Milk

Gus Van Sant was born in Louisville, Kentucky, USA, the son of a travelling salesman. During his early years his family moved constantly, but Van Sant took refuge in artistic pursuits—particularly painting and making semi-autobiographical super-8 films.

He entered the art school at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1970, and it was here that Van Sant came to experience the alternative cinema of such avant-garde directors as Andy Warhol, which became a catalyst for his own studies in filmmaking.

After an unsuccessful period in Hollywood in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Van Sant moved to New York City, honing his skills directing commercials. During his New York period, he saved the money required to produce his first feature film, Mala Noche (1985). A success on the festival circuit, it established a number of recurring themes in Van Sant’s work and brought his name to the attention of Universal. The studio eventually turned down the ideas the openly gay Van Sant pitched, perhaps due to the controversial nature of his preferred subjects.

Returning to independent production, Van Sant made the films Universal had declined—Drugstore Cowboy (1989) and My Own Private Idaho (1991), which showcased his affinity for society’s fringe-dwellers, such as drug-dealers and gay hustlers, and featured established young actors, Matt Dillon, River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves, whose reputations no doubt helped to raise Van Sant’s profile.

His subsequent film, however, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1994), was a commercial and critical disappointment, and saw Van Sant return to Hollywood production for his next film, the much-lauded black comedy To Die For (1995), which earned Nicole Kidman a Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical.

Having made his reputation with small arthouse films, Van Sant was finally accepted into mainstream Hollywood with 1997’s Good Will Hunting, which earned nine Oscar nominations, winning two.

His next film project was a 1998 homage to Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho; indeed, it was a shot-by-shot remake of the original, albeit in colour.

More recently, Van Sant has directed a trio of films about death: Gerry (2002); Elephant (2003), which won both the Best Director and Palme d’Or at Cannes that year; and Last Days (2005), which was also awarded at Cannes.
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Born in Palo Alto, California in 1978, he is an actor, director, screenwriter and producer. He won many accolades for his performance in the title role of the TV movie JAMES DEAN and in feature films MILK and 127 HOURS. He has also appeared in, amongst others, SPIDER-MAN 1, 2 and 3. In 2010 his shorts FEAST OF STEPHEN and HERBERT WHITE screened in the Panorama.

Born in Athens, Panos H. Koutras studied filmmaking at the London Film School and at the Sorbonne in Paris. From 1985 to 1995, he kept going back and forth between both cities and made several short films screened in festivals throughout the world. In 1995, he founded in Athens his own production company, 100% Synthetic Films, and started writing his first feature film, The Attack of the Giant Moussaka, an “unidentified filmic object” released 4 years later, quickly achieving cult status. He made a complete turnaround with his second film, Real Life, a drama which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the National Critics Award in Greece in 2004. His third film, Strella, was selected in the Panorama section of the 2009 Berlin Film Festival and in many other international festivals. Xenia is his fourth feature film.

Jack Gold was born on June 28, 1930 in London, England. He was a director and producer, known for Aces High (1976), The National Health (1973) and Play for Today (1970). He died on August 9, 2015.