Chris Smith | |
|---|---|
 Smith at the 40th Sundance Film Festival in 2024 | |
| Born | 1970 (age 53–54) |
| Alma mater | University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee |
| Occupation | Filmmaker |
| Known for | |
Chris Smith (born 1970) is an American filmmaker. He directed American Movie , [1] which was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. [2]
Smith completed his first film, American Job , while attending the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee's Graduate Film Program. He was nominated for a "Someone to Watch Award" from the Independent Spirit Awards. [3] Smith met Mark Borchardt, the subject of American Movie, while editing American Job, and began filming a documentary about the making of Borchardt's psychological thriller Coven . Both films played at the Sundance Film Festival, [4] and American Movie was bought by Sony Pictures for $1 million. [5]
His resume also included the Emmy-nominated Jim & Andy (2017), about the making of the 1999 Andy Kaufman biopic Man on the Moon . [6]
Smith wrote and directed the documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (2019), about the Fyre Festival fraud. [7]
He also made a documentary about director Robert Downey Sr., [8] co-directing together with Kevin Ford. The project, simply titled "Sr." , [9] [10] was produced by Team Downey, Robert Downey Jr.'s production company.
| Year | Film | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1996 | American Job | Narrative feature |
| 1999 | American Movie | Sundance Film Festival winner |
| 2001 | Home Movie [11] | |
| 2003 | The Yes Men | |
| 2007 | The Pool | Narrative feature |
| 2009 | Collapse | |
| 2017 | Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond | Primetime Emmy Award nomination [12] |
| 2019 | Fyre | Primetime Emmy Award nominations [13] |
| 2019 | The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann | 8-part Netflix docuseries |
| 2020 | Tiger King | 7-part Netflix docuseries |
| 2021 | 100 Foot Wave | 6-part HBO docuseries Winner, 2023 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for a Nonfiction Program [13] |
| 2022 | Bad Vegan: Fame. Fraud. Fugitives. | 4-part Netflix docuseries |
| 2022 | "Sr." | |
| 2023 | Wham! | |
| 2024 | DEVO |
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