Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival for his 1989 film sex, lies and videotape (starring James Spader). The movie was a critical sensation and is often credited with launching the independent film boom of the 1990s. After making several offbeat low-budget films, Soderberg hit the mainstream with the 1998 crime romance Out of Sight with Jennifer Lopez and George Clooney. In 2001 Soderbergh was nominated twice for an Academy Award as best director, for the drug drama Traffic (with Benicio Del Toro and Michael Douglas) and the biopic Erin Brockovich (starring Julia Roberts). He won the Oscar for Traffic. He then shifted emotional gears to direct Clooney, Roberts, Brad Pitt and Don Cheadle in a big-budget remake of the old Frank Sinatra Las Vegas heist film Ocean's Eleven (2001). Two sequels followed: Ocean's Twelve (2004) and Ocean's Thirteen (2007). Somewhat like Ang Lee, Soderbergh eagerly shifts genres and experiments with new techniques, from the shot-on-digital-video quickie Full Frontal (2002) to the eerie science fiction remake Solaris (2002) to the biography of revolutionary Che Guevara (2008). He also has produced many projects, including the political docudrama series K Street.

Extra credit: Soderbergh often works as his own cinematographer, crediting himself under the name Peter Andrews... Soderbergh's 2006 film Bubble was the first mainstream movie released simultaneously in theaters, on television and on DVD... Soderbergh and Clooney started their own production company, Section Eight, in 2000.