Best Young Directors on IMDb
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Critics have illustrated Erik Peter Carlson's filmmaking style as one with an Italian/German technique. Carlson, also known by his loyal fan base as EPC, was born and raised in Upstate New York to a family of film enthusiasts.
In 2019, EPC opened up a new production company to create an entire world of fairy tale stories and characters for different mediums. Kicking off this endeavor was his fourth feature film, "A Fairy Tale After All," about a stubborn teenage girl who finds herself confronted by whimsical characters when she is transported into a world of fantasy and fairy tales while attending a school marionette show.
EPC is currently producing a sequel to "A Fairy Tale After All, "entitled "Welcome To Fairy Rings," a companion story to the feature, and a children's book based on the "A Fairy Tale After All' Universe of characters.
Before fairy tales, in 2010, he started production (Executive Producer/Writer/Director) on 'Transatlantic Coffee.' The film was completed in 2011, winning numerous awards and rave reviews at film festivals across the globe, including best picture, screenplay and director, actor, and supporting actress. 'Transatlantic Coffee' opened in the fall of 2012.
EPC's second writing/directing feature, 'The Toy Soldiers,' a dramatic, epic coming-of-age picture, premiered in Hollywood at the Chinese Theaters on June 8, 2014, to a record-breaking sold-out audience. It was also invited for an October 2014 presentation at the prestigious Hollywood Film Festival. It was released nationwide in the US on November 14, 2014, in AMC Theaters. In addition, the screenplay was sought after by The Academy of Arts and Sciences to be a part of their permanent library for filmmakers and students worldwide.
'Wolf Mother,' a crime drama about two outlaws looking to redeem themselves by solving a high-profile child abduction case, was released in 2018.- Director
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Anderson was born in 1970. He was one of the first of the "video store" generation of film-makers. His father was the first man on his block to own a V.C.R., and from a very early age Anderson had an infinite number of titles available to him. While film-makers like Spielberg cut their teeth making 8 mm films, Anderson cut his teeth shooting films on video and editing them from V.C.R. to V.C.R.
Part of Anderson's artistic D.N.A. comes from his father, who hosted a late night horror show in Cleveland. His father knew a number of oddball celebrities such as Robert Ridgely, an actor who often appeared in Mel Brooks' films and would later play "The Colonel" in Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997). Anderson was also very much shaped by growing up in "The Valley", specifically the suburban San Fernando Valley of greater Los Angeles. The Valley may have been immortalized in the 1980s for its mall-hopping "Valley Girls", but for Anderson it was a slightly seedy part of suburban America. You were close to Hollywood, yet you weren't there. Would-bes and burn-outs populated the area. Anderson's experiences growing up in "The Valley" have no doubt shaped his artistic self, especially since three of his four theatrical features are set in the Valley.
Anderson got into film-making at a young age. His most significant amateur film was The Dirk Diggler Story (1988), a sort of mock-documentary a la This Is Spinal Tap (1984), about a once-great pornography star named Dirk Diggler. After enrolling in N.Y.U.'s film program for two days, Anderson got his tuition back and made his own short film, Cigarettes & Coffee (1993). He also worked as a production assistant on numerous commercials and music videos before he got the chance to make his first feature, something he liked to call Sydney, but would later become known to the public as Hard Eight (1996). The film was developed and financed through The Sundance Lab, not unlike Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992). Anderson cast three actors whom he would continue working with in the future: Altman veteran Philip Baker Hall, the husky and lovable John C. Reilly and, in a small part, Philip Seymour Hoffman, who so far has been featured in all four of Anderson's films. The film deals with a guardian angel type (played by Hall) who takes down-on-his-luck Reilly under his wing. The deliberately paced film featured a number of Anderson trademarks: wonderful use of source light, long takes and top-notch acting. Yet the film was reedited (and retitled) by Rysher Entertainment against Anderson's wishes. It was admired by critics, but didn't catch on at the box office. Still, it was enough for Anderson to eventually get his next movie financed. "Boogie Nights" was, in a sense, a remake of "The Dirk Diggler Story", but Anderson threw away the satirical approach and instead painted a broad canvas about a makeshift family of pornographers. The film was often joyous in its look at the 1970s and the days when pornography was still shot on film, still shown in theatres, and its actors could at least delude themselves into believing that they were movie stars. Yet "Boogie Nights" did not flinch at the dark side, showing a murder and suicide, literally in one (almost) uninterrupted shot, and also showing the lives of these people deteriorate, while also showing how their lives recovered.
Anderson not only worked with Hall, Reilly and Hoffman again, he also worked with Julianne Moore, Melora Walters, William H. Macy and Luis Guzmán. Collectively, Anderson had something that was rare in U.S. cinema: a stock company of top-notch actors. Aside from the above mentioned, Anderson also drew terrific performances from Burt Reynolds and Mark Wahlberg, two actors whose careers were not exactly going full-blast at the time of "Boogie Nights", but who found themselves to be that much more employable afterwards.
The success of "Boogie Nights" gave Anderson the chance to really go for broke in Magnolia (1999), a massive mosaic that could dwarf Altman's Nashville (1975) in its number of characters.
Anderson was awarded a "Best Director" award at Cannes for Punch-Drunk Love (2002).- Director
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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.- Director
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Andy Goddard is a director and writer known for Set Fire To The Stars (2014), Downton Abbey (2011-12) and Doctor Who (2008). His debut short Little Sisters (1998) was nominated for a BAFTA and won both the Gold Hugo at the 34th Chicago International Film Festival and the Grand Prix in European Competition at Festival Du film DE Vendôme.- Producer
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Sean Durkin was born on 9 December 1981 in Canada. He is a producer and director, known for Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011), The Nest (2020) and The Iron Claw (2023).- Director
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Andrew Dominik was born on 7 October 1967 in Wellington, New Zealand. He is a director and writer, known for Chopper (2000), Blonde (2022) and Killing Them Softly (2012).- Director
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Christopher Morris is known for A Cry for Help (2010), Big Issue - Dog Biscuits (2010) and Restart the Heart (2010).- Producer
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Marc Webb is an American film and music video director. He directed over 100 music videos before he made his film directorial debut with 500 Days of Summer, a romantic comedy. He later directed The Amazing Spider-Man and its 2014 sequel starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. He also directed Gifted and The Only Living Boy in New York.- Director
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Samuel B. Dunn is known for The Fence (2011), Housos vs. Authority (2012) and The Road to Dungog (2011).- Director
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Craig Zobel was born on 16 September 1975. He is a director and producer, known for Compliance (2012), The Hunt (2020) and Z for Zachariah (2015).- Writer
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Pablo Berger was born in 1963 in Bilbao, Vizcaya, País Vasco, Spain. He is a writer and director, known for Blancanieves (2012), Torremolinos 73 (2003) and Robot Dreams (2023). He is married to Yuko Harami. They have one child.