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Derek Cianfrance

Highest Rated: 97% Sound of Metal (2019)

Lowest Rated: 43% Streets of Legend (2003)

Birthday: Jan 23, 1974

Birthplace: Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Derek Cianfrance offered a flash of indie wunkerkind in 1998 with the acceptance of his first film "Brother Tied" at the Sundance Film Festival, but it would take another 12 years for the writer-director to deliver major dividends on that promise, namely with his visceral, tragic romance, "Blue Valentine" (2010). A Colorado native, Cianfrance began making amateur movies as a teenager and wound up cutting his education short to make "Brother Tied," the story of a strained relationship between two brothers was a festival favorite but failed to find broader distribution. In the wake of his first film and the financial struggles he endured, Cianfrance briefly made a living as a rock music documentarian for MTV and VH1. He also found work as a cinematographer on the film "Quattro Nova," earning Cianfrance the top cinematographer accolade at Sundance in 2003. In the meantime, he went through multiple versions of his "Blue Valentine" script, a time-jumping deconstruction of a relationship's beginning and end, and was able to attach Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling to the project, which helped win him secure financing. Cianfrance returned to Sundance in 2010, winning the Grand Jury Prize for the film and securing distribution. More than a decade after his initial cinematic bar mitzvah, Cianfrance well earned a chorus of buzz heralding him as an auteur to be reckoned with.

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Highest rated movies

97% 90% Sound of Metal Watchlist 95% 92% Exhibiting Forgiveness Watchlist 87% 77% Blue Valentine Watchlist
79% 75% The Place Beyond the Pines
Watchlist
67% Towheads
Watchlist
62% 61% The Light Between Oceans Watchlist
43% 61% Streets of Legend
Watchlist
Shots in the Dark
Watchlist
Cagefighter
Watchlist
Brother Tied
Watchlist

Filmography

Movies

Credit
95% 92% Exhibiting Forgiveness Producer $494.4K 2024
No Score Yet No Score Yet Bonnie Self - 2022
97% 90% Sound of Metal Executive Producer - 2019
62% 61% The Light Between Oceans Director,
Screenwriter
$12.5M 2016
67% No Score Yet Towheads Matt (Character) - 2013
79% 75% The Place Beyond the Pines Director,
Screenwriter
$21.4M 2012
No Score Yet No Score Yet Cagefighter Director - 2012
87% 77% Blue Valentine Director,
Screenwriter
$9.7M 2010
43% 61% Streets of Legend Cinematographer $4.8K 2003
No Score Yet No Score Yet Shots in the Dark Director - 2001
No Score Yet No Score Yet Brother Tied Director,
Screenwriter,
Cinematographer,
Film Editing
- 1998

TV

Credit
74% 88% I Know This Much Is True Executive Producer,
Director,
Writer
2020
No Score Yet No Score Yet Last Call With Carson Daly Guest 2016