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Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the
New Hollywood The New Hollywood, also known as American New Wave or Hollywood Renaissance, was a movement in American film history from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s, when a new generation of young filmmakers came to prominence. They influenced the types o ...
era. He is the recipient of many major accolades, including an Academy Award, a Grammy Award, three Emmy Awards, four British Academy Film Awards, two Directors Guild of America Awards, an
AFI Life Achievement Award The AFI Life Achievement Award was established by the board of directors of the American Film Institute on February 26, 1973, to honor a single individual for his or her lifetime contribution to enriching American culture through motion picture ...
and the Kennedy Center Honor in 2007. Five of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". Scorsese received an MA from New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development in 1968. His directorial debut, '' Who's That Knocking at My Door'' (1967), was accepted into the Chicago Film Festival. In the 1970s and 1980s decades, Scorsese's films, much influenced by his
Italian-American Italian Americans ( it, italoamericani or ''italo-americani'', ) are Americans who have full or partial Italian ancestry. The largest concentrations of Italian Americans are in the urban Northeast and industrial Midwestern metropolitan areas, ...
background and upbringing in New York City, center on macho-posturing insecure men and explore crime, machismo, nihilism, and Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption. His trademark styles include extensive use of
slow motion Slow motion (commonly abbreviated as slo-mo or slow-mo) is an effect in film-making whereby time appears to be slowed down. It was invented by the Austrian priest August Musger in the early 20th century. This can be accomplished through the use ...
and freeze frames, graphic depictions of extreme violence, and liberal use of profanity. His 1973 crime film '' Mean Streets'', dealing with
machismo Machismo (; ; ; ) is the sense of being " manly" and self-reliant, a concept associated with "a strong sense of masculine pride: an exaggerated masculinity". Machismo is a term originating in the early 1930s and 1940s best defined as hav ...
and violence, and exploring Catholic concepts of guilt and redemption, was a blueprint for his filmmaking styles. Scorsese won the
Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...
at Cannes with his 1976 psychological thriller '' Taxi Driver'', which starred Robert De Niro, who became associated with Scorsese through eight more films including '' New York, New York'' (1977), '' Raging Bull'' (1980) '' The King of Comedy'' (1982), ''
Goodfellas ''Goodfellas'' (stylized ''GoodFellas'') is a 1990 American biographical crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and produced by Irwin Winkler. It is a film adaptation of the 1985 nonfiction book '' W ...
'' (1990), and '' Casino'' (1995). In the 2000s and 2010s decades, Scorsese garnered critical acclaim and box office success with a series of collaborations with Leonardo DiCaprio. These films include ''
Gangs of New York ''Gangs of New York'' is a 2002 American epic historical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan, based on Herbert Asbury's 1927 book '' The Gangs of New York''. The film stars Le ...
'' (2002), '' The Aviator'' (2004), '' The Departed'' (2006), '' Shutter Island'' (2010) and '' The Wolf of Wall Street'' (2013). Returning to his familiar territory of crime films, Scorsese collaborated with De Niro again on '' The Irishman'' (2019). Scorsese's other film work includes the black comedy '' After Hours'' (1985), the romantic drama ''
The Age of Innocence ''The Age of Innocence'' is a 1920 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It was her twelfth novel, and was initially serialized in 1920 in four parts, in the magazine '' Pictorial Review''. Later that year, it was released as a book by D. App ...
'' (1993), the children's adventure drama '' Hugo'' (2011), and the religious epics '' The Last Temptation of Christ'' (1988), ''
Kundun ''Kundun'' is a 1997 American epic biographical film written by Melissa Mathison and directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the life and writings of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, the exiled political and spiritual leader of Tibet. Ten ...
'' (1997) and ''
Silence Silence is the absence of ambient audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low intensity that they do not draw attention to themselves, or the state of having ceased to produce sounds; this latter sense can be extended to apply to the c ...
'' (2016). In addition to film, Scorsese has directed episodes for some television series including the HBO series '' Boardwalk Empire'' (2011–2015), and ''
Vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...
'' (2016), as well as the HBO documentary '' Public Speaking'' (2010), and the
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
docu-series Television documentaries are televised media productions that screen documentaries. Television documentaries exist either as a television documentary series or as a television documentary film. *Television documentary series, sometimes called d ...
'' Pretend It's a City'' (2021). He is also known for several rock music documentaries including ''
The Last Waltz ''The Last Waltz'' was a concert by the Canadian-American rock group The Band, held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. ''The Last Waltz'' was advertised as The Band's "farewell concert a ...
'' (1978), ''
No Direction Home ''No Direction Home: Bob Dylan'' is a 2005 documentary film by Martin Scorsese that traces the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on 20th-century American popular music and culture. The film focuses on the period between Dylan's arrival in New ...
'' (2005), '' Shine a Light'' (2008), and '' George Harrison: Living in the Material World'' (2011). An advocate for film preservation and restoration, he founded three nonprofit organizations:
the Film Foundation The Film Foundation is a US-based non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation and the exhibition of restored and classic cinema. It was founded by director Martin Scorsese and several other leading filmmakers in 1990. The foundation ra ...
in 1990, the World Cinema Foundation in 2007, and the African Film Heritage Project in 2017.


Early life

Martin Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942, in the
Flushing Flushing may refer to: Places * Flushing, Cornwall, a village in the United Kingdom * Flushing, Queens, New York City ** Flushing Bay, a bay off the north shore of Queens ** Flushing Chinatown (法拉盛華埠), a community in Queens ** Flushin ...
area of
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
's Queens borough. His family moved to
Little Italy Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood. The concept of "Little Italy" holds many different aspects of the Italian culture. There are ...
in
Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
before he started school. Both of Scorsese's parents, Charles Scorsese and Catherine Scorsese (born Cappa), worked in New York's Garment District. Charles was a clothes presser and an actor while Catherine was a seamstress and an actress. Both of them were of
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
descent: his paternal grandparents, Francesco Paolo and Teresa Scozzese, emigrated from Polizzi Generosa, while his maternal grandparents, Martino and Domenica Cappa, emigrated from
Ciminna Ciminna is a Sicilian city in the Metropolitan City of Palermo, located approximately southeast of its capital, Palermo. The city's economy is derived mainly from agriculture and traditional crafts. The artist and Franciscan priest Pasquale ...
, both in the
province of Palermo The Province of Palermo ( it, provincia di Palermo; Sicilian: ''pruvincia di Palermu'') was a province in the autonomous region of Sicily, a major island in Southern Italy. Its capital was the city of Palermo. On 4 August 2015, it was replaced ...
,
Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...
. The original surname of the family was ''Scozzese'', later changed to Scorsese because of a transcription error. Scorsese was raised in a predominantly Catholic environment. As a boy, he had asthma and could not play sports or take part in any activities with other children, so his parents and his older brother would often take him to movie theaters; it was at this stage in his life that he developed a passion for cinema. As a teenager in the Bronx, Scorsese frequently rented Powell and Pressburger's ''
The Tales of Hoffmann ''The Tales of Hoffmann'' (French: ) is an by Jacques Offenbach. The French libretto was written by Jules Barbier, based on three short stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann, who is the protagonist of the story. It was Offenbach's final work; he died i ...
'' (1951) from a store that had one copy of the reel. Scorsese was one of only two people who regularly rented it; the other was future film director George A. Romero. Scorsese has cited Sabu and Victor Mature as his favorite actors during his youth. He has also spoken of the influence of the 1947–48 Powell and Pressburger films '' Black Narcissus'' and '' The Red Shoes'', whose innovative techniques later impacted his filmmaking. In his documentary titled '' A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies'', Scorsese said that he was enamored of historical epics in his adolescence, and at least two films of the genre, ''
Land of the Pharaohs ''Land of the Pharaohs'' is a 1955 American epic historical drama film in Cinemascope and WarnerColor from Warner Bros., produced and directed by Howard Hawks, that stars Jack Hawkins as Pharaoh Khufu, also known as Cheops, and Joan Collins as ...
'' and '' El Cid'', appear to have had a deep and lasting impact on his cinematic psyche. Scorsese also developed an admiration for neorealist cinema at this time. He recounted its influence in a documentary on
Italian neorealism Italian neorealism ( it, Neorealismo), also known as the Golden Age, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class. They are filmed on location, frequently with non-professional actors. They pri ...
, and commented on how ''
Bicycle Thieves ''Bicycle Thieves'' ( it, Ladri di biciclette; sometimes known in the United States as ''The Bicycle Thief'') is a 1948 Italian neorealist drama film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It follows the story of a poor father searching in post- World ...
'', '' Rome, Open City'' and especially '' Paisà'' inspired him and influenced his view or portrayal of his Sicilian roots. In his documentary, '' Il Mio Viaggio in Italia'' (''My Voyage to Italy''), Scorsese noted that the Sicilian episode of Roberto Rossellini's '' Paisà'', which he first saw on television with his relatives who were themselves Sicilian immigrants, had a significant impact on his life. He acknowledges owing a great debt to the French New Wave and has stated that "the French New Wave has influenced all filmmakers who have worked since, whether they saw the films or not." He has also cited filmmakers including Satyajit Ray, Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Federico Fellini as major influences on his career. He attended the all-boys
Cardinal Hayes High School Cardinal Hayes High School is an American Catholic high school for boys in the Concourse Village neighborhood of the Bronx, New York City, New York. The school serves the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York. It is a member of the Catholic H ...
in the Bronx, graduating in 1960. He had initially desired to become a priest, attending a preparatory seminary but failed after the first year. This gave way to cinema and consequently Scorsese enrolled in NYU's Washington Square College (now known as the College of Arts and Science), where he earned a B.A. in English in 1964. He went on to earn his MA from New York University's School of Education (now the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development) in 1968, a year after the school was founded.


Career


1960s

While attending the Tisch School of the Arts, Scorsese made the short films '' What's a Nice Girl like You Doing in a Place like This?'' (1963) and ''
It's Not Just You, Murray! ''It's Not Just You, Murray!'' (1964) is a short film directed by Martin Scorsese. The film focuses on Murray, a middle-aged mobster who looks back at his beginnings. The film premiered at the New York Film Festival in 1966. ''It's Not Just You, M ...
'' (1964). His most famous short of the period is the darkly comic '' The Big Shave'' (1967), which features Peter Bernuth. The film is an indictment of America's involvement in Vietnam, suggested by its alternative title ''Viet '67''. Scorsese has mentioned on several occasions that he was greatly inspired in his early days at New York University by film professor Haig P. Manoogian. In 1967, Scorsese made his first feature-length film, the black and white ''I Call First'', which was later retitled '' Who's That Knocking at My Door'', with his fellow students actor
Harvey Keitel Harvey Keitel ( ; born May 13, 1939) is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of morally ambiguous and "tough guy" characters. He first rose to prominence during the New Hollywood movement, and has held a long-running association with ...
and editor
Thelma Schoonmaker Thelma Schoonmaker (; born January 3, 1940) is an American film editor, known for her over five decades of work with frequent director Martin Scorsese. She started working with Scorsese on his debut feature film '' Who's That Knocking at My Doo ...
, both of whom were to become long-term collaborators. This film was intended to be the first of Scorsese's semi-autobiographical J. R. Trilogy, which would have included a later film, '' Mean Streets''. Film critic Roger Ebert saw the film at the 1967 Chicago International Film Festival and in his review praised Scorsese and the film, writing, "'I Call First' brings these two kinds of films together into a work that is absolutely genuine, artistically satisfying and technically comparable to the best films being made anywhere. I have no reservations in describing it as a great moment in American movies."


1970s

Scorsese became friends with the influential "movie brats" of the 1970s:
Brian De Palma Brian Russell De Palma (born September 11, 1940) is an American film director and screenwriter. With a career spanning over 50 years, he is best known for his work in the suspense, crime and psychological thriller genres. De Palma was a leading ...
, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. It was De Palma who introduced Scorsese to Robert De Niro. During this period, Scorsese worked as the assistant director and one of the editors on the documentary '' Woodstock'' (1970) and met actor–director
John Cassavetes John Nicholas Cassavetes ( ; December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. First known as a television and film actor, Cassavetes also helped pioneer American independent cinema, writing and direc ...
, who became a close friend and mentor. In 1972, Scorsese made the Depression-era exploiter ''
Boxcar Bertha ''Boxcar Bertha'' is a 1972 American romantic crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and produced by Roger Corman, from a screenplay by Joyce H. Corrington and John William Corrington, Made on a low budget, the film is loose adaptation o ...
'' for B-movie producer
Roger Corman Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...
, who also helped directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, James Cameron, and
John Sayles John Thomas Sayles (born September 28, 1950) is an American independent film director, screenwriter, editor, actor, and novelist. He has twice been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, for ''Passion Fish'' (1992) and '' ...
launch their careers. It was Corman who taught Scorsese that entertaining films could be shot with very little money or time, preparing the young director well for the challenges to come with ''Mean Streets''. Following the film's release, Cassavetes encouraged Scorsese to make the films that he wanted to make, rather than someone else's projects. Championed by influential film critic
Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...
, ''Mean Streets'' was a breakthrough for Scorsese, De Niro, and Keitel. By now the signature Scorsese style was in place: macho posturing, bloody violence, Catholic guilt and redemption, gritty New York locale (though the majority of ''Mean Streets'' was shot in Los Angeles), rapid-fire editing and a soundtrack with contemporary music. Although the film was innovative, its wired atmosphere, edgy documentary style, and gritty street-level direction owed a debt to directors Cassavetes, Samuel Fuller and early Jean-Luc Godard. In 1974, actress
Ellen Burstyn Ellen Burstyn (born Edna Rae Gillooly; December 7, 1932) is an American actress. Known for her portrayals of complicated women in dramas, she is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, and two Primetime Em ...
chose Scorsese to direct her in '' Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore'', for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress. Although well regarded, the film remains an anomaly in the director's early career as it focuses on a central female character. Returning to Little Italy to explore his ethnic roots, Scorsese next came up with '' Italianamerican'', a documentary featuring his parents Charles and Catherine Scorsese. Scorsese followed with '' Taxi Driver'' in 1976, which depicted a Vietnam veteran who takes the law into his own hands on New York's crime-ridden streets. The film established him as an accomplished filmmaker and also brought attention to cinematographer Michael Chapman, whose style tends towards high contrasts, strong colors, and complex camera movements. The film starred Robert De Niro as the angry and alienated Travis Bickle, and co-starred
Jodie Foster Alicia Christian "Jodie" Foster (born November 19, 1962) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, three British Academy Film Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and the hono ...
in a highly controversial role as an underage prostitute, with Harvey Keitel as her pimp. ''Taxi Driver'' also marked the start of a series of collaborations between Scorsese and writer Paul Schrader, whose influences included the diary of would-be assassin Arthur Bremer and ''
Pickpocket Pickpocketing is a form of larceny that involves the stealing of money or other valuables from the person or a victim's pocket without them noticing the theft at the time. It may involve considerable dexterity and a knack for misdirection. A th ...
'', a film by the French director Robert Bresson. Writer–director Schrader often returns to Bresson's work in films such as '' American Gigolo'', ''
Light Sleeper ''Light Sleeper'' is a 1992 American crime drama film written and directed by Paul Schrader and starring Willem Dafoe, Susan Sarandon, and Dana Delany. Set in New York City during a sanitation strike, the gritty neo-noir film stars Dafoe as a high ...
'', and Scorsese's later ''
Bringing Out the Dead ''Bringing Out the Dead'' is a 1999 American psychological drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader, based on the novel of the same name by Joe Connelly. It stars Nicolas Cage, Patricia Arquette, John Goodman, V ...
''. Already controversial upon its release, ''Taxi Driver'' hit the headlines again five years later, when John Hinckley Jr. made an assassination attempt on then-president Ronald Reagan. He subsequently blamed his act on his obsession with Jodie Foster's ''Taxi Driver'' character (in the film, De Niro's character, Travis Bickle, makes an assassination attempt on a senator). ''Taxi Driver'' won the
Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...
at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, also receiving four
Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People * Oscar (given name), an Irish- and English-language name also used in other languages; the article includes the names Oskar, Oskari, Oszkár, Óscar, and other forms. * Oscar (Irish mythology) ...
nominations, including
Best Picture This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
. The critical and financial success of ''Taxi Driver'' encouraged Scorsese to move ahead with his first big-budget project: the highly stylized musical '' New York, New York''. This tribute to Scorsese's home town and the classic Hollywood musical was a box-office failure. The film was the director's third collaboration with Robert De Niro, co-starring with Liza Minnelli. The film is best remembered today for the title theme song, which was popularized by Frank Sinatra. Although possessing Scorsese's usual visual panache and stylistic bravura, many critics felt its enclosed studio-bound atmosphere left it leaden in comparison with his earlier work. Despite its weak reception, the film is regarded positively by some critics. Richard Brody in '' The New Yorker'' wrote: In 1977 he directed the Broadway musical '' The Act'', starring Liza Minnelli. The disappointing reception that ''New York, New York'' received drove Scorsese into depression. By this stage the director had developed a serious cocaine addiction. However, he did find the creative drive to make the highly regarded ''
The Last Waltz ''The Last Waltz'' was a concert by the Canadian-American rock group The Band, held on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, at Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. ''The Last Waltz'' was advertised as The Band's "farewell concert a ...
'', documenting the final concert by The Band. It was held at the
Winterland Ballroom Winterland Ballroom (more commonly known as Winterland Arena or simply Winterland) was an ice skating rink and music venue in San Francisco, California. The arena was located at the corner of Post Street and Steiner Street. It was converted for ...
in San Francisco on American Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976, and featured one of the most extensive lineups of prominent guest performers at a single concert, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Ringo Starr, Muddy Waters, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison,
Paul Butterfield Paul Vaughn Butterfield (December 17, 1942May 4, 1987) was an American blues harmonica player, singer and band leader. After early training as a classical flautist, he developed an interest in blues harmonica. He explored the blues scene in his n ...
, Neil Diamond,
Ronnie Wood Ronald David Wood (born 1 June 1947) is an English rock musician, best known as an official member of the Rolling Stones since 1975, as well as a member of Faces and the Jeff Beck Group. Wood began his career in 1964, playing guitar with a ...
, and Eric Clapton. However, Scorsese's commitments to other projects delayed the release of the film until 1978. Another Scorsese-directed documentary, titled ''
American Boy "American Boy” is a song by British singer and rapper Estelle featuring American rapper Kanye West from the former's second studio album '' Shine'' (2008). The song was written by the artists, alongside Ethan Hendrickson, will.i.am, John Le ...
'', also appeared in 1978, focusing on Steven Prince, the cocky gun salesman who appeared in ''Taxi Driver''. A period of wild partying followed, damaging the director's already fragile health. Scorsese helped provide footage for the documentary ''
Elvis on Tour ''Elvis on Tour'' is a 1972 American concert film starring Elvis Presley during his fifteen-city spring tour earlier that year. It is written, produced, directed by Pierre Adidge and Robert Abel and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Follow ...
''.


1980s

By several accounts (Scorsese's included), Robert De Niro saved Scorsese's life when he persuaded him to kick his cocaine addiction to make his highly regarded film '' Raging Bull''. Writing for ''The New Yorker'' in March 2000, Mark Singer summarized Scorsese's condition stating:
He (Scorsese) was more than mildly depressed. Drug abuse, and abuse of his body in general, culminated in a terrifying episode of internal bleeding. Robert De Niro came to see him in the hospital and asked, in so many words, whether he wanted to live or die. If you want to live, De Niro proposed, let's make this picture—referring to ''Raging Bull'', an as-told-to book by Jake La Motta, the former world middleweight boxing champion, that De Niro had given him to read years earlier.
Convinced that he would never make another movie, he poured his energies into making this violent biopic of middleweight boxing champion Jake LaMotta, calling it a kamikaze method of film-making. The film is widely viewed as a masterpiece and was voted the greatest film of the 1980s by Britain's ''
Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'' magazine. It received eight Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Robert De Niro and Scorsese's first for Best Director. De Niro won, as did Thelma Schoonmaker for editing, but Best Director went to Robert Redford for '' Ordinary People''. From this work onwards, Scorsese's films are always labeled as "A Martin Scorsese Picture" on promotional material. ''Raging Bull'', filmed in high contrast black and white, is where Scorsese's style reached its zenith: ''Taxi Driver'' and ''New York, New York'' had used elements of expressionism to replicate psychological points of view, but here the style was taken to new extremes, employing extensive slow-motion, complex tracking shots, and extravagant distortion of perspective (for example, the size of boxing rings would change from fight to fight). Thematically too, the concerns carried on from ''Mean Streets'' and ''Taxi Driver'': insecure males, violence, guilt, and redemption. Although the screenplay for ''Raging Bull'' was credited to Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin (who earlier co-wrote ''Mean Streets''), the finished script differed extensively from Schrader's original draft. It was rewritten several times by various writers including Jay Cocks (who went on to co-script later Scorsese films ''The Age of Innocence'' and ''
Gangs of New York ''Gangs of New York'' is a 2002 American epic historical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Jay Cocks, Steven Zaillian and Kenneth Lonergan, based on Herbert Asbury's 1927 book '' The Gangs of New York''. The film stars Le ...
''). The final draft was largely written by Scorsese and Robert De Niro. The American Film Institute chose ''Raging Bull'' as the number one American sports film on their list of the top 10 sports films. In 1997, the Institute ranked ''Raging Bull'' as the twenty-fourth greatest film of all time on their AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies list. In 2007, they ranked ''Raging Bull'' as the fourth greatest film of all time on their AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list. Scorsese's next project was his fifth collaboration with Robert De Niro, '' The King of Comedy'' (1983). It is a satire on the world of media and celebrity, whose central character is a troubled loner who ironically becomes famous through a criminal act ( kidnapping). The film was an obvious departure from the more emotionally committed films he had become associated with. Visually, it was far less kinetic than the style Scorsese had developed previously, often using a static camera and long takes. Here the expressionism of his previous work gave way to moments of almost total surrealism. It still bore many of Scorsese's trademarks, however. The ''King of Comedy'' failed at the box office, but has become increasingly well regarded by critics in the years since its release. German director Wim Wenders numbered it among his 15 favorite films. Also, in 1983, Scorsese made a brief cameo appearance in the film '' Anna Pavlova'' (also known as ''A Woman for All Time''), originally intended to be directed by one of his heroes,
Michael Powell Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a seri ...
. This led to a more significant acting appearance in Bertrand Tavernier's
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
film '' Round Midnight''. He also made a brief venture into television, directing an episode of Steven Spielberg's ''
Amazing Stories ''Amazing Stories'' is an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction. Science fiction stories had made regular appearances ...
''. With '' After Hours'' (1985), for which he won a Best Director Award at Cannes, Scorsese made an esthetic shift back to a pared-down, almost "underground" film-making style. Filmed on an extremely low budget, on location, and at night in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, the film is a black comedy about one increasingly misfortunate night for a mild New York word processor ( Griffin Dunne) and features cameos by such disparate actors as
Teri Garr Teri Ann Garr (born December 11, 1944) is an American former actress, dancer, and comedian. She frequently appeared in comedic roles throughout her career, which spans four decades and includes over 140 credits in film and television. Her accola ...
and
Cheech and Chong Cheech & Chong are a comedy duo consisting of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong. The duo found commercial and cultural success in the 1970s and 1980s with their stand-up routines, studio recordings, and feature films, which were based on the hippie a ...
. Along with the 1987 Michael Jackson music video " Bad", in 1986 Scorsese made ''
The Color of Money ''The Color of Money'' is a 1986 American sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film was created from a screenplay by Richard Price, based on the 1984 novel of the same name by Walter Tevis. Th ...
'', a sequel to the much admired Robert Rossen film ''
The Hustler ''The Hustler'' is a 1961 American sports romantic drama film directed by Robert Rossen from Walter Tevis's 1959 novel of the same name, adapted by Rossen and Sidney Carroll. It tells the story of small-time pool hustler "Fast Eddie" Felson a ...
'' (1961) with Paul Newman, which co-starred Tom Cruise. Although adhering to Scorsese's established style, ''The Color of Money'' was the director's first official foray into mainstream film-making. The film finally won actor Paul Newman an Oscar and gave Scorsese the clout to finally secure backing for a project that had been a longtime goal for him: '' The Last Temptation of Christ''. In 1983, Scorsese began work on this long-cherished personal project. ''The Last Temptation of Christ'', based on the 1955 novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis, retold the life of Christ in human rather than divine terms.
Barbara Hershey Barbara Lynn Herzstein, better known as Barbara Hershey (born February 5, 1948), is an American actress. In a career spanning more than 50 years, she has played a variety of roles on television and in cinema in several genres, including weste ...
recalls introducing Scorsese to the book while they were filming ''Boxcar Bertha''. The film was slated to shoot under the Paramount Pictures banner, but shortly before principal photography was to start, Paramount pulled the plug on the project, citing pressure from religious groups. In this aborted 1983 version,
Aidan Quinn Aidan Quinn (born March 8, 1959) is an American actor who made his film debut in '' Reckless'' (1984). He has starred in over 80 feature films, including ''Desperately Seeking Susan'' (1985), '' The Mission'' (1986), ''Stakeout'' (1987), ''Aval ...
was cast as Jesus, and Sting was cast as Pontius Pilate. (In the 1988 version, these roles were played by
Willem Dafoe Willem James Dafoe (; born July 22, 1955) is an American actor. He is the recipient of various accolades, including the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, in addition to receiving nominations for four Academy Awards, four Screen Actors Guild Awards, t ...
and David Bowie respectively.) However, following his mid-1980s flirtation with commercial Hollywood, Scorsese made a major return to personal filmmaking with the project; Universal Pictures agreed to finance the film as Scorsese agreed to make a more mainstream film for the studio in the future (it eventually resulted in '' Cape Fear''). Even prior to its 1988 release, the film (adapted by ''Taxi Driver'' and ''Raging Bull'' veteran Paul Schrader) caused a massive furor, with worldwide protests against its perceived blasphemy effectively turning a low-budget independent film into a media sensation. Most of the controversy centered on the final passages of the film, which depicted Christ marrying and raising a family with Mary Magdalene in a Satan-induced
hallucination A hallucination is a perception in the absence of an external stimulus that has the qualities of a real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and are perceived to be located in external objective space. Hallucination is a combinati ...
while on the cross. In 1986, Scorsese directed the 18 minute short film '' Bad'' featuring Michael Jackson and
Wesley Snipes Wesley Trent Snipes (born July 31, 1962) is an American actor, film producer, and martial artist. His prominent film roles include '' Major League'' (1989), ''New Jack City'' (1991), '' White Men Can't Jump'' (1992), '' Passenger 57'' (1992), '' ...
(in his film debut). The short also serves as a music video and was shot in the
Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets station The Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets station (shown as "Hoyt-Schermerhorn" on official subway maps) is an express station of the New York City Subway, serving the IND Crosstown Line and the IND Fulton Street Line. Located at the intersection of ...
in Brooklyn over a 6-week period during November and December 1986. The short film's cinematographer was frequent Scorsese collaborator Michael Chapman. The dancing and filmmaking was heavily influenced by the 1961 film '' West Side Story''. Scorsese also noted the influence of his own film '' Taxi Driver'' (1976) in Spike Lee's documentary about the 25th anniversary of the short titled, ''
Bad 25 ''Bad 25'' is the 25th anniversary edition reissue of American singer-songwriter Michael Jackson's seventh studio album '' Bad'' (1987). This is the second album by Jackson re-released on its 25th anniversary, the first being ''Thriller 25'' (20 ...
'' (2012). The short has been praised by critics as one of the most iconic and greatest videos of all time; Jackson's outfit has been cited as an influence on fashion. That year, he had signed a deal with upstart major The Walt Disney Studios to produce and direct features, following the success of ''
The Color of Money ''The Color of Money'' is a 1986 American sports drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and released by Touchstone Pictures. The film was created from a screenplay by Richard Price, based on the 1984 novel of the same name by Walter Tevis. Th ...
'', and the company is currently soliciting material for possible development, and decided not to decide on projects he had hoped to produce under the company's two-year agreement with the studio, and the decision Scorsese wants to hire established directors like Elia Kazan and
Arthur Penn Arthur Hiller Penn (September 27, 1922 – September 28, 2010) was an American director and producer of film, television and theater. Closely associated with the American New Wave, Penn directed critically acclaimed films throughout the 19 ...
. Looking past the controversy, ''The Last Temptation of Christ'' gained critical acclaim and remains an important work in Scorsese's canon: an explicit attempt to wrestle with the spirituality underpinning his films up until that point. The director went on to receive his second nomination for a Best Director Academy Award (again unsuccessfully, this time losing to
Barry Levinson Barry Lee Levinson (born April 6, 1942) is an American filmmaker, comedian and actor. Levinson's best-known works are mid-budget comedy drama and drama films such as '' Diner'' (1982); ''The Natural'' (1984); '' Good Morning, Vietnam'' (1987); ...
for '' Rain Man''). As a separate film project, and along with directors Woody Allen and Francis Ford Coppola in 1989, Scorsese provided one of three segments in the portmanteau film ''
New York Stories ''New York Stories'' is a 1989 American anthology film consisting of three segments with the central theme being New York City. The first is ''Life Lessons'', directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Richard Price and starring Nick Nolte. The s ...
'', called "Life Lessons". Roger Ebert's gave the film a mixed review, while praising Scorsese's short as "really successful".


1990s

After a decade of films considered by critics to be mixed results, some considered Scorsese's gangster epic ''
Goodfellas ''Goodfellas'' (stylized ''GoodFellas'') is a 1990 American biographical crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and produced by Irwin Winkler. It is a film adaptation of the 1985 nonfiction book '' W ...
'' (1990) his return to directorial form, and his most confident and fully realized film since ''Raging Bull''. De Niro and
Joe Pesci Joseph Frank Pesci ( , ; born February 9, 1943) is an American actor and musician. He is known for portraying tough, volatile characters in a variety of genres and for his collaborations with Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese in the films ''Rag ...
offered a virtuoso display of Scorsese's bravura cinematic technique in the film and re-established, enhanced, and consolidated his reputation. After the film was released, Roger Ebert, a friend and supporter of Scorsese, named ''Goodfellas'' "the best mob movie ever". It is ranked No. 1 on Ebert's movie list for 1990, along with those of Gene Siskel and
Peter Travers Peter Joseph Travers (born ) is an American film critic, journalist, and television presenter. He reviews films for ABC News and previously served as a movie critic for ''People'' and ''Rolling Stone''. Travers also hosts the film interview prog ...
', and is widely considered one of the director's greatest achievements. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and Scorsese earned his third Best Director nomination but again lost to a first-time director, Kevin Costner (''
Dances with Wolves ''Dances with Wolves'' is a 1990 American epic western film starring, directed, and produced by Kevin Costner in his feature directorial debut. It is a film adaptation of the 1988 novel '' Dances with Wolves'' by Michael Blake that tells the ...
''). Joe Pesci earned the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance. Scorsese and the film also won many other awards, including five BAFTA Awards, a
Silver Lion The Silver Lion ( it, Leone d'argento, also known as Silver Lion for Best Direction) is an annual award presented for best directing achievements in a feature film at official competition section of the Venice Film Festival since 1998. The pri ...
and more. The American Film Institute placed ''Goodfellas'' at No. 94 on the AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies list. On the 2007 updated version, they moved ''Goodfellas'' up to No. 92 on the AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies list (10th Anniversary Edition) and put ''Goodfellas'' at No. 2 on their list of the top 10 gangster films (after '' The Godfather''). In 1990, he released his only short-form documentary: ''
Made in Milan ''Made in Milan'' is a 1990 short documentary film about fashion designer Giorgio Armani; it shows him preparing for a show and discusses his ideas about fashion, his family history and the city of Milan. It was directed by Martin Scorsese. It wa ...
'' about fashion designer Giorgio Armani. The following year brought '' Cape Fear'', a remake of a cult 1962 movie of the same name and the director's seventh collaboration with De Niro. Another foray into the mainstream, the film was a stylized thriller taking its cues heavily from Alfred Hitchcock and Charles Laughton's '' The Night of the Hunter'' (1955). ''Cape Fear'' received a mixed critical reception and was lambasted in many quarters for its scenes depicting
misogynistic Misogyny () is hatred of, contempt for, or prejudice against women. It is a form of sexism that is used to keep women at a lower social status than men, thus maintaining the societal roles of patriarchy. Misogyny has been widely practiced f ...
violence. However, the lurid subject matter gave Scorsese a chance to experiment with visual tricks and effects. The film garnered two Oscar nominations. Earning $80 million domestically, it stood as Scorsese's most commercially successful release until ''The Aviator'' (2004), and then ''The Departed'' (2006). The film also marked the first time Scorsese used wide-screen Panavision with an aspect ratio of 2.39:1. In 1990, Scorsese acted in a small role as Vincent van Gogh in the film ''
Dreams A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...
'' by Japanese director
Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...
. Scorsese's 1994 cameo appearance in the Robert Redford film '' Quiz Show'' is remembered for the telling line: "You see, the audience didn't tune in to watch some amazing display of intellectual ability. They just wanted to watch the money." De Fina-Cappa was the production company he formed that same year with producer Barbara De Fina. In the early 1990s, Scorsese also expanded his role as a film producer. He produced a wide range of films, including major Hollywood studio productions (''
Mad Dog and Glory ''Mad Dog and Glory'' is a 1993 American crime comedy-drama film directed by John McNaughton and starring Robert De Niro, Uma Thurman, and Bill Murray, and supporting roles from well known actors Richard Belzer and David Caruso as De Niro's par ...
'', '' Clockers''), low-budget independent films ('' The Grifters'', '' Naked in New York'', '' Grace of My Heart'', ''
Search and Destroy Search and destroy, seek and destroy, or simply S&D is a military strategy best known for its employment in the Malayan Emergency and the Vietnam War. The strategy consists of inserting ground forces into hostile territory, ''search''ing out ...
'', '' The Hi-Lo Country''), and even the foreign film (''
Con gli occhi chiusi ''With Closed Eyes'' ( it, Con gli occhi chiusi) is a 1994 Italian drama film written and directed by Francesca Archibugi. It is based on the novel with the same name written by Federigo Tozzi. For his performance Marco Messeri won the Nastro ...
'' (With Closed Eyes)). ''
The Age of Innocence ''The Age of Innocence'' is a 1920 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It was her twelfth novel, and was initially serialized in 1920 in four parts, in the magazine '' Pictorial Review''. Later that year, it was released as a book by D. App ...
'' (1993) was a significant departure for Scorsese, a period adaptation of the Edith Wharton novel about the constrictive high society of late-19th century New York. It was highly lauded by critics upon its original release but was a
box office bomb A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...
, making an overall loss. As noted in ''Scorsese on Scorsese'' by editor–interviewer Ian Christie, the news that Scorsese wanted to make a film about a failed 19th-century romance raised many eyebrows among the film fraternity; all the more when Scorsese made it clear that it was a personal project and not a studio for-hire job. Scorsese was interested in doing a "romantic piece", and he was strongly drawn to the characters and the story of Wharton's text. Scorsese wanted his film to be as rich an emotional experience as the book was to him rather than the traditional academic adaptations of literary works. To this end, Scorsese sought influence from diverse period films that had had an emotional impact on him. In ''Scorsese on Scorsese'', he documents influences from films such as
Luchino Visconti Luchino Visconti di Modrone, Count of Lonate Pozzolo (; 2 November 1906 – 17 March 1976) was an Italian filmmaker, stage director, and screenwriter. A major figure of Italian art and culture in the mid-20th century, Visconti was one of the ...
's '' Senso'' and his '' Il Gattopardo'' (''The Leopard'') as well as Orson Welles's '' The Magnificent Ambersons'' and also Roberto Rossellini's '' La prise de pouvoir par Louis XIV'' (''The Taking of Power by Louis XIV''). Although ''The Age of Innocence'' was ultimately different from these films in terms of narrative, story, and thematic concern, the presence of a lost society, of lost values as well as detailed re-creations of social customs and rituals continues the tradition of these films. It came back into the public eye, especially in countries such as the UK and France, but still is largely neglected in North America. The film earned five Academy Award nominations (including Best Adapted Screenplay for Scorsese), winning the Costume Design Oscar. This was his first collaboration with the Academy Award-winning actor
Daniel Day-Lewis Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957) is an English retired actor. Often described as one of the preeminent actors of his generation, he received numerous accolades throughout his career which spanned over four decades, incl ...
, with whom he would work again on ''Gangs of New York''. This was Scorsese's first film to be shot on Super 35 format. '' Casino'' (1995), like ''The Age of Innocence'' before it, focused on a tightly wound male whose well-ordered life is disrupted by the arrival of unpredictable forces. The fact that it was a violent gangster film made it more palatable to the director's fans who perhaps were baffled by the apparent departure of the earlier film. ''Casino'' was a box office success, and it received generally positive notices from critics. Comparisons were drawn to his earlier film ''Goodfellas'', and Scorsese admitted ''Casino'' bore a superficial resemblance to it, but he maintained that the story was significantly larger in scope.
Sharon Stone Sharon Vonne Stone (born March 10, 1958) is an American actress. Known for primarily playing femme fatales and women of mystery on film and television, she became one of the most popular sex symbols of the 1990s. She is the recipient of various ...
was nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award for her performance. During the filming, Scorsese played a background part as a gambler at one of the tables. Scorsese still found time for a four-hour documentary in 1995, titled '' A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies'', offering a thorough trek through American cinema. It covered the silent era to 1969, a year after which Scorsese began his feature career. He said, "I wouldn't feel right commenting on myself or my contemporaries." In the four-hour documentary, Scorsese lists the four aspects of the director he believes are the most important as (1) the director as storyteller; (2) the director as an illusionist: D. W. Griffith or F. W. Murnau, who created new editing techniques among other innovations that made the appearance of sound and color possible later on; (3) the director as a smuggler—filmmakers such as
Douglas Sirk Douglas Sirk (born Hans Detlef Sierck; 26 April 1897 – 14 January 1987) was a German film director best known for his work in Hollywood melodramas of the 1950s. Sirk started his career in Germany as a stage and screen director, but he left for ...
, Samuel Fuller, and Vincente Minnelli, who used to hide subversive messages in their films; and (4) the director as iconoclast. In the preface to this documentary, Scorsese states his commitment to the "Director's Dilemma", in which a successful contemporary director must be pragmatic about the realities of getting financing for films of personal esthetic interest by accepting the need of "making one film for the studio, and (then) making one for oneself." If ''The Age of Innocence'' alienated and confused some fans, then ''
Kundun ''Kundun'' is a 1997 American epic biographical film written by Melissa Mathison and directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the life and writings of Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, the exiled political and spiritual leader of Tibet. Ten ...
'' (1997) went several steps further, offering an account of the early life of
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama The 14th Dalai Lama (spiritual name Jetsun Jamphel Ngawang Lobsang Yeshe Tenzin Gyatso, known as Tenzin Gyatso (Tibetan: བསྟན་འཛིན་རྒྱ་མཚོ་, Wylie: ''bsTan-'dzin rgya-mtsho''); né Lhamo Thondup), known as ...
, the People's Liberation Army's entry into
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa, Taman ...
, and the Dalai Lama's subsequent exile to India. Not only a departure in subject matter, ''Kundun'' saw Scorsese employing a fresh narrative and visual approach. Traditional dramatic devices were substituted for a trance-like meditation achieved through an elaborate tableau of colorful visual images. The film was a source of turmoil for its distributor, Buena Vista Pictures, which was planning significant expansion into the Chinese market at the time. Initially defiant in the face of pressure from Chinese officials, Disney has since distanced itself from the project, hurting ''Kundun''s commercial profile. In the short term, the sheer eclecticism in evidence enhanced the director's reputation. In the long term, however, it appears ''Kundun'' has been sidelined in most critical appraisals of the director, mostly noted as a stylistic and thematic detour. ''Kundun'' was the Scorsese's second attempt to profile the life of a great religious leader, following ''The Last Temptation of Christ''. ''Bringing Out the Dead'' (1999) was a return to familiar territory, with the director and writer Paul Schrader constructing a pitch-black comic take on their own earlier ''Taxi Driver''. Like earlier Scorsese-Schrader collaborations, its final scenes of spiritual redemption explicitly recall the films of Robert Bresson. (It is also worth noting that the film's incident-filled nocturnal setting is reminiscent of ''After Hours''.) It received generally positive reviews, although not the universal critical acclaim of some of his other films. It stars
Nicolas Cage Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. Born into the Coppola family, he is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Gui ...
,
Ving Rhames Irving Rameses Rhames (born May 12, 1959) is an American actor. He is best known for his supporting roles as IMF Agent Luther Stickell in the ''Mission: Impossible'' film series and gang kingpin Marsellus Wallace in ''Pulp Fiction''. He also a ...
, John Goodman, Tom Sizemore, and Patricia Arquette. On various occasions Scorsese has been asked to present the Honorary Academy Award during the Oscar telecast. In 1998, at the
70th Academy Awards The 70th Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on March 23, 1998, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. During the sh ...
, Scorsese presented the award to film legend
Stanley Donen Stanley Donen ( ; April 13, 1924 – February 21, 2019) was an American film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are '' On the Town,'' (1949) and ''Singin' in the Rain'' (1952), both of which he co-directed with Gene Kell ...
. When accepting the award Donen quipped, "Marty this is backwards, I should be giving this to you, believe me". In 1999, at the
71st Academy Awards The 71st Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best of 1998 in film and took place on March 21, 1999, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p ...
, Scorsese and De Niro presented the award to film director Elia Kazan. This was a controversial pick for the academy due to Kazan's involvement with the
Hollywood blacklist The Hollywood blacklist was an entertainment industry blacklist, broader than just Hollywood, put in effect in the mid-20th century in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The blacklist involved the practice of denying empl ...
in the 1950s. Several members of the audience including
Nick Nolte Nicholas King Nolte (born February 8, 1941) is an American actor. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1991 film ''The Prince of Tides''. He received ...
and
Ed Harris Edward Allen Harris (born November 28, 1950) is an American actor and filmmaker. His performances in ''Apollo 13'' (1995), '' The Truman Show'' (1998), '' Pollock'' (2000), and '' The Hours'' (2002) earned him critical acclaim and Academy Award ...
refused to applaud Kazan when he received the award while others such as Warren Beatty,
Meryl Streep Mary Louise Meryl Streep (born June 22, 1949) is an American actress. Often described as "the best actress of her generation", Streep is particularly known for her versatility and accent adaptability. She has received numerous accolades throu ...
,
Kathy Bates Kathleen Doyle Bates (born June 28, 1948) is an American actor and director. Known for her roles in comedic and dramatic films and television programs, she has received various accolades throughout her career spanning over five decades, includ ...
, and Kurt Russell gave him a standing ovation.


2000s

In 1999, Scorsese directed a documentary on Italian filmmakers titled ''Il Mio Viaggio in Italia'', also known as '' My Voyage to Italy''. The documentary foreshadowed the director's next project, the epic ''Gangs of New York'' (2002), influenced by (amongst many others) major Italian directors such as Luchino Visconti and filmed in its entirety at Rome's famous Cinecittà film studios. With a production budget said to be in excess of $100 million, ''Gangs of New York'' was Scorsese's biggest and arguably most mainstream venture to date. Like ''The Age of Innocence'', it was set in 19th-century New York, although focusing on the other end of the social scale (and like that film, also starring Daniel Day-Lewis). The film marked the first collaboration between Scorsese and actor Leonardo DiCaprio, who became a fixture in later Scorsese films. The production was highly troubled, with many rumors referring to the director's conflict with Miramax boss
Harvey Weinstein Harvey Weinstein (; born March 19, 1952) is an American former film producer and convicted sex offender. He and his brother, Bob Weinstein, co-founded the entertainment company Miramax, which produced several successful independent films includ ...
. Despite denials of artistic compromise, some felt that ''Gangs of New York'' was the director's most conventional film, featuring standard film tropes that the director had traditionally avoided, such as characters existing purely for
exposition Exposition (also the French for exhibition) may refer to: *Universal exposition or World's Fair * Expository writing ** Exposition (narrative) * Exposition (music) *Trade fair A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade e ...
purposes and explanatory flashbacks. The final cut of the movie ran to 168 minutes, while the director's original cut was over 180 minutes long. Even so, the film received generally positive reviews with the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reporting that 75 percent of the reviews for the film they tallied were positive and summarizing the critics writing, "Though flawed, the sprawling, messy ''Gangs of New York'' is redeemed by impressive production design and Day-Lewis's electrifying performance." The film's central themes are consistent with the director's established concerns: New York, violence as culturally endemic, and subcultural divisions down ethnic lines. Originally filmed for a release in the winter of 2001 (to qualify for Academy Award nominations), Scorsese delayed the final production of the film until after the beginning of 2002; the studio consequently delayed the film until its release in the Oscar season of late 2002. ''Gangs of New York'' earned Scorsese his first Golden Globe for Best Director. In February 2003, ''Gangs of New York'' received 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis; however, it did not win in any category. The following year, Scorsese completed production of '' The Blues'', an expansive seven-part documentary tracing the history of blues music from its African roots to the Mississippi Delta and beyond. Seven film-makers including Wim Wenders, Clint Eastwood,
Mike Figgis Michael Figgis (born 28 February 1948) is an English film director, screenwriter, and composer. He was nominated for two Academy Awards for his work in ''Leaving Las Vegas'' (1995). Figgis was the founding patron of the independent filmmakers o ...
, and Scorsese himself each contributed a 90-minute film (Scorsese's entry was titled ''Feel Like Going Home''). In the early 2000s, Scorsese produced several films for up-and-coming directors, such as '' You Can Count on Me'' (directed by
Kenneth Lonergan Kenneth Lonergan (born October 16, 1962) is an American film director, playwright, and screenwriter. He is the co-writer of the film ''Gangs of New York'' (2002), and wrote and directed '' You Can Count on Me'' (2000), ''Margaret'' (2011), and ' ...
), ''Rain'' (directed by Katherine Lindberg), ''
Lymelife ''Lymelife'' is a 2008 American comedy-drama film written by brothers Derick Martini and Steven Martini, and directed by Derick Martini, depicting aspects of their life in 1970s Long Island from a teenager's perspective. It stars Alec Baldwin, Rory ...
'' (directed by Derick Martini) and ''
The Young Victoria ''The Young Victoria'' is a 2009 British period drama film directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and written by Julian Fellowes, based on the early life and reign of Queen Victoria, and her marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Produce ...
'' (directed by
Jean-Marc Vallée Jean-Marc Vallée (March 9, 1963December 25, 2021) was a Canadian filmmaker, film editor, and screenwriter. After studying film at the Université de Montréal, Vallée went on to make a number of critically acclaimed short films, including '' ...
). At that time, he established Sikelia Productions. In 2003, producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff joined the company.Tillinger named production president at Scorsese's Sikelia
, screendaily.com, retrieved February 19, 2014
Scorsese also produced several documentaries, such as '' The Soul of a Man'' (directed by Wim Wenders) and ''Lightning in a Bottle'' (directed by
Antoine Fuqua Antoine Fuqua (born May 30, 1965) is an American filmmaker, known for his work in the action and thriller genres. He was originally known as a director of music videos, and made his film debut in 1998 with ''The Replacement Killers''. His critica ...
). Scorsese's film ''The Aviator'' (2004) is a lavish, large-scale biopic of eccentric aviation pioneer and film mogul Howard Hughes and reunited Scorsese with actor Leonardo DiCaprio. The film received highly positive reviews. The film was a widespread box office success and gained Academy recognition. ''The Aviator'' was nominated for six Golden Globe awards, including Best Motion Picture-Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actor-Motion Picture Drama for Leonardo DiCaprio. It won three, including Best Motion Picture-Drama and Best Actor-Motion Picture Drama. In January 2005 ''The Aviator'' became the most-nominated film of the
77th Academy Awards The 77th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), took place on February 27, 2005, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. During t ...
nominations, nominated in 11 categories including Best Picture. The film also garnered nominations in nearly all the other major categories, including a fifth Best Director nomination for Scorsese. Despite having the most nominations, the film won only five Oscars. Scorsese lost again, this time to director Clint Eastwood for '' Million Dollar Baby'' (which also won Best Picture). ''
No Direction Home ''No Direction Home: Bob Dylan'' is a 2005 documentary film by Martin Scorsese that traces the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on 20th-century American popular music and culture. The film focuses on the period between Dylan's arrival in New ...
'' is a documentary film by Scorsese that tells of the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on American popular music and the culture of the 20th century. The film does not cover Dylan's entire career; it focuses on his beginnings, his rise to fame in the 1960s, his then- controversial transformation from an acoustic guitar-based musician and performer to an electric guitar-influenced sound and his "retirement" from touring in 1966 following an infamous motorcycle accident. The film was first presented on television in both the United States (as part of the
PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
''
American Masters ''American Masters'' is a PBS television series which produces biographies on enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists, filmmakers, and those who have left an indelible impression on the cultural landscape of the ...
'' series) and the United Kingdom (as part of the BBC Two '' Arena'' series) on September 26 to 27, 2005. A DVD version of the film was released the same month. The film won a Peabody Award and the Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video. In addition, Scorsese received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program, losing to ''
Baghdad ER ''Baghdad ER'' is a documentary released by HBO on May 21, 2006. It shows the Iraq War from the perspective of a military hospital in Baghdad. It has some relatively disturbing scenes in it (e.g. amputations), therefore the U.S. Army is official ...
''. Scorsese returned to the crime genre with the Boston-set thriller ''The Departed'', based on the Hong Kong police drama ''
Infernal Affairs ''Infernal Affairs'' is a 2002 Hong Kong action thriller film co-directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. Jointly written by Mak and Felix Chong, it stars Andy Lau, Tony Leung, Anthony Wong, Eric Tsang, Sammi Cheng and Kelly Chen. The film fo ...
'' (which is co-directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak). The film continued Scorsese's collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio and was the first time he worked with
Matt Damon Matthew Paige Damon (; born October 8, 1970) is an American actor, film producer, and screenwriter. Ranked among ''Forbes'' most bankable stars, the films in which he has appeared have collectively earned over $3.88 billion at the North Ameri ...
,
Jack Nicholson John Joseph Nicholson (born April 22, 1937) is an American retired actor and filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest actors of all time. In many of his films, he played rebels against the social structure. He received numerous ...
, Mark Wahlberg, and
Martin Sheen Ramón Antonio Gerardo Estévez (born August 3, 1940), known professionally as Martin Sheen, is an American actor. He first became known for his roles in the films ''The Subject Was Roses'' (1968) and ''Badlands'' (1973), and later achieved wid ...
. ''The Departed'' opened to widespread critical acclaim, with some proclaiming it as one of the best efforts Scorsese had brought to the screen since 1990's ''Goodfellas'', and still others putting it at the same level as Scorsese's most celebrated classics ''Taxi Driver'' and ''Raging Bull''. With domestic box office receipts surpassing million, ''The Departed'' was Scorsese's highest-grossing film (not accounting for inflation) until 2010's '' Shutter Island''. ''The Departed'' earned Scorsese a second Golden Globe for Best Director, as well as a Critics' Choice Award, his first Directors Guild of America Award, and the Academy Award for Best Director. Presented with the latter, Scorsese poked fun at his track record of nominations, asking, "Could you double-check the envelope?" The award was presented by his longtime friends and colleagues Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. ''The Departed'' also received the Academy Award for the Best Motion Picture of 2006, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing by longtime Scorsese editor Thelma Schoonmaker, her third win for a Scorsese film. '' Shine a Light'' captures rock and roll band The Rolling Stones' performing at New York City's Beacon Theater on October 29 and November 1, 2006, intercut with brief news and interview footage from throughout their career. The film was initially scheduled for release on September 21, 2007, but Paramount Classics postponed its general release until April 2008. Its world premiere was at the opening of the 58th
Berlinale The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festi ...
Film Festival on February 7, 2008. "Marty did an amazing job of making us look great…" observed drummer Charlie Watts. "It's all in the edits and the cuts. That's a movie maker rather than a guy just shooting a band onstage… It's not '' Casablanca'', but it's a great thing to have from our point of view, not being egotistical. It's a document." In 2009, Scorsese signed a petition in support of director Roman Polanski, who had been detained while traveling to a film festival in relation to his 1977 sexual abuse charges, which the petition argued would undermine the tradition of film festivals as a place for works to be shown "freely and safely", and that arresting filmmakers traveling to neutral countries could open the door "for actions of which no-one can know the effects."


2010s

On October 22, 2007, '' Daily Variety'' reported that Scorsese would reunite with Leonardo DiCaprio on a fourth picture, ''Shutter Island''. Principal photography on the Laeta Kalogridis screenplay, based on the novel of the same name by
Dennis Lehane Dennis Lehane (born August 4, 1965) is an American author. He has published more than a dozen novels; the first several were a series of mysteries featuring recurring characters, including ''A Drink Before the War''. Of these, four were adapted a ...
, began in Massachusetts in March 2008. In December 2007, actors
Mark Ruffalo Mark Alan Ruffalo (; born November 22, 1967) is an American actor and producer best known for playing Bruce Banner / Hulk since 2012 in the superhero franchise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and in the television series '' She-Hulk: Attorne ...
,
Max von Sydow Max von Sydow ( , ; born Carl Adolf von Sydow; 10 April 1929 – 8 March 2020) was a Swedish-French actor. He had a 70-year career in European and American cinema, television, and theatre, appearing in more than 150 films and several television ...
,
Ben Kingsley Sir Ben Kingsley (born Krishna Pandit Bhanji; 31 December 1943) is an English actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning five decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Grammy Award, and tw ...
, and Michelle Williams joined the cast, marking the first time these actors had worked with Scorsese. The film was released on February 19, 2010. On May 20, 2010, the film became Scorsese's highest-grossing film. In 2010, '' The Wall Street Journal'' reported that Scorsese was supporting the
David Lynch Foundation The David Lynch Foundation for Consciousness-Based Education and World Peace (or simply DLF) is a global charitable foundation with offices in New York City, Los Angeles, and Fairfield, Iowa. It was founded by film director and Transcendental Me ...
's initiative to help 10,000 military veterans overcome posttraumatic stress disorder through Transcendental Meditation; Scorsese has publicly discussed his own practice of TM. Scorsese directed a television commercial for Chanel's then-new men's fragrance, ''
Bleu de Chanel Bleu de Chanel (literally translated as ''"Chanel's Blue"'' or ''"Blue Chanel"'') is a men's fragrance created by Jacques Polge for French fashion house Chanel in 2010. It was the first men's fragrance released by the brand since Allure Homme Sp ...
'', starring French actor
Gaspard Ulliel Gaspard Thomas Ulliel (; 25 November 198419 January 2022) was a French actor. He was known for having portrayed the young Hannibal Lecter in ''Hannibal Rising'' (2007), fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent in the biopic '' Saint Laurent'' (2014 ...
. Filmed in New York City, it debuted online on August 25, 2010 and was released on TV in September 2010. Scorsese directed the series premiere for '' Boardwalk Empire'', an HBO drama series, starring Steve Buscemi and
Michael Pitt Michael Carmen Pitt (born April 10, 1981) is an American actor, model, and musician. Pitt is known in film for his roles in '' Murder by Numbers'' (2002), Bernardo Bertolucci's '' The Dreamers'' (2003), Gus Van Sant's '' Last Days'' (2005), and M ...
, based on Nelson Johnson's book ''Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times and Corruption of Atlantic City''.
Terence Winter Terence Patrick Winter (born October 2, 1960) is an American writer and producer of television and film. He is the creator, writer, and executive producer of the HBO television series ''Boardwalk Empire'' (2010–14). Before creating ''Boardwal ...
, who wrote for '' The Sopranos'', created the series. In addition to directing the pilot (for which he won the 2011 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing), Scorsese also served as an executive producer on the series. The series premiered on September 19, 2010, and was broadcast for five seasons. Scorsese directed the three-and-a-half-hour documentary '' George Harrison: Living in the Material World'' about the life and music of former Beatles' member George Harrison, which premiered in the United States on HBO over two parts on October 5 and 6, 2011. His next film '' Hugo'' is a 3D
adventure An adventure is an exciting experience or undertaking that is typically bold, sometimes risky. Adventures may be activities with danger such as traveling, exploring, skydiving, mountain climbing, scuba diving, river rafting, or other extreme ...
drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...
based on
Brian Selznick Brian Selznick (born July 14, 1966) is an American illustrator and author best known as the writer of '' The Invention of Hugo Cabret'' (2007), '' Wonderstruck'' (2011), ''The Marvels'' (2015) and ''Kaleidoscope'' (2021). He won the 2008 Caldeco ...
's novel '' The Invention of Hugo Cabret''. The film stars Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley,
Sacha Baron Cohen Sacha Noam Baron Cohen (born 13 October 1971) is an English actor, comedian, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his creation and portrayal of the fictional satirical characters Ali G, Borat Sagdiyev, Brüno Gehard, and Admiral ...
,
Ray Winstone Raymond Andrew Winstone (; born 19 February 1957) is an English television, stage and film actor with a career spanning five decades. Having worked with many prominent directors, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, Winstone is perha ...
,
Emily Mortimer Emily Kathleen Anne Mortimer (born 6 October 1971) is a British-American actress. She began acting in stage productions and has since appeared in several film and television roles. In 2003, she won an Independent Spirit Award for her performanc ...
, Christopher Lee, and Jude Law. The film has been met with critical acclaim and earned Scorsese his third Golden Globe Award for Best Director. The film was also nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning five of them and becoming tied with Michel Hazanavicius's film ''The Artist'' for the most Academy Awards won by a single film in 2011. ''Hugo'' also won two BAFTA awards, among numerous other awards and nominations. ''Hugo'' was Scorsese's first 3D film and was released in the United States on November 23, 2011. Scorsese's 2013 film, '' The Wolf of Wall Street'', is an American
biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...
black comedy based on
Jordan Belfort Jordan Ross Belfort (; born July 9, 1962) is an American entrepreneur, speaker, author, former stockbroker, and financial criminal. In 1999, he pleaded guilty to fraud and related crimes in connection with stock-market manipulation and running ...
's memoir of the same name. The screenplay was written by Terence Winter and starred Leonardo DiCaprio as Belfort, along with Jonah Hill,
Matthew McConaughey Matthew David McConaughey ( ; born November 4, 1969) is an American actor. He had his breakout role with a supporting performance in the coming-of-age comedy '' Dazed and Confused'' (1993). After a number of supporting roles, his first succes ...
, and others. The film marked the fifth collaboration between Scorsese and DiCaprio and the second between Scorsese and Winter after ''Boardwalk Empire''. It was released on December 25, 2013. The film tells the story of a New York stockbroker, played by DiCaprio, who engages in a large securities fraud case involving illicit stock manipulation, by way of the practice of "
pump and dump Pump and dump (P&D) is a form of securities fraud that involves artificially inflating the price of an owned stock through false and misleading positive statements, in order to sell the cheaply purchased stock at a higher price. Once the operat ...
". DiCaprio was given the award for Best Actor-Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at the 2014 Golden Globe Awards. The film was also nominated for Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy as well. ''The Wolf of Wall Street'' was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio, Best Supporting Actor for Jonah Hill, Best Director for Martin Scorsese, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Terence Winter but did not win in any category. In a 2016 critics' poll conducted by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
, the film was ranked among the 100 greatest motion pictures since 2000. Scorsese and David Tedeschi made a documentary about the history of the ''
New York Review of Books New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
'', titled '' The 50 Year Argument''. It screened as a work in progress at the
Berlin International Film Festival The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fest ...
in February 2014 and premiered in June 2014 at the Sheffield Doc/Fest. It was also screened in
Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...
, and
Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
before being shown on the BBC's ''Arena'' series in July and at Telluride in August. In September, it was screened at the
Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
and
Calgary International Film Festival The Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) is a film festival held annually in Calgary, Alberta, in late September and early October. CIFF is the largest international film festival in Alberta and the sixth largest in Canada. The Festival's ...
s, and the
New York Film Festival The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, i ...
. It aired on HBO on September 29, 2014. Scorsese directed the pilot for ''
Vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...
'' written by Terence Winter and
George Mastras George Mastras, Jr. (born April 10, 1966) is a Greek American author, screenwriter, director, and television producer. He has worked on all five seasons of the AMC drama ''Breaking Bad''. He won the Pen USA Literary Award in 2009, won a Primeti ...
, with Mick Jagger producing and Mastras as showrunner. The series stars Bobby Cannavale as Richie Finestra, founder and president of a top-tier record label, set in 1970s New York City's drug-and sex-fueled music business as punk and disco were breaking out, all told through the eyes of Finestra trying to resurrect his label and find the next new sound. Filming began on July 25, 2014. Co-stars include
Ray Romano Raymond Albert Romano (born December 21, 1957) is an American stand-up comedian, actor and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Ray Barone on the CBS sitcom '' Everybody Loves Raymond'', for which he received an Emmy Award, and as t ...
,
Olivia Wilde Olivia Jane Cockburn ( ; born March 10, 1984), known professionally as Olivia Wilde, is an American actress and filmmaker. She played Remy "Thirteen" Hadley on the medical-drama television series ''House'' (2007–2012), and has appeared in the ...
, Juno Temple,
Andrew Dice Clay Andrew Dice Clay (born Andrew Clay Silverstein; September 29, 1957) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He rose to prominence in the late 1980s with a brash, deliberately offensive persona known as "The Diceman". In 1990, he became the fi ...
,
Ato Essandoh Ato Essilfi Bracato Essandoh (born July 29, 1972) is an American television and film actor. Early life Essandoh was born in Schenectady, New York to Ghanaian parents and graduated from New Rochelle High School in 1990. He received a B.S. in ch ...
,
Max Casella Max Casella (born Maximilian Deitch; June 6, 1967) is an American actor. He is known for his roles on the television series ''Doogie Howser, M.D.'', ''The Sopranos'', ''Boardwalk Empire'', ''Vinyl'', '' Cro'' and the voice of Daxter in the ''Ja ...
, and James Jagger. On December 2, 2014, ''Vinyl'' was picked up by HBO. The series lasted one season. Scorsese has acted as executive producer of several indie films, like the 2014 '' The Third Side of the River'' (directed by his protege Celina Murga), another 2014 film '' Revenge of the Green Dragons'' (co-directed by Andrew Lau, whose film ''Infernal Affairs'' inspired ''The Departed''), as well as '' Bleed for This'' and ''
Free Fire ''Free Fire'' is a 2016 British black comedy- action film directed by Ben Wheatley, from a screenplay by Wheatley and Amy Jump. It stars Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Brie Larson, Cillian Murphy, Jack Reynor, Babou Ceesay, Enzo Cilenti, Sam Ri ...
''. Scorsese directed '' The Audition'', a short film that also served as a promotional piece for casinos
Studio City Studio City is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California, in the southeast San Fernando Valley, just west of the Cahuenga Pass. It is named after the studio lot that was established in the area by film producer Mack Sennett in 1927, ...
in Macau and City of Dreams in Manila, Philippines. The short brought together Scorsese's long-time muses Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro for the first time under his direction. The short film featured the two actors, playing fictionalized versions of themselves, competing for a role in Scorsese's next film. It was Scorsese's first collaboration with De Niro in two decades. The film premiered in October 2015 in conjunction with the grand opening of Studio City. Scorsese had long anticipated filming an adaptation of Shūsaku Endō's novel ''
Silence Silence is the absence of ambient audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low intensity that they do not draw attention to themselves, or the state of having ceased to produce sounds; this latter sense can be extended to apply to the c ...
'', a drama about the lives of two Portuguese Jesuit priests in Japan during the 17th century. He had originally planned ''Silence'' as his next project following ''Shutter Island.'' On April 19, 2013, financing was secured for ''
Silence Silence is the absence of ambient audible sound, the emission of sounds of such low intensity that they do not draw attention to themselves, or the state of having ceased to produce sounds; this latter sense can be extended to apply to the c ...
'' by
Emmett/Furla Films Emmett/Furla Oasis Films (EFO Films), previously known as Emmett/Furla Films and Oasis Ventures Entertainment separately, is an American film and television production and financing company founded by Randall Emmett and George Furla in 1998. It is ...
, and filming began in January 2015. By November 2016, the film had completed post-production. It was written by Jay Cocks and Scorsese, based on the novel, and stars Andrew Garfield, Liam Neeson, and Adam Driver. The film was released on December 23, 2016. Scorsese was recognized as an Italian citizen by '' jus sanguinis'' in 2018. On January 10, 2019, ''Variety''s Chris Willman reported that Scorsese's long-anticipated documentary of Bob Dylan's 1975 tour, the
Rolling Thunder Revue The Rolling Thunder Revue was a 1975–1976 concert tour by American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan with numerous musicians and collaborators. The purpose of the tour was to allow Dylan, who had now become a major recording artist and concert perfor ...
, would be released by
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
: "'' Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese'' captures the troubled spirit of America in 1975 and the joyous music that Dylan performed during the fall of that year. Part documentary, part concert film, part fever dream, ''Rolling Thunder'' is a one of a kind experience, from master filmmaker Martin Scorsese." On April 25, 2019, it was announced that the documentary would be released on Netflix on June 12, 2019, with a concurrent theatrical engagement in twenty American, European, and Australian cities the night before, and an extended theatrical schedule in Los Angeles and New York so that the film will qualify for award consideration. After years of development, principal photography on Scorsese's crime film '' The Irishman'' began in August 2017, starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino. The film had its world premiere at the 57th New York Film Festival on September 27, 2019. It received a limited theatrical release on November 1, 2019, followed by digital streaming on November 27, 2019, on Netflix. In January 2020, ''The Irishman'' received ten Academy Award nominations, including for
Best Picture This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...
, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor for Pacino and Pesci.


2020s

On December 29, 2020, the trailer for Scorsese's documentary series '' Pretend It's a City'' was released. The series features Fran Lebowitz and Scorsese as they delve into her personal beliefs and thoughts on
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
. The project was released January 8, 2021 on
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
. This is Scorsese's second documentary featuring Lebowitz, the first being '' Public Speaking'' (2010) which was released on HBO. In July 2019, Scorsese started scouting locations in preparation for the 2020 filming of his next film '' Killers of the Flower Moon'', a film adaptation of the book of the same name by
David Grann David Elliot Grann (born March 10, 1967) is an American journalist, a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' magazine, and a best-selling author. His first book, '' The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon,'' was published by D ...
. Scorsese will be teaming up with Leonardo DiCaprio for the sixth time and Robert De Niro for the tenth time. In December 2019, Scorsese's frequent cinematographer
Rodrigo Prieto Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC (born November 23, 1965), is a Mexican cinematographer. He has been closely associated as cinematographer for Martin Scorsese and Alejandro González Iñárritu, among other directors. He is a member of both the Mexican ...
confirmed that ''Flower Moon'' was gearing up to start principal photography in March 2020, which was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, it was announced that filming for ''Killers of the Flower Moon'' had been postponed indefinitely in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, that the potential cost of the film had ballooned to $200 million, and that Scorsese was in talks with
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...
or
Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
to produce and distribute, with Paramount Pictures involved as a partner. On May 27, 2020, Apple bought the production and distribution rights to the film, which will be released theatrically by Paramount and streaming on Apple TV+. Principal photography commenced in April 2021. In November 2021, Scorsese was set to direct a biopic feature about rock band the Grateful Dead for
Apple Studios Apple Studios is an American film and television production company and a distributor that is a subsidiary of Apple Inc. It specializes in developing and producing television series and films for Apple's digital video streaming service Apple TV ...
featuring Jonah Hill. In July 2022, it was announced Scorsese would direct an adaptation of David Grann's non-fiction novel ''The Wager'' for
Apple Studios Apple Studios is an American film and television production company and a distributor that is a subsidiary of Apple Inc. It specializes in developing and producing television series and films for Apple's digital video streaming service Apple TV ...
, reteaming once again with DiCaprio. In October 2022, Scorsese and David Tedeschi premiered their collaborative film ''Personality Crisis: One Night Only'', at the New York Film Festival. The film is a documentary about David Johansson, featuring both contemporary concert footage shot for the project as well as archival footage.


Filmmaking style and technique

Several recurring filmmaking techniques are identifiable in many of Scorsese's films. He has established a filmmaking history which involves repeat collaborations with actors, screenwriters, film editors, and cinematographers, sometimes extending over several decades, such as that with recurring cinematographers Michael Ballhaus, Robert Richardson, and Rodrigo Prieto.


Slow motion and freeze frame

Scorsese is known for his frequent use of slow motion, for example, in ''Who's That Knocking at My Door'' (1967) and ''Mean Streets'' (1973). He is also known for using freeze frames, such as: in the opening credits of ''The King of Comedy'' (1983), throughout ''Goodfellas'' (1990), ''Casino'' (1995), ''The Departed'' (2006), and in ''The Irishman'' (2019). His blonde leading ladies are usually seen through the eyes of the protagonist as angelic and ethereal; they wear white in their first scene and are photographed in slow motion—
Cybill Shepherd Cybill Lynne Shepherd (born February 18, 1950) is an American actress and former model. Her film debut and breakthrough role came as Jacy Farrow in Peter Bogdanovich's coming-of-age drama ''The Last Picture Show'' (1971) alongside Jeff Bridges. ...
in ''Taxi Driver'';
Cathy Moriarty Cathy Moriarty (born November 29, 1960) is an American actress and singer whose career spans over 40 years. For her work in Martin Scorsese's 1980 film ''Raging Bull'', she received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress ...
's white bikini in ''Raging Bull''; Sharon Stone's white minidress in ''Casino''. This may be a nod to director Alfred Hitchcock. Scorsese often uses long tracking shots, as seen in ''Taxi Driver'', ''Goodfellas'', ''Casino'', ''Gangs of New York'', and ''Hugo''. MOS sequences set to popular music or voice-over are regularly seen in his films, often involving aggressive camera movement and/or rapid editing. Scorsese sometimes highlights characters in a scene with an iris, an homage to 1920s silent film cinema (as scenes at the time sometimes used this transition). This effect can be seen in ''Casino'' (it is used on Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci), ''Life Lessons'', ''The Departed'' (on Matt Damon), and ''Hugo''. Some of his films include references/allusions to Westerns, particularly '' Rio Bravo'', '' The Great Train Robbery'', '' Shane'', '' The Searchers'', and ''
The Oklahoma Kid ''The Oklahoma Kid'' is a 1939 Western film starring James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart. The film was directed for Warner Bros. by Lloyd Bacon. Cagney plays an adventurous gunslinger in a broad-brimmed cowboy hat while Bogart portrays his blac ...
''. Slow motion flashbulbs and accented camera/flash/shutter sounds are often used, as is the song "
Gimme Shelter "Gimme Shelter" is a song by English rock band the Rolling Stones. Released as the opening track from band's 1969 album ''Let It Bleed''. The song covers topics of war, murder, rape and fear. It features prominent guest vocals by American singe ...
" by The Rolling Stones heard in several of Scorsese's films: ''Goodfellas'', ''Casino'', and ''The Departed''.


Cameo appearances

Scorsese usually has a quick cameo in his films (''Who's That Knocking at My Door'', ''Boxcar Bertha'', ''Mean Streets'', ''Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore'', ''Taxi Driver'', ''The King of Comedy'', ''After Hours'', ''The Last Temptation of Christ'' (albeit hidden under a hood), ''The Age of Innocence'', ''Gangs of New York'', ''Hugo''), he is also known to contribute his voice to a film without appearing on screen (e.g. as in ''The Aviator'' and ''The Wolf of Wall Street''). In ''The Age of Innocence'', for example, he appears in the non-speaking role of a
large format Large format refers to any imaging format of or larger. Large format is larger than "medium format", the or size of Hasselblad, Mamiya, Rollei, Kowa, and Pentax cameras (using 120- and 220-roll film), and much larger than the frame ...
portrait photographer in one of the passing scenes of the film. He provides the opening voice-over narration in ''Mean Streets'' and ''The Color of Money''; plays the off-screen dressing room attendant in the final scene of ''Raging Bull'', and provides the voice of the unseen ambulance dispatcher in ''Bringing Out the Dead''. He also appears as the director of fictional newly formed Vatican Television in the Italian comedy '' In the Pope's Eye''.


Religious guilt

Guilt is a prominent theme in many of his films, as is the role of Catholicism in creating and dealing with guilt (''Who's That Knocking at My Door'', ''Mean Streets'', ''Raging Bull'', ''Bringing Out the Dead'', ''The Departed'', ''Shutter Island'', and ''The Irishman''). In a similar manner, Scorsese considered ''Silence'' a "passion project": it had been in development since 1990, two years after the release of his film ''The Last Temptation of Christ'', which also contained strongly religious themes. When asked why he retained interest in a project dealing with strong theological themes for over 26 years, Scorsese said,
As you get older, ideas go and come. Questions, answers, loss of the answer again and more questions, and this is what really interests me. Yes, the cinema and the people in my life and my family are most important, but ultimately as you get older, there's got to be more ... ''Silence'' is just something that I'm drawn to in that way. It's been an obsession, it has to be done ... it's a strong, wonderful true story, a thriller in a way, but it deals with those questions.


Political corruption

More recently, his films have featured corrupt authority figures, such as policemen in ''The Departed'' and politicians in ''Gangs of New York'' and ''The Aviator''. He is also known for his liberal usage of profanity, dark humor, and violence. Scorsese's interest in political corruption as depicted in his films was expanded further in his 2019 film ''The Irishman''.
Richard Brody Richard Brody (born 1958) is an American film critic who has written for ''The New Yorker'' since 1999. Education Brody grew up in Roslyn, New York, and attended Princeton University, receiving a B.A. in comparative literature in 1980. He firs ...
writing for ''The New Yorker'' found the main interpretation of the film to be a dark allegory of a realist reading of American politics and American society stating:
The real-life Hoffa... (was) a crucial player in both gangland politics and the actual practical politics of the day, and the movie's key through line is the inseparability of those two realms. ''The Irishman'' is a sociopolitical horror story that views much of modern American history as a continuous crime in motion, in which every level of society—from domestic life through local business through big business through national and international politics—is poisoned by graft and bribery, shady deals and dirty money, threats of violence and its gruesome enactment, and the hard-baked impunity that keeps the entire system running.


Frequent collaborators

Scorsese often casts the same actors in his projects, particularly Robert De Niro, who has collaborated with Scorsese on nine feature films and one short film. Included are the three films (''Taxi Driver'', ''Raging Bull'', and ''Goodfellas'') that made AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Movies list. Scorsese has often said he thinks De Niro's best work under his direction was Rupert Pupkin in ''The King of Comedy''. After the turn of the century, Scorsese found a new muse with younger actor Leonardo DiCaprio, collaborating on five feature films and one short to date. Several critics have compared Scorsese's new partnership with DiCaprio with his previous one with De Niro. Frequent collaborators also include:
Victor Argo Victor Argo (November 5, 1934 – April 7, 2004) was an American actor of Puerto Rican descent who usually played the part of a tough bad guy in his movies. He had a career span of forty years. He is best known for '' Mean Streets'' (1973), ...
(6), Harvey Keitel (6),
Harry Northup Harry E. Northup (born September 2, 1940) is an American actor and poet. As an actor, he made frequent appearances in the films of Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Demme. Personal life and career Northup was born in Amarillo, Texas. He lived in 17 p ...
(6), Murray Moston (5),
Illeana Douglas Illeana Hesselberg (born July 25, 1961 or 1965), known professionally as Illeana Douglas, is an American actress and filmmaker. She appeared in three episodes of '' Six Feet Under'', for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination as O ...
(4), J. C. MacKenzie (4), Joe Pesci (4),
Frank Vincent Frank Vincent Gattuso Jr. (April 15, 1937 – September 13, 2017) was an American actor. During a five-decade career, Vincent often portrayed mobsters. He was a frequent collaborator of filmmaker Martin Scorsese, appearing as Salvy in ''Raging B ...
(3),
Barry Primus Barry Primus (born February 16, 1938) is an American television and film actor, director, and writer. Career While Primus is primarily an actor, he has also worked as a writer and director in films in which he has acted. For the first decade ...
(3), and Verna Bloom (3). Others who have appeared in multiple Scorsese projects include Daniel Day-Lewis, who had become very reclusive to the Hollywood scene, Alec Baldwin, Willem Dafoe, Ben Kingsley, Jude Law, Dick Miller, Liam Neeson, Emily Mortimer, John C. Reilly,
David Carradine David Carradine ( ; born John Arthur Carradine Jr.; December 8, 1936 – June 3, 2009) was an American actor best known for playing martial arts roles. He is perhaps best known as the star of the 1970s television series '' Kung Fu'', playi ...
, Barbara Hershey, Kevin Corrigan, Jake Hoffman,
Frank Sivero Frank Sivero (born Francesco Lo Giudice; January 6, 1952) is an Italian-American actor. He is perhaps best known for playing the roles of Genco Abbandando in Francis Ford Coppola's '' The Godfather Part II,'' and Frankie Carbone (based on Angelo ...
,
Ray Winstone Raymond Andrew Winstone (; born 19 February 1957) is an English television, stage and film actor with a career spanning five decades. Having worked with many prominent directors, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, Winstone is perha ...
and
Nick Nolte Nicholas King Nolte (born February 8, 1941) is an American actor. He won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1991 film ''The Prince of Tides''. He received ...
. Before their deaths, Scorsese's parents, Charles Scorsese and Catherine Scorsese, appeared in bit parts, walk-ons or supporting roles, such as in ''Goodfellas''. For his crew, Scorsese frequently worked with editors Marcia Lucas and Thelma Schoonmaker, cinematographers
Michael Ballhaus Michael Ballhaus, A.S.C. (5 August 1935 – 12 April 2017) was a German cinematographer who collaborated with directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Martin Scorsese, Mike Nichols and James L. Brooks. He was a member of both the Academy of A ...
, Robert Richardson, Michael Chapman and
Rodrigo Prieto Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC (born November 23, 1965), is a Mexican cinematographer. He has been closely associated as cinematographer for Martin Scorsese and Alejandro González Iñárritu, among other directors. He is a member of both the Mexican ...
, screenwriters Paul Schrader, Mardik Martin, Jay Cocks, Terrence Winter, John Logan and
Steven Zaillian Steven Ernest Bernard Zaillian (born January 30, 1953) is an American screenwriter, film director and producer. He won an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a BAFTA Award for his screenplay ''Schindler's List'' (1993) and has earned Oscar no ...
, costume designer Sandy Powell, production designers
Dante Ferretti Dante Ferretti (, born 26 February 1943) is an Italian production designer, art director, and costume designer. Biography Throughout his career, Ferretti has worked with many acclaimed directors, both American and Italian, including; Pier Paolo ...
and Bob Shaw, music producer Robbie Robertson, and composers Howard Shore and Elmer Bernstein. Schoonmaker, Richardson, Powell, and Ferretti have each won Academy Awards in their respective categories on collaborations with Scorsese. Elaine and Saul Bass, the latter being Hitchcock's frequent title designer, designed the opening credits for ''Goodfellas'', ''The Age of Innocence'', ''Casino'' and ''Cape Fear''.


Personal life

In 1965, Scorsese married his first wife Laraine Marie Brennan, and they remained together for six years between 1965 and 1971; they have a daughter, Catherine, who was named after his mother. In 1976, Scorsese married the writer Julia Cameron, his second marriage; they have a daughter (
Domenica Cameron-Scorsese Domenica Cameron-Scorsese (born September 6, 1976) is an American actress. Biography She was born in California and is the daughter of Julia Cameron and Martin Scorsese. She is a graduate of Wesleyan University. Scorsese is known for acting ...
, who is an actress and appeared in ''
The Age of Innocence ''The Age of Innocence'' is a 1920 novel by American author Edith Wharton. It was her twelfth novel, and was initially serialized in 1920 in four parts, in the magazine '' Pictorial Review''. Later that year, it was released as a book by D. App ...
''), but the marriage lasted only a year. The divorce was acrimonious and served as the basis of Cameron's first feature, the dark comedy ''God's Will'', which also starred their daughter. She had a small role in ''Cape Fear'' using the name Domenica Scorsese and has continued to act, write, direct, and produce. Before the end of 1979, Scorsese married actress
Isabella Rossellini Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (born 18 June 1952) is an Italian-American actress, author, philanthropist, and model. The daughter of the Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and the Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is noted ...
, and they stayed together for four years, divorcing in 1983. Scorsese married producer
Barbara De Fina Barbara De Fina (born 1946) is an American film producer. She has been called an "integral component" who has made "critical contributions" as producer of many of Martin Scorsese's films. Biography Her grandfather was from Sicily and her grandm ...
in 1985, his fourth of five marriages; they divorced in 1991. From 1989 to 1997, Scorsese was romantically involved with actress
Illeana Douglas Illeana Hesselberg (born July 25, 1961 or 1965), known professionally as Illeana Douglas, is an American actress and filmmaker. She appeared in three episodes of '' Six Feet Under'', for which she received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination as O ...
following his fourth divorce. In 1999, Scorsese married his current spouse of over twenty years, Helen Schermerhorn Morris. They have a daughter, actress and filmmaker Francesca, who appeared in his films '' The Departed'', '' Hugo'', and '' The Aviator'', and had a leading role in HBO/ Sky's miniseries '' We Are Who We Are'' in 2020.


Religion

Since his first divorce in 1972, Scorsese has had four subsequent wives and had previously identified himself as a lapsed Roman Catholic as a result of the Church's doctrinal position against divorce. He has said, "I'm a
lapsed Catholic A lapsed Catholic is a Catholic who is non-practicing. Such a person may still identify as a Catholic, and remains one according to canon law. Excommunication or an act of defection only separate a person from the sacraments. Nothing can terminate ...
. But I am Roman Catholic; there's no way out of it." In 2016, Scorsese identified himself as a Catholic again, saying, "my way has been, and is, Catholicism. After many years of thinking about other things, dabbling here and there, I am most comfortable as a Catholic. I believe in the tenets of Catholicism."


Filmography

, Scorsese has directed 25 full-length films and 16 full-length documentary films.


Film activism

Scorsese has mentioned his mentors being such filmmakers as
John Cassavetes John Nicholas Cassavetes ( ; December 9, 1929 – February 3, 1989) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. First known as a television and film actor, Cassavetes also helped pioneer American independent cinema, writing and direc ...
,
Roger Corman Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...
, and
Michael Powell Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a seri ...
. In film critic Roger Ebert's book, ''Scorsese by Ebert'', Ebert praised Scorsese for championing and supporting other filmmakers by serving as an executive producer on projects of filmmakers such as
Antoine Fuqua Antoine Fuqua (born May 30, 1965) is an American filmmaker, known for his work in the action and thriller genres. He was originally known as a director of music videos, and made his film debut in 1998 with ''The Replacement Killers''. His critica ...
, Wim Wenders,
Kenneth Lonergan Kenneth Lonergan (born October 16, 1962) is an American film director, playwright, and screenwriter. He is the co-writer of the film ''Gangs of New York'' (2002), and wrote and directed '' You Can Count on Me'' (2000), ''Margaret'' (2011), and ' ...
,
Stephen Frears Stephen Arthur Frears (born 20 June 1941) is an English director and producer of film and television often depicting real life stories as well as projects that explore social class through sharply drawn characters. He's received numerous accola ...
, Allison Anders, Spike Lee, and
John McNaughton John McNaughton (born January 13, 1950) is an American film and television director, originally from Chicago, Illinois, whose works encompass the horror, thriller, drama and comedy film genres. His films include '' Henry: Portrait of a Serial ...
. More recently he has executive produced the films of the Safdie Brothers, Joanna Hogg,
Kornél Mundruczó Kornél Mundruczó (; born 3 April 1975) is a Hungarian film and theatre director. He has directed 18 short and feature films between 1998 and 2020. His film ''Johanna'' was screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2005 Cannes Film Fest ...
,
Josephine Decker Josephine Decker (born April 2, 1981) is an American actress, filmmaker, and performance artist. As of 2020 she has directed four experimental feature films: the psychological thriller '' Butter on the Latch'' (2013), the erotic thriller '' Thou ...
, Danielle Lessovitz,
Alice Rohrwacher Alice Rohrwacher (, ; born 29 December 1980) is an Italian film director, editor and screenwriter. Her film '' Le pupille'' was nominated for Oscar in 2023 in short film categories. Early life Rohrwacher was born in Fiesole, in Tuscany, to an ...
,
Jonas Carpignano Jonas Carpignano (; born January 16, 1984) is an Italian-American film director. He is known for the films '' Mediterranea'', '' A Ciambra'', and '' A Chiara''. Early life and career Carpignano was born in The Bronx, New York City on January 16, ...
, Amélie van Elmbt, and Celina Murga. Scorsese has also chosen to name filmmakers throughout the years that he admires such as fellow
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
-based directors Woody Allen and Spike Lee, as well as other artists such as
Wes Anderson Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American filmmaker. His films are known for their eccentricity and unique visual and narrative styles. They often contain themes of grief, loss of innocence, and dysfunctional families. Cited by ...
, Bong Joon-ho,
Greta Gerwig Greta Celeste Gerwig (; born August 4, 1983) is an American actress, screenwriter, and director. She first garnered attention after working on and appearing in several mumblecore films. Between 2006 and 2009, she appeared in a number of films ...
,
Ari Aster Ari Aster (born July 15, 1986) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is known for writing and directing the horror films ''Hereditary'' (2018) and '' Midsommar'' (2019). Early life Aster was born into a Jewish family in Ne ...
, Kelly Reichardt,
Claire Denis Claire Denis (; born 21 April 1946) is a French film director and screenwriter. Her feature film ''Beau Travail'' (1999) has been called one of the greatest films of the 1990s, as well as of all time. Other acclaimed works include '' Trouble Ev ...
,
Noah Baumbach Noah Baumbach () (born September 3, 1969) is an American film director and screenwriter. He is known for making witty and intellectual comedies set in New York City and has often been compared to writer-directors such as Woody Allen and Whit St ...
, Paul Thomas Anderson,
Christopher Nolan Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. His films have grossed $5&nb ...
, the
Coen Brothers Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957),State of Minnesota. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002''. Minnesota Department of Health. collectively known as the Coen brothers (), are American film ...
, and
Kathryn Bigelow Kathryn Ann Bigelow (; born November 27, 1951) is an American filmmaker. Covering a wide range of genres, her films include '' Near Dark'' (1987), '' Point Break'' (1991), '' Strange Days'' (1995), '' K-19: The Widowmaker'' (2002), ''The Hurt Loc ...
.


Favorite films

In 2012, Scorsese participated in the ''
Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'' film polls of that year. Held every ten years to select the greatest films of all time, contemporary directors were asked to select ten films of their choice. Scorsese, however, picked 12, which are listed below in alphabetical order: * '' 2001: A Space Odyssey'' (USA/UK,1968) * ''
' (Italian title: , ) is a 1963 surrealist comedy-drama film directed and co-written (with Tullio Pinelli, Ennio Flaiano and Brunello Rondi) by Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini. The metafictional narrative centers on Guido Anselmi, played by M ...
'' (Italy, 1963) * ''
Ashes and Diamonds ''Ashes and Diamonds'' ( Polish original: ''Popiół i diament'', literally: ''Ash and Diamond'') is a 1948 novel by the Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewski. The story takes place during the last few days of World War II in Europe, and describes th ...
'' (Poland, 1958) * '' Citizen Kane'' (USA, 1941) * ''
The Leopard ''The Leopard'' ( it, Il Gattopardo ) is a novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa that chronicles the changes in Sicilian life and society during the ''Risorgimento''. Published posthumously in 1958 by Feltrinelli, after two rejections by the ...
'' (Italy, 1963) * '' Paisà'' (Italy, 1946) * '' The Red Shoes'' (UK, 1948) * '' The River'' (USA, 1951) * '' Salvatore Giuliano'' (Italy, 1962) * '' The Searchers'' (USA, 1956) * ''
Ugetsu , is a 1953 Japanese historical drama and fantasy film directed by Kenji Mizoguchi starring Masayuki Mori and Machiko Kyō. It is based on two stories in Ueda Akinari's 1776 book of the same name, combining elements of the '' jidaigeki'' ( ...
'' (Japan, 1953) * ''
Vertigo Vertigo is a condition where a person has the sensation of movement or of surrounding objects moving when they are not. Often it feels like a spinning or swaying movement. This may be associated with nausea, vomiting, sweating, or difficulties w ...
'' (USA, 1958) Ten years later, Scorsese participated again in the ''Sight & Sound'' polls, picking 15 films, the same 12 of the 2012 list, plus the following: * '' Diary of a Country Priest'' (France, 1951) * '' Ikiru'' (Japan, 1952) * '' Ordet'' (Denmark, 1955) In 1999, after the death of Gene Siskel, Scorsese joined Roger Ebert as the guest co-host for an episode of '' Siskel & Ebert'' where they each stated their 10 favorite films of the decade. Scorsese's list numerically is: *'' The Horse Thief'' (China, 1986) *'' The Thin Red Line'' (US, 1998) *''
A Borrowed Life ''A Borrowed Life'' () is a 1994 Taiwanese film and the directorial debut of Wu Nien-jen. The film depicts cultural and regime change in Taiwan. The film's running time is 167 minutes. Reviews by Ken Eisner in ''Variety'' and Stephen Holden in ' ...
'' (Taiwan, 1994) *'' Eyes Wide Shut'' (USA/UK, 1999) *''
Bad Lieutenant ''Bad Lieutenant'' is a 1992 American neo-noir crime film directed by Abel Ferrara. The film stars Harvey Keitel as the titular "bad lieutenant" as well as Victor Argo and Paul Calderón. The screenplay was co-written by Ferrara with actress-mod ...
'' (USA, 1992) *'' Breaking the Waves'' (Denmark/UK, 1996) *'' Bottle Rocket'' (USA, 1996) *'' Crash'' (Canada, 1996) *'' Fargo'' (USA, 1996) *''
Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of I ...
'' (USA, 1992) and '' Heat'' (USA, 1995) (tie)


Film preservation


The Film Foundation

Scorsese had been at the forefront in film preservation and restoration ever since 1990, when he created
The Film Foundation The Film Foundation is a US-based non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation and the exhibition of restored and classic cinema. It was founded by director Martin Scorsese and several other leading filmmakers in 1990. The foundation ra ...
, a non-profit film organization which collaborates with film studios to restore prints of old or damaged films. Scorsese launched the organization with Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, Stanley Kubrick, George Lucas, Sydney Pollack, Robert Redford, and Steven Spielberg, who all sat on the foundation's original board of directors. In 2006, Paul Thomas Anderson,
Wes Anderson Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American filmmaker. His films are known for their eccentricity and unique visual and narrative styles. They often contain themes of grief, loss of innocence, and dysfunctional families. Cited by ...
,
Curtis Hanson Curtis Lee Hanson (March 24, 1945 – September 20, 2016) was an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His directing work included the psychological thriller '' The Hand That Rocks the Cradle'' (1992), the neo-noir crime film ''L. ...
, Peter Jackson,
Ang Lee Ang Lee (; born October 23, 1954) is a Taiwanese filmmaker. Born in Pingtung County of southern Taiwan, Lee was educated in Taiwan and later in the United States. During his filmmaking career, he has received international critical and popula ...
and Alexander Payne joined them.Pond, Steve
"Save the Day"
, ''DGA Quarterly'', Directors Guild of America, Spring 2007, accessed November 12, 2014
In 2015,
Christopher Nolan Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British-American filmmaker. Known for his lucrative Hollywood blockbusters with complex storytelling, Nolan is considered a leading filmmaker of the 21st century. His films have grossed $5&nb ...
also joined the board. Recent members include Spike Lee,
Sofia Coppola Sofia Carmina Coppola (; born May 14, 1971) is an American filmmaker and actress. The youngest child and only daughter of filmmakers Eleanor Coppola, Eleanor and Francis Ford Coppola, she made her film debut as an infant in her father's acclaimed ...
, Guillermo del Toro, Barry Jenkins,
Lynne Ramsay Lynne Ramsay (born 5 December 1969) is a Scottish film director, writer, producer, and cinematographer best known for the feature films '' Ratcatcher'' (1999), ''Morvern Callar'' (2002), '' We Need to Talk About Kevin'' (2011), and '' You Were N ...
, Joanna Hogg and
Kathryn Bigelow Kathryn Ann Bigelow (; born November 27, 1951) is an American filmmaker. Covering a wide range of genres, her films include '' Near Dark'' (1987), '' Point Break'' (1991), '' Strange Days'' (1995), '' K-19: The Widowmaker'' (2002), ''The Hurt Loc ...
. The foundation has restored more than 800 films from around the world and conducts a free educational curriculum for young people on the language and history of film. Scorsese and the Foundation spearheaded fundraising for the film restoration of
Michael Powell Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a seri ...
, and Emeric Pressburger's '' The Red Shoes'' (1948). For his advocacy in film restoration he received the Robert Osborne Award at the 2018 TCM Film Festival. The award was given to Scorsese as "an individual who has significantly contributed to preserving the cultural heritage of classic films". In November 2020, the Criterion Channel released a 30-minute video titled, ''30 Years of The Film Foundation: Martin Scorsese and
Ari Aster Ari Aster (born July 15, 1986) is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is known for writing and directing the horror films ''Hereditary'' (2018) and '' Midsommar'' (2019). Early life Aster was born into a Jewish family in Ne ...
in Conversation'', celebrating the "mission, evolution, and ongoing work of The Film Foundation". Scorsese stated as of 2020, the Foundation has helped restore 850 films.


The World Cinema Project

In 2007, Scorsese established the World Cinema Project with the mission to preserve and present marginalized and infrequently screened films from regions generally ill-equipped to preserve their own cinema history. Scorsese's organization has worked with the Criterion Collection to not only preserve the films but to allow them to be released on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
and Blu-ray boxsets and on streaming services such as
The Criterion Channel The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cine ...
. Films in the WCP include Ousmane Sembène's '' Black Girl'' (1966), and Djibril Diop Mambéty's '' Touki Bouki'' (1973). The Criterion Collection so far has released four Vol. boxsets on
DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...
and Blu-ray, titled, ''Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project''. The first Volume includes 6 titles, '' Touki Bouki'' (1973), '' Redes'' (1936), ''
A River Called Titas ''Titas Ekti Nadir Naam'' ( bn, তিতাস একটি নদীর নাম), or ''A River Called Titas'', is a 1973 film that was a joint production between India and Cinema of Bangladesh, Bangladesh directed by Ritwik Ghatak. The movie ...
'' (1973), '' Dry Summer'' (1964), '' Trances'' (1981) and '' The Housemaid'' (1960). The second volume also includes 6 titles, '' Insiang'' (1976), '' Mysterious Object at Noon'' (2000), ''Revenge'' (1989), '' Limite'' (1931), '' Law of the Border'' (1967), and '' Taipei Story'' (1985). The third volume includes 6 titles as well: ''
Lucía ''Lucía'' is a 1968 Cuban black-and-white drama film directed by Humberto Solás, and written by Solás, Julio García Espinosa and Nelson Rodríguez. It was the winner of the Golden Prize and the Prix FIPRESCI at the 6th Moscow International Fi ...
'' (1968), ''
After the Curfew ''Lewat Djam Malam'' (shown internationally as ''After the Curfew'') is a 1954 Indonesian film directed and produced by Usmar Ismail and written by Asrul Sani. Widely regarded as a classic of Indonesian cinema, the film follows an ex-soldier in h ...
'' (1954), '' Pixote'' (1980), ''
Dos monjes ''Two Monks'' (Spanish: ''Dos monjes'') is a 1934 Mexican Expressionism (film), expressionist melodrama film directed by Juan Bustillo Oro and starring Víctor Urruchúa and Carlos Villatoro. Production Filmed in black-and-white on 35 mm movie fil ...
'' (1934), '' Soleil Ô'' (1970), and '' Downpour'' (1972). The 6 films included in the fourth set are '' Sambizanga'' (1972), '' Prisioneros de la tierra'' (1939), '' Chess of the Wind'' (1979), '' Muna Moto'' (1975), ''Two Girls on the Street'' (1939), and '' Kalpana'' (1948).


The African Film Heritage Project

In 2017, Scorsese also introduced The African Film Heritage Project (AFHP), which is a joint initiative between Scorsese's non-profit
The Film Foundation The Film Foundation is a US-based non-profit organization dedicated to film preservation and the exhibition of restored and classic cinema. It was founded by director Martin Scorsese and several other leading filmmakers in 1990. The foundation ra ...
,
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
, Cineteca di Bologna, and the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI). The project aims to locate and preserve 50 classic African films, some thought lost and others beyond repair, with hopes to make them available to audiences everywhere. In an interview with ''Cinema Escapist'' in 2018, Scorsese talked about the ambitious collaboration saying, "Our first goal is to launch and conduct a thorough investigation in film archives and laboratories around the world, in order to locate the best surviving elements—original negatives, we hope—for our first 50 titles." He also stated that "Restoration is always the primary goal, of course, but within the initiative, it's also a starting point of a process that follows through with exhibition and dissemination in Africa and abroad. And of course, our restoration process always includes the creation of preservation elements." In 2019, the AFHP, announced that they would screen restorations of four African films on their home continent for the first time as part of the 50th anniversary of the
Pan African Film Festival Pan African Film Festival (PAFF) is a non-profit corporation in Los Angeles, California, that states its goal is to promote "cultural understanding among peoples of African descent" through exhibiting art and film. It hosts a film festival and an ar ...
of Ouagadougou. The movies in question are
Med Hondo Med Hondo (born Mohamed Abid Hondo; 4 May 1935 – 2 March 2019) was a Mauritanian-born French director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Considered a founding father of African cinema, he is known for his controversial films dealing with issu ...
's '' Soleil Ô'' (1970),
Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina Mohammed Lakhdar-Hamina ( ar, محمد الأخضر حمينة; born in M'sila in 1934) is an Algerian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his 1975 film ''Chronicle of the Years of Fire''. He is one of the most prominent figures ...
's '' Chronique des années de braise'' (1975), Timité Bassori's ''La Femme au couteau'' (1969), and Jean-Pierre Dikongue-Pipa's '' Muna Moto'' (1975).


Legacy and honors

Scorsese's films have been nominated for numerous awards both nationally and internationally, with an Academy Award win for ''The Departed''. In 1991, he received the Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet ...
. In 1997, Scorsese received the
AFI Life Achievement Award The AFI Life Achievement Award was established by the board of directors of the American Film Institute on February 26, 1973, to honor a single individual for his or her lifetime contribution to enriching American culture through motion picture ...
. In 1998, the American Film Institute placed three Scorsese films on their list of the greatest American movies: ''Raging Bull'' at No. 24, ''Taxi Driver'' at No. 47, and ''Goodfellas'' at No. 94. For the tenth-anniversary edition of their list, ''Raging Bull'' was moved to No. 4, ''Taxi Driver'' was moved to No. 52, and ''Goodfellas'' was moved to No. 92. In 2001, the American Film Institute placed two Scorsese films on their list of the most "heart-pounding movies" in American cinema: ''Taxi Driver'' at No. 22 and ''Raging Bull'' at No. 51. At a ceremony in Paris, France, on January 5, 2005, Martin Scorsese was awarded the French Legion of Honour in recognition of his contribution to cinema. On February 8, 2006, at the
48th Annual Grammy Awards The 48th Annual Grammy Awards took place on February 8, 2006, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California honoring the best in music for the recording year beginning from October 1, 2004 through September 30, 2005. Irish rock band U2 we ...
, Scorsese was awarded the Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video for ''No Direction Home''. In 2007, Scorsese was listed among ''
Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, ...
'' magazine's 100 Most Influential People in The World. In August 2007, Scorsese was named the second-greatest director of all time in a poll by ''
Total Film ''Total Film'' is a British film magazine published 13 times a year (published monthly and a summer issue is added every year since issue 91, 2004, which is published between July and August issue) by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched ...
'' magazine, in front of Steven Spielberg and behind Alfred Hitchcock. In 2007, Scorsese was honored by the National Italian American Foundation (N.I.A.F.) at the nonprofit's thirty-second Anniversary Gala. During the ceremony, Scorsese helped launch N.I.A.F.'s Jack Valenti Institute in memory of former foundation board member and past president of the Motion Picture Association of America (M.P.A.A.) Jack Valenti. The Institute provides support to Italian film students in the U.S. Scorsese received his award from Mary Margaret Valenti, Jack Valenti's widow. Certain pieces of Scorsese's film-related material and personal papers are contained in the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives, to which scholars and media experts from around the world may have full access. On September 11, 2007, the Kennedy Center Honors committee, which recognizes career excellence and cultural influence, named Scorsese as one of the honorees for the year. On June 17, 2008, the American Film Institute placed two of Scorsese's films on the AFI's 10 Top 10 list: ''Raging Bull'' at number one for the Sports genre and ''Goodfellas'' at number two for the Gangster genre. In 2013, the staff of '' Entertainment Weekly'' voted ''Mean Streets'' the seventh greatest film ever made. On January 17, 2010, at the 67th Golden Globe Awards, Scorsese was the recipient of the
Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award The Cecil B. DeMille Award is an honorary Golden Globe Award bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) for "outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment". The HFPA board of directors selects the honorees from a variety ...
. On September 18, 2011, at the
63rd Primetime Emmy Awards The 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards, honoring the best in prime time television programming from June 1, 2010 until May 31, 2011, were held on Sunday, September 18, 2011, at the Nokia Theatre in Downtown Los Angeles, California. Fox televised the c ...
, Scorsese won the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series The Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series is presented to the best directing of a television drama series, usually for a particular episode.Though this category is the dominant one in which dramatic directing has been ...
for his work on the series premiere of ''Boardwalk Empire''. In 2011, Scorsese received an honorary doctorate from the National Film School in Lodz. At the awards ceremony he said, "I feel like I'm a part of this school and that I attended it," paying tribute to the films of Wajda, Munk, Has, Polanski and Skolimowski.
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wrote " Martin Scorsese" in his honor. On February 12, 2012, at the
65th British Academy Film Awards The 65th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, were held on 12 February 2012 at the Royal Opera House in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2011. The nominations were announced on 17 January 2012 by ...
, Scorsese was the recipient of the BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award. On September 16, 2012, Scorsese won two Emmy Awards for Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming and Outstanding Nonfiction Special for his work on the documentary ''George Harrison: Living in the Material World''. In 2013, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Scorsese for the
Jefferson Lecture The Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities is an honorary lecture series established in 1972 by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). According to the NEH, the Lecture is "the highest honor the federal government confers for distinguished ...
, the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. He was the first filmmaker chosen for the honor. His lecture, delivered on April 1, 2013, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, was titled "Persistence of Vision: Reading the Language of Cinema". Scorsese was awarded the Polish Gold Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis on April 11, 2017, in recognition of his contribution to Polish cinema. Scorsese has also garnered favorable responses from numerous film giants including Ingmar Bergman, Frank Capra, Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Elia Kazan, Akira Kurosawa, David Lean, Michael Powell, Satyajit Ray, and François Truffaut. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2008. He was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the
University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...
on June 20, 2018. As of 2021, five of Scorsese's films have been selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In commenting on Scorsese's 2019 film ''The Irishman'', Guillermo del Toro cited Scorsese's ability as a director for the depiction of character development comparable to the films of "Renoir, Bresson, Bergman, Oliveira or Kurosawa". Sam Mendes, in his acceptance speech after winning the 2020 Golden Globe Award for Best Director for ''
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'', praised Scorsese's contribution to cinema, stating, "There's not one director in this room, not one director in the world, that is not in the shadow of Martin Scorsese... I just have to say that." Bong Joon-ho, in his acceptance speech for the 2020 Academy Award for Best Director for '' Parasite'', said, "When I was young and studying cinema, there was a saying that I carved deep into my heart, which is, the most personal is the most creative." He then said that this quote had come from Scorsese, which prompted the audience to give Scorsese a standing ovation.


Awards and nominations


See also

* Dr Catherine O'Brien's ''Martin Scorsese's Divine Comedy: Movies and Religion'' (2018). * Martin Scorsese's unrealized projects


References


External links

* * * * * * , movie clip compilation, 3 min.
Martin Scorsese Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)



1999 Princeton Q&A lecture
( RealMedia video)
Podcast: Scorsese Discusses His Digital Workflow Techniques

Martin Scorsese's response to a Proust Questionnaire
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Scorsese, Martin 1942 births 20th-century American male actors 20th-century American screenwriters 21st-century American male actors 21st-century American screenwriters AFI Life Achievement Award recipients American documentary film directors American documentary filmmakers American film directors American film directors of Italian descent American film editors American film historians American film producers American male film actors American male screenwriters American music video directors American Roman Catholics American writers of Italian descent Best Adapted Screenplay BAFTA Award winners Best Directing Academy Award winners Best Director BAFTA Award winners Best Director Golden Globe winners Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director winners Catholics from New York (state) Cardinal Hayes High School alumni Cecil B. DeMille Award Golden Globe winners César Honorary Award recipients Citizens of Italy through descent David di Donatello Career Award winners Directors Guild of America Award winners Directors of Palme d'Or winners Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Film directors from New York City Film theorists Filmmakers who won the Best Film BAFTA Award Grammy Award winners Italian-American culture in New York City Kennedy Center honorees Living people Mass media theorists New York University faculty People from Corona, Queens Postmodernist filmmakers Primetime Emmy Award winners Recipients of the Legion of Honour Screenwriters from New York (state) Tisch School of the Arts alumni Venice Best Director Silver Lion winners Western (genre) film directors