Shari Springer Berman
Shari Springer Berman is an Oscar and Emmy-nominated director and writer. Together with her partner, Robert Pulcini, she directed and wrote American Splendor which won over 30 awards including: Grand Jury Prize, Sundance Film Festival; Fipresci Award, Cannes Film Festival; and Best Adapted Screenplay Nomination, Academy Awards. Cinema Verite (2011), starring Diane Lane, James Gandolfini and Tim Robbins received nine Emmy nominations including Best Movie, Outstanding Directing and a win for Best Editing. In addition, the HBO movie received three Golden Globe nominations, a SAG nomination, as well as ACE and Writer’s Guild Award wins.
The Nanny Diaries (2007) starring Scarlett Johansson, Laura Linney, Chris Evans and Alicia Keys was the highest grossing film directed by a woman of that year. Other films include The Extra Man (Kevin Kline and Paul Dano) and Girl Most Likely (Kristen Wiig, Annette Benning and Matt Dillon). Berman and Pulcini’s award winning documentaries include Off The Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's and The Young and The Dead.
The team’s most recent film, Ten Thousand Saints, premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was selected as a New York Times critic’s pick. The film stars Ethan Hawke, Hailee Steinfeld, Asa Butterfield, Emile Hirsch and Emily Mortimer. Le Cafe de Balzac, Berman and Pulcini’s new comedic short starring Paul Giamatti, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival as part of the Amazon series The New Yorker Presents.
In addition, Ms. Berman is currently producing Marjoun and the Flying Headscarf, the second feature for award-winning Arab American filmmaker Susan Youssef (Habibi).
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Three projects worked on by School of the Arts alumni featured performances that were celebrated at the 2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards.
In this series we feature the new mentorship program that connects recent alumni with industry professionals.