Jonathan Demme
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Jonathan Demme (born February 22 1944, in Baldwin, New York) is an Academy Award winning American film director, producer and writer.
Demme broke into feature film directing working for Roger Corman. His first mainstream feature Melvin and Howard caught the eye of Hollywood and he was signed to direct the Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell vehicle Swing Shift. The compromised production saw Demme withdraw from feature films making a notable series of 'concert films' with Stop Making Sense and Swimming to Cambodia.
Demme won the Academy Award for The Silence of the Lambs in 1991. One of the few films to win all the major categories (best film, best director, best screenplay, best actor, and best actress) Demme directed an Oscar winning turn from Tom Hanks in his next feature Philadelphia.
One of his common directorial motifs is to allow characters to look directly into the camera.
Demme formed his production company, Clinica Estetico, with producers Edward Saxon and Peter Saraf. They were based out of New York for fifteen years.
Demme has three children and is a graduate of the University of Florida. He also was the uncle of director Ted Demme, who died in 2002.
It has been reported that he is currently working on a documentary featuring Jimmy Carter as he promotes his book Palestine:Peace not Apartheid.
