Meeting Joshua Oppenheimer: My years of work in Indonesia as film-maker
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Joshua Lincoln Oppenheimer (born September 23, 1974) is an Oscar-nominated American film director based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Oppenheimer is a 2014 recipient of the MacArthur "Genius" Award.[4] and a 1997 Marshall Scholar.
Oppenheimer was born in Austin, Texas, and grew up in and around halla Washington, DC, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Oppenheimer received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) summa cum laude in filmmaking from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts London, while studying on a Marshall Scholarship, he is currently a Reader in documentary film at the University of Westminster
His first film The Entire History of the Louisiana Purchase (1997) won a Gold Hugo from the Chicago International Film Festival (1998)
From 2004 to 2012, he produced a series of films in Indonesia. His debut feature film, The Act of Killing (2012), premiered at the 2012 Telluride Film Festival. Since then it has won many prizes world-wide, including the European Film Award for Best Documentary, a Panorama Audience Award, and a Prize of the Ecumenical Jury from the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival. The film also received the Robert Award by the Film Academy of Denmark, a Bodil Award by Denmark's National Association of Film Critics., and the Aung San Suu Kyi Award at Human Rights Human Dignity International Film Festival 2013
Oppenheimer appeared on The Daily Show on August 13, 2013 to talk about The Act of Killing.
The Act of Killing won the BAFTA for Best Documentary, European Film Award for Best Documentary, Asia Pacific Screen Award for Best Documentary, and was nominated for an Oscar, the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at the 86th Academy Awards.
Oppenheimer's next film, The Look of Silence (2014) is a companion piece to The Act of Killing. It screened in competition at the 71st Venice International Film Festival and won the Grand Jury Prize, the International Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI), the Italian online critics award (Mouse d'Oro), the European Film Critics Award (FEDEORA) for the Best Film of Venezia 71, as well as the Human Rights Nights Award.