Joshua Oppenheimer | |
|---|---|
 Oppenheimer at the 2024Toronto International Film Festival | |
| Born | Joshua Lincoln Oppenheimer (1974-09-23)September 23, 1974 (age 50) Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Harvard College(B.A.) Central Saint Martins(Ph.D.) |
| Occupation | Film director |
| Years active | 1995–present |
| Notable work | The Act of Killing The Look of Silence |
| Awards | MacArthur Fellowship Marshall Scholarship BAFTA European Film Award Grand Jury Prize (Venice Film Festival) |
Joshua Lincoln Oppenheimer (born September 23, 1974) is an American film director based inCopenhagen, Denmark.[1][2] He is known for hisOscar-nominated filmsThe Act of Killing (2012) andThe Look of Silence (2014). Oppenheimer was a 1997Marshall Scholar[3] and a 2014 recipient of theMacArthur fellowship.[4]
Oppenheimer was born to aJewish family,[5] inAustin, Texas, and grew up in and aroundWashington, D.C., andSanta Fe, New Mexico.[6] He received a Bachelor of Arts (BA)summa cum laude in film-making fromHarvard University and a PhD fromCentral Saint Martins College of Art and Design,University of the Arts London, while studying on aMarshall Scholarship. He is Professor of Film at theUniversity of Westminster.
His first filmThe Entire History of the Louisiana Purchase (1997) won a Gold Hugo from theChicago International Film Festival (1998).[7]
From 2004 to 2012, he produced a series of films inIndonesia. His debut feature film about the individuals who participated in theIndonesian mass killings of 1965–66,The Act of Killing (2012), premiered at the 2012Telluride Film Festival. It went on to win many prizes worldwide, including the European Film Award for Best Documentary, a Panorama Audience Award, and a Prize of the Ecumenical Jury from the63rd Berlin International Film Festival.[8] The film also received theRobert Award by the Film Academy of Denmark, aBodil Award by Denmark's National Association of Film Critics,[9] and theAung San Suu Kyi Award at the Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival 2013.[10] Oppenheimer appeared onThe Daily Show on August 13, 2013, to talk aboutThe Act of Killing.[11]
The Act of Killing won the BAFTA for Best Documentary, European Film Award for Best Documentary, the Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Documentary, and was nominated forBest Documentary Feature at the86th Academy Awards.[12]
Oppenheimer's next film,The Look of Silence (2014), is a companion piece toThe Act of Killing. It was nominated forBest Documentary Feature at the88th Academy Awards. It was screened in competition at the71st Venice International Film Festival[13][14] and won the Grand Jury Prize, theInternational Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI), the Italian online critics award (Mouse d'Oro), theEuropean Film Critics Award (F.E.D.E.O.R.A.) for the Best Film of Venezia 71, as well as the Human Rights Nights Award.[15] Since then, it has gone on to win a further 70 international awards, including anIndependent Spirit Award, anIDA Award for Best Documentary, aGotham Award for Best Documentary, and threeCinema Eye Honors, including Best Film and Best Director. Cinema Eye Honors named him a decade-defining filmmaker in 2016, and both his films as decade-defining films.
In a 2015, interview withThe New York Times, Oppenheimer stated that the West shares "a great deal" of responsibility for the mass killings in Indonesia, noting in particular that "the United States provided the special radio system so the Army could coordinate the killings over the vast archipelago. A man named Bob Martens, who worked at the United States Embassy in Jakarta, was compiling lists of thousands of names of Indonesian public figures who might be opposed to the new regime and handed these lists over to the Indonesian government."[16] In 2014, after a screening ofThe Act of Killing for US Congress members, Oppenheimer called on the US to acknowledgeits role in the killings.[17] In October 2017, the U.S. government declassified thousands of files related to the killings, with officials citing the impact of Oppenheimer's films.[18]
In July 2016, he was named as a member of the main competition jury for the73rd Venice International Film Festival.[19] In September 2017 he was the guest director for the Telluride Film Festival.[20]
In 2021, film production companyNeon announced Oppenheimer would direct a narrativefeature film, a post-apocalyptic musical titledThe End.[21] The film premiered at the51st Telluride Film Festival on 31 August 2024, and was screened in the Special Presentations program at theToronto International Film Festival on 6 September 2024.[22] It starsTilda Swinton,Michael Shannon,George MacKay,Moses Ingram,Bronagh Gallagher, and others.[23]
Oppenheimer is openlygay and lives with his husband Shusaku Harada inCopenhagen, Denmark.[24]
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Hugh | Short film |
| 1996 | These Places We've Learned to Call Home | Short |
| 1997 | The Challenge of Manufacturing | Short |
| 1997 | The Entire History of the Louisiana Purchase | Short |
| 2003 | The Globalisation Tapes | A collaboration between the Independent Plantation Workers' Union of Sumatra, the International Union of Food and Agricultural Workers (IUF), and Vision Machine (Christine Cynn, Joshua Oppenheimer, Michael Uwemedimo, Andrea Luka Zimmerman). He was the producer. |
| 2003 | A Brief History of Paradise as Told by the Cockroaches | Short |
| 2003 | Market Update | Short |
| 2004 | Postcard from Sun City, Arizona | Short |
| 2004 | Muzak: a tool of management | Short |
| 2007 | Show of Force | Installation |
| 2012 | The Act of Killing | Documentary film |
| 2014 | The Look of Silence | Documentary |
| 2024 | The End | Musical |
| External videos | |
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 Joshua Oppenheimer on "The Act of Killing": The VICE Podcast 034 onYouTube |
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