Tom DiCillo


Thomas A. "Tom" DiCillo is an American film director, screenwriter and cinematographer.

Early life

He was born in Camp Le Jeune, North Carolina. His father was Italian and his mother was from New England. He studied creative writing at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia and went on to study filmmaking at New York University's Film School alongside Jim Jarmusch, Howard Brookner, Sara Driver and Spike Lee. Subsequently, he worked as an actor, then cinematographer, before making his own films.

Career

For his first film, Johnny Suede, DiCillo cast the then-unknown Brad Pitt and Catherine Keener in what would be their first starring roles. It received a nomination for a Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
For his second film, Living in Oblivion, DiCillo received acclaim for his satire of independent film-making. This 1995 black comedy, itself a low-budget independent film, features Steve Buscemi as a director driven to near-madness by his cast and crew, including a vain Hollywood actor. Describing the inspiration for and origin of Living in Oblivion in an interview with Salon, DiCillo described making a movie as "one of the most tedious, boring, painful experiences, and that's just when something goes right".
In 2001, his film Double Whammy was released straight to video. Delirious, a comedy starring Steve Buscemi, Michael Pitt, Alison Lohman and Elvis Costello, was screened at the San Sebastian Film Festival where it won three awards. The film also screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 and won Best Director at the HBO Comedy Film Festival in Aspen, Colorado.
DiCillo wrote and directed When You're Strange, a documentary about the rock band The Doors, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize. It was subsequently nominated for both an Emmy Award, after airing on PBS' American Masters series, and a Grammy Award for Best Long Form Video.
He has published books of two of his screenplays, Living in Oblivion and Box of Moonlight. Both books contain the full scripts along with commentary, stories and anecdotes.
DiCillo also directed "Weeping Willow |Weeping Willow", a episode of the television series , inspired by the lonelygirl15 videos on YouTube. In the episode, a vlogger named Weeping Willow is kidnapped during a live Internet video, and the kidnappers demand ransom through additional videos.

Filmography

As director