Lucy Walker

Lucy Walker (born in London, United Kingdom) is a film director, mostly of theatrical feature documentaries.

Biography

Early life

Lucy was born in London, United Kingdom, read English Language and Literature at New College, Oxford receiving first-class honours. She was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to attend the graduate film program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where she won a contest to direct a video for Cowboy Junkies, directed three award-winning short films and received an MFA.

While at NYU film school, Lucy also DJed, performing both solo and as a member of illbient ensemble Byzar, most frequently at the Soundlab. The album "Gaiatronyk Vs. The Cheap Robots" was a CMJ chart hit.

Career

Lucy's directing credits include Nickelodeon's "Blue's Clues", for which she was twice nominated for Daytime Emmys for Outstanding Directing, and "Devil's Playground - Amish Teenagers in the Modern World", a feature-length documentary about the struggles of Amish teenagers during the period of rumspringa. Financed by HBO, Wellspring and Channel 4, Devil's Playground premiered at Sundance Film Festival and went on to many accolades and awards, including winning Sony-AFI digital Best Documentary Award as well as overall Best Film Award, a Special Jury mention at Karlovy-Vary Film Festival, Audience Award at Sarasota International Film Festival, and nominations for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary, and for three Emmys (for Best Documentary, Best Directing, and Best Editing). She was named one of the "Top 25 New Faces In Independent Film" by Filmmaker Magazine.

In 2006, her second documentary feature film "Blindsight" premiered at Toronto International Film Festival, won the Panorama Publikumspreis, the Audience Award for Best Film at the Berlin International Film Festival, the Audience Award Best Documentary at the American Film Institute AFI festival in Los Angeles, the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, was short-listed for the Academy Award for Best Documentary [cite web | url=http://www.oscars.org/press/pressreleases/2006/06.11.15.html | title="15 Docs Advance in 2006 Oscar Race"| author=Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences | date=November 15, 2006 | publisher= [http://www.oscars.org] ] , and was nominated for Best Documentary at the British Independent Film Awards and Best Cinema Documentary at the Grierson Awards.

External links

*imdb name|id=1013671| name=Lucy Walker
* [http://www.21cmagazine.com/issue1/devils_playground.html "Notes On Completing Devil's Playground" by Lucy Walker]
* [http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=awardcentral2003&content=jump&nav=reviews&jump=reviews&reviewid=VE1117916787&categoryid=1401&cs=1 Variety review of Devil's Playground by Dennis Harvey]
* [http://blog.tiffg.ca/blog/default.aspx?id=45&t=Making-of-Blindsight "Blindsight Training Day" on the Toronto International Film Festival Doc Blog]
* [http://www.afi.com/onscreen/afifest/2006/daily/5e.aspx Ten Burning Questions: Lucy Walker at AFI by John Wildman]
* [http://www.tibet.ca/en/wtnarchive/2006/9/14_7.html "Failure IS An Option: Our Obsession With Success Puzzles Tibetans, Who Prefer To Walk Around Mountains" by Lucy Walker in the Toronto Star]
* [http://www.variety.com/awardcentral_article/VR1117955239.html?nav=docu07 "Eye On The Oscars: Documentaries" Blindsight at Variety.com by Kathy A. McDonald]
* [http://www.griersontrust.org/sl_cinema.htm Grierson Awards: Best Cinema Documentary]

References