Cary Fukunaga Cary Joji Fukunaga is an American film director,
writer and cinematographer.
He is most known for directing and writing Sin Nombre and winning the Directing Award
at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival for his work with that film, directing Jane Eyre and
for his work directing and producing the HBO series True Detective.
Biography Early life
Fukunaga was born in Oakland, California, has lived in various places including France
and Japan, and now resides in New York City.
His father is Japanese and his mother is Swedish.
Fukunaga got his start as a camera intern and later applied to film school.
Fukunaga graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with a BA in History
in 1999 and attended Institut d'études politiques (IEP) de Grenoble, and New York University
in the Graduate Film Program.
He has received several grants including a USA Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, the
John H. Johnson Film Award/Princess Grace Foundation Fellowship, and a Katrin Cartlidge
Foundation bursary.
In addition to English, he is fluent in French and Spanish.
Career Short Films
Fukunaga wrote and directed the short film Victoria para Chino (2004) while at NYU, which
screened at the Sundance Film Festival and received a Student Academy Award in 2005.
The short film also won an Audience Award for Best Narrative Student Short film at the
2004 Austin Film Festival, a "Best Student Film" award at the 2006 Ashland Independent
Film Festival, a "BAFTA/LA Award for Excellence - Honorable Mention" award at the 2005 Aspen
Shortsfest, Best Student Film at the 2005 BendFilm Festival, Best Short Film and an
Audience Award for Best Short Film at the 2005 Gen Art Film Festival, Best Short film
at the 2005 Milan International Film Festival, and the Jury Prize for Best Student Short
at the 2004 Woodstock Film Festival.
He has also wrote and directed the short films Kofi (2008) (shot in black and white) and
more recently, Sleepwalking in the Rift (2012), described as a color film about "a young woman
on her first visit to East Africa who crosses paths with the Ranger charged with being her
guide.
They have something in common and when they meet, a light within them both begins to flicker."
Fukunaga has also wrote and directed a segment in the omnibus film project "Chinatown Film
Project" (2009).
Feature Films Sin Nombre
Fukunaga made his feature film debut with Sin Nombre which he both wrote and directed.
The film received a number of awards, including the Directing award at the 2009 Sundance Film
Festival and a "New Director's Award" for Fukunaga at the 2009 Edinburgh International
Film Festival.
The film also won "Best Foreign Language Film" awards from the Austin Film Critics Association
in 2009, the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards in 2009, the Florida Film
Critics Circle Awards in 2009, the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards in 2009 (2nd place
for Best Foreign Language Film), and the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Awards in
2009.
The film's cinematographer, Adriano Goldman, also won the Cinematography award at the 2009
Sundance Film Festival, and at the 2009 Stockholm Film Festival, the film won a Best Actor award
(for Edgar Flores), as well as a Best Directorial Debut and FIPRESCI Prize for Fukunaga.
Fukunaga also won a 2010 Premios ACE award for "Cinema - Best First Work."
The film was also nominated for Best Feature, Best Director and Best Cinematography from
the 2010 Independent Spirit Awards, and was also nominated by the 2009 British Independent
Film Awards (Best Foreign Film), the 2010 Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards
(Best Foreign Language Film), the 2009 Chicago Film Critics Association Awards (Most Promising
Filmmaker; Best Foreign Language Film), the 2010 Image Awards (Outstanding Foreign Motion
Picture), the Bronze Horse at the 2009 Stockholm Film Festival and the 2009 Sundance Film Festival
Grand Jury Prize.
Jane Eyre In 2010, Fukunaga directed a new film adaptation
of Jane Eyre starring Mia Wasikowska, Michael Fassbender, Jamie Bell and Judi Dench.
The film was released in 2011 and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Achievement
in Costume Design for Costume Designer Michael O'Connor and a 2012 Goya Award for Best European
Film.
The film was also nominated for a 2012 BAFTA Award (Best Costume Design), a 2012 Broadcast
Film Critics Association Award (Best Costume Design), the 2012 Costume Designers Guild
Awards (Excellence in Period Film), the 2012 Evening Standard British Film Awards (Best
Technical Achievement), the 2011 Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards (Best Costume Design),
the 2011 Satellite Awards (Best Costume Design).
The 2012 Australian Film Institute awards as well as the 2011 British Independent Film
Awards nominated Mia Wasikowska for a "Best Actress" award.
The film's screenplay and screenwriter Moira Buffini (as well as author Charlotte Bronte)
were nominated for a 2012 USC Scripter Award.
For his role in the film and other films that year (including Shame, A Dangerous Method,
and X-Men: First Class), lead actor Michael Fassbender also won "Best Actor" awards from
the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, the 2011 National Board of Review Awards,
the Central Ohio Film Critics Association Awards, the 2012 Evening Standard British
Film Awards (also for Shame), and a 2012 Sant Jordi "Best Foreign Actor" award (also for
A Dangerous Method, and X-Men: First Class).
Television True Detective
Fukunaga directed all eight episodes of the 2014 HBO TV miniseries True Detective, which
was written and created by novelist, fiction writer and screenwriter Nic Pizzolatto.
The series stars Matthew McConaughey, Woody Harrelson and Michelle Monaghan.
Fukunaga also served as an Executive Producer on the show.
Future Projects In May 2011, it was announced that Fukunaga
would direct and co-write No Blood, No Guts, No Glory, a 2009 Black List script by Chase
Palmer about "a spy and 20 Union soldiers in disguise who board a train in Georgia in
order to pull off a heist that could bring a quick end to the Civil War," although by
2012 he was no longer attached to that project.
Warner Bros has also chosen Fukunaga to develop, as well as direct and write, a new adaptation
of Stephen King's It, which will be split up into two films.
His next feature was rumored to be a twist-filled science-fiction love story, Spaceless, from
a well-known and long admired unproduced original script by I, Robot screenwriter Jeff Vintar,
a favorite project of director Gore Verbinski, who would produce for Universal.
Fukunaga's rewrite of Vintar's spec was too far removed from the original, and Fukunaga
has since been removed as director.
Verbinski is now set as the director of the original Vintar Spaceless draft.
Another film in the works for Fukunaga as far as both directing and writing is Beasts
of No Nation, based on the novel of the same name by Uzodinma Iweala, in which Idris Elba
is slated to star as Abu, the protagonist.
Writing and Producing Fukunaga has written most of the films he
has directed.
The short films that he has written the screenplays for include Kofi (2003) and Victoria para
chino (2004).
He has also written the screenplay to his feature film, Sin Nombre (2009), as well as
his segment for the omnibus film, Chinatown Film Project (2009).
He is also currently attached as the screenwriter for the feature film projects Beasts of No
Nation and It.
Fukunaga has also produced or served as executive producer on most of the projects he has directed.
He was the executive producer for his short films Kofi (2003) and Victoria para chino
(2004).
He was also an executive producer on Andrew Okpeaha MacLean's feature film thriller, On
the Ice, which won "Best Debut Film" and the "Crystal Bear" (Best Feature Film for the
Generation 14+) at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival, among other awards.
Fukunaga also served as an executive producer for the HBO series he directed, True Detective.
Cinematography and Other Work Fukunaga has also served as a cinematographer
on a number of short film projects, including Handmade (2013) (a documentary short directed
by Rob Meyer), Sikumi (2008) (also known as Sikumi (On the Ice) about an Inuit hunter
on the frozen Arctic Ocean, directed by Andrew Okpeaha MacLean), Team Queen (2007) (a short
film directed by Leah Meyerhoff), the feature documentary Death of Two Sons (2006) (directed
by Micah Schaffer), the short films Clear Water (2005) (directed by Natalie Mooallem),
White (2005) (directed by Sebastian Mantilla), Kinnaq Nigaqtuqtuaq (2005) (directed by Andrew
Okpeaha MacLean), Two Men (2005) (directed by Ian Olds) and Mating Call (2004) (directed
by Patricio Serna).
He has also served as a camera operator on the short Glory at Sea (2008) (directed by
Beasts of the Southern Wild director Benh Zeitlin), as a gaffer on the short film Just
Make Believe (2008) (directed by Jadrien Steele), as an additional cinematographer on the TV
documentary Small Steps: Creating the High School for Contemporary Arts (2007), assistant
camera on the short film Dock (2004) (directed by Nina Martinek), additional photography
for the documentary Lockdown, USA (about the "War on Drugs" campaign and directed by Rebecca
Chaiklin and Michael Skolnik), additional camera for Autumn's Eyes (2006) (directed
by Paola Mendoza and Gabriel Noble), a grip on the feature film Mango Kiss (2004) (directed
by Sascha Rice), and as an additional film loader on the feature film Black Cadillac
(2003) (directed by John Murlowski and starring Randy Quaid).
Filmography Feature Films
Chinatown Film Project (2009) Sin Nombre (2009)
Jane Eyre (2011) Short Films
Kofi (2003) Victoria para chino (2004)
Sleepwalking in the Rift (2012) Television
True Detective (2014) Awards
U.S. Dramatic Directing Award at Sundance Film Festival in 2009.
Cinematography Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2009
Nominated – Independent Spirit Award for Best Director for Sin Nombre