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Michelle Déspart Prado & Silva (born August 22, 1970) is a Brazilian-American film director, screenwriter, editor, producer, studio entrepreneur and former model. She started her career in the United States, directing short films and music videos, but came to public knowledge in television, by producing and directing episodes of the acclaimed TV series Crows Over My Head and Enlightenment, and the miniseries Pagan Gods. She also has produced and directed 5 feature films, all of them nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: Days of Fury (2001), The Fugitives (2003), Autumn Whispers (2005), In Frozen Hearts (2007) and Moby Dick (2011), and soon to be released, Golden Days (2012). She has been nominated for various major awards, and won two Academy Awards for Autumn Whispers, one of them for direction, making her the first woman to win the Academy Award for Best Director. She also won Golden Globe awards and Emmy awards.

Déspart has been regarded as one of the most acclaimed artists of her generation and one of the best talents of today. In 2004, The Guardian named her the 30th best director on a list of 40 names. In 2007, Déspart was ranked the 4th greatest working director on a list made by Entertainment Weekly saying that "Michelle Déspart is one of the most exciting promises of last 50 decades, and probably the greatest woman to work behind the camera".

She already appeared on Time 100 list of most influential artists of the year four times: first in 2006 (1st place), 2007 (4th), 2009 (13rd) and 2010 (8th).

Early life
Déspart was born in Passo Fundo, Brazil. Her father was Frederico Prado & Silva, a brazilian photographer and her mother was Faianne Déspart, a french journalist and pianist who moved to Brazil. She developed an interest to cinema since she was 4 years old, when she watched her first film, The Wizard of Oz. In 1980, her mother, sister-in-law and cousin died in a car accident in a highway near the town; her older brother, Marco, was the only one to escape alive from the tragedy. A few months later, her father, who had a previous history of depression, committed suicide, leaving her and her brothers to the care of their uncle, Fabiano Prado & Silva, who lived in the city of Geneva, New York.

To help Déspart to overcome the tragedy, her uncle bought her an 8mm camera in 1981, and she started to develop her abilities on filming. In 1983 she finalized her first work, a short documentary about life in Geneva; her brother Marco composed the score, a 7 minutes composition using only a piano. After showing the film in a small family reunion, everyone realized her talent on making films. Then, her uncle started to buy her better equipments, and saving money to send her to a good college. She graduated in 1986 at Geneva High School and entered New York University, the same college Martin Scorsese acquired his degree.

Short films and music videos
Geneva (1983) was her first work behind the cameras, and was shown only to her family at a Christmas party in 1983. She charged each one of the viewers $1, grossing exactly $14.

After a few amateur shorts, Déspart started to focus on more professional works. The New World (1986) was her last film shot before entering university. A 9 minutes-length short about the first fight between settlers and north american Indians, the short had an impressive production value, thanks to investments of her friends, who also worked as actors for free.

The only short film she made at college was Through The Valley of Death (1989), a 14 minute western about a cowboy who is tasked to transport a testament from one village to San Francisco, and has to confront dangerous bandits. Actor Michael Showalter is credited as being The Rider, the protagonist of the short. It provided to Déspart many student awards and nominations at Short film festival in New York.

Wings of Passion (1992) is a 15 minute film about a famous Hollywood actor who enlists for the Army and fights in World War II, focusing more on his return and the deep psychological scars that this experience left on him and his life. This short marked Déspart as one artist to follow; it receive high critical praise, being uncovered by her former professors and influential friends at college. Déspart won the Short Film Palme d'Or at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival and also won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1993.

From 1990 to 1994 Déspart focused more on music videos, directing for artists like Smashing Pumpkins (Rhinoceros), Pavement (Cut Your Hair), Alice In Chains (Heaven Beside You), Soundgarden (Fell on Black Days and Burden in My Hand), Goo Goo Dolls (Long Way Down, Slide, Black Balloon and Iris), Green Day (Stuck With Me), Lenny Kravitz (Fly Away and American Woman), Alanis Morissette (So Pure andHand In My Pocket), Oasis (Shakermaker, Rock 'n' Roll Star, Cigarettes & Alcohol, Supersonic, Live Forever, Champagne Supernova, Morning Glory, Some Might Say, Don't Look Back in Anger, Wonderwall, Roll With It, Stand By Me, Sunday Morning Call, Little by Little and I'm Outta Time) and all of Gin Blossoms music videos until 1996.

Television work
Her first credit for television was in 1994, directing 3 episodes of CBS American soap opera Guiding Light. Her breakthrough came in early 1996, when she co-created (along with her sister Maya Déspart), produced and directed the western drama series Crows Over My Head. Despite during only two seasons, the show received universal acclaim and a generated a huge cult following, including fans appeals to bring the series back on air; it also helped to launch protagonist Laura Linney's career. During its two seasons, Crows Over My Head received a total of 5 nominations and 1 award at the Golden Globe Award and, at the Emmy Awards received 6 nominations out of 2 wins.

Her second successful work happened in 1996, when she directed the miniseries Pagan Gods, an historical epic drama based on her sister's best-selling novel of the same name. The miniseries received high praise for its production value, acting and a strong storyline with historical accuracy. It won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries in 1997 and gave to Déspart an Emmy Award for direction. Pagan Gods was nominated for more 6 awards, winning another 2. At the Golden Globe Awards, it received 6 nominations, winning one for Best Miniseries.

In 1998, she launched the TV series Enlightenment, created by Maya and set in the French Revolution, serving as executive producer and director of the first five episodes. Widely regarded as one of the best TV series of all-time, it lasted for four seasons, all of them extremely lauded by both public and audience. Through its run, Enlightenment received 48 nominations and won 19 times at the Emmys, including three awards for Best Drama Series and one more award for direction for Déspart. At the Golden Globes, the series received a total of 9 awards out of 26 nominations, including two for Best Drama Series.

Déspart also served as producer of another Maya's series: Babylon, based on another of her best-selling novel, about a romance between a soldier and a peasant set in ancient times, more precisely when Babylon succumbed to Persian Empire. She also directed the series premiere, which ran at CBS on October 25, 2008. Equally acclaimed, the series received so far a total of 11 Emmy Awards out of 36 nominations. Babylon was renewed for a fourth season to premiere on October 2012.

She also directed episodes of soap opera As the World Turns and various TV series, including Kirk, Almost Perfect, High Society, Murder, She Wrote, Northern Exposure, Touched By An Angel, Promised Land, L.A. Doctors, JAG, Family Law, Early Edition, Brooklyn South and NYPD Blue.

Days of Fury (2001)
After the outstanding success of her TV works, Déspart started to focus on feature films. Her first project was Days of Fury, also written by Maya. But it wasn't easy to convince Warner Bros. executives to finance the film, since it was intended to be a brazilian production, using latin american actors. Seeing the difficulty, Déspart and her brothers founded the Red Line Films, using the money they grossed from their works. After a lot of negotiations, Warner producers agreed to co-finance the project with them.

With a budget of $30 million (the most expensive brazilian co-production so far), the film brought much attention from media, especially because of Déspart's rising reputation. Shooting of the film passed through Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, and lasted almost three months. It was released in Brazil on March 13, 2001 and received an international premiere on 20 March 2001. Days of Fury received wide critical acclaim: like in her past works, critics applauded the cinematography, historical accuracy, envolving and deep characters, as emotional appeal. Based on 77 reviews, it maintains a perfect rating of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes website, with an average score of 8.5, and an average score of 86 out of 100 on Metacritic. It grossed more than $188 million worldwide, making it the highest grossing brazilian film to date.

At the awards season, the film was constantly remembered, figuring as one of the most nominated films of the year in the major awards: it won the Academy, Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, being the only brazilian film to achieve this status. It also received 6 more nominations at the Academy Award, including Best Picture, but failed to win another award; 1 more Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Score; and another 7 nominations at the BAFTA, winning two other awards (Best Original Screenplay and Best Production Design).

The Fugitives (2003)
Following the critical and financial success of Days of Fury, Warner Bros. optioned the script for Déspart next film, The Fugitives, an epic western. Being supported by the company, Déspart managed to gather a stellar cast, with names like Denzel Washington, Al Pacino, Guy Pearce, Gary Oldman and Vanessa Redgrave; this factor contributed to increase expectations and attention from media over the project. Released on September 20, 2003, The Fugitives was a box-office hit, making $166,036,442 domestically and $394,558,261 overall against a budget of $40 million, and becoming the tenth highest grossing film of 2003 and the highest grossing western film ever.

The Fugitives received 10 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Denzel Washington and Best Original Screenplay. However, at the shadow of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and Lost in Translation, the film acquired only one statuette in the Best Supporting Actor category for Gary Oldman. The film was also nominated for six Golden Globes, again winning only the Supporting Actor category. The success of The Fugitives put Déspart as a rising talent on direction, acquiring positive views and a huge crowd of fans.

Autumn Whispers (2005)
After consolidating enough her career, Déspart showed interest in start the production of Autumn Whispers, an epic musical romantic drama set in World War I, and the personal favorite writing of her sister Maya. Then, Déspart reunited with producers Rachael Horovitz and Ceán Chaffin (with whom she worked previously in The Fugitives) to begin pre-production.

The first actors to be casted were Michael Caine, Ewan McGregor and frequent collaborator Vanessa Redgrave. Naomi Watts showed interest and offered herself for the part of Autumn Reivers. Impressed by Watts' performances in Mulholland Drive and 21 Grams, Déspart decided to cast her as the protagonist. Principal photography started in Sheffield, England on November 11, 2004 and ended on February 3, 2005, passing through Ireland, Scotland and France. The film received massive advertising, becoming one of the most anticipated films of the year, and been called by press as the "New Titanic".

Autumn Whispers was released on December 17, 2005 in England and December 24, 2005 in the United States. At the world premiere in London, the film was cheered by the viewers, who gave it a standing ovation. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called it "the greatest romantic tragedy since Romeo and Juliet" and Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said that "Autumn Whispers represents the true face of grief" and "the four protagonists give unforgettable performances". In the box-office, Autumn Whispers was supreme as domestically as overseas, breaking the record of highest-grossing weekend opening in the U.S., over $149 million (surpassed in 2008 by Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight) and becoming the highest-grossing film in the U.S. at the time, over $642 million (surpassed in 2009 by James Cameron’s Avatar). Overall, the film made $1,607,339,622, becoming the second highest-grossing film at the time, today being the third highest-grossing film of all time.

At the Golden Globe Awards, Autumn Whispers swept 7 Awards out of 9 Nominations, including Best Film – Musical or Comedy, Best Director, Best Actor – Musical or Comedy, Best Actress – Musical or Comedy and Best Screenplay. Autumn Whispers also was nominated in 13 categories, winning 9, including Best Film and Best Director. At the 78th Academy Awards, it was the most nominated film, receiving 14 nominations, becoming the third film to do so (the other ones were All About Eve in 1950 and Titanic in 1997), winning 9 awards, including Best Picture, Best Actress for Naomi Watts, Best Supporting Actress for Vanessa Redgrave, Best Original Screenplay for Maya Déspart and Best Director for Déspart, who also shared the Best Picture award. She also became the first woman to receive the Academy, Directors Guild of America, Golden Globe and BAFTA awards for Best Director, and only the fourth to be nominated for the category.

In Frozen Hearts (2007)
In 2006, Maya Déspart came to Michelle with a drift about an australian writer who is hired by Tsar Nicholas II of Russia to write the family's biography, living almost 25 years between them, and passing through the World War I and the Sovietic Revolution. She demonstrated much interest on the story, and agreed to make a feature film. Entitled In Frozen Hearts, the screenplay was approved by Warner Bros. executives, who gave her total autonomy after the success of Autumn Whispers. Starring Russell Crowe, Marion Cotillard and russian actors Viktor Bychkov, Elena Yakovleva, Olga Fonda and Anton Yelchin, the film was a co-production between Australia, Russia and United States. Filming took place in Russia, passing through cities where many of the events depicted actually happened, like Tobolsk, Yekaterinburg, Moscow, Saint Petersburg and Tsarskoye Selo.

Warner Bros. gave In Frozen Hearts a wide release on December 14, 2007. It was a moderate financial success, grossing $70,926,428 domestically over a budget of approximately $60 million (some blamed the weak performance at the box-office because of competition with blockbuster I Am Legend). It grossed $158,653,831 worldwide. Despite the disappointing gross, the film received universal acclaim, figuring in many Best of The Year lists.

In Frozen Hearts was the most nominated film at the 84th Academy Awards, receiving a total of 12 nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, making Déspart the only woman to date to receive multiple nominations in the category. It won 5 awards (Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Film Editing), being the film that received the most awards. The film was also nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, but failed to receive any. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or, but lost to romanian film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. At the 61st BAFTA Awards, the film received 7 nominations, winning only one for Best Costume Design. In Frozen Hearts also received many accolades at critics' association awards.

Moby Dick (2011)
After a hiatus of four years in film, Déspart began in late 2010 the production of the adaptation of Herman Melville's epic novel, Moby Dick. In an interview to the Los Angeles Times, Déspart stated: "It’s pretty exciting what we’re doing with Melville’s novel. I mean... It’s a landmark of the adventure genre and literature itself, without, however, lose the depth and chemistry between the characters. And that’s what we're trying to do, an epic adventure with depth and meaning, bringing to life the essence of the novel as much as we can. And Maya is doing a great job on the script, keeping intact most of the dialogues and adding a few things that don’t contradict the essence of the story. She increased some interesting subplots and created new characters as amazing as the original ones... It’s working very well and I’m sure viewers and fans of the novel will enjoy the film". Production of the film started on November 27, 2010 and ended on March 15, 2011, with filming taking place on United Kingdom, Spain and United States.

The film was released on December 3, 2011 to universal acclaim, been widely regarded by critics and viewers as the greatest adaptation of the novel. Against a budget of $100 million, Moby Dick grossed $209,863,503 domestically and $584,026,687 internationally, becoming the eight highest-grossing film of the year.

Moby Dick won the 2011 Academy Awards for Best Sound Editing and Best Visual Effects, and was nominated for a total of nine, including Best Picture. It received 5 nominations at the Golden Globes, but didn't win any; at the BAFTAs, the film won two awards, one for Best Sound and the other for Best Makeup & Hair, receiving a total of 6 nominations.

Golden Days (2012)
Déspart's next effort will be a romantic noir film called Golden Days. Set in Hollywood in the early 40s, the film will tell the story of a renowned screenwriter who is hired to rewrite the screenplay of an epic War film called "Wings of Passion", but finds out that production has dark secrets about its funders; moreover, he ends up being trapped in a love triangle between a rising beautiful actress and her fiancé, one of the executive producers of the film and a powerful mobster.

In an article at Rolling Stone, Déspart revealed the influences of the project: "Golden Days has some inspirations on films like Chinatown and The Maltese Falcon, two of Maya's favorites. We're also thinking about making it black-and-white... It's not certain yet, but I've talked with Amy Vincent and she demonstrated great interest in filming it this way, so... It's probably gonna be a retro film, a homage to the noir films of the 40s". Emma Stone was the first actress casted for the film: "She is such a talented actress, and demonstrate a lot of versatility", said Déspart on December 2011; Christian Bale was casted as the protagonist, while Jeff Bridges negotiated for the role of the main antagonist. Other actors confirmed are Joaquin Phoenix. Kevin Bacon, Craig T. Nelson, Vanessa Redgrave (on her fourth collaboration with the director), Jessica Chastain, David Morse and Kyle Chandler. Principal photography began on January 18, 2012 and is expected to continue until April 2012, for a planned theatrical release on December 15, 2012.

Bonaparte
Déspart is already attached to the epic film Bonaparte, based on the life of Napoleon Bonaparte. Also written by Maya, the project is intended to be "the ultimate portrayal of Bonaparte" and "a great achievement of filmmaking". The film is planned to be filmed on France, using a cast and crew mainly french, and is intended to be released on 2014.

The Blade In The Dark
Déspart also announced the production of her love project, The Blade In The Dark. Co-written by she and Maya, the film is highly inspired on Akira Kurosawa's samurai films. Set in Japan, the film is about a samurai who has to defends his village from dangerous bandits. Like her previous foreign works, The Blade In The Dark will have a predominantly japanese cast and crew.

Anne of Green Gables
In 2010, Déspart showed interest in make a film adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's novel Anne of Green Gables. This is her first project not written by her sister. She already met with writer John Logan, but no development has been announced so far.

Recurring collaborators

 * Nolan often casts the same actors in different films. Vanessa Redgrave (The Fugitives, Autumn Whispers, In Frozen Hearts and Golden Days), Bernard Hill (Autumn Whispers, Moby Dick and Golden Days), Marion Cotillard (The Fugitives and In Frozen Hearts), Gary Oldman (The Fugitives and Autumn Whispers) are among his more frequent acting collaborators.
 * Déspart's sister Maya Déspart has written all of her films.
 * Sally Menke has been Déspart's editor since The Fugitives, with Pamela Martin editing them after Menke's death in 2010.
 * Amy Vincent has served as cinematographer for all of Déspart's films.
 * Déspart's older brother Marco Déspart composed music for all of her films.

Box-Office
As of February 2012, Déspart's film have earned a total over nearly USD$1 billion at the north american box-office, and almost USD$3 billion internationally. None of Déspart's films have made less than $100 million worldwide. Three of her films have made the list of 10 highest grossing films of their respective year: The Fugitives (10th in 2003), Autumn Whispers (1st in 2005) and Moby Dick (8th in 2011). Autumn Whispers was the second highest-grossing film of all time until 2009, when fell to third place after Avatar became the highest grossing film.

Awards and nominations
Michelle Déspart has received 3 Academy Awards: one for Best Live Action Short Film in 1993, and two awards in 2005: one for Best Picture (shared with Rachael Horovitz and Ceán Chaffin) and other for Best Director. Overall, she received 8 Academy Award nominations.

She also earned 2 Golden Globe Awards out of 5 nominations and 7 BAFTA Awards out of 2 nominations. At the Directors Guild of America Award, she received one award and was nominated for two more, and at the Producers Guild of America Award, she gained one award and was nominated four more times.