ROBERT ALTMAN (Director / Producer) has, throughout his singular career, surprised, entertained and challenged audiences with vibrant, freewheeling films that stretch the boundaries of the medium. His extraordinary accomplishments have been recognized with four Academy Award® nominations for Best Director (Short Cuts, The Player, Nashville and M*A*S*H*) and two nominations for best film (M*A *S*H* and Nashville). Altman is an auteur in the truest sense of the word, producing work with a distinct creative imprint. At the same time, his more than thirty features reflect an astounding range: films made with enormous casts (Dr. T & The Women, Nashville, A Wedding, Short Cuts), as well as one with a solitary cast member (Secret Honor); films celebrating male camaraderie (M*A*S*H, California Split), and those exploring women s consciousness (Images, Three Women, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean). He has inverted, satirized and enriched genres like the western (McCabe and Mrs. Miller), the gangster melodrama (Thieves Like Us), the detective film (The Long Goodbye) and the biography (Vincent and Theo).
Altman's work with actors is legendary. His use of music has broken ground in films as different as McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Nashville, and Kansas City. He has been applauded for the technical innovation of multi-layered soundtracks and for his pioneering use of the zoom lens. While his subjects and themes have been diverse, he has often cast an irreverent eye on the institutions, mores and foibles of American life, matching that with an encompassing, unsentimental humanism.
Altman has also served as a producer on Robert Benton's The Late Show and Robert M. Young's Rich Kids, as well as Welcome to L.A., Remember My Name, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, Afterglow, and Trixie, all by Alan Rudolph. Other awards include: at Cannes, the Palme Dor/Best Film (M*A*S*H), and Best Director (The Player); the New York Film Critics Circle, Best Film, Best Director (The Player, Nashville); the Venice Film Festival Grand Prix, Best Film (Short Cuts); the British Academy (BAFTA) Best Director (The Player) and Best Foreign Television Series (Tanner '88); opening night of the New York Film Festival (Short Cuts, A Wedding); and the Emmy for Best Director (Tanner '88).
Actors and ensembles have also collected numerous awards for work in Altman's films: at Cannes (Images, 3 Women, The Player), the Golden Globes (The Player, Short Cuts); the Venice Film Festival (Streamers), the New York Film Critics Circle (3 Women, Kansas City), and the National Board of Review (Pret-A Porter), among others. Career honors have been bestowed by the Venice Film Festival, the American Film Institute, the Directors Guild of America, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Society of American Cinema Editors, the Cinema Audio Society and, most recently, the American Society of Cinematographers. This year, retrospectives of Altman's films were held at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Rose Cinemas and at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Altman will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award this year at the Independent Feature Project's Gotham Awards.
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