David Lowery (director)

Early life

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on December 26, 1980, David Lowery is the eldest of nine children born to Madeleine and Mark Lowery, a Catholic family. When David was seven, his family moved to the suburb of Irving for his father's work. Some of his younger siblings were born there. Their father Mark Lowery is a Professor of Theology at the University of Dallas; he also has served as departmental chairman and editor-in-chief of the Catholic Social Science Review. Interested in film, Lowery watched everything he could before beginning to make his own work after he graduated from Irving High School.

At the age of 19, Lowery wrote and directed his first film, Lullaby, a short work which he no longer permits to be seen. In this period, he met some other young men interested in film, and they have worked together on some projects.

Career

Lowery had his breakthrough with his first feature film, St. Nick (2009), which follows two runaway children abandoned by their guardians. The film was shown in the South by Southwest festival in 2009. It won the Texas Filmmaker Award at the 2009 AFI Dallas International Film Festival.

In 2011, Lowery wrote and directed the short film entitled Pioneer, which played at the Sundance Film Festival that year.

In 2013, Lowery wrote, directed and edited his second feature film, Ain't Them Bodies Saints, starring Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara. The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. It was selected to compete at the International Critics' Week section of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Lowery has said that he drew from great directors and their works for this film, citing Claire Denis's 35 Shots of Rum, Robert Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and Paul Thomas Anderson and David Fincher as influences.

In addition to having edited films such as Amy Seimetz's Sun Don't Shine and Shane Carruth's Upstream Color, Lowery co-wrote Pit Stop with director Yen Tan. At the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, it was announced that Lowery would write and direct the film adaptation of the novel The Yellow Birds, written by Iraq War veteran Kevin Powers; it was a 2012 National Book Award finalist. The film was eventually directed by Alexandre Moors and stars Jack Huston, Tye Sheridan, Alden Ehrenreich and Jennifer Aniston.

In July 2016, it was announced Lowery would direct an episode of Breakthrough for National Geographic Channel. In November 2016, it was announced Lowery had shot a new film, A Ghost Story, over the summer with Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck as a secret project.

In March 2017, it was announced that Lowery would direct The Old Man and the Gun, to star Casey Affleck and Robert Redford.

Personal life

In 2012 Lowery married actress Augustine Frizzell.