Terry Zwigoff

Terry Zwigoff (born May 18th, 1948) is an American film director and screenwriter who began his career making documentary films. Louie Bluie (1985), about an obscure blues musician, was his first film. It was followed by another documentary, Crumb (1995) which won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and also the DGA Award, along with every film critic’s award that year including the New York Film Critic’s Award, The National Society of Film Critics Award, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Award. It’s failure to receive an Oscar nomination, and the subsequent outcry from this omission, led to the Academy Awards changing the way it’s members voted for Documentary Film. Crumb wound up on over 150 Top Ten Lists for 1995 and was called the best film of the year by many critics.

Ghost World (2001) was Zwigoff’s first fiction film. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Screenplay along with co-writer Dan Clowes. USA Today and the Washington Post called it the best film of the year, and it wound up on over 150 Top Ten lists. This was followed by Bad Santa (2003) whose star, Billy Bob Thornton, was nominated for a Golden Globe award. The film cost $18 million and grossed over $80 million. Zwigoff’s last film, Art School Confidential (2005) starred John Malkovich, Jim Broadbent, and Angelica Huston.