Jonathan Demme

Jonathan Demme has directed over 25 films including The Manchurian Candidate, The Truth About Charlie, Beloved, The Silence of the Lambs, for which he won an Academy Award, Philadelphia, Married to the Mob, Something Wild, Swimming to Cambodia and Melvin and Howard, for which he was named Best Director by the New York Film Critics. Additional producing credits include Devil in a Blue Dress, Household Saints, That Thing you Do!, Ulee’s Gold, and Adaptation. Currently, he is in pre-production on his next feature, the ensemble piece Dancing with Shiva, written by Jenny Lumet. Demme’s films have been nominated for 20 Academy Awards. The Silence of the Lambs received five Academy Awards in 1991 – for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay Adaptation.

His films have won screenplay Oscars twice, Melvin and Howard (Best Original Screenplay, 1980) and The Silence of the Lambs (Best Screenplay Adaptation, 1991), and two of the Best Actor awards of the 1990s went to Anthony Hopkins (The Silence of the Lambs, 1991) and Tom Hanks (Philadelphia, 1993), with Jodie Foster receiving the Best Actress award (The Silence of the Lambs, 1991) as well.

A strong advocate of human rights, Demme has produced and directed a number of documentaries about the Haitian plight. He completed The Agronomist, a documentary on the Haitian radio journalist Jean Dominique, who was assassinated on the steps of his radio station. Previously, he directed Haiti: Dreams of Democracy, Haiti: Killing the Dream, Tonbe Leve, and Courage and Pain. In addition, he directed the documentary Cousin Bobby, and produced the Academy Award-nominated biography Mandela as well as Into the Rope!, about Double Dutch; The Uttmost, a portrait of producer Kenny Utt; and One Foot on a Banana Peel, the Other Foot in the Grave, about living with AIDS.

He also produced the Peabody Award-winning documentary Beah: A Black Woman Speaks, about the life of Beah Richards, a project which was also Lisa Gay Hamilton’s directorial debut. The Tavis Smiley Show recently featured Right to Return: New Home Movies from the Lower 9th Ward, a series of portraits directed and produced by Demme of New Orleans residents rebuilding their lives post- Katrina. This extensive footage took another form as a feature length documentary, New Home Movies from the Lower 9th Ward, which premiered at the Silverdocs Festival in June of 2007.

Demme’s creative talents have also lured him into the music domain. He released the acclaimed concert film Heart of Gold, in 2006, re-teaming with Neil Young, with whom he worked on The Complex Sessions. He also directed the Robyn Hitchcock concert film Storefront Hitchcock as well as the award-winning Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense. In addition, Demme has directed music videos for Bruce Springsteen, Les Frères Parent, The Neville Brothers, New Order, KRS-One, and the Feelies, among others. He also produced Konbit, an album of Haitian music.

Participant Productions