Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh
Soderbergh in 2024
Born
Steven Andrew Soderbergh

(1963-01-14) January 14, 1963 (age 61)
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Other namesSam Lowry
Peter Andrews
Mary Ann Bernard
Occupations
  • Film director
  • film producer
  • screenwriter
  • cinematographer
  • film editor
Years active1981–present
WorksFilmography
MovementIndependent cinema
Spouses
(m. 1989; div. 1994)
(m. 2003)
Children2[1]

Steven Andrew Soderbergh (/ˈsdərˌbɜːrɡ/ SOH-dər-burg; born January 14, 1963)[2] is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, and editor. A pioneer of modern independent cinema, Soderbergh later drew acclaim for formally inventive films made within the studio system.

Soderbergh's directorial breakthrough, the indie drama Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), lifted him into the public spotlight as a notable presence in the film industry. At 26, Soderbergh became the youngest solo director to win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and the film garnered worldwide commercial success, as well as numerous accolades. His next five films, which included King of the Hill (1993), were commercially unsuccessful. He pivoted into more mainstream fare with the crime comedy Out of Sight (1998), the biopic Erin Brockovich (2000) and the crime drama Traffic (2000). For Traffic, he won the Academy Award for Best Director.

Soderbergh found further popular and critical success with the Ocean's trilogy and film franchise (2001–18); Che (2008); The Informant! (2009); Contagion (2011); Haywire (2011); Magic Mike (2012); Side Effects (2013); Logan Lucky (2017); Unsane (2018); Let Them All Talk (2020); No Sudden Move (2021); and Kimi (2022). His film career spans a multitude of genres but his specialties are psychological, crime, and heist films. His films have grossed over US$2.2 billion worldwide and garnered fourteen Academy Award nominations, winning five.

Soderbergh's films often revolve around familiar concepts which are regularly used for big-budget Hollywood movies, but he routinely employs an avant-garde arthouse approach. They center on themes of shifting personal identities, vengeance, sexuality, morality, and the human condition. His feature films are often distinctive in the realm of cinematography as a result of his having been influenced by avant-garde cinema, coupled with his use of unconventional film and camera formats. Many of Soderbergh's films are anchored by multi-dimensional storylines with plot twists, nonlinear storytelling, experimental sequencing, suspenseful soundscapes, and third-person vantage points.

  1. ^ "Source: Steven Soderbergh Came Clean to Wife About Fathering a Child While Separated". Today. February 3, 2011. Retrieved November 19, 2021.
  2. ^ Steven Soderbergh at the Encyclopædia Britannica