49 Notable alumni of
American Film Institute Conservatory
Updated:
American Film Institute Conservatory is 607th in the world, 224th in North America, and 207th in the United States by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 49 notable alumni from American Film Institute Conservatory sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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David Lynch
- Occupations
- actordirectorpainterscreenwriterfilm producer
- Biography
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David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, painter, visual artist, musician and actor. Lynch has received critical acclaim for his films, which are often distinguished by their surrealist, dreamlike qualities. He has received numerous accolades, including the Golden Lion in 2006 and an Honorary Academy Award in 2019. In 2007, a panel of critics convened by The Guardian announced that "after all the discussion, no one could fault the conclusion that David Lynch is the most important film-maker of the current era."
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Darren Aronofsky
- Occupations
- film actorwriterdirectorscreenwriterfilm producer
- Biography
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Darren Aronofsky is an American filmmaker. His films are noted for their surreal, melodramatic, and often disturbing elements, frequently in the form of psychological fiction.
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Charlie McDowell
- Occupations
- actorfilm directorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Charles Malcolm McDowell is an American film director and screenwriter. McDowell made his directorial film debut with the romantic thriller The One I Love (2014). He has since written and directed the Netflix drama films The Discovery (2017) and Windfall (2022).
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Brad Falchuk
- Enrolled in American Film Institute Conservatory
- In 1994 graduated with Master of Fine Arts
- Occupations
- executive producerwritershowrunnertelevision producertelevision director
- Biography
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Bradley Douglas Falchuk is an American television writer, director, and producer. He is best known for co-creating with Ryan Murphy the television series Glee, American Horror Story, Scream Queens, and Pose. He was also a writer and executive producer for Nip/Tuck and is married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow.
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Terrence Malick
- Enrolled in American Film Institute Conservatory
- In 1969 graduated with Master of Fine Arts
- Occupations
- film directorfilm actorfilm producerscreenwritertranslator
- Biography
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Terrence Frederick Malick is an American filmmaker. His films include Badlands (1973), Days of Heaven (1978), The Thin Red Line (1998), for which he received Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award nominations, The New World (2005), and The Tree of Life (2011), which garnered him another Best Director Oscar nomination and the Palme d'Or at the 64th Cannes Film Festival.
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Ari Aster
- Occupations
- film directorwriterscreenwriterdirector
- Biography
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Ari Aster is an American filmmaker. Having garnered some initial recognition for the short film The Strange Thing About the Johnsons (2011), he became best known for writing and directing Hereditary (2018), Midsommar (2019), and Beau Is Afraid (2023), all of which were released by A24. His films have been noted for their unsettling combination of horror, dark comedy, and depictions of graphic violence. In 2018, he co-founded the production company Square Peg with Danish producer Lars Knudsen.
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Sam Esmail
- Occupations
- television directorscreenwriterfilm producershowrunnerfilm director
- Biography
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Sam Esmail is an American film and television producer, director, and screenwriter who runs the production company Esmail Corp. He is best known as the creator, writer, and director of the award-winning USA Network television series Mr. Robot (2015–2019), starring Rami Malek. He wrote and directed the feature films Comet (2014) and Leave the World Behind (2023). He produced and directed the first season of the acclaimed Amazon Prime Video psychological thriller Homecoming (2018–2020), starring Julia Roberts and Janelle Monáe, and produced USA's Briarpatch (2020), Starz's Gaslit (2022), and Peacock's Angelyne (2022) and The Resort (2022).
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Paul Schrader
- Occupations
- film directorfilm criticscreenwriterdirector
- Biography
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Paul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter, film director, and film critic. He first became widely known for writing the screenplay of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976). He later continued his collaboration with Scorsese, writing or co-writing Raging Bull (1980), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and Bringing Out the Dead (1999). Schrader is more prolific as a director: his 22 films include Blue Collar (1978), Hardcore (1979), American Gigolo (1980), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Light Sleeper (1992), Affliction (1997), and First Reformed (2017), with the last of these earning him his first Academy Award nomination. Schrader's work frequently depicts "man in a room" stories which feature isolated, troubled men confronting an existential crisis.
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Patty Jenkins
- Occupations
- writerfilm directordirectortelevision directorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Patricia Lea Jenkins is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. She has directed the feature films Monster (2003), Wonder Woman (2017), and Wonder Woman 1984 (2020). For the film Monster, she won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature and the Franklin J. Schaffner Award of the American Film Institute (AFI). For the pilot episode of the series The Killing (2011), she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination and the Directors Guild of America award for Best Directing in a Drama Series. In 2017, she occupied the seventh place for Time's Person of the Year.
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John McTiernan
- Occupations
- film directordirectorscreenwriteractorfilm producer
- Biography
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John Campbell McTiernan Jr. is an American filmmaker. He is best known for his action films, including Predator (1987), Die Hard (1988), and The Hunt for Red October (1990). His later well-known films include the action-comedy-fantasy film Last Action Hero (1993), the action film sequel Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), the heist-film remake The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), and The 13th Warrior (1999). His last completed feature film was the mystery-thriller Basic, released in 2003.
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Edward Zwick
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwriterfilm producerdirector
- Biography
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Edward M. Zwick is an American filmmaker. He has worked primarily in the comedy drama and epic historical film genres and has received nominations for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.
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Todd Field
- Occupations
- film score composerfilm directorscreenwriterfilm actorfilm producer
- Biography
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William Todd Field is an American filmmaker and actor. He is known for directing In the Bedroom (2001), Little Children (2006), and Tár (2022), which were nominated for a combined fourteen Academy Awards. Field has personally received six Academy Award nominations for his films; two for Best Picture, two for Best Adapted Screenplay, one for Best Director, and one for Best Original Screenplay.
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Janusz Kamiński
- Occupations
- cinematographerdirectormanufacturercamera operatorfilm director
- Biography
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Janusz Zygmunt Kamiński is a Polish cinematographer and director of film and television. He has established a partnership with Steven Spielberg, working as a cinematographer on his films since 1993. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Spielberg's holocaust drama Schindler's List and World War II epic Saving Private Ryan (1998). He has also received Academy Award nominations for Amistad (1997), The Diving Bell & the Butterfly (2007), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012), and West Side Story (2021). He has also received nominations for five BAFTA Awards, and six American Society of Cinematographers Awards.
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Amy Heckerling
- Occupations
- film producerwriterscreenwriterdirectoractor
- Biography
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Amy Heckerling is an American writer, producer, and director. Heckerling started out her career after graduating from New York University. Her career started from independent films to directing major studio films.
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Zal Batmanglij
- Occupations
- writerfilm directorscreenwriterexecutive producerfilm producer
- Biography
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Zal Batmanglij is an American film director and screenwriter. He directed and co-wrote the 2011 film Sound of My Voice and the 2013 film The East, both of which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, as well as the Netflix series The OA, which debuted in 2016.
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Jack Fisk
- Occupations
- production designerfilm director
- Biography
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Jack Fisk is an American production designer and director.
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Andrea Arnold
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwriteractortelevision presenter
- Biography
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Andrea Arnold, OBE is an English filmmaker and former actor. She won an Academy Award for her short film Wasp in 2005. Her feature films include Red Road (2006), Fish Tank (2009), and American Honey (2016), all of which have won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Arnold has also directed four episodes of the Amazon Prime Video series Transparent, as well as all seven episodes of the second season of the HBO series Big Little Lies. Her documentary Cow premiered at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and played at the 2021 Telluride Film Festival.
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Steve Golin
- Occupations
- producerfilm producertelevision producer
- Biography
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Steven Aaron Golin was an American film and television producer and the founder and CEO of Anonymous Content LLP, a multimedia development, production and talent management company and co-founder and CEO of Propaganda Films. Golin graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University in 1976 and attended the AFI Conservatory. He won Best Picture at the 2016 Academy Awards for Spotlight.
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Robert Richardson
- Occupations
- cinematographer
- Biography
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Robert Bridge Richardson, ASC is an American cinematographer. Known for his trademark aggressively bright highlight as well as shapeshifting style, he is one of three living persons who has won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography three times, the others being Vittorio Storaro and Emmanuel Lubezki. He has frequently collaborated with Oliver Stone, Quentin Tarantino, and Martin Scorsese.
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Mimi Leder
- Occupations
- film producerfilm directortelevision producer
- Biography
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Miriam Leder is an American film and television director and producer; she is noted for her action films and use of special effects. She was the first female graduate of the AFI Conservatory, in 1973. She has been nominated for ten Emmy Awards, winning two.
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Rodrigo García
- Occupations
- authorcamera operatortelevision directordirectorfilm director
- Biography
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Rodrigo García Barcha is a Colombian and Mexican television and film director, screenwriter, author and former cinematographer, best known for his films Nine Lives (2005), Mother and Child (2009), Albert Nobbs (2011), Last Days in the Desert (2015), as well as his work on the HBO drama series In Treatment. He also created, wrote, and directed the award-winning web series Blue (2012–2015), starring Julia Stiles, for which he won an IAWTV Award in 2014. In 2021 García released his first memoir, A Farewell to Gabo and Mercedes: A Son's Memoir of Gabriel García Márquez and Mercedes Barcha.
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John Dahl
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwritertelevision directordirector
- Biography
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John Dahl is an American film and television director and writer, best known for his work in the neo-noir genre.
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Carl Franklin
- Occupations
- television produceractordirectorfilm directortelevision actor
- Biography
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Carl Franklin is an American filmmaker. Franklin is a graduate of University of California, Berkeley, and continued his education at the AFI Conservatory, where he graduated with an M.F.A. degree in directing in 1986.
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Doug Ellin
- Occupations
- directorscreenwriterfilm producershowrunnerfilm director
- Biography
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Douglas Reed Ellin is an American podcaster, screenwriter and film and TV director, known best for creating the HBO television series Entourage. Ellin also served as executive producer, director, head writer and supporting actor for the series, and wrote, directed and produced its 2015 film adaptation. He attended Tulane University.
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Frank Spotnitz
- Occupations
- screenwritertelevision producerfilm producertelevision director
- Biography
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Frank Charles Spotnitz is an American television screenwriter and executive producer, best known for his work on The X-Files and The Man in the High Castle. Spotnitz is also the chief executive officer and founder of Big Light Productions, a London- and Paris-based production company, which specializes in international television series, including drama, comedy and documentaries. Spotnitz's career includes creating, writing and producing series with networks, cable, streaming and other broadcast platforms around the world.
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Matthew Libatique
- Occupations
- cinematographer
- Biography
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Matthew Libatique is an American cinematographer. He is best known for his collaborations with director Darren Aronofsky on the films Pi (1998), Requiem for a Dream (2000), The Fountain (2006), Black Swan (2010), Noah (2014), and Mother! (2017). Libatique has received three Academy Award for Best Cinematography nominations for his work on Black Swan (2010), A Star Is Born (2018), and Maestro (2023).
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Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
- Occupations
- film directordirectortelevision directoractorfilm producer
- Biography
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Alfonso Gomez-Rejon is an American film and television director. He made his directorial film debut with the slasher film The Town That Dreaded Sundown (2014). He has since directed the coming of age film Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015), and the historical drama The Current War (2017).
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Dean Israelite
- Occupations
- film directordirectorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Dean Israelite is a South African film director, writer, and producer, best known for directing the found footage film Project Almanac, the 2017 reboot of Power Rangers, and the 2019 reboot of Are You Afraid of the Dark.
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Drake Doremus
- Occupations
- screenwriterfilm director
- Biography
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Drake Doremus is an American film director, screenwriter and producer best known for directing the films Like Crazy (2011), which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, Douchebag (2010) which was in Dramatic competition at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, and Equals (2015).
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Jon Avnet
- Occupations
- writerdirectorscreenwriterproducerfilm producer
- Biography
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Jonathan Michael Avnet, is an American director, writer and producer.
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Matthew Robbins
- Occupations
- film directordirectorscreenwriteractorfilm producer
- Biography
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Matthew Robbins is an American screenwriter and film director best known for his writing work within the American New Wave movement.
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Julie Dash
- Occupations
- film directornovelistwriterscreenwriter
- Biography
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Julie Ethel Dash is an American filmmaker, music video and commercial director, author, and website producer. Dash received her MFA in 1985 at the UCLA Film School and is one of the graduates and filmmakers known as the L.A. Rebellion. The L.A. Rebellion refers to the first African and African-American students who studied film at UCLA. Through their collective efforts, they sought to put an end to the prejudices of Hollywood by creating experimental and unconventional films. The main goal of these films was to create original Black stories and bring them to the main screens. After Dash had written and directed several shorts, her 1991 feature Daughters of the Dust became the first full-length film directed by an African-American woman to obtain general theatrical release in the United States. In 2004, Daughters of the Dust was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Stemming from the film's success, Dash also released novels of the same title in 1992 and 1999. The film was later a key inspiration for Beyoncé's 2016 album Lemonade.
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Manny Coto
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwritertelevision producerfilm producer
- Biography
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Manuel Hector Coto was a Cuban-born American screenwriter, television and film director, and producer of films and television programs.
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Gary Winick
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwriterfilm editorfilm producer
- Biography
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Gary Scott Winick was an American filmmaker whose films as a director include Tadpole (2002) and 13 Going on 30 (2004), and who also produced such films as Pieces of April (2003) and November (2004) through his New York City-based independent film production company InDigEnt.
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Marshall Herskovitz
- Enrolled in American Film Institute Conservatory
- Studied in 1975
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwritertelevision producerfilm producer
- Biography
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Marshall Schreiber Herskovitz is an American film director, writer, and producer, and currently the President Emeritus of the Producers Guild of America. Among his productions are Traffic, The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond, and I Am Sam. Herskovitz has directed two feature films, Jack the Bear and Dangerous Beauty. Herskovitz was a creator and executive producer of the television shows thirtysomething, My So-Called Life, and Once and Again, and also wrote and directed several episodes of all three series.
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Jeffrey Reiner
- Years
- 20th Century
- Occupations
- film directortelevision directorscreenwritertelevision producerfilm editor
- Biography
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Jeffrey Reiner is an American film director, editor, screenwriter, television director, and producer.
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David M. Rosenthal
- Occupations
- film producerfilm directorscreenwriter
- Biography
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David Mitchell Rosenthal is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer. He has directed the films A Single Shot, How It Ends, Janie Jones, and The Perfect Guy, among others.
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Kirby Dick
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwriterfilm producerdirector
- Biography
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Kirby Bryan Dick is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor best known for directing documentary films. He received Academy Award nominations for Best Documentary Feature for directing Twist of Faith (2005) and The Invisible War (2012). He has also received numerous awards from film festivals, including the Sundance Film Festival and Los Angeles Film Festival.
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Neal Baer
- Occupations
- showrunnerscreenwritertelevision producer
- Biography
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Neal Baer is an American pediatrician and television writer and producer. He is best known for his work on the television shows Designated Survivor, ER and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
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Duke Johnson
- Occupations
- film directorscreenwriterfilm producerdirector
- Biography
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Duke Johnson is an American film director who specializes in stop-motion animation. He currently serves as a director and junior partner for Dino Stamatopoulos's animation production studio Starburns Industries in Burbank, California.
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Timothy Greenfield-Sanders
- Occupations
- documentary filmmakerfilm directorphotographer
- Biography
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Timothy Greenfield-Sanders is an American documentary filmmaker and portrait photographer based in New York City. The majority of his work is shot in large format.
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Jennifer Phang
- Occupations
- film directordirectorscreenwriterfilm producerfilm editor
- Biography
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Jennifer Phang is an American filmmaker (writer, director, producer), most known for her feature films Advantageous (2015) and Half-Life (2008). Advantageous premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, winning a Special Jury Award for Collaborative Vision, and was based on her award-winning short film of the same name. Half-Life premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and won "Best Film" awards at a number of film festivals including the Gen Art Film Festival, the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival (now known as CAAMFest) as well an "Emerging Director Award" at the Asian American International Film Festival.
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Maria Ripoll
- Occupations
- screenwriterfilm director
- Biography
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María Ripoll i Julià is a Spanish film director from Barcelona, with an international background and eight feature films to her credit. The success of her film It's Now or Never has placed her as the highest-grossing female film director in Spanish history.
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Susan Johnson
- Occupations
- film producerfilm directormusic video director
- Biography
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Susan Johnson is an American film producer and director, known for directing the 2016 comedy film Carrie Pilby and the 2018 feature To All the Boys I've Loved Before.
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Gavin Heffernan
- Occupations
- directorscreenwriteractorfilm producerfilm director
- Biography
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Gavin Heffernan is a Canadian filmmaker/screenwriter/photographer.
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Anku Pande
- Occupations
- television producer
- Biography
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Anku Pande is a film producer from Nainital, Uttarakhand in India.
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Alonso Mayo
- Occupations
- film producerfilm directorscreenwriter
- Biography
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Alonso Mayo is a Peruvian film director and screenwriter best known for his independent film The Story of Luke (2012). He has won a Student Academy Award (for Wednesday Afternoon).
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Sandra Espinet
- Years
- 1964-.. (age 60)
- Occupations
- interior designer
- Biography
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Sandra Espinet is a luxury interior designer who resides in and has offices in both San José del Cabo, Mexico and Los Angeles, California.
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David Milhous
- Occupations
- television producertelevision editor
- Biography
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David Milhous is a motion picture editor. He is known best as the editor of Crime Watch Daily, which won the Emmy award for Editing in 2017. Milhous has been elected to membership in the American Cinema Editors (ACE) and has helped shape the curriculum for the first master's degree program in the field of Editing at the New York Film Academy at Universal Studios. He is also a founding member of the American post-punk band Lippy's Garden.
