his work. However, it was with "Dodsworth" that Wyler began to establish his critical reputation. The film features long takes and a probing camera, a style that Wyler would make his own. Now established as Goldwyn's director of choice, Wyler made several films for him, including Dead End (1937) and Wuthering Heights (1939). Essentially an employee of the producer, Wyler clashed with Goldwyn over aesthetic choices and longed for his freedom. Goldwyn had demanded that the ghetto set of "Dead End" be spruced up and that "clean garbage" be used in the water tank representing the East River, over Wyler's objections. Goldwyn prevailed, as he did later with the ending of "Wuthering Heights." After he had finished principal photography on the film, Goldwyn demanded a new ending featuring the ghosts of Heathcliff and Cathy reunited and walking away towards what the audience would assume is heaven and an eternity of conjoined bliss. Wyler opposed the new ending and refused to shoot it. Goldwyn had his ending shot without Wyler and had it tacked onto the final cut. It was an artistic betrayal that rankled Wyler.
Goldwyn loaned out Wyler to other studios, and he made Jezebel (1938) and The Letter (1940) for Warner Bros. Working with Bette Davis in the two masterpieces, as well as in Goldwyn's The Little Foxes (1941), Wyler elicited three of the great diva's finest performances. In these films and his films of the mid-to-late 1930s, Wyler pioneered the use of deep-focus cinematography, most famously with lighting cameraman Gregg Toland. Toland shot seven of the eight films Wyler directed for Goldwyn: "These Three", Come and Get It (1936), "Dead End," "Wuthering Heights" (for which Toland won his only Academy Award), The Westerner (1940), "The Little Foxes" and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Compositions in Wyler pictures frequently featured multiple horizontal planes with various characters arranged in diagonals at varying distances from the camera lens. Creating an illusion of depth, these deep-focus shots enhanced the naturalism of the picture while heightening the drama. As the photography of Wyler's films was used to serve the story and create mood rather than call attention to itself, Toland was later mistakenly given credit for creating deep-focus cinematography along with another great director, Orson Welles, in Citizen Kane (1941). His first use of deep-focus cinematography was in 1935, with "The Good Fairy", on which Norbert Brodine was the lighting cameraman. It was the first of his films featuring deep-focus shots and the diagonal compositions that became a Wyler leitmotif. The film also includes a receding mirror shot a half-decade before Toland and Welles created a similar one for "Citizen Kane."
Wyler won his first Oscar as Best Director with "Mrs. Miniver" for MGM, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture, the first of three Wyler films that would be so honored. Made as a propaganda piece for American audiences to prepare them for the sacrifices necessitated by World War II, the movie is set in wartime England and elucidates the hardships suffered by an ordinary, middle-class English family coping with the war. An enthusiastic President Franklin D. Roosevelt, after seeing the film at a White House screening, said, "This has to be shown right away." The film also won Oscars for star Greer Garson and co-star Theresa Wright, for cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg and for Best Screenplay.
After "Miniver," Wyler went off to war as an officer in the U.S. Army Air Forces. One of his more memorable propaganda films of the period was a documentary about a B-17 bomber, The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944), He also directed the Navy documentary The Fighting Lady (1944), an examination of life aboard an American aircraft carrier. Though the later film won an Oscar as Best Documentary, "The Memphis Belle" is considered a classic of its form. The making of the documentary was even the subject of a 1990 feature film of the same name. "The Memphis Belle" focuses on the eponymous B-17 bomber and its 25th, and last, air raid flown from a base in England. The documentary features aerial battle footage that Wyler and his crew shot over the skies of Germany. One of his photographic crew, flying in another plane, was killed during the filming of the air battles. Wyler himself lost the hearing in one ear and became partially deaf in the other due to the noise and concussion of the flak bursting around his aircraft.
Wyler's first picture upon returning from World War II would prove to be the last movie he made for Goldwyn. A returning veteran like those portrayed in "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946), this film won Wyler his second Oscar. The movie, which featured a moving performance by real-life veteran and double amputee Harold Russell, struck a universal chord with Americans and was a major box office hit. It was the second Wyler-directed picture to be named Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The film also won Oscars for star Fredric March and co-star Russell (who was also given an honorary award "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans"), film editor Daniel Mandell, composer Hugo Friedhofer and screenwriter Robert E. Sherwood, and was instrumental in garnering the Irving Thalberg Award for Samuel Goldwyn, who also took home the Best Picture Oscar that year as "Best Years" producer.
Though Wyler elicited some of the finest performances preserved on film, ironically he could not communicate what he wanted to an actor. A perfectionist, he became known as "40-Take Wyler", shooting a scene over and over again until the actors played it the way he wanted. With his use of long takes, actors were forced to act within each take as their performances would not be covered in the cutting room. His long takes and lack of cutting slowed down the pacing of his films, providing a greater feeling of continuity within each scene and intimately involving the audience in the development of the drama. The story in a Wyler film was allowed to unfold organically, with no tricky editing to cover up holes in the script or to compensate for an inadequate performance. Wyler typically rehearsed his actors for two weeks before the beginning of principal photography.
While more actors won Academy Awards in Wyler movies, 14 out of a total of 36 nominations (more than any other two directors combined), few actors worked more than once or twice with him. Bette Davis worked on three films with him and won Academy Award nominations for each performance and an Oscar for "Jezebel." On their last collaboration, "The Little Foxes" (1941), Davis walked off the production for two weeks after clashing with Wyler over how her character should be played.
He proved hard on other experienced actors, such as Laurence Olivier in "Wuthering Heights," who gave credit to Willi for turning him from a stage actor into a movie actor. "This isn't the Opera House in Manchester," Wyler told Olivier, his way of conveying that he should tone down his performance. A year earlier, Wyler had forced Henry Fonda through 40 takes on the set of "Jezebel," Wyler's only direction being "Again" after each repeated take. When Fonda demanded some input on what he was doing wrong, Wyler replied only: "It stinks. Do it again." According to Charlton Heston, Wyler approached him early in the shooting of Ben-Hur (1959) and told him that his performance was inadequate. When a dismayed Heston asked him what he should do, "Be better" is all that Wyler could supply. In his autobiography, Elia Kazan, a famed "actor's director", tells how he offered advice to an actor acquaintance of his who was making a Wyler picture as he knew that the great director was inarticulate about acting and would be unable to give advice.
Wyler believed that after many takes, actors got angry and began to shed their preconceived ideas about acting in general and the part in particular. Stripped of these notions, actors were able to play at a truer level. It is a process that Stanley Kubrick would subsequently use on his post-2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) films, though to different results, creating an otherworldly anti-realism rather than the more naturalistic truth of a Wyler movie performance. His methods often meant that his films went over schedule and over budget, but he got results.
Wyler's reputation has suffered as he is not considered an "auteur," or "author" of his films. However, in his postwar career, he definitely was the auteur, or controlling consciousness, behind his films. Although he never took a screenwriting credit (other than for an early horse opera, Ridin' for Love (1926)), he selected his own stories and controlled the screenwriting, hiring his own writers in a development process that could take years. His postwar period films include The Heiress (1949), a fine version of Henry James' novel "Washington Square," with an Oscar-winning performance by Olivia de Havilland; Detective Story (1951), a police drama that takes place on a minimal, controlled set almost as restricted as that of Hitchcock's Rope (1948); and Roman Holiday (1953), which won Audrey Hepburn an Oscar in her first leading role. The other films of this period are Carrie (1952), The Desperate Hours (1955) and Friendly Persuasion (1956).
Wyler returned to the western genre one last time with The Big Country (1958), a picture far removed in scope from his two-reeler origins, featuring Gregory Peck, Heston, and Wyler's old "Hell's Heroes" star Bickford. Burl Ives won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the patriarch of an outlaw clan in conflict with Bickford's family. Wyler was next enlisted by producer Sam Zimbalist to helm MGM's high-stakes "Ben-Hur" (1959), a remake of its 1925 classic. It was a high-budget ($15 million, approximately $90 million when factored for inflation), wide-screen (the aspect ratio of the film is 2.76 to 1 when properly shown in 70mm anamorphic prints, the highest ratio ever used for a film) epic that the studio had spent six years preparing. Principal photography required more than six months of shooting on location in Italy, with hundreds of crew members and thousands of extras. Wyler was the overlord of the largest crew and oversaw more extras than any other film had ever used. Wyler's "Ben-Hur" grossed $74 million (approximately $600 million at today's ticket prices, ranking it #13 film in terms of all-time box office performance, when adjusted for inflation), the film was the fourth highest-grossing film of all-time when it was released, surpassed only by Gone with the Wind (1939), DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956), and Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). "Ben-Hur" went on to win 11 Oscars out of 12 nominations, including a third Best Director Academy Award for Wyler. The 11 Oscars set a record since tied by Titanic (1997) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).
In the last decade of his career, he remade "These Three" as The Children's Hour (1961), a franker version of Hellman's play than his 1936 version. The Collector (1965) was his last artistic triumph, and he had his last hit with Funny Girl (1968), for which Barbra Streisand repeated Audrey Hepburn's success of 15 years earlier, wining an Oscar in her first lead role. Wyler's last film was The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970), an estimable failure that tackled the theme of racial prejudice, but which came out in the revolutionary time of Easy Rider (1969) and other such films and held little promise for such traditional warhorses as Wyler.
Although he reportedly dreamed of making more pictures, Wyler's failing health kept him from taking on another film. Instead, he and his wife Margaret Tallichet, the mother of his five children, contented themselves with travel. William Wyler died on July 27, 1981, in Beverly Hills, California.The Gay Deception
These Three
Dodsworth
Come and Get It
Dead End
Jezebel
Wuthering Heights
The Westerner
The Letter
The Little Foxes
Mrs. Miniver
The Best Years of Our Lives
The Heiress
Detective Story
Carrie (1952 film)
Roman Holiday
Friendly Persuasion
The Big Country
Ben-Hur
The Children's Hour
The Collector
Funny Girl- Director
- Additional Crew
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
George Cukor was an American film director of Hungarian-Jewish descent, better known for directing comedies and literary adaptations. He once won the Academy Award for Best Director, and was nominated other four times for the same Award.
In 1899, George Dewey Cukor was born on the Lower East Side of New York City. His parents were assistant district attorney Viktor Cukor and Helén Ilona Gross. His middle name "Dewey" honored Admiral George Dewey who was considered a war hero for his victory in the Battle of Manila Bay, in 1898.
As a child, Cukor received dancing lessons, and soon fell in love with the theater, appearing in several amateur plays. In 1906, he performed in a recital with David O. Selznick (1902-1965), who would later become a close friend.
As a teenager, Cukor often visited the New York Hippodrome, a well-known Manhattan theater. He often cut classes while attending high school, in order to attend afternoon matinees. He later took a job as a supernumerary with the Metropolitan Opera, and at times performed there in black-face.
Cukor graduated from the DeWitt Clinton High School in 1917. His father wanted him to follow a legal career, and had his son enrolled City College of New York. Cukor lost interest in his studies and dropped out of college in 1918. He then took a job as an assistant stage manager and bit player for a touring production of the British musical "The Better 'Ole". The musical was an adaptation of the then-popular British comic strip "Old Bill" by Bruce Bairnsfather (1887-1959).
In 1920, Cukor became the stage manager of the Knickerbocker Players, a theatrical troupe. In 1921, Cukor became the general manager of the Lyceum Players, a summer stock company. In 1925, Cukor was one of the co-founders the C.F. and Z. Production Company. With this theatrical company, Cukor started working as a theatrical director. He made his Broadway debut as a director with the play "Antonia" by Melchior Lengyel (1880-1974).
The C.F. and Z. Production Company was eventually renamed the Cukor-Kondolf Stock Company, and started recruiting up-and-coming theatrical talents. Cukor's theatrical troupe included at various times Louis Calhern, Ilka Chase, Bette Davis, Douglass Montgomery, Frank Morgan, Reginald Owen, Elizabeth Patterson, and Phyllis Povah.
Cukor attained great critical acclaim in 1926 for directing "The Great Gatsby", an adaptation of a then-popular novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940). He directed six more Broadway productions until 1929. At the time, Hollywood film studios were recruiting New York theater talent for sound films, and Cukor was hired by Paramount Pictures. He started as an apprentice director before the studio lent him to Universal Pictures. His first notable film work was serving as a dialogue director for "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930).
After returning to Paramount Pictures, he worked as aco-director. His first solo directorial effort was "Tarnished Lady" (1931), and at that time he earned a weekly salary of $1500. Cukor co-directed the film "One Hour with You" (1932) with Ernst Lubitsch, but Lubitsch demanded sole directorial credit. Cukor filed a legal suit but eventually had to settle for a credit as the film's assistant director. He left Paramount in protest, and took a new job with RKO Studios.
During the 1930s, Cukor was entrusted with directing films for RKO's leading actresses. He worked often with Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003), although not always with box-office success. He did direct such box office hits as "Little Women" (1933) and "Holiday" (1938), but also notable flops such as "Sylvia Scarlett" (1935).
In 1936, Cukor was assigned to work on the film adaptation of the blockbuster novel "Gone with the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell. He spent the next two years preoccupied with the film's pre-production, and with supervising screen tests for actresses seeking to play leading character Scarlett O'Hara. Cukor reportedly favored casting either Katharine Hepburn or Paulette Goddard for the role. Producer David O. Selznick refused to cast either one, since Hepburn was coming off a string of flops and was viewed as "box office poison," while Goddard was rumored to have had a scandalous affair with Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) and her reputation suffered for it.
Cukor did not get to direct "Gone with the Wind", as Selznick decided to assign the directing duties to Victor Fleming (1889-1949). Cukor's involvement with the film was limited to coaching actresses Vivien Leigh (1913-1967) and Olivia de Havilland (1916-). Similarly, the very same year, Cukor also failed to receive a directing credit for "The Wizard of Oz" (1939), though he was responsible for several casting and costuming decisions for this iconic classic.
In this same period, Cukor did direct an all-female cast in "The Women" (1939), as well as Greta Garbo's final motion picture performance in "Two-Faced Woman" (1941). Then his film career was interrupted by World War II, as he joined the Signal Corps in 1942. Given his experience as a film director, Cukor was soon assigned to producing training and instructional films for army personnel. He wanted to gain an officer's commission, but was denied promotion above the rank of private. Cukor suspected that rumors of his homosexuality were the reason he never received the promotion.
During the 1940s, Cukor had a number of box-office hits, such "A Woman's Face" (1941) and "Gaslight" (1944). He forged a working alliance with screenwriters Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon, and the trio collaborated on seven films between 1947-1954.
Until the early 1950s, most of his Cukor's films were in black-and-white, and his first film in Technicolor was "A Star Is Born" (1954), with Judy Garland as the leading actress. Casting the male lead for the film proved difficult, as several major stars were either not interested in the role or were considered unsuitable by the studio. Cukor had to settle for James Mason as the male lead, but the film was highly successful and received 6 Academy Award nominations. But Cukor was not nominated for directing.
He had a handful of critical successes over the following years, such as Les Girls (1957) and "Wild Is the Wind" (1957), and also helmed the unfinished "Something's Got to Give" (1962), which had a troubled production and went at least $2 million over budget before it was terminated.
Cukor had a comeback with the critically and commercially successful "My Fair Lady," one of the highlights of his career., for which he won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Director, along with the Directors Guild of America Award. However, his career very quickly slowed down, and the aging Cukor was infrequently involved with new projects.
Cukor's most notable film in the 1970s was the fantasy The Blue Bird (1976) , which was the first joint Soviet-American production. It was a box-office flop, though it received a nomination for the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film and was groundbreaking for its time. Cukor's swan song was "Rich and Famous" (1981), depicting the relationship of two women over a period of several decades., played by co-stars Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen, Cukor's final pair of leading ladies.
He retired as a director at the age of 82, and died a year later of a heart attack in 1983. At the time of his death, his net worth was estimated to be $2,377,720. He was buried at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, CA. Cukor was buried next to his long-time platonic friend Frances Howard (1903-1976), the wife of legendary studio mogul Samuel Goldwyn.The Royal Family of Broadway
One Hour with You
What Price Hollywood?
Little Women (1933 film)
David Copperfield
Romeo and Juliet (1936 film)
Camille
Holiday
The Philadelphia Story
Gaslight
A Double Life
Edward, My Son
Adam's Rib
Born Yesterday
The Model and the Marriage Broker
Pat and Mike
The Actress
It Should Happen to You
A Star Is Born (1954 film)
Les Girls
Wild Is the Wind
Let's Make Love
My Fair Lady
Travels with My Aunt- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Originally planning to become a lawyer, Billy Wilder abandoned that career in favor of working as a reporter for a Viennese newspaper, using this experience to move to Berlin, where he worked for the city's largest tabloid. He broke into films as a screenwriter in 1929 and wrote scripts for many German films until Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933. Wilder immediately realized his Jewish ancestry would cause problems, so he emigrated to Paris, then the US. Although he spoke no English when he arrived in Hollywood, Wilder was a fast learner and thanks to contacts such as Peter Lorre (with whom he shared an apartment), he was able to break into American films. His partnership with Charles Brackett started in 1938 and the team was responsible for writing some of Hollywood's classic comedies, including Ninotchka (1939) and Ball of Fire (1941). The partnership expanded into a producer-director one in 1942, with Brackett producing and the two turned out such classics as Five Graves to Cairo (1943), The Lost Weekend (1945) (Oscars for Best Picture, Director and Screenplay) and Sunset Blvd. (1950) (Oscars for Best Screenplay), after which the partnership dissolved. (Wilder had already made one film, Double Indemnity (1944) without Brackett, as the latter had refused to work on a film he felt dealt with such disreputable characters.) Wilder's subsequent self-produced films would become more caustic and cynical, notably Ace in the Hole (1951), though he also produced such sublime comedies as Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Apartment (1960) (which won him Best Picture and Director Oscars). He retired in 1981.Ninotchka
Rhythm on the River
Arise, My Love
Hold Back the Dawn
Ball of Fire
Five Cairo to Cairo
Double Indemnity
The Lost Weekend
The Emperor Waltz
A Foreign Affair
Sunset Blvd.
Ace in the Hole
Stalag 17
Sabrina (1954 film)
The Spirit of St. Louis
Witness for the Prosecution
Some Like It Hot
The Apartment
One, Two, Three
Irma la Douce
The Fortune Cookie- Director
- Editor
- Producer
John G. Avildsen was born on 21 December 1935 in Oak Park, Illinois, USA. He was a director and editor, known for Rocky (1976), The Karate Kid Part III (1989) and Rocky V (1990). He was married to Tracy Brooks Swope and Marie Olga Maturevich. He died on 16 June 2017 in Los Angeles, California, USA.Joe
Save the Tiger
Rocky
The Formula
Traveling Hopefully
The Karate Kid
The Karate Kid, Part II
Happy New Year- Producer
- Director
- Editor
His parents Henry C. DeMille and Beatrice DeMille were playwrights. His father died when he was 12, and his mother supported the family by opening a school for girls and a theatrical company. Too young to enlist in the Spanish-American War, Cecil followed his brother William C. de Mille to the New York Academy of Dramatic Arts, making his stage debut in 1900. For twelve years he was actor/manager of his mother's theatrical company. In 1913, Jesse L. Lasky, Samuel Goldwyn and DeMille formed the Lasky Film Company (which years later evolved into Paramount Pictures), and the next year went west to California and produced the successful six reeler, The Squaw Man (1914), of historical significance as the first feature length film produced in Hollywood. He championed the switch from short to feature-length films and is often credited with making Hollywood the motion picture capital of the world. Rather than putting his money into known stars, he emphasized production values. He also developed stars, notably Gloria Swanson. He produced and directed 70 films and was involved in many more. Many of his films were romantic sexual comedies (he is supposed to have believed that Americans were curious only about money and sex). His best-known were biblical/religious epics: Joan the Woman (1916), The Ten Commandments (1923), The King of Kings (1927), The Sign of the Cross (1932), The Crusades (1935), Samson and Delilah (1949), and The Ten Commandments (1956). From 1936 to 1945 he hosted and directed the hour-long "Lux Radio Theatre", which brought the actors and stories of many movies to the airwaves and further established him as the symbol of Hollywood. He appeared as himself in the classic Sunset Blvd. (1950) with his former star Gloria Swanson as the fictitious disturbed former silent film actress Norma Desmond. His niece Agnes de Mille was the acclaimed choreographer of both the original Broadway production and film version of Oklahoma! (1955).Dynamite
The Sign of the Cross
Cleopatra (1934 film)
The Crusades
The Buccaneer (1938 film)
Union Pacific
North West Mounted Police
Reap the Wild Wind
The Story of Dr. Wassell
Unconquered
Samson and Delilah
The Greatest Show on Earth
The Ten Commandments- Director
- Cinematographer
- Producer
Victor Fleming entered the film business as a stuntman in 1910, mainly doing stunt driving - which came easy to him, as he had been a mechanic and professional race-car driver. He became interested in working on the other side of the camera, and eventually got a job as a cameraman on many of the films of Douglas Fairbanks. He soon began directing, and his first big hit was The Virginian (1929). It was the movie that turned Gary Cooper into a star (a fact Cooper never forgot; he and Fleming remained friends for life). Fleming's star continued to rise during the '30s, and he was responsible for many of the films that would eventually be considered classics, such as Red Dust (1932), Bombshell (1933), Treasure Island (1934), and the two films that were the high marks of his career: Gone with the Wind (1939) and The Wizard of Oz (1939). Ironically Fleming was brought in on both pictures to replace other directors and smooth out the troubled productions, a feat he accomplished masterfully. His career took somewhat of a downturn in the '40s, and most of his films, with the exception of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941), weren't particularly successful. He ended his career with the troubled production Joan of Arc (1948), which turned out to be a major critical and financial failure.The Awakening
Captains Courageous
Test Pilot
The Wizard of Oz
Gone with the Wind
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1941 film)
Tortilla Flat
A Guy Named Joe
Joan of Arc- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Richard firmly established his credentials with such epics as The Vikings (1958) , 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) and Barabbas (1961) and also proved to be a master of intimate drama with Compulsion (1959) , which won Cannes Festival awards for the male stars. He won an Academy Award for one of his earliest films - a documentary Design for Death (1947) . In 1947 the rapidly rising director met Stanley Kramer and Carl Foreman who hired him for their first film together So This Is New York (1948) , One of his most memorable accomplishments 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) which grossed well over $25 million since it's release in 1953.Design for Death
The Narrow Margin
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Between Heaven and Hell
Fantastic Voyage
Doctor Dolittle
Tora! Tora! Tora!
The Incredible Sarah- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Frank Lloyd was an unpretentious, technically skilled director, who crafted several enduring Hollywood classics during the 1930's. He started out as a stage actor and singer in early 1900's London and was well-known as an imitator of Harry Lauder. After several years in music hall and with touring repertory companies, Lloyd emigrated to Canada in 1909 and joined the travelling theatrical troupe of Winnipeg entrepreneur C.P. Walker. In between acting, he made ends meet by working as a repair man on telegraph lines. While in Edmonton, Alberta, he met and married the German-American soubrette Alma Haller. Lloyd spent several months on the vaudeville circuit and in burlesque shows on the West Coast before marking his arrival in Hollywood with an acting contract at Universal in 1913. After two years of consistently poor critical notices, he gave up the acting profession for good and turned his skills to writing and directing.
In two years at Fox, 1917-19, he directed some fifteen films, often starring the popular matinée idol William Farnum. The majority were Zane Grey westerns (including an early version of Riders of the Purple Sage (1918)) and adaptations of classic literature (such as A Tale of Two Cities (1917) and Les Misérables (1917)). After a spell with Samuel Goldwyn, Lloyd joined First National/Warner Brothers (1922-31) and became the resident specialist in period drama and swashbuckling adventure. As his reputation grew, he was given charge of his own production unit. Among his most famous films during this period are Oliver Twist (1922), with Jackie Coogan in the title role and Lon Chaney as Fagin; The Eternal Flame (1922), a historical drama based on a novel by Honoré de Balzac; and The Sea Hawk (1924), with Milton Sills. In 1929, Lloyd became the second director to receive a coveted Academy Award, for The Divine Lady (1928), one of three films for which he had been nominated.
Much of Lloyd's acclaim is based on his work during the 1930's. At Fox (1931-34), he directed Noël Coward's Cavalcade (1933), and the historical fantasy Berkeley Square (1933) -- both with meticulous attention to geographic and period detail. Immensely popular at the box office, the former won Lloyd his second Oscar and returned $ 5 million in grosses from a production cost of $1.25 million. 'Berkeley Square' was described by the New York Times as "an example of delicacy and restraint" and "in a class by itself" (September 14, 1933). Lloyd's brief stint at MGM in 1935 culminated in the greatest success of his career. Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) won the Best Picture Oscar in its year and heaped praise on the director for maintaining strong narrative cohesion throughout, and for eliciting superb performances from stars Clark Gable (as Fletcher Christian) and Charles Laughton (as Captain Bligh). Lloyd continued in the same vein with the rollicking Foreign Legion adventure Under Two Flags (1936) and the sweeping (though historically inaccurate), big budget western epic Wells Fargo (1937). Also at Paramount, and, once again with his own production unit , he filmed the romantic story of adventurer-poet François Villon, If I Were King (1938), with excellent production values and superb acting from Ronald Colman and Basil Rathbone.
After completing a two-year contract at Columbia (1940-41), Lloyd served in World War II in command of the 13th Air Force Combat Camera Unit, turning out short documentaries. He rose to the rank of major and was decorated with the Legion of Merit. After the war, he temporarily retired to life on his Carmel Valley ranch, but made a brief comeback after the death of his wife Alma. His swan song for Republic Studio was the story of the Battle of the Alamo, The Last Command (1955), a suitably-titled finale to the career of one of the great action directors of the period. Lloyd has a star on the Walk of Fame on Hollywood Boulevard.The Divine Lady
East Lynne
Cavalcade
Berkeley Square
Mutiny on the Bounty (1935 film)
Wells Fargo
If I Were King
The Howards of Virginia
This Woman Is Mine
The Spoilers
Invisible Agent
Blood on the Sun
The Last Bomb- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Richard Brooks was an Academy Award-winning film writer who also earned six Oscar nominations and achieved success as a film director and producer.
He was born Reuben Sax on May 18, 1912, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His parents were Russian-Jewish immigrants. He graduated from West Philadelphia HS, attended Philadelphia's Temple University for two years, before dropping out and later working as a sports reporter and radio journalist in the 1930s. After a stint as a writer for the NBC network, he worked for one season as director of New York's Mill Pond Theatre, and then headed to Los Angeles. There he broke into films as a script writer of "B" movies, Maria Montez epics, serials, and did some radio writing. During the Second World War, he served with the US Marines for two years.
Richard Brooks made his directorial debut with MGM's Crisis (1950) starring Cary Grant. He scripted and directed The Brothers Karamazov (1958) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958) and two years later won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay for Elmer Gantry (1960). He had six Oscar nominations and 25 other nominations during his film career. Brooks was a writer and director of Chekhovian depth, who mastered the use of understatement, anticlimax and implied emotion. His films enjoyed lasting appeal and tended to be more serious than the usual mainstream productions. Brooks was regarded as "independent" even before he officially broke away from the studio system in 1965. In the 1980s, he had his own production company.
Richard Brooks died of a heart failure on March 11, 1992, in Beverly Hills, California, and was laid to rest in the Hillside Memorial Park Cemetery in Culver City, California. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6422 Hollywood Blvd., for his contribution to the art of motion picture.With the Marines at Tarawa
Key Largo
Mystery Street
Take the High Ground
Blackboard Jungle
The Brothers Karamazov
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
Elmer Gantry
Sweet Bird of Youth
The Professionals
In Cold Blood
The Happy Ending
Bite the Bullet
Looking for Mr. Goodbar- Director
- Producer
- Actor
John Ford came to Hollywood following one of his brothers, an actor. Asked what brought him to Hollywood, he replied "the train". He became one of the most respected directors in the business, in spite of being known for his westerns, which were not considered "serious" film. He won six Oscars, counting (he always did) the two that he won for his WWII documentary work. He had one wife; a son and daughter; and a grandson, Dan Ford who wrote a biography on his famous grandfather.Arrowsmith
The Lost Patrol
The Informer
Wee Willie Winkle
The Hurricane
Stagecoach
Young Mr. Lincoln
Drums Along the Mohawk
The Grapes of Wrath
The Long Voyage Home
How Green Was My Valley
The Battle of Midway
December 7th
They Were Expendable
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
When Willie Comes Marching Home
The Quiet Man
Mogambo
Mister Roberts
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
How the West Was Won
Cheyenne Autumn- Director
- Writer
- Producer
One of seven children, Frank Capra was born on May 18, 1897, in Bisacquino, Sicily. On May 10, 1903, his family left for America aboard the ship Germania, arriving in New York on May 23rd. "There's no ventilation, and it stinks like hell. They're all miserable. It's the most degrading place you could ever be," Capra said about his Atlantic passage. "Oh, it was awful, awful. It seems to always be storming, raining like hell and very windy, with these big long rolling Atlantic waves. Everybody was sick, vomiting. God, they were sick. And the poor kids were always crying."
The family boarded a train for the trip to California, where Frank's older brother Benjamin was living. On their journey, they subsisted on bread and bananas, as their lack of English made it impossible for them to ask for any other kind of foodstuffs. On June 3, the Capra family arrived at the Southern Pacific station in Los Angeles, at the time, a small city of approximately 102,000 people. The family stayed with Capra's older brother Benjamin, and on September 14, 1903, Frank began his schooling at the Castelar Elementary school.
In 1909, he entered Los Angeles' Manual Arts High School. Capra made money selling newspapers in downtown L.A. after school and on Saturdays, sometimes working with his brother Tony. When sales were slow, Tony punched Frank to attract attention, which would attract a crowd and make Frank's papers sell quicker. Frank later became part of a two-man music combo, playing at various places in the red light district of L.A., including brothels, getting paid a dollar per night, performing the popular songs. He also worked as a janitor at the high school in the early mornings. It was at high school that he became interested in the theater, typically doing back-stage work such as lighting.
Capra's family pressured him to drop out of school and go to work, but he refused, as he wanted to partake fully of the American Dream, and for that he needed an education. Capra later reminisced that his family "thought I was a bum. My mother would slap me around; she wanted me to quit school. My teachers would urge me to keep going....I was going to school because I had a fight on my hands that I wanted to win."
Capra graduated from high school on January 27, 1915, and in September of that year, he entered the Throop College of Technology (later the California Institute of Technology) to study chemical engineering. The school's annual tuition was $250, and Capra received occasional financial support from his family, who were resigned to the fact they had a scholar in their midst. Throop had a fine arts department, and Capra discovered poetry and the essays of Montaigne, which he fell in love with, while matriculating at the technical school. He then decided to write.
"It was a great discovery for me. I discovered language. I discovered poetry. I discovered poetry at Caltech, can you imagine that? That was a big turning point in my life. I didn't know anything could be so beautiful." Capra penned "The Butler's Failure," about an English butler provoked by poverty to murder his employer, then to suicide."
Capra was singled out for a cash award of $250 for having the highest grades in the school. Part of his prize was a six-week trip across the U.S. and Canada. When Capra's father, Turiddu, died in 1916, Capra started working at the campus laundry to make money.
After the U.S. Congress declared War on Germany on April 6, 1917, Capra enlisted in the Army, and while he was not a naturalized citizen yet, he was allowed to join the military as part of the Coastal Artillery. Capra became a supply officer for the student soldiers at Throop, who have been enrolled in a Reserve Officers Training Corps program. At his enlistment, Capra discovered he was not an American citizen; he became naturalized in 1920.
On September 15, 1918, Capra graduated from Throop with his bachelor's degree, and was inducted into the U.S. Army on October 18th and shipped out to the Presidio at San Francisco. An armistice ending the fighting of World War One would be declared in less than a month. While at the Presidio, Capra became ill with the Spanish influenza that claimed 20 million lives worldwide. He was discharged from the Army on December 13th and moved to his brother Ben's home in L.A. While recuperating, Capra answered a cattle call for extras for John Ford's film "The The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1919) (Capra, cast as a laborer in the Ford picture, introduced himself to the film's star, Harry Carey. Two decades later, Capra, designated the #1 director in Hollywood by "Time" magazine, would cast Carey and his movie actress wife Olive in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) for which Carey won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination).
While living at his mother's house, Capra took on a wide variety of manual laboring jobs, including errand boy and ditch digger, even working as an orange tree pruner at 20 cents a day. He continued to be employed as an extra at movie studios and as a prop buyer at an independent studio at Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street, which later became the home of Columbia Pictures, where Capra would make his reputation as the most successful movie director of the 1930s. Most of his time was spent unemployed and idle, which gave credence to his family's earlier opposition to him seeking higher education. Capra wrote short stories but was unable to get them published. He eventually got work as a live-in tutor for the son of "Lucky" Baldwin, a rich gambler. (He later used the Baldwin estate as a location for Dirigible (1931)).
Smitten by the movie bug, in August of that year, Capra, former actor W. M. Plank, and financial backer Ida May Heitmann incorporated the Tri-State Motion Picture Co. in Nevada. Tri-State produced three short films in Nevada in 1920, Don't Change Your Husband (1919), The Pulse of Life (1917), and The Scar of Love (1920), all directed by Plank, and possibly based on story treatments written by Capra. The films were failures, and Capra returned to Los Angeles when Tri-State broke up. In March 1920, Capra was employed by CBC Film Sales Co., the corporate precursor of Columbia Films, where he also worked as an editor and director on a series called "Screen Snapshots." He quit CBC in August and moved to San Francisco, but the only jobs he could find were that of bookseller and door-to-door salesman. Once again seeming to fulfill his family's prophecy, he turned to gambling, and also learned to ride the rails with a hobo named Frank Dwyer. There was also a rumor that he became a traveling salesman specializing in worthless securities, according to a "Time" magazine story "Columbia's Gem" (August 8, 1938 issue, V.32, No. 6).
Still based in San Francisco in 1921, producer Walter Montague hired Capra for $75 per week to help direct the short movie The Ballad of Fisher's Boarding House (1922), which was based on a poem by Rudyard Kipling. Montague, a former actor, had the dubious idea that foggy San Francisco was destined to become the capital of movies, and that he could make a fortune making movies based on poems. Capra helped Montague produced the one-reeler, which was budgeted at $1,700 and subsequently sold to the Pathe Exchange for $3,500. Capra quit Montague when he demanded that the next movie be based upon one of his own poems.
Unable to find another professional filmmaking job, Capra hired himself out as a maker of shorts for the public-at-large while working as an assistant at Walter Ball's film lab. Finally, in October 1921, the Paul Gerson Picture Corp. hired him to help make its two-reel comedies, around the time that he began dating the actress Helen Edith Howe, who would become his first wife. Capra continued to work for both Ball and Gerson, primarily as a cutter. On November 25, 1923, Capra married Helen Howell, and the couple soon moved to Hollywood.
Hal Roach hired Capra as a gag-writer for the "Our Gang" series in January, 1924. After writing the gags for five "Our Gang" comedies in seven weeks, he asked Roach to make him a director. When Roach refused (he somewhat rightly felt he had found the right man in director Bob McGowan), Capra quit. Roach's arch rival Mack Sennett subsequently hired him as a writer, one of a six-man team that wrote for silent movie comedian Harry Langdon, the last major star of the rapidly disintegrating Mack Sennett Studios, and reigning briefly as fourth major silent comedian after Charles Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. Capra began working with the Harry Langdon production unit as a gag writer, first credited on the short Plain Clothes (1925).
As Harry Langdon became more popular, his production unit at Sennett had moved from two- to three-reelers before Langdon, determined to follow the example of Chaplin, Keaton, and Lloyd, went into features. After making his first feature-length comedy, His First Flame (1927) for Sennett, Langdon signed a three-year contract with Sol Lesser's First National Pictures to annually produce two feature-length comedies at a fixed fee per film. For a multitude of reasons Mack Sennett was never able to retain top talent. On September 15, 1925, Harry Langdon left Sennett in an egotistical rage, taking many of his key production personnel with him. Sennett promoted Capra to director but fired him after three days in his new position. In addition to the Langdon comedies, Capra had also written material for other Sennett films, eventually working on twenty-five movies.
After being sacked by Sennett, Capra was hired as a gag-writer by Harry Langdon, working on Langdon's first First National feature-length film, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926). The movie was directed by Harry Edwards who had directed all of Harry Langdon's films at Sennett. His first comedy for First National, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926) did well at the box office, but it had ran over budget, which came out of Langdon's end. Harry Edwards was sacked, and for his next picture, The Strong Man (1926), Langdon promoted Capra to director, boosting his salary to $750 per week. The movie was a hit, but trouble was brewing among members of the Harry Langdon company. Langdon was increasingly believing his own press.
His marriage with Helen began to unravel when it is discovered that she had a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy that had to be terminated. In order to cope with the tragedy, Capra became a work-a-holic while Helen turned to drink. The deterioration of his marriage was mirrored by the disintegration of his professional relationship with Harry Langdonduring the making of the new feature, Long Pants (1927).
The movie, which was released in March 1927, proved to be Capra's last with Harry Langdon, as the comedian soon sacked Capra after its release. Capra later explained the principle of Langdon comedies to James Agee, "It is the principal of the brick: If there was a rule for writing Langdon material, it was this: his only ally was God. Harry Langdon might be saved by a brick falling on a cop, but it was verboten that he in any way motivated the bricks fall."
During the production of Long Pants (1926), Capra had a falling out with Langdon. Screenwriter Arthur Ripley's dark sensibility did not mesh well with that of the more optimistic Capra, and Harry Langdon usually sided with Ripley. The picture fell behind schedule and went over budget, and since Langdon was paid a fixed fee for each film, this represented a financial loss to his own Harry Langdon Corp. Stung by the financial set-back, and desiring to further emulate the great Chaplin, Harry Langdon made a fateful decision: He fired Capra and decided to direct himself. (Langdon's next three movies for First National were dismal failures, the two surviving films being very dark and grim black comedies, one of which, The Chaser (1928), touched on the subject of suicide. It was the late years of the Jazz Age, a time of unprecedented prosperity and boundless bonhomie, and the critics, and more critically, the ticket-buying public, rejected Harry. In 1928, First National did not pick up his contract. The Harry Langdon Corp. soon went bankrupt, and his career as the "fourth major silent comedian" was through, just as sound was coming in.)
In April of 1927, Capra and his wife Helen split up, and Capra went off to New York to direct For the Love of Mike (1927) for First National, his first picture with Claudette Colbert. The director and his star did not get along, and the film went over budget. Subsequently, First National refused to pay Capra, and he had to hitchhike back to Hollywood. The film proved to be Capra's only genuine flop.
By September 1927, he was back working as a writer for Mack Sennett, but in October, he was hired as a director by Columbia Pictures President and Production Chief Harry Cohn for $1,000. The event was momentous for both of them, for at Columbia Capra would soon become the #1 director in Hollywood in the 1930s, and the success of Capra's films would propel the Poverty Row studio into the major leagues. But at first, Cohn was displeased with him. When viewing the first three days of rushes of his first Columbia film, That Certain Thing (1928), Cohn wanted to fire him as everything on the first day had been shot in long shot, on the second day in medium shot, and on the third day in close-ups.
"I did it that way for time," Capra later recalled. "It was so easy to be better than the other directors, because they were all dopes. They would shoot a long shot, then they would have to change the setup to shoot a medium shot, then they would take their close-ups. Then they would come back and start over again. You lose time, you see, moving the cameras and the big goddamn lights. I said, 'I'll get all the long shots on that first set first, then all the medium shots, and then the close-ups.' I wouldn't shoot the whole scene each way unless it was necessary. If I knew that part of it was going to play in long shot, I wouldn't shoot that part in close-up. But the trick was not to move nine times, just to move three times. This saved a day, maybe two days."
Cohn decided to stick with Capra (he was ultimately delighted at the picture and gave Capra a $1,500 bonus and upped his per-picture salary), and in 1928, Cohn raised his salary again, now to to $3,000 per picture after he made several successful pictures, including Submarine (1928). The Younger Generation (1929), the first of a series of films with higher budgets to be directed by Capra, would prove to be his first sound film, when scenes were reshot for dialogue. In the summer of that year, he was introduced to a young widow, Lucille Warner Reyburn (who became Capra's second wife Lou Capra). He also met a transplanted stage actress, Barbara Stanwyck, who had been recruited for the talkie but had been in three successive unsuccessful films and wanted to return to the New York stage. Harry Cohn wanted Stanwyck to appear in Capra's planned film, Ladies of Leisure (1930), but the interview with Capra did not go well, and Capra refused to use her.
Stanwyck went home crying after being dismissed by Capra, and her husband, a furious Frank Fay, called Capra up. In his defense, Capra said that Stanwyck didn't seem to want the part. According to Capra's 1961 autobiography, "The Name Above the Title," Fay said, "Frank, she's young, and shy, and she's been kicked around out here. Let me show you a test she made at Warner's." After viewing her Warners' test for The Noose (1928), Capra became enthusiastic and urged Cohn to sign her. In January of 1930, Capra began shooting Ladies of Leisure (1930) with Stanwyck in the lead. The movies the two made together in the early '30s established them both on their separate journeys towards becoming movieland legends. Though Capra would admit to falling in love with his leading lady, it was Lucille Warner Reyburn who became the second Mrs. Capra.
"You're wondering why I was at that party. That's my racket. I'm a party girl. Do you know what that is?"
Stanwyck played a working-class "party girl" hired as a model by the painter Jerry, who hails from a wealthy family. Capra had written the first draft of the movie before screenwriter Jo Swerling took over. Swerling thought the treatment was dreadful. According to Capra, Swerling told Harry Cohn, when he initially had approached about adapting the play "Ladies of the Evening" into Capra's next proposed film, "I don't like Hollywood, I don't like you, and I certainly don't like this putrid piece of gorgonzola somebody gave me to read. It stunk when Belasco produced it as Ladies of Leisure (1930), and it will stink as Ladies of Leisure, even if your little tin Jesus does direct it. The script is inane, vacuous, pompous, unreal, unbelievable and incredibly dull."
Capra, who favored extensive rehearsals before shooting a scene, developed his mature directorial style while collaborating with Stanwyck, a trained stage actress whose performance steadily deteriorated after rehearsals or retakes. Stanwyck's first take in a scene usually was her best. Capra started blocking out scenes in advance, and carefully preparing his other actors so that they could react to Stanwyck in the first shot, whose acting often was unpredictable, so they wouldn't foul up the continuity. In response to this semi-improvisatory style, Capra's crew had to boost its level of craftsmanship to beyond normal Hollywood standards, which were forged in more static and prosaic work conditions. Thus, the professionalism of Capra's crews became better than those of other directors. Capra's philosophy for his crew was, "You guys are working for the actors, they're not working for you."
After "Ladies of Leisure," Capra was assigned to direct Platinum Blonde (1931) starring Jean Harlow. The script had been the product of a series of writers, including Jo Swerling (who was given credit for adaptation), but was polished by Capra and Robert Riskin (who was given screen credit for the dialogue). Along with Jo Swerling, Riskin would rank as one of Capra's most important collaborators, ultimately having a hand in 13 movies. (Riskin wrote nine screenplays for Capra, and Capra based four other films on Riskin's work.)
Riskin created a hard-boiled newspaperman, Stew Smith for the film, a character his widow, the actress Fay Wray, said came closest to Riskin of any character he wrote. A comic character, the wise-cracking reporter who wants to lampoon high society but finds himself hostage to the pretensions of the rich he had previously mocked is the debut of the prototypical "Capra" hero. The dilemma faced by Stew, akin to the immigrant's desire to assimilate but being rejected by established society, was repeated in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and in Meet John Doe (1941).
Capra, Stanwyck, Riskin and Jo Swerling all were together to create Capra's next picture, The Miracle Woman (1931), a story about a shady evangelist. With John Meehan, Riskin wrote the play that the movie is based on, "Bless You, Sister," and there is a possibly apocryphal story that has Riskin at a story conference at which Capra relates the treatment for the proposed film. Capra, finished, asked Riskin for his input, and Riskin replied, "I wrote that play. My brother and I were stupid enough to produce it on Broadway. It cost us almost every cent we had. If you intend to make a picture of it, it only proves one thing: You're even more stupid than we were."
Jo Swerling adapted Riskin's play, which he and his brother Everett patterned after Sinclair Lewis' "Elmer Gantry." Like the Lewis novel, the play focuses on the relationship between a lady evangelist and a con man. The difference, though, is that the nature of the relationship is just implied in Riskin's play (and the Capra film). There is also the addition of the blind war-vet as the moral conscience of the story; he is the pivotal character, whereas in Lewis' tale, the con artist comes to have complete control over the evangelist after eventually seducing her. Like some other Capra films, The Miracle Woman (1931) is about the love between a romantic, idealizing man and a cynical, bitter woman. Riskin had based his character on lady evangelist Uldine Utley, while Stanwyck based her characterization on Aimee Semple McPherson.
Recognizing that he had something in his star director, Harry Cohn took full advantage of the lowly position his studio had in Hollywood. Both Warner Brothers and mighty MGM habitually lent Cohn their troublesome stars -- anyone rejecting scripts or demanding a pay raise was fodder for a loan out to Cohn's Poverty Row studio. Cohn himself was habitually loathe to sign long-term stars in the early 1930s (although he made rare exceptions to Peter Lorre and The Three Stooges) and was delighted to land the talents of any top flight star and invariably assigned them to Capra's pictures. Most began their tenure in purgatory with trepidation but left eagerly wanting to work with Capra again.
In 1932, Capra decided to make a motion picture that reflected the social conditions of the day. He and Riskin wrote the screenplay for American Madness (1932), a melodrama that is an important precursor to later Capra films, not only with It's a Wonderful Life (1946) which shares the plot device of a bank run, but also in the depiction of the irrationality of a crowd mentality and the ability of the individual to make a difference. In the movie, an idealistic banker is excoriated by his conservative board of directors for making loans to small businesses on the basis of character rather than on sounder financial criteria. Since the Great Depression is on, and many people lack collateral, it would be impossible to productively lend money on any other criteria than character, the banker argues. When there is a run on the bank due to a scandal, it appears that the board of directors are rights the bank depositors make a run on the bank to take out their money before the bank fails. The fear of a bank failure ensures that the failure will become a reality as a crowd mentality takes over among the clientèle. The board of directors refuse to pledge their capital to stave off the collapse of the bank, but the banker makes a plea to the crowd, and just like George Bailey's depositors in It's a Wonderful Life (1946), the bank is saved as the fears of the crowd are ameliorated and businessmen grateful to the banker pledge their capital to save the bank. The board of directors, impressed by the banker's character and his belief in the character of his individual clients (as opposed to the irrationality of the crowd), pledge their capital and the bank run is staved off and the bank is saved.
In his biography, "The Name Above the Picture," Capra wrote that before American Madness (1932), he had only made "escapist" pictures with no basis in reality. He recounts how Poverty Row studios, lacking stars and production values, had to resort to "gimmick" movies to pull the crowds in, making films on au courant controversial subjects that were equivalent to "yellow journalism."
What was more important than the subject and its handling was the maturation of Capra's directorial style with the film. Capra had become convinced that the mass-experience of watching a motion picture with an audience had the psychological effect in individual audience members of slowing down the pace of a film. A film that during shooting and then when viewed on a movieola editing device and on a small screen in a screening room among a few professionals that had seemed normally paced became sluggish when projected on the big screen. While this could have been the result of the projection process blowing up the actors to such large proportions, Capra ultimately believed it was the effect of mass psychology affecting crowds since he also noticed this "slowing down" phenomenon at ball games and at political conventions. Since American Madness (1932) dealt with crowds, he feared that the effect would be magnified.
He decided to boost the pace of the film, during the shooting. He did away with characters' entrances and exits that were a common part of cinematic "grammar" in the early 1930s, a survival of the "photoplays" days. Instead, he "jumped" characters in and out of scenes, and jettisoned the dissolves that were also part of cinematic grammar that typically ended scenes and indicated changes in time or locale so as not to make cutting between scenes seem choppy to the audience. Dialogue was deliberately overlapped, a radical innovation in the early talkies, when actors were instructed to let the other actor finish his or her lines completely before taking up their cue and beginning their own lines, in order to facilitate the editing of the sound-track. What he felt was his greatest innovation was to boost the pacing of the acting in the film by a third by making a scene that would normally play in one minute take only 40 seconds.
When all these innovations were combined in his final cut, it made the movie seem normally paced on the big screen, though while shooting individual scenes, the pacing had seemed exaggerated. It also gave the film a sense of urgency that befitted the subject of a financial panic and a run on a bank. More importantly, it "kept audience attention riveted to the screen," as he said in his autobiography. Except for "mood pieces," Capra subsequently used these techniques in all his films, and he was amused by critics who commented on the "naturalness" of his direction.
Capra was close to completely establishing his themes and style. Justly accused of indulging in sentiment which some critics labeled "Capra-corn," Capra's next film, Lady for a Day (1933) was an adaptation of Damon Runyon's 1929 short story "Madame La Gimp" about a nearly destitute apple peddler whom the superstitious gambler Dave the Dude (portrayed by Warner Brothers star Warren William) sets up in high style so she and her daughter, who is visiting with her finance, will not be embarrassed. Dave the Dude believes his luck at gambling comes from his ritualistically buying an apple a day from Annie, who is distraught and considering suicide to avoid the shame of her daughter seeing her reduced to living on the street. The Dude and his criminal confederates put Annie up in a luxury apartment with a faux husband in order to establish Annie in the eyes of her daughter as a dignified and respectable woman, but in typical Runyon fashion, Annie becomes more than a fake as the masquerade continues.
Robert Riskin wrote the first four drafts of Lady for a Day (1933), and of all the scripts he worked on for Capra, the film deviates less from the script than any other. After seeing the movie, Runyon sent a telegraph to Riskin praising him for his success at elaborating on the story and fleshing out the characters while maintain his basic story. Lady for a Day (1933) was the favorite Capra film of John Ford, the great filmmaker who once directed the unknown extra. The movie cost $300,000 and was the first of Capra's oeuvre to attract the attention of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, getting a Best Director nomination for Capra, plus nods for Riskin and Best Actress. The movie received Columbia's first Best Picture nomination, the studio never having attracted any attention from the Academy before Lady for a Day (1933). (Capra's last film was the flop remake of Lady for a Day (1933) with Bette Davis and Glenn Ford, Pocketful of Miracles (1961))
Capra reunited with Stanwyck and produced his first universally acknowledged classic, The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932), a film that now seems to belong more to the oeuvre of Josef von Sternberg than it does to Frank Capra. With "General Yen," Capra had consciously set out to make a movie that would win Academy Awards. Frustrated that the innovative, timely, and critically well-received American Madness (1932) had not received any recognition at the Oscars (particularly in the director's category in recognition of his innovations in pacing), he vented his displeasure to Columbia boss Cohn.
"Forget it," Cohn told Capra, as recounted in his autobiography. "You ain't got a Chinaman's chance. They only vote for that arty junk."
Capra set out to boost his chances by making an arty film featuring a "Chinaman" that confronted that major taboo of American cinema of the first half of the century, miscegenation.
In the movie, the American missionary Megan Davis is in China to marry another missionary. Abducted by the Chinese Warlord General Yen, she is torn away from the American compound that kept her isolated from the Chinese and finds herself in a strange, dangerous culture. The two fall in love despite their different races and life-views. The film ran up against the taboo against miscegenation embedded in the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association's Production Code, and while Megan merely kisses General Yen's hand in the picture, the fact that she was undeniably in love with a man from a different race attracted the vituperation of many bigots.
Having fallen for Megan, General Yen engenders her escape back to the Americans before willingly drinking a poisoned cup of tea, his involvement with her having cost him his army, his wealth, and now his desire to live. The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932) marks the introduction of suicide as a Capra theme that will come back repeatedly, most especially in George Bailey's breakdown on the snowy bridge in It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
Despair often shows itself in Capra films, and although in his post-"General Yen" work, the final reel wraps things up in a happy way, until that final reel, there is tragedy, cynicism, heartless exploitation, and other grim subject matter that Capra's audiences must have known were the truth of the world, but that were too grim to face when walking out of a movie theater. When pre-Code movies were rediscovered and showcased across the United States in the 1990s, they were often accompanied by thesis about how contemporary audiences "read" the films (and post-1934 more Puritanical works), as the movies were not so frank or racy as supposed. There was a great deal of signaling going on which the audience could read into, and the same must have been true for Capra's films, giving lie to the fact that he was a sentimentalist with a saccharine view of America. There are few films as bitter as those of Frank Capra before the final reel.
Despair was what befell Frank Capra, personally, on the night of March 16, 1934, which he attended as one of the Best Director nominees for Lady for a Day (1933). Capra had caught Oscar fever, and in his own words, "In the interim between the nominations and the final voting...my mind was on those Oscars." When Oscar host Will Rogers opened the envelope for Best Director, he commented, "Well, well, well. What do you know. I've watched this young man for a long time. Saw him come up from the bottom, and I mean the bottom. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Come on up and get it, Frank!"
Capra got up to go get it, squeezing past tables and making his way to the open dance floor to accept his Oscar. "The spotlight searched around trying to find me. 'Over here!' I waved. Then it suddenly swept away from me -- and picked up a flustered man standing on the other side of the dance floor - Frank Lloyd!"
Frank Lloyd went up to the dais to accept HIS Oscar while a voice in back of Capra yelled, "Down in front!"
Capra's walk back to his table amidst shouts of "Sit down!" turned into the "Longest, saddest, most shattering walk in my life. I wished I could have crawled under the rug like a miserable worm. When I slumped in my chair I felt like one. All of my friends at the table were crying."
That night, after Lloyd's Cavalcade (1933), beat Lady for a Day (1933) for Best Picture, Capra got drunk at his house and passed out. "Big 'stupido,'" Capra thought to himself, "running up to get an Oscar dying with excitement, only to crawl back dying with shame. Those crummy Academy voters; to hell with their lousy awards. If ever they did vote me one, I would never, never, NEVER show up to accept it."
Capra would win his first of three Best Director Oscars the next year, and would show up to accept it. More importantly, he would become the president of the Academy in 1935 and take it out of the labor relations field a time when labor strife and the formation of the talent guilds threatened to destroy it.
The International Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences had been the brainchild of Louis B. Mayer in 1927 (it dropped the "International" soon after its formation). In order to forestall unionization by the creative talent (directors, actors and screenwriters) who were not covered by the Basic Agreement signed in 1926, Mayer had the idea of forming a company union, which is how the Academy came into being. The nascent Screen Writers Union, which had been created in 1920 in Hollywood, had never succeeded in getting a contract from the studios. It went out of existence in 1927, when labor relations between writers and studios were handled by the Academy's writers' branch.
The Academy had brokered studio-mandated pay-cuts of 10% in 1927 and 1931, and massive layoffs in 1930 and 1931. With the inauguration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 4, 1933, Roosevelt took no time in attempting to tackle the Great Depression. The day after his inauguration, he declared a National Bank Holiday, which hurt the movie industry as it was heavily dependent on bank loans. Louis B. Mayer, as president of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, Inc. (the co-equal arm of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association charged with handling labor relations) huddled with a group from the Academy (the organization he created and had long been criticized for dominating, in both labor relations and during the awards season) and announced a 50% across-the-board pay cut. In response, stagehands called a strike for March 13th, which shut down every studio in Hollywood.
After another caucus between Mayer and the Academy committee, a proposal for a pay-cut on a sliding-scale up to 50% for everyone making over $50 a week; which would only last for eight weeks, was inaugurated. Screen writers resigned en masse from the Academy and joined a reformed Screen Writers Guild, but most employees had little choice and went along with it. All the studios but Warner Bros. and Sam Goldwyn honored the pledge to restore full salaries after the eight weeks, and Warners production chief Darryl F. Zanuck resigned in protest over his studio's failure to honor its pledge. A time of bad feelings persisted, and much anger was directed towards the Academy in its role as company union.
The Academy, trying to position itself as an independent arbiter, hired the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse for the first time to inspect the books of the studios. The audit revealed that all the studios were solvent, but Harry Warner refused to budge and Academy President 'Conrad Nagel' resigned, although some said he was forced out after a vote of no-confidence after arguing Warner's case. The Academy announced that the studio bosses would never again try to impose a horizontal salary cut, but the usefulness of the Academy as a company union was over.
Under Roosevelt's New Deal, the self-regulation imposed by the National Industrial Relations Act (signed into law on June 16th) to bring business sectors back to economic health was predicated upon cartelization, in which the industry itself wrote its own regulatory code. With Hollywood, it meant the re-imposition of paternalistic labor relations that the Academy had been created to wallpaper over. The last nail in the company union's coffin was when it became public knowledge that the Academy appointed a committee to investigate the continued feasibility of the industry practice of giving actors and writers long-term contracts. High salaries to directors, actors, and screen writers was compensation to the creative people for producers refusing to ceded control over creative decision-making. Long-term contracts were the only stability in the Hollywood economic set-up up creative people,. Up to 20%-25% of net earnings of the movie industry went to bonuses to studio owners, production chiefs, and senior executives at the end of each year, and this created a good deal of resentment that fueled the militancy of the SWG and led to the formation of the Screen Actors Guild in July 1933 when they, too, felt that the Academy had sold them out.
The industry code instituted a cap on the salaries of actors, directors, and writers, but not of movie executives; mandated the licensing of agents by producers; and created a reserve clause similar to baseball where studios had renewal options with talent with expired contracts, who could only move to a new studio if the studio they had last been signed to did not pick up their option.
The SWG sent a telegram to FDR in October 1933 denouncing this policy, arguing that the executives had taken millions of dollars of bonuses while running their companies into receivership and bankruptcy. The SWG denounced the continued membership of executives who had led their studios into financial failure remaining on the corporate boards and in the management of the reorganized companies, and furthermore protested their use of the NIRA to write their corrupt and failed business practices into law at the expense of the workers.
There was a mass resignation of actors from the Academy in October 1933, with the actors switching their allegiance to SAG. SAG joined with the SWG to publish "The Screen Guilds Magazine," a periodical whose editorial content attacked the Academy as a company union in the producers' pocket. SAG President Eddie Cantor, a friend of Roosevelt who had bee invited to spend the Thanksgiving Day holiday with the president, informed him of the guild's grievances over the NIRA code. Roosevelt struck down many of the movie industry code's anti-labor provisions by executive order.
The labor battles between the guilds and the studios would continue until the late 1930s, and by the time Frank Capra was elected president of the Academy in 1935, the post was an unenviable one. The Screen Directors Guild was formed at King Vidor's house on January 15, 1936, and one of its first acts was to send a letter to its members urging them to boycott the Academy Awards ceremony, which was three days away. None of the guilds had been recognized as bargaining agents by the studios, and it was argued to grace the Academy Awards would give the Academy, a company union, recognition. Academy membership had declined to 40 from a high of 600, and Capra believed that the guilds wanted to punish the studios financially by depriving them of the good publicity the Oscars generated.
But the studios couldn't care less. Seeing that the Academy was worthless to help them in its attempts to enforce wage cuts, it too abandoned the Academy, which it had financed. Capra and the Board members had to pay for the Oscar statuettes for the 1936 ceremony. In order to counter the boycott threat, Capra needed a good publicity gimmick himself, and the Academy came up with one, voting D.W. Griffith an honorary Oscar, the first bestowed since one had been given to Charles Chaplin at the first Academy Awards ceremony.
The Guilds believed the boycott had worked as only 20 SAG members and 13 SWG members had showed up at the Oscars, but Capra remembered the night as a victory as all the winners had shown up. However, 'Variety' wrote that "there was not the galaxy of stars and celebs in the director and writer groups which distinguished awards banquets in recent years." "Variety" reported that to boost attendance, tickets had been given to secretaries and the like. Bette Davis and Victor McLaglen had showed up to accept their Oscars, but McLaglen's director and screenwriter, John Ford and Dudley Nichols, both winners like McLaglen for The Informer (1935), were not there, and Nichols became the first person to refuse an Academy Award when he sent back his statuette to the Academy with a note saying he would not turn his back on his fellow writers in the SWG. Capra sent it back to him. Ford, the treasurer of the SDG, had not showed up to accept his Oscar, he explained, because he wasn't a member of the Academy. When Capra staged a ceremony where Ford accepted his award, the SDG voted him out of office.
To save the Academy and the Oscars, Capra convinced the board to get it out of the labor relations field. He also democratized the nomination process to eliminate studio politics, opened the cinematography and interior decoration awards to films made outside the U.S., and created two new acting awards for supporting performances to win over SAG.
By the 1937 awards ceremony, SAG signaled its pleasure that the Academy had mostly stayed out of labor relations by announcing it had no objection to its members attending the awards ceremony. The ceremony was a success, despite the fact that the Academy had to charge admission due to its poor finances. Frank Capra had saved the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and he even won his second Oscar that night, for directing Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936). At the end of the evening, Capra announced the creation of the Irving Thalberg Memorial Award to honor "the most consistent high level of production achievement by an individual producer." It was an award he himself was not destined to win.
By the 1938 awards, the Academy and all three guilds had buried the hatchet, and the guild presidents all attended the ceremony: SWG President Dudley Nichols, who finally had accepted his Oscar, SAG President Robert Montgomery, and SDG President King Vidor. Capra also had introduced the secret ballot, the results of which were unknown to everyone but the press, who were informed just before the dinner so they could make their deadlines. The first Irving Thalberg Award was given to long-time Academy supporter and anti-Guild stalwart Darryl F. Zanuck by Cecil B. DeMille, who in his preparatory remarks, declared that the Academy was "now free of all labor struggles."
But those struggles weren't over. In 1939, Capra had been voted president of the SDG and began negotiating with AMPP President 'Joseph Schenck', the head of 20th Century-Fox, for the industry to recognize the SDG as the sole collective bargaining agent for directors. When Schenck refused, Capra mobilized the directors and threatened a strike. He also threatened to resign from the Academy and mount a boycott of the awards ceremony, which was to be held a week later. Schenck gave in, and Capra won another victory when he was named Best Director for a third time at the Academy Awards, and his movie, You Can't Take It with You (1938), was voted Best Picture of 1938.
The 1940 awards ceremony was the last that Capra presided over, and he directed a documentary about them, which was sold to Warner Bros' for $30,000, the monies going to the Academy. He was nominated himself for Best Director and Best Picture for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), but lost to the Gone with the Wind (1939) juggernaut. Under Capra's guidance, the Academy had left the labor relations field behind in order to concentrated on the awards (publicity for the industry), research and education.
"I believe the guilds should more or less conduct the operations and functions of this institution," he said in his farewell speech. He would be nominated for Best Director and Best Picture once more with It's a Wonderful Life (1946) in 1947, but the Academy would never again honor him, not even with an honorary award after all his service. (Bob Hope, in contrast, received four honorary awards, including a lifetime membership in 1945, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award in 1960 from the Academy.) The SDG (subsequently renamed the Directors Guild of America after its 1960 with the Radio and Television Directors Guild and which Capra served as its first president from 1960-61), the union he had struggled with in the mid-1930s but which he had first served as president from 1939 to 1941 and won it recognition, voted him a lifetime membership in 1941 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1959.
Whenever Capra convinced studio boss Harry Cohn to let him make movies with more controversial or ambitious themes, the movies typically lost money after under-performing at the box office. The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932) and Lost Horizon (1937) were both expensive, philosophically minded pictures that sought to reposition Capra and Columbia into the prestige end of the movie market. After the former's relative failure at the box office and with critics, Capra turned to making a screwball comedy, a genre he excelled at, with It Happened One Night (1934). Bookended with You Can't Take It with You (1938), these two huge hits won Columbia Best Picture Oscars and Capra Best Director Academy Awards. These films, along with Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and It's a Wonderful Life (1946) are the heart of Capra's cinematic canon. They are all classics and products of superb craftsmanship, but they gave rise to the canard of "Capra-corn." One cannot consider Capra without taking into account The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932), American Madness (1932), and Meet John Doe (1941), all three dark films tackling major issues, Imperialism, the American plutocracy, and domestic fascism. Capra was no Pollyanna, and the man who was called a "dago" by Mack Sennett and who went on to become one of the most unique, highly honored and successful directors, whose depictions of America are considered Americana themselves, did not live his cinematic life looking through a rose-colored range-finder
In his autobiography "The Name Above the Title," Capra says that at the time of American Madness (1932), critics began commenting on his "gee-whiz" style of filmmaking. The critics attacked "gee whiz" cultural artifacts as their fabricators "wander about wide-eyed and breathless, seeing everything as larger than life." Capra's response was "Gee whiz!"
Defining Hollywood as split between two camps, "Mr. Up-beat" and "Mr. Down-beat," Capra defended the up-beat gee whiz on the grounds that, "To some of us, all that meets the eye IS larger than life, including life itself. Who ca match the wonder of it?"
Among the artists of the "Gee-Whiz:" school were Ernest Hemingway, Homer, and Paul Gauguin, a novelist who lived a heroic life larger than life itself, a poet who limned the lives of gods and heroes, and a painter who created a mythic Tahiti, the Tahiti that he wanted to find. Capra pointed to Moses and the apostles as examples of men who were larger than life. Capra was proud to be "Mr. Up-beat" rather than belong to "the 'ashcan' school" whose "films depict life as an alley of cats clawing lids off garbage cans, and man as less noble than a hyena. The 'ash-canners,' in turn, call us Pollyannas, mawkish sentimentalists, and corny happy-enders."
What really moves Capra is that in America, there was room for both schools, that there was no government interference that kept him from making a film like American Madness (1932). (While Ambassador to the Court of St. James, Joseph P. Kennedy had asked Harry Cohn to stop exporting Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) to Europe as it portrayed American democracy so negatively.) About Mr. Up-beat and Mr-Downbeat and "Mr. In-between," Capra says, "We all respect and admire each other because the great majority freely express their own individual artistry unfettered by subsidies or strictures from government, pressure groups, or ideologists."
In the period 1934 to 1941, Capra the created the core of his canon with the classics It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can't Take It with You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and Meet John Doe (1941), wining three Best Director Oscars in the process. Some cine-historians call Capra the great American propagandist, he was so effective in creating an indelible impression of America in the 1930s. "Maybe there never was an America in the thirties," John Cassavetes was quoted as saying. "Maybe it was all Frank Capra."
After the United States went to war in December 1941, Frank Capra rejoined the Army and became an actual propagandist. His "Why We Fight" series of propaganda films were highly lauded for their remarkable craftsmanship and were the best of the U.S. propaganda output during the war. Capra's philosophy, which has been variously described as a kind of Christian socialism (his films frequently feature a male protagonist who can be seen a Christ figure in a story about redemption emphasizing New Testament values) that is best understood as an expression of humanism, made him an ideal propagandist. He loved his adopted country with the fervor of the immigrant who had realized the American dream. One of his propaganda films, The Negro Soldier (1944), is a milestone in race relations.
Capra, a genius in the manipulation of the first form of "mass media," was opposed to "massism." The crowd in a Capra film is invariably wrong, and he comes down on the side of the individual, who can make a difference in a society of free individuals. In an interview, Capra said he was against "mass entertainment, mass production, mass education, mass everything. Especially mass man. I was fighting for, in a sense, the preservation of the liberty of the individual person against the mass."
Capra had left Columbia after "Mr. Smith" and formed his own production company. After the war, he founded Liberty Films with John Ford and made his last masterpiece, It's a Wonderful Life (1946). Liberty folded prior to its release (another Liberty film, William Wyler's masterpiece, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) was released through United Artists). Though Capra received his sixth Oscar nomination as best director, the movie flopped at the box office, which is hard to believe now that the film is considered must-see viewing each Christmas. Capra's period of greatness was over, and after making three under-whelming films from 1948 to '51 (including a remake of his earlier Broadway Bill (1934)), Capra didn't direct another picture for eight years, instead making a series of memorable semi-comic science documentaries for television that became required viewing for most 1960's school kids. His last two movies, A Hole in the Head (1959) and Pocketful of Miracles (1961) his remake of Lady for a Day (1933) did little to enhance his reputation.
But a great reputation it was, and is. Capra's films withstood the test of time and continue to be as beloved as when they were embraced by the movie-going "masses" in the 1930s. It was the craftsmanship: Capra was undeniably a master of his medium. The great English novelist Graham Greene, who supported himself as a film critic in the 1930s, loved Capra's films due to their sense of responsibility and of common life, and due to his connection with his audience. (Capra, according to the 1938 "Time" article, believed that what he liked would be liked by moviegoers). In his review of Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), Greene elucidated the central theme of Capra's movies: "Goodness and simplicity manhandled in a deeply selfish and brutal world."
But it was Capra's great mastery over film that was the key to his success. Comparing Capra to Dickens in a not wholly flattering review of You Can't Take It with You (1938), Green found Capra "a rather muddled and sentimental idealist who feels -- vaguely -- that something is wrong with the social system" (807). Commenting on the improbable scene in which Grandpa Vanderhof persuades the munitions magnate Anthony P. Kirby to give everything up and play the harmonica, Greene stated:
"It sounds awful, but it isn't as awful as all that, for Capra has a touch of genius with a camera: his screen always seems twice as big as other people's, and he cuts as brilliantly as Eisenstein (the climax when the big bad magnate takes up his harmonica is so exhilarating in its movement that you forget its absurdity). Humour and not wit is his line, a humor that shades off into whimsicality, and a kind of popular poetry which is apt to turn wistful. We may groan and blush as he cuts his way remorselessly through all finer values to the fallible human heart, but infallibly he makes his appeal - to that great soft organ with its unreliable goodness and easy melancholy and baseless optimism. The cinema, a popular craft, can hardly be expected to do more."
Capra was a populist, and the simplicity of his narrative structures, in which the great social problems facing America were boiled down to scenarios in which metaphorical boy scouts took on corrupt political bosses and evil-minded industrialists, created mythical America of simple archetypes that with its humor, created powerful films that appealed to the elemental emotions of the audience. The immigrant who had struggled and been humiliated but persevere due to his inner resolution harnessed the mytho-poetic power of the movie to create proletarian passion plays that appealed to the psyche of the New Deal movie-goer. The country during the Depression was down but not out, and the ultimate success of the individual in the Capra films was a bracing tonic for the movie audience of the 1930s. His own personal history, transformed on the screen, became their myths that got them through the Depression, and when that and the war was over, the great filmmaker found himself out of time. Capra, like Charles Dickens, moralized political and economic issues. Both were primarily masters of personal and moral expression, and not of the social and political. It was the emotional realism, not the social realism, of such films as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), which he was concerned with, and by focusing on the emotional and moral issues his protagonists faced, typically dramatized as a conflict between cynicism and the protagonist's faith and idealism, that made the movies so powerful, and made them register so powerfully with an audience.Lady for a Day
It Happened One Night
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Lost Horizon
You Can't Take It With You
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Meet John Doe
Prelude to War
The Battle of Russia
It's a Wonderful Life
Here Comes the Groom
A Hole in the Head
Pocketful of Miracles- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Curtiz began acting in and then directing films in his native Hungary in 1912. After WWI, he continued his filmmaking career in Austria and Germany and into the early 1920s when he directed films in other countries in Europe. Moving to the US in 1926, he started making films in Hollywood for Warner Bros. and became thoroughly entrenched in the studio system. His films during the 1930s and '40s encompassed nearly every genre imaginable and some, including Casablanca (1942) and Mildred Pierce (1945), are considered to be film classics. His brilliance waned in the 1950s when he made a number of mediocre films for studios other than Warner. He directed his last film in 1961, a year before his death at 74.Black Fury
Captain Blood
The Charge of the Light Brigade
The Adventures of Robin Hood
Four Daughters
Angels with Dirty Faces
The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex
The Sea Hawk
The Sea Wolf
Dive Bomber
Captain of the Clouds
Yankee Doodle Dandy
Casablanca
Mission to Moscow
This is the Army
Janie
Mildred Pierce
Night and Day
Life with Father
Romance on the High Seas
The Jazz Singer (1952 film)
The Egyptian
White Christmas
The Best Things in Life Are Free- Director
- Writer
- Actor
István Szabó was the first director to bring home to Hungary the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The movie receiving the award was his 1981 film Mephisto. In January 2006, it became public that he had been an agent of the III/III department, a former communist agency of interior intelligence. After the revolution in 1956, he was blackmailed and forced to cooperate, though later he was considered willingly cooperative. Allegedly, he wrote reports about fellow Hungarian directors, actors, and actresses such as Miklós Jancsó, Mari Töröcsik, Károly Mécs. Szabó has never denied the charges and considers his agent work heroic and needful, claiming he saved the life of a friend sentenced to death for his involvement in the revolution of 1956.Mephisto
Colonel Red
Hanussen
Being Julia
Albert Nobbs- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Leo McCarey was born on 3 October 1896 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He was a director and writer, known for An Affair to Remember (1957), Going My Way (1944) and Love Affair (1939). He was married to Virginia Stella Martin. He died on 5 July 1969 in Santa Monica, California, USA.Ruggles of Red Gap
The Awful Truth
Love Affair
Once Upon a Honeymoon
Going My Way
The Bells of St. Mary's
My Son John
An Affair to Remember- Director
- Additional Crew
- Music Department
Born Lester Anthony Minnelli in Chicago on February 28 1903, his father Vincent was a musical conductor of the Minnelli Brothers' Tent Theater. Wanting to pursue an artistic career, Minelli worked in the costume department of the Chicago Theater, then on Broadway during the depression as a set designer and costumer, adopting a Latinized version of his father's first name when he was hired as an art-director by Radio City Music Hall. The fall of 1935 saw his directorial debut for a Franz Schubert revue, At Home Abroad. The show was the first of three, in the best Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. spirit, before receiving Arthur Freed's offer to work at MGM. This was his second try at Hollywood -- a short unsuccessful contract at Paramount led nowhere. He stayed at MGM for the next 26 years. After working on numerous Mickey Rooney/Judy Garland vehicles, usually directed by Busby Berkeley, Arthur Freed gave him his first directorial assignment on Cabin in the Sky (1943), a risky screen project with an all-black cast. This was followed by the ambitious period piece Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) whose star Judy Garland he married in 1945. Employing first-class MGM technicians, Minnelli went on directing musicals -- The Band Wagon (1953) - as well as melodramas -- Some Came Running (1958) - and urban comedies like Designing Woman (1957), occasionally even working on two films simultaneously. Minnelli is one of the few directors for whom Technicolor seems to have been invented. Many of his films included in every one of his movies features a dream sequence.Cabin in the Sky
Meet Me in St. Louis
The Pirate
Madame Bovary (1949 film)
Father of the Bride
An American in Paris
The Bad and the Beautiful
The Story of Three Loves
The Band Wagon
Brigadoon
Lust for Life
Designing Woman
Gigi
Some Came Running
Bells Are Ringing
The Sandpiper- Director
- Producer
- Writer
After small films like The Bedroom Window (1987) and Sweet Kill (1972), Curtis Hanson went on to direct major features including The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), The River Wild (1994) and the Academy Award-winning L.A. Confidential (1997). Setting his sights on another city, Hanson was critically acclaimed for directing Eminem in Universal Pictures' 8 Mile (2002), which co-starred Kim Basinger, Mekhi Phifer and many Detroit-based actors.Never Cry Wolf
L.A. Confidential
Wonder Boys
8 Mile- Writer
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Terry George was born on 20 December 1952 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK. He is a writer and producer, known for Hotel Rwanda (2004), In the Name of the Father (1993) and Some Mother's Son (1996). He has been married to Margaret Higgins since 1978. They have two children.In the Name of the Father
Hotel Rwanda
The Shore- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Working his way up from general factotum and gag writer to highly versatile writer/director, George Seaton was involved in many aspects of the entertainment industry along the way.
He was born George Stenius of Swedish parentage (his family hailed from Stockholm) in South Bend, IN, and grew up in Detroit. Determined to become an actor after leaving school, rather than pursuing a university education at Yale (much to his father's chagrin), George joined Jessie Bonstelle's stock company for $15 a week and changed his name to "Seaton", which he thought people would find easier to pronounce. In addition to his work on the stage, he supplied the voice to "The Lone Ranger" on Detroit radio station WXYZ, where he claimed to have originated the "Hi-yo, Silver!" catchphrase because of his inability to whistle. In 1933 he sent a play he had written to MGM's office in New York. Irving Thalberg, who read it, was less interested in the play than the man, in whom he recognized potential. George was consequently hired as a writer for $50 a week, to learn his new trade as an assistant to the famous writing team of Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur. Unfortunately, MGM parted company with the duo before George ever reached Hollywood.
Over the next few years George worked, often uncredited, as a gag writer and ideas man. The turning point in his career was his contribution to the classic The Marx Brothers picture A Night at the Opera (1935). Groucho Marx was sufficiently impressed to ask for his collaboration on the screenplay for A Day at the Races (1937). This zany comedy proved one of the brothers' biggest hits and, along with Robert Pirosh, George Oppenheimer and Al Boasberg, the name George Seaton appeared prominently among the writing credits. He also sidelined as a playwright, but his first attempt to create a hit on Broadway, "But Not Goodbye", closed in 1944 after just 23 performances. He tried again 23 years later with the comedy "Love in E Flat", to even poorer critical reception.
During a brief stint at Columbia (1939-40 he became the protégé of producer William Perlberg. When Perlberg left Columbia to join 20th Century-Fox in 1941 he took George with him. As a result of this alliance, George had carte blanche to write the screenplay for the religious drama The Song of Bernadette (1943), which was a box-office hit and garnered him an Academy Award nomination. He remained under contract to Fox as a writer until 1950, and as a director from 1945-50. His directorial debut, from his own screenplay, was the musical comedy Diamond Horseshoe (1945) starring Betty Grable. Featuring the classic song "The More I See You" (sung by Dick Haymes), "Diamond Horseshoe" turned a tidy profit for Fox, and for Billy Rose, who earned a $76,000 fee for allowing his nightclub (or a set thereof) to be used as the backdrop for the film. George's next assignments as writer/director included humorous family fare in the shape of Junior Miss (1945) and the period comedy The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1947), with Grable and songs by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin. "Miss Pilgrim" was a lamentable failure, as audiences were unwilling to accept Grable's "Million Dollar Legs" hidden beneath 1870s skirts.
His next film more than compensated for that failure: the perennial sentimental Christmas favorite Miracle on 34th Street (1947), which won Academy Awards for Seaton (Best Screenplay), Valentine Davies (Best Original Story) and Edmund Gwenn (Best Supporting Actor) as Kris Kringle. Two of the last Seaton-Perlberg collaborations at Fox were The Big Lift (1950), a well-mounted drama based on the Berlin airlift, filmed on location; and For Heaven's Sake (1950), an amusing variant on Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941), starring Clifton Webb. In 1952 the team packed their bags and set up shop at Paramount, where they remained for eight years. For the remainder of the decade George worked as co-producer (with Perlberg) on several big-budget films, such as The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) and the classic western The Tin Star (1957). Seaton won his second Academy Award (again for Best Screenplay) for his adaptation of a play by Clifford Odets, The Country Girl (1954). The film was one of Paramount's top-grossing releases of the year. George was credited with eliciting Bing Crosby's best-ever dramatic performance as an alcoholic weakling and Grace Kelly's (who won the Academy Award as Best Actress) as his wife.
Seaton's output became more sparse during the following decade. He directed Fred Astaire and Lilli Palmer in the stagy but highly entertaining The Pleasure of His Company (1961) and William Holden and Lilli Palmer in the excellent World War II espionage drama The Counterfeit Traitor (1962). His last big success as director was the blockbuster Airport (1970), for which he won another Academy Award nomination. Until Jaws (1975), this was Universal's biggest money-making picture, earning the studio $45 million in film rentals in the US and Canada alone.
In addition to his direct involvement in making movies, George Seaton was also very active within Hollywood as President of the Screenwriter's Guild, President of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences (from 1955-58) and Vice President of the Motion Picture Relief Fund. He was a recipient of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award in 1961. His wife, Phyllis Loughton, a former Hollywood dialogue director, became the first female mayor of Beverly Hills.Coney Island
The Song of Bernadette
Miracle on 34th Street
The Country Girl
The Bridges of Toko-Ri
The Proud and Profane
The Tin Star
Teacher's Pet
Twilight of Honor
Airport- Director
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
- Producer
Initially grew up wanting to be a violinist, but while at the University of Vienna decided to study law. While doing so, he became increasingly interested in American film and decided that was what he wanted to do. He became involved in European filmaking for a short time before going to America to study film.That Mothers Might Live
The Seventh Cross
The Search
The Men
Teresa
Benjy
High Noon
The Member of the Wedding
From Here to Eternity
Oklahoma!
A Hateful of Rain
The Nun's Story
The Sundowners
A Man of All Seasons
The Day of the Jackal
Julia- Director
- Writer
- Actor
Born in Switzerland. After graduating from High School, Xavier Koller first went through a four-year apprenticeship as a precision toolmaker and then, after three years of training at the Academy of Drama in Zurich, Switzerland, graduated as an actor/director.
The next several years he spent acting and directing at German and Swiss theatres. He did a number of TV-plays as an actor, directed commercials, acted in movies, and then started to write and direct feature films.Journey of Hope- Director
- Producer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Delbert Mann, the Oscar-winning film director, was born Delbert Martin Mann Jr. in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1920. His father moved the family to Nashville, Tennesse, after taking a teaching position at Scarritt College. The young Mann graduated from Vanderbilt University, where he met his future wife, Ann Caroline Gillespie. He developed a lifelong friendship with Fred Coe, whom he met at the Nashville Community Playhouse, that would prove critical in his professional life.
After his 1941 graduation from Vanderbilt, Mann joined the Army and was assigned to the Air Corps, eventually becoming a pilot with the 8th Air Force. As a B-24 pilot with the "Mighty Eighth," Mann flew 35 bombing missions in the European Theater of Operations. After being demobilized at the end of the war, his interest changed to another type of theater, and he attended the Yale Drama School. From Yale he moved on to a directing job with the Town Theatre of Columbia, South Carolina.
His old friend Fred Coe, a producer at NBC, offered Mann the opportunity to direct live television drama on the network's The Philco Television Playhouse (1948). Mann accepted the job offer and moved to New York in 1949. For NBC he directed many dramas for the "Philco Playhouse," which later alternated its broadcasting weeks on the network with the Goodyear Playhouse (1951) and Producers' Showcase (1954) (television programs in the early days typically had one major commercial sponsor; thus, many programs from the early days bore the name of that primary sponsor). Mann directed episodes for all three showcases, including "October Story" with Julie Harris and Leslie Nielsen, "Middle of the Night" with Eva Marie Saint and E.G. Marshall, a remake of The Petrified Forest (1936) with the inevitable Humphrey Bogart (who created the role of Duke Mantee on the Broadway stage and played it in the classic 1935 film), and even two productions of William Shakespeare's "Othello" (one of which featured the unlikely Walter Matthau as Iago!).
Mann was one of the best-known graduates of "The Golden Age of Television," when live original drama was a staple of network TV. Other showcases he worked for included NBC Repertory Theatre (1949), Ford Star Jubilee (1955) and Playwrights '56 (1955). In 1953 he directed a live teleplay written by another WWII vet, Paddy Chayefsky. The episode of "Goodyear Television Playhouse" starring another vet, the up-and-coming Method actor Rod Steiger, as a lonely butcher named "Marty."
Delbert Mann's name will always be linked to the extraordinary cultural phenomenon that was "Marty," but it was as a film, not as television program, that Chayevsky's 1953 script became legendary, the first blockbuster hit of independent cinema. However, Mann's first recognition from the culture industry didn't come from Chayevsky's "Marty," either on television or film, but from Thornton Wilder's theatrical warhorse about a small burg in New Hampshire, "Our Town."
In 1954, Mann won a Best Director Emmy nomination for the "Producers' Showcase" episode "Our Town," a musical adaptation featuring the young Paul Newman and the singing talents of swinging Frank Sinatra. Ironically, the TV play of "Marty," considered the summit of TV's Golden Age in retrospect, went unrecognized during the nascent industry's awards season, though it did receive an excellent buzz via word of mouth. (The live "Marty" was captured via kinescope, a method of reproduction that involved shooting a 16-mm copy of the broadcast off of a TV monitor for rebroadcast to the West Coast in the days before coast-to-coast TV hookups, let along videotape; such programs were seldom rebroadcast after the initial showing due to the poor quality of the 'scope.) That situation would change once "Marty" moved from New York to Hollywood.
It's said that superstar Burt Lancaster and his producing partner Ben Hecht were looking for a property to generate a tax write-off for their successful indie production company, Hecht-Lancaster. That property was Marty, shot in B+W in the standard Academy ratio of 4:3 in an era when the blockbuster, like Cecil B. DeMIlle's epic remake of "The Ten Commandments," shot in color in the wide-screen processes of CinemaScope, Cinerama and VistaVision, were all the rage. (The box office gross of the 1956 "Ten Commandments," if adjusted for inflation, would rival the grosses generated by the top block busters of the present era.) Color, widescreens and spectacle were considered to be the necessary ingredients to get people out of the house where they were planted in front of the TV and back into the theaters. And here was a low-budget, B+W film with no production values and no stars based on a TV play that had appeared free on TV (Hollywood's great enemy) just two years before!
Remaking "Marty" seemed an honorable way to generate a tax-write off, so the story goes, while associating the company with quality, but Hecht-Lancaster refused to spend much money on it. The budget was limited to just under $350,000. (It's said that "Marty" was the first Oscar-winning film in which the advertising costs exceeded the budget.) Rod Steiger, who did not want to be bound contractually to Hecht-Lancaster, refused to reprise the eponymous title role, so it was turned over to Burt Lancaster's "From Here to Eternity" co-star, 'Ernest Borginine' . Having assayed Fatso Judson and other screen heavies in his brief cinema career, Borgnine had never played a sympathetic supporting character, let alone a lead, on film before.
Possibly due to its unpromising prospects, Burt Lancaster didn't bother putting his name on the picture as a producer, leaving that honor (and the Oscar that lay in "Marty's future) to Hecht. No wonder the success of "Marty" caught everyone flat-footed! It's perhaps the supreme case in Hollywood's checkered flirtation with "quality" cinema that quality not only won out, but more importantly, paid off (and paid off handsomely at that!).
The movie "Marty" was a critical success before it was a commercial success. Shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 1955, it was the first American film to win the Golden Palm (an award which, in the French manner, is shared by its director). In release, the film returned $3 million in rentals ($21 million in 2005 dollars), which was a considerable amount in the mid-1950s. More importantly for Hecht-Lancaster, its low-budget made "Marty" one of the most profitable movies ever made.
The critical recognition and boffo box office made "Marty" a sleeper at the 1956 Academy Awards, at which Mann won the Oscar as Best Director of 1955 and Chayevsky copped the Best Adapted Screenplay trophy. In addition to the original "auteurs," Ernest Borgnine won the Best Actor Oscar and Harold Hecht picked up the gong for Best Picture. Betsy Blair and Joe Mantell also received nominations in Best Supporting Acting categories, and on the technical side, "Marty" was nominated for Best B+W Cinematography (Joseph LaShelle) and Best B+W Art Direction-Set Decoration ( Ted Haworth, Walter M. Simonds, Robert Priestley). Until Sam Mendes duplicated the feat in 2000, Mann was the only director to win an Oscar for his first film.
Though he could not know it then, "Marty" was the highpoint of Mann's career. While Chayevsky went on to win two more Oscars, Mann never won another Oscar nomination, though he did pick up two more Emmy nominations in 1972 and 1980 during his productive career. More significantly, Delbert Mann had the respect of his peers: in addition to his three subsequent Directors Guild of America nominations to go along with his win for "Marty," the DGA honored him with its Robert B. Aldrich Achievement Award in 1997 and an Honorary Life Membership in 2002.Marty
The Bachelor Party
Desire Under the Elms
Separate Tables
The Dark at the Top of the Stairs
Lover Come Back
That Touch of Mink
A Gathering of Eagles
Dear Heart
Mister Buddwing- Writer
- Director
- Actor
The women who both attracted and frightened him and an Italy dominated in his youth by Mussolini and Pope Pius XII - inspired the dreams that Fellini started recording in notebooks in the 1960s. Life and dreams were raw material for his films. His native Rimini and characters like Saraghina (the devil herself said the priests who ran his school) - and the Gambettola farmhouse of his paternal grandmother would be remembered in several films. His traveling salesman father Urbano Fellini showed up in La Dolce Vita (1960) and 8½ (1963). His mother Ida Barbiani was from Rome and accompanied him there in 1939. He enrolled in the University of Rome. Intrigued by the image of reporters in American films, he tried out the real life role of journalist and caught the attention of several editors with his caricatures and cartoons and then started submitting articles. Several articles were recycled into a radio series about newlyweds "Cico and Pallina". Pallina was played by acting student Giulietta Masina, who became his real life wife from October 30, 1943, until his death half a century later. The young Fellini loved vaudeville and was befriended in 1940 by leading comedian Aldo Fabrizi. Roberto Rossellini wanted Fabrizi to play Don Pietro in Rome, Open City (1945) and made the contact through Fellini. Fellini worked on that film's script and is on the credits for Rosselini's Paisan (1946). On that film he wandered into the editing room, started observing how Italian films were made (a lot like the old silent films with an emphasis on visual effects, dialogue dubbed in later). Fellini in his mid-20s had found his life's work.Rome, Open City
Paisan
La Strada
The Nights of Cabiria
I Vitelloni
La Dolce Vita
8½
Fellini Satyricon
Amarcord
Fellini's Casanova- Writer
- Director
- Producer
Director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino was born in Naples in 1970, and and became an orphan when he lost both of his parents at the age of 16. At the age of 25, after studying for a few years at the Faculty of Economics and Business in University of Naples Federico II, he decided to work in the film industry. His first full-length feature L'uomo in più, starring Toni Servillo and Andrea Renzi, was selected at the 2001 Venice Film Festival, achieved three nominations for the David di Donatello (the Italian Academy Awards) and won the Nastro d'Argento (the Italian cinema journalists Academy Award) for Best First Time Director. In 2004 he directed Le conseguenze dell'amore, selected in Competition at the Cannes Film Festival and acclaimed by both Italian and International critics. The film won many important Italian awards, including five David di Donatello awards: for Best Film, Director, Screenplay, Actor and Cinematography. Three years later his third film L'amico di famiglia was also selected in Competition at Cannes. In 2008 another collaboration with Toni Servillo, Il Divo, became his third film to be selected in Competition at Cannes. The film was nominated for Best Make-Up at the Academy Awards® and won seven David di Donatello, five Ciak d'Oro and five Nastri d'Argento awards. He has also published a novel Hanno tutti ragione (Everybody's Right) in 2010, and two collections of short stories: Tony Pagoda e i suoi amici (2012), and Gli aspetti irrilevanti (2016). Hanno tutti region was warmly received by both critics and public and was short-listed for the Premio Strega, the most prestigious Italian literature award. As of 2021, seven of his 9 films have been presented in Competition at the Festival de Cannes, where Il Divo won the Prix du Jury in 2008. In 2014, his film La Grande Bellezza won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as a BAFTA and five EFA Awards. In 2016, La Giovinezza gained an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song and two Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Song. The film won three European Film Awards. In 2016, he made his first TV Series: The Young Pope. In 2021, È stata la mano di Dio won the Grand Jury Prize at the 78th Venice International Film Festival.Il divo
The Great Beauty
Youth
The Hand of God- Director
- Writer
- Producer
As the son of a Lufthansa manager, Henckel von Donnersmarck spent his childhood and school years in New York, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main and Brussels, where he passed his international high school diploma in 1991. He then spent two years studying in Leningrad (Saint Petersburg) with the following job as a Russian teacher. From 1993 to 1996 he studied PPE philosophy, political science and economics at New College, Oxford. In 1996 he completed a directing internship with Richard Attenborough. In 1997 he began studying feature film directing at the University of Television and Film in Munich. The four-minute short film "Dobermann" was made in 1999, for which he also wrote the book. The work received the rating "Particularly Valuable" and became part of the "Next Generation Role" of "German Cinema in Cannes". At the same time, the work marked his national breakthrough with numerous awards, including the Max Ophüls Prize in 2000.
This was followed by a commissioned work for Universal and Gaumont TV, "Les Mythes Urbains" from 2001. In 2002, he directed the short film "The Templar" in collaboration with producers Max Wiedemann and Quirin Berg. Awarded as "particularly valuable", the five-minute film was shown as part of the Hof Film Festival. The work was awarded, among other things, the Eastman Prize and the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Prize in 2003. Henckel von Donnersmarck became a German star of international cinema with his first feature film "The Lives of Others". In 2006 he was awarded the "Bavarian Film Prize", the "European Film Prize", the "Peace Prize for German Film", the "Quadriga Prize" and a nomination for the "Golden Globe".
On February 25, 2007, "The Lives of Others" was awarded the "Oscar" for "Best Foreign Language Film" at the 79th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, which also marked his international breakthrough as a filmmaker. In 2010 he directed his second feature film, the romantic thriller "The Tourist", starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp.
In his private life, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck is married to the lawyer Christiane Asschenfeldt and is the father of two children.The Lives of Others
Never Look Away