The Artist is the first American film by acclaimed French writer/director Michel Hazanavicius. Hazanavicius first broke through as a feature filmmaker with his 2006 comedy OSS 117 — Cairo, Nest of Spies, a spy spoof starring Jean Dujardin. Hazanavicius and Dujardin reteamed three years later for the hit sequel OSS 117 — Lost in Rio.
Hazanavicius made his feature directorial debut in 1999 with Mes Amies (My Friends), which he also wrote. He began his career as a director in television. He co-wrote and co-directed the cult television movie La Classe Américaine, which dubbed an absurdist mystery narrative over clips from American movies. Hazanavicius made the movie into feature films in 1994, when he made his acting debut in Fear City: A Family-Style Comedy (La Cité de la Peur). Two years later, he transitioned into feature writing as well, with credits including the comedies Delphine 1, Yvan 0, The Clone (Le Clone) and Luke and the Daltons.
Jeff Nichols, writer and director of Take Shelter, made his feature film debut as the writer and director of Shotgun Stories, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2007, and was released theatrically in the United States in March 2008. It was nominated for a 2008 Independent Spirit Award, won the Grand Jury Prize for New American Cinema at the Seattle International Film Festival, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Austin Film Festival, and won the FIPRESCI International Jury Prize at the 2007 Viennale. Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times) and David Edelstein (New York Magazine/NPR) included Shotgun Stories in their lists for Best Films of 2008. Additionally, Nichols directed the music video for Spoon's Don't You Evah. The video, shot on location in Tokyo and produced by Wired Magazine, was named one of the top 10 viral videos of 2007 by Entertainment Weekly. Born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas, Nichols is a graduate of the North Carolina School of the Arts, School of Filmmaking, and a current resident of Austin, Texas. He will next direct Mud, an original screenplay set on the Mississippi River, with Sarah Green and Aaron Ryder producing.
Born in Denmark, Nicolas Winding Refn is known for his edgy and visually stimulating films. His first film, which he wrote and directed when he was only twenty-four, was the extremely violent and uncompromising, Pusher. Pusher became a cult phenomenon and won him instant international critical acclaim in 1996. After the success of his debut, Refn wrote, produced, and directed his next film, Bleeder. Highly stylized and focused on introverted reactions to outward situations, this film was a marking point for the shaping of Nicolas's career. "Bleeder" premiered at the 1999 Venice International Film Festival.
Refn's third feature, Fear X (2003) was his first foray into English language films. Starring John Turturro and co-written by Hubert Selby, Jr, Fear X received its world premiere at Sundance Film festival. The film's stormy career pushed famed journalist Henrik List, to write a biography on Refn, spanning his earlier years from Pusher (1996) to Fear X (2003).
Following Fear X, Refn returned to his native Denmark to write, direct and produce Pusher II (2004) and Pusher III (2005), as a result of his first movie's growing cult following. The subsequent success of Pusher II and III, along with the first, became the internationally renowned Pusher Trilogy, premiering at the Toronto Film Festival in 2005 and cementing it as a worldwide phenomenon.
In 2006, Refn wrote and directed Bronson, an ultra-violent, surreal, escapist film following the real life landmarks and self-entrapment of Britain's most notorious criminal, Michael Peterson, who claims his alter ego is legendary actor, Charles Bronson. The film premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and resulted in the world media calling Refn the next great European auteur.
Refn next wrote, directed and produced Valhalla Rising, starring his long time collaborator, Mads Mikkelsen. Valhalla Rising is a film inspired by a story Refn's mother read to him when he was young. The film premiered at the 2009 Venice Film Festival and led the world media to define his filmic style as "Refn-esk." Refn lives in Copenhagen with his wife and their two children.
Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, Alexander Payne earned his MFA in Film at UCLA and now makes comedies. He debuted with Citizen Ruth (1996) and followed up with Election (1999), which won Best Screenplay awards from the Writers' Guild of America and the New York Film Critics Circle, as well as an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. About Schmidt (2002), premiered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival and opened the New York Film Festival. Sideways (2004) won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for four others, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Mike Mills works as a filmmaker, graphic designer, and artist. As a filmmaker, he has completed a number of music videos, commercials, short films, documentaries and feature films. His short films have premiered at the Sundance, Oberhausen, Stockholm International, New Directors/New Films and Rotterdam film festivals. He adapted and directed his first feature, Thumbsucker (2005), from Walter Kirn's novel of the same name. The movie won awards at the Sundance and Berlin film festivals for lead actor Lou Taylor Pucci, and Mr. Mills was honored with the Guardian New Directors award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. His next feature as director was the documentary Does Your Soul Have a Cold? (2007).
In 1996, he and Roman Coppola co-founded The Directors Bureau (TDB), a multidisciplinary production company through which he has directed music videos for such bands as Air, Pulp, Everything but the Girl, Les Rythmes Digitales, Moby, Yoko Ono, and the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion; and commercials for such clients as Levi's, Gap, Volkswagen, Adidas and Nike as part of their international campaigns.
As a graphic artist, Mr. Mills has designed album covers for such bands as Sonic Youth, The Beastie Boys, Boss Hog, and Buffalo Daughter; and has also done extensive work for companies such as X-girl, Marc Jacobs, and Supreme. He has had solo art shows at the Andrea Rosen Gallery (1996); Adam Bray Gallery in London (1997); The Alleged Gallery (1996, 2001, and 2004); The Collette Gallery (1998); and The Mu Museum in Holland (2004).
His work was featured in the "Beautiful Losers" exhibitions at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati and at the Yerba Buena Center for Arts in San Francisco, as well as in Aaron Rose and Joshua Leonard's documentary feature Beautiful Losers (2008). A monograph of his work, Mike Mills: Graphics Films, was published by Damiani in 2009.
Mr. Mills was born in Berkeley, California and graduated from Cooper Union.
Garfunkel and Oates probably aren’t what you expected when you first heard the band name. Instead of ’70s singer/songwriters, the duo are Los Angeles-based comedy-folk singers Riki Lindhome (Garfunkel) and Kate Micucci (Oates) who perform “Flight of the Conchords”-esque material to a growing fanbase. For their appearance on the Spirit Award stage, the pair went…
Everyone from Brett Ratner to Mel Gibson to Michael Fassbender’s penis was up to be mocked.
There were winners and there were losers, and then there were the musical performances. Both My Morning Jacket and Somali artist K’Naan took the stage during the show to spin tunes, entertaining the legion of stars in attendance as well as IFC viewers. Below, check out Kentucky rockers My Morning Jacket playing one of their…
“That that vision just was so realized and that it affects audiences the way it does is the big surprise to me and everybody else,” he said.
