Bennett Miller

Director

• Born: December 30, 1966
• Place of Birth: New York, New York

Contribution: Bennett Miller is an Oscar-nominated director best known for his films Capote (2005), Moneyball (2011), and Foxcatcher (2014).

Background

Bennett Miller was born on December 30, 1966, in New York City. He attended Hommocks Middle School in Larchmont, New York. While there, he became friends with Dan Futterman, who would grow up to write the screenplay for Miller’s breakout film Capote (2005), among others.

When Miller was attending Mamaroneck High School in Mamaroneck, New York, he and Futterman were active in the school’s theater program. Around this time, Miller began showing an interest in film and started making his own shorts with an eight-millimeter camera.

In 1984, Miller took part in the New York State Summer School of the Arts program, where he met Philip Seymour Hoffman, who would later star in Miller’s Capote. After graduating from high school in 1985, Miller enrolled in New York University as a theater major, although he later changed his major to film before dropping out in 1990. He has stated that he had never liked school and was a poor student. After dropping out, he managed to find work creating fundraising videos.

Career

Miller often spent time in Washington Square Park in Manhattan. Through his younger brother, he met New York City tour guide Timothy “Speed” Levitch, a local legend of sorts. Inspired by his unique personality, Miller began following Levitch around with a camera and turned the resulting footage into the documentary The Cruise (1998). The film screened at various film festivals and won the Audience Award and the Special Jury Award at the first ever Newport International Film Festival in Newport, Rhode Island.

The success of The Cruise provided Miller numerous directing opportunities, but he held off until an interesting script sparked his interest. He kept busy directing television commercials, most notably for Hungry Man microwaveable meals. Then Miller’s childhood friend Dan Futterman contacted him about a screenplay he had written about American author Truman Capote. Miller agreed to direct the film, called Capote, and decided that his friend Philip Seymour Hoffman was the perfect actor to play Capote.

Hoffman had since become a highly respected actor, and his name helped Miller and Futterman secure funding for Capote. The biographical film follows Capote as he does research in rural Kansas for his acclaimed nonfiction book In Cold Blood (1966). The film began shooting in October 2004 and premiered at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado on September 2, 2005.

Capote was received with nearly universal acclaim and earned numerous awards and nominations. Hoffman’s portrayal of Capote won him the Academy Award for best actor, along with BAFTA, Golden Globe, Satellite, and Screen Actors Guild Awards. For his directing, Miller was nominated for an Academy Award for best director, the BAFTA Awards’ David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction, and a Directors Guild of America Award. The Chicago Film Critics Association awarded Miller with the prize for most promising filmmaker.

Instead of jumping right into another film project, Miller returned to commercial work and again waited for the right script to come along. During the last half of 2009, he was offered the job of directing the movie Moneyball (2011), a film that had been in development for several years. The sports drama is based on Michael Lewis’s nonfiction book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (2003), which details the 2002 season of the Oakland Athletics professional baseball team. It focuses on general manager Billy Beane and the “sabermetric” method he used for scouting new players. Miller and the screenwriters managed to infuse a film about a statistical approach to baseball scouting with comedy and drama, and Moneyball received overwhelmingly positive reviews and was nominated for numerous awards, including six Academy Awards.

After Moneyball, Miller returned to another sports project, one he had begun working on in 2007. Based on the autobiography of Olympic wrestling champion Mark Schultz, Foxcatcher (2014) tells the story of the murder of Schultz’s brother, Dave, also an Olympic champion. The film stars Steve Carell, Mark Ruffalo, and Channing Tatum. Foxcatcher was also well-received and garnered five Oscar nominations, including a second nod to Miller for best director. In 2023, Miller debuted his first art installation at the Gagosian in New York. In 2024, the director announced that his next fill would would deal with A.I. technology.

Impact

Miller received tremendous accolades for his debut film The Cruise. While he was offered numerous projects in the wake of his success, he remained patient until the right project came along, displaying a patience that is rare in Hollywood. Even after winning several major awards and being nominated for even more, Miller continues to be selective about his film projects.

Personal Life

Miller lives in New York City.

Bibliography

Meredith, Luke. “Cast of Film Foxcatcher Embraces Wrestling.” SI.com. Time, 20 June 2013. Web. 7 Aug. 2013.

Miller, Bennett. “Bennett Miller: On Capote.” Interview by Craig Phillips. GreenCine. GreenCine, 30 Sept. 2005. Web. 7 Aug. 2013.

Miller, Bennett. “Director Bennett Miller on Why Moneyball Worked: ‘It Became Personal to Me.’” Interview by Julie Miller. Movieline. PMC, 29 Sept. 2011. Web. 7 Aug. 2013.

Miller, Bennett. “Interview: Director Bennett Miller on Telling a Baseball Story without a Big Win in Moneyball.” Interview by Katey Rich. CinemaBlend.com. Cinema Blend, 22 Sept. 2011. Web. 7 Aug. 2013.

Ruimy, Jordan. "Bennett Miller Is Working on His Next Film, Will Tackle AI." World of Reel, 30 July 2024, www.worldofreel.com/blog/2024/7/30/2lvaunarb79jn4826lwicaydg8fl88. Accessed 24 Sept. 2024.

Zakarin, Jordan. “Bennett Miller, Moneyball Director, on His Non-Baseball Baseball Movie.” Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 12 Sept. 2011. Web. 7 Aug. 2013.