Filmmakers GUS VAN SANT (Director/Producer) received an Academy Award® nomination for Best Director for 1997s Good Will Hunting. The story is about a janitor at MIT, a mathematical genius, in trouble with the law who is assigned counseling instead of a more unfavorable sentence. The film won two Academy Awards®, including Best Supporting Actor (Robin Williams) and Best Original Screenplay (Matt Damon and Ben Affleck) and six additional Academy Award® nominations including one for Best Picture. Van Sant has been winning over critics and audiences alike since bursting on the scene with his first widely acclaimed feature, Mala Noche, which won the Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Independent/Experimental feature of 1987. Drugstore Cowboy, directed and co-written by Van Sant (with Daniel Yost), starred Matt Dillon and Kelly Lynch and won numerous awards, including the 1989 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Director, the 1989 Pen Literary Award for screenplay adaptation, as well as the 1990 Independent Spirit Award for Best Screenplay. His next feature, My Own Private Idaho, was a poetic film about the search for family which starred River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves. It won awards for Best Screenplay, Best Actor and Best Music at the Independent Spirit Awards, as well as the Critics' Prize for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues followed, a new-age movie road movie exploring sexual identity and social change. It was adapted by Van Sant from Tom Robbin's magical and much loved novel and starred Uma Thurman, Lorraine Bracco, Rain Phoenix and John Hurt. Based on Joyce Maynard's book, To Die For, starred Nicole Kidman as an ambitious small-town television reporter who intimidates some teenagers (Casey Affleck and Joaquin Phoenix) into murdering her husband Matt Dillon. The black comedy won a Golden Globe Award and was screened at the 1995 Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals. Born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1952, Van Sant traveled around the country with his family. After earning a BA at the Rhode Island School of Design, he moved to Hollywood, were he began working with Ken Shapiro, the maker of the cult classic, The Groove Tube. While in Los Angeles he made a small independent feature (which he later cut to feature length), Alice in Hollywood. Since the early 1980s, Gus Van Sant's short films have been winning awards in film festivals around the world. His work includes an adaptation of his literary hero William S. Burrough's short story, The Discipline of DE, a deadpan black & white gem which debuted at the New York Film Festival. Other acclaimed shorts include the darkly personal meditation Five Ways to Kill Yourself and Thanksgiving Prayer, a re-teaming with Burroughs which was exhibited with Derek Jarman's Edward II. A longtime musician, Van Sant has also directed music videos for such artists as David Bowie, Elton John, Tracy Chapman and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, including the Pepper's award-winning video "Under the Bridge." Early in his career, Van Sant spent two years in Manhattan creating commercials for a Madison Avenue advertising firm. He then crossed the continent to settle in Portland, Oregon, where he has lived and worked ever since, writing and directing films, shooting commercials and music videos, and, for a brief period, teaching film production at the Northwest Film Center. He has also continued to pursue his other talents- painting, photography, and writing. Van San published his first book of photography, 108 Portraits (Twelvetrees Press) in 1995 and in the fall of 1997, his first novel, Pink, a satire on filmmaking was published by Doubleday. top ProducerBRIAN GRAZER, partnered with Ron Howard in Imagine Entertainment, has established himself as one of the most creative and prolific producers in the entertainment industry. With a keen ability for spotting new talent as well as an ease with the written word, Mr. Grazer has been the driving force behind some of the film industry's most popular stars and projects. Mr. Grazer's Liar Liar, starring Jim Carrey and directed by Tom Shadyac, was the biggest opening weekend for a March release at $32 million dollars and has currently grossed over $300,000,000 worldwide. Mr. Grazer was also honored in March 1997 by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce with his own star on Hollywood Blvd. Within 1996, Mr. Grazer produced the fifth and sixth highest grossing movies of the year: Ransom and The Nutty Professor. Ransom, which to date has grossed over $300,000,000 worldwide stars Mel Gibson, Rene Russo, Gary Sinise and Delroy Lino and is directed by Ron Howard. The Nutty Professor, starring Eddie Murphy and directed by Tom Shadyac, won an Academy Award® for Best Makeup and The People's Choice Award for Favorite Comedy Motion Picture. The Nutty Professor has grossed over $270,000,000 worldwide. Additionally, Mr. Grazer produced the critically acclaimed and box office success Apollo 13, starring Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Kevin Bacon, Ed Harris and Kathleen Quinlan and directed by his partner Ron Howard. That year, Mr. Grazer received the Darryl F. Zanuck Motion Picture Producer of the Year award from the Producers Guild of America for his work on Apollo 13. The film has grossed over $335,000,000 worldwide and was nominated for nine Academy Awards® and four Golden Globe Awards; winning two Academy Awards® for Best Film Editing and Best Sound. Also, Apollo 13 was chosen Favorite Motion Picture and Favorite Dramatic Motion Picture by the People's Choice Awards, Best Picture by the Chicago Film Critics Awards and Best Cast and Best Supporting Actor (Ed Harris) by the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Mr. Grazer is currently producing Nutty 2, starring Eddie Murphy; Life, starring Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence; Curious George; edTV, directed by Ron Howard and starring Matthew McConaughey, Ellen DeGeneres, Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Hurley; Bowfinger, directed by Frank Oz and starring Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy; Detox, directed by Jim Gillespie and starring Sylvester Stallone; and Sea Wolf, directed by Ron Howard and starring Nicholas Cage. Mr. Grazer's films have grossed over $3 billion worldwide. Mr. Grazer is currently executive producer of the television series Felicity on WB, starring Keri Russell and Scott Speedman, as well as three television shows selected for fall/mid-season airing: The PJ's on FBC, starring the voice of Eddie Murphy; Sports Night on ABC, starring Josh Charles and Peter Krause; and Paul Reubens-Untitled on NBC, starring Paul Reubens and Monica Gannis. In addition, Mr. Grazer, along with Tom Hanks and Ron Howard, co-produced for HBO From the Earth to the Moon-thirteen one-hour episodes on the Apollo Space Program. It is the largest original programming investment ever made by HBO, and it recently premiered to great acclaim and won an Emmy for Best Mini Series. Mr. Grazer began his impressive career as a producer by developing television projects with Edgar J. Sherick and Daniel Blatt. During his two-year tenure, he produced the top-rated NBC television features Zuma Beach and Thou Shall Not Kill. In 1980, Mr. Grazer signed a development/production deal with Paramount Pictures, an association that led to his segue into motion pictures. While creating and executive-producing several television pilots for Paramount, Mr. Grazer met Ron Howard, who was just completing his seven-year run on the hit series Happy Days. During his early days as a producer, Mr. Grazer hired Ron Howard to first direct Night Shift and then to direct the romantic comedy Splash, which starred Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah and John Candy. The latter garnered Mr. Grazer an Academy Award® nomination for Best Screenplay (for his story), while both films firmly established Mr. Grazer as a skillful feature film producer with a flair for comedy. Mr. Grazer and Mr. Howard officially joined forces in 1986, as co-chairmen and founders of Imagine Films Entertainment, Inc., a public company that they eventually took private in 1993 as Imagine Entertainment. In 1989, the then-public company released its first film, The 'burbs, a wacky comedy about suburban living starring Tom Hanks and since then have made films grossing over two-and-a-half billion dollars worldwide. The 'burbs kicked off what was to become a very profitable year for Imagine. The company released two additional features in 1989: the successful comedy The Dream Team, starring Michael Keaton and Parenthood. Parenthood, an ensemble comedy headed by Steve Martin about the ups and downs of raising children, became a box office phenomenon. It was the number one attraction in its first two weeks of release and went on to gross over $100 million and was nominated for two Academy Awards®. Grazer also produced The Paper (Micheal Keaton, Glenn Close, Marisa Tomei and Robert Duvall), My Girl (Macaulay Culkin and Anna Chlumsky), Kindergarten Cop (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Backdraft (Kurt Russell and Robert DeNiro, directed by Ron Howard) which was nominated for four Academy Awards®. In addition, Mr. Grazer produced Real Genius (Val Kilmer), Clean and Sober (Michael Keaton), Spies Like Us (Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd), Armed and Dangerous (Meg Ryan), John Waters' Cry Baby (Johnny Depp), CB4 (Chris Rock) and The Doors, directed by Oliver Stone. In 1992, Mr. Grazer was honored as NATO/ShoWest Producer of the Year-a year in which three of his films were released: Ron Howard's Far and Away, the epic love story starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman; Housesitter, a romantic comedy starring Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn; and the comedy Boomerang, starring Eddie Murphy. The award acknowledges not only Grazer's extraordinary producing abilities, but also his skill at combining stories with stars to produce many of today's most successful and entertaining motion pictures. In 1993, Mr. Grazer and Mr. Howard were honored with an Entertainment Industry Salute by The March of Dimes. In June 1998, Mr. Grazer received the Cubby R. Broccoli Award at Cinema Expo in Amsterdam. top DANY WOLF (Executive Producer) is an award-winning producer of documentaries, short films, commercials and music videos and began his association with Gus Van Sant working on commercials. He produced the short film Ballad of the Skeletons, directed by Van Sant and featuring the poet Allen Ginsberg accompanied by Paul McCartney with music by Philip Glass. Wolf continued working with Van Sant producing the Hanson music video "Weird," which was ranked as one of the most requested videos of 1998 on MTV. Producing commercials internationally for the past 10 years has given Wolf the opportunity to work with many of today's top filmmakers. At the beginning of 1998 he worked for Lawrence Bender and Quentin Tarantino's production company A Band Apart, where he produced director John Woo's Nike "Airport" commercial which aired during the World Cup and garnered a silver medal at the Cannes Advertising Festival. Also a producer of documentary film, Wolf includes among his credits the documentary House of Tres which focused on the underground vogue and hip hop scene in New York. Wolf resides in New York with his companion Ling, the Malaysian Chinese model who is the face of Estee Lauder's Prescriptives line and a singer in the Malcolm McLaren produced group Jungk. Wolf speaks Chinese, Portuguese and French and credits his alma mater the American Graduate School of International Management with giving him a truly international perspective, allowing him to produce anywhere in the world. top Born into mundane post-war Sydney, Australia in 1952, CHRIS DOYLE (Director of Photography) has spent much of his life at large. He was a sailor with the Norwegian Merchant Marine at the age of 18, a Chinese Art History major at the Universal of Maryland, a Thai-based Chinese "quack-medicine doctor," a "cowboy-nic" on an Israeli kibbutz, even a well digger in the Indian desert. Chris, fluent in French and Mandarin, was "reincarnated in the late 70s by his poet language teacher at the University of Hong Kong, who gave him the evocative name, "Du Ke Feng." He has never been the same since. Beginning with Edward Yang's That Day on the Beach (1981), Chris has collaborated as director of photography with many top Aisan filmmakers, including Chen Kai Ge on Temptress Moon, Stanley Kwan on Red Rose/White Rose and most significantly with Wong Kar-wai on Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Days of Being Wild, Ashes of Time and Happy Together. Chungking Express became the first release of Quentin Tarentino's Rolling Thunder Pictures. Chris soon began to think of himself as an Asian filmmaker and became the most sought after cinematographer in Asia, working with top actors Gong Li, Leslie Cheung, Tony Leung, Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung and Joan Chen. Chris has had exhibitions of his photography in Hong Kong, Taipei, Rotterdam, Tokyo, Kobe and Kyoto. Five books of his film-related writings and photography have been published in various languages. "Christopher Doyle: Image Wrangler" marks his first US gallery exhibition and film retrospective. Chris is currently shooting Barry Levinson's last entry in his quartet of Baltimore stories, Liberty Heights. By year's end, Doyle will complete his feature directorial debut, Away with Words, which he also wrote and shot. Keeping life a happy adventure is an every day pursuit for Chris Doyle, who doesn't look upon his work as a "job," but as communion and celebration. top JOSEPH STEFANO (Screenwriter) is a native of South Philadelphia. He is best known as the man who wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock's Psycho. Stefano also wrote the 1959 The Black Orchid, starring Sophia Loren and Anthony Quinn. After writing other film scripts, Stefano turned his attention to television, as co-producer and author of the popular 1964-1964 cult TV series The Outer Limits. Since then, he has alternated between scripts for feature films and television. His many awards include the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Psycho and the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Film Saturn Award. top TOM FODEN (Production Designer) makes his feature film debut with Psycho. Born in England, he came to Los Angeles 15 years ago. With a background in music video design, Foden includes among his credits the music videos "Closer" for Nine Inch Nails, "Scream" for Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson and "Bedtime Stories" for Madonna. Foden first collaborated with Van Sant on the award winning music video "Weird" for the teen pop group Hanson. top BEATRIX ARUNA PASZTOR (Costume Designer), a member of Van Sant's creative team, first worked for the director on Drugstore Cowboy followed by My Own Private Idaho, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, To Die For and Good Will Hunting. Most recently she completed Miramax' She's So Lovely, directed by Nick Cassavetes, Oliver Stone's U-Turn and Marco Brambilla's Excess Baggage. Altogether, Pasztor has designed costumes for 18 feature films, including Indecent Proposal, The Fisher King and her first picture, The Bloodhounds of Broadway, starring Madonna. Born in Budapest, Hungary, Pasztor studied at the Academy of Applied Arts, graduating in 1984. During this period she designed couture shoes and costumes for theatrical productions. She moved to New York in 1984 to pursue her career, and earned a living as a hat designer and a window display dresser at Bloomingdales and Henry Bendel's before landing jobs on low-budget films in New York. In 1988 she relocated to Los Angeles. top AMY E. DUDDLESTON (Editor) first collaborated with Gus Van Sant as first assistant editor on My Own Private Idaho in 1990. She had the opportunity to work with hime again, as an associate editor on Even Cowgirls Get The Blues and To Die For. In addition to numerous short films and commercials, her recent credits as editor include the award-winning feature High Art, starring Ally Sheedy, which premiered at the Sundance and Cannes film festivals, and the upcoming Brokedown Palace starring Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale. A graduate of The University of Arizona with a BFA in Fine Arts Studies, Duddleston began her career at the age of 18 as an intern in the editing room of Revenge of the Nerds. top DANNY ELFMAN (Music Produced and Adapted) started out in the music business when he formed the band The Mysterious Knights of Oingo Boingo which went on to achieve cult status in the United States. Elfman was then approached by director Tim Burton to score Pee-Wee's Big Adventure in 1985 which launched his career as a film composer. He has since written the scores for the Tim Burton films Batman, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Mars Attacks and The Nightmare Before Christmas. His other credits include Dick Tracy, Darkman, Sommersby, Mission Impossible, Dolores Clairborne, Flubber and Men In Black. Elfman previously worked with director Gus Van Sant on Good Will Hunting. top BERNARD HERRMANN (Music) has composed more than forty scores for such acclaimed directors as Orson Welles, Francois Truffaut, Martin Scorsese and, of course, Alfred Hitchcock. From his first film, Citizen Kane to his last, Taxi Driver, Herrmann was a master at evoking psychological nuance and dramatic tension through his compositions. His music was also distinguished by unique combinations of instruments that were used to suit the dramatic needs of a film. His scores have ranged in tone from science-fiction with Fahrenheit 451 and The Day The Earth Stood Still to romance with The Ghost and Mrs. Muir and Obsession and to the truly terrifying with Psycho. Herrmann's other collaborations with Hitchcock include Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, North By Northwest, Torn Curtain, Marnie and The Trouble With Harry.