Occupation Director, producer Spouse Melissa Axelrod Role Filmmaker | Name Terry Zwigoff Years active 1985–present | |
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Alma mater University of Wisconsin-Madison Movies Ghost World, Bad Santa, Crumb, Art School Confidential, Louie Bluie | ||
Director profile terry zwigoff
Terry Zwigoff (born May 18, 1949) is an American filmmaker whose work often deals with misfits, antiheroes, and themes of alienation.
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Life and career
Zwigoff was born in Appleton, Wisconsin to a Jewish family of dairy farmers. Raised in Chicago, Zwigoff moved to San Francisco in the 1970s and met cartoonist Robert Crumb, who shared his interest in pre-war American roots music. Zwigoff, who plays cello and mandolin, joined Crumb’s string band R. Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders with whom he recorded several records.
Zwigoff began his film career making documentary films, starting with 1985's Louie Bluie, a one-hour documentary about the blues and string band musician Howard Armstrong. Zwigoff had been inspired to locate and interview him after listening to a 30s recording, "State Street Rag", on which Armstrong played the mandolin.
Zwigoff worked on a documentary about R. Crumb and his two brothers for nine years, during which Zwigoff said he was “averaging an income of about $200 a month and living with back pain so intense that I spent three years with a loaded gun on the pillow next to my bed, trying to get up the nerve to kill myself.” He completed Crumb in 1994; the critically acclaimed film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, the DGA award, the NY Film Critics Circle Award, the LA Film Critics Award, and the National Society of Film Critics Award. Additionally, critic Gene Siskel named Crumb the best film of 1995 as did over ten other major film critics. It appeared on over 150 Ten Best Lists of important critics. When Crumb failed to receive an Oscar nomination, there was an outcry from the media which forced the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to revamp their documentary nomination process that previously had been dominated by the distributors of documentary films.
Zwigoff’s first fiction feature film was the comedy-drama Ghost World, based on the comic book of the same name. For this, Zwigoff and co-writer Daniel Clowes were nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and won the Independent Spirit Award. Ghost World was also nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and two AFI awards. USA Today and The Washington Post called it the best film of the year. Ghost World appeared on over 150 Ten Best Lists.
Zwigoff’s next film was the 2003 black comedy Bad Santa whose star, Billy Bob Thornton, was nominated for a Golden Globe award. The film cost $23 million to make and grossed over $76 million worldwide.
His latest feature film was Art School Confidential whose best known stars are John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, and Anjelica Huston. Art School Confidential was Zwigoff’s second collaboration with writer Daniel Clowes.