Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh won the Academy Award for Best Director for his 2000 ensemble drama Traffic. He actually earned dual Best Director Oscar nominations that year as he was also honored for Erin Brockovich, which starred Julia Roberts in an Oscar-winning performance. Previously, Soderbergh was nominated for Best Original Screenplay for sex, lies, and videotape, which marked his feature film directorial debut. The film also won the Palme d’Or at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.

More recently, he directed Contagion, a medical thriller with an international ensemble cast including Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Winslet. And Everything is Going Fine, his feature film documenting the life and work of the late performance artist Spalding Gray, made its world premiere at the 2010 Slamdance Film Festival. The two had previously worked together on Gray’s Anatomy and King of the Hill.

Soderbergh also wrote, directed, photographed and edited Equilibrium, starring Alan Arkin, Robert Downey, Jr. and Ele Keats, which was one of three short, eroticism-themed films released together as Eros. Michelangelo Antonioni and Wong Kar-wai directed the other two segments. The film made its premiere at the 2004 Venice Film Festival.

Soderbergh has also produced or executive produced a wide range of features including Solitary Man, directed by Brian Koppelman and David Levien; Far From Heaven and I’m Not There, directed by Todd Haynes; Michael Clayton, directed by Tony Gilroy; the documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, directed by Marina Zenovich; Wind Chill and Criminal, directed by Gregory Jacobs; Good Night, and Good Luck and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, directed by George Clooney; A Scanner Darkly, directed by Richard Linklater; Rumor Has It…, directed by Rob Reiner; Syriana, directed by Stephen Gaghan; Lodge Kerrigan’s Keane, which played at the Telluride, Toronto and New York film festivals; The Jacket, directed by John Maybury; Insomnia, directed by Christopher Nolan; Welcome to Collinwood, directed by Anthony and Joseph Russo; Pleasantville, directed by Gary Ross; and The Daytrippers, directed by Greg Mottola.

In December 2009, Soderbergh created and directed the play “Tot Mom,” produced at the Sydney Theatre Company. Based on the kidnapping and murder of Caylee Anthony, the play starred Essie Davis as controversial television commentator Nancy Grace, whose crusade for justice ignited worldwide interest in the crime.

At the same time, he also directed his 22nd film, The Last Time I Saw Michael Gregg, an improvised comedy starring the cast of “Tot Mom.”

Relativity Media