- Soderbergh, Steven
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▪ 2002Onetime independent film prodigy Steven Soderbergh had two films competing against one another in two categories at the 2001 Academy Awards. Both his David-versus-Goliath tale Erin Brockovich (2000) and his drug-trade pseudodocumentary Traffic (2000) vied for best picture and best director awards. Critics feared that the double nominations would cause a split vote in the Academy and ultimately result in both films' defeat. In the end both movies won laurels—Julia Roberts won the best actress award for Brockovich, and Soderbergh won the best director award for Traffic, which took three other awards but lost out to Gladiator for best picture.Steven Andrew Soderbergh was born on Jan. 14, 1963, in Atlanta, Ga. When he was 13, his family relocated to Baton Rouge, La., where his father assumed the post of professor and administrator at Louisiana State University. Soderbergh enrolled in a film animation course at the university while still a high-school student, and it was then that he began making short films. After graduating from high school, he moved to Hollywood to pursue a career as a screenwriter, but his efforts were met with rejection. A year later he returned to Baton Rouge, where he worked at a video arcade while continuing to write and shoot low-budget short pieces. His change of fortune came in 1986 when he was asked to develop one such project into a full-length promotional film for the rock band Yes. This relatively small beginning emboldened Soderbergh to set out for Hollywood once more. He then completed the celebrated sex, lies, and videotape (1989), which explored the complexities of modern relationships. The film was a surprise hit at the Cannes International Film Festival that year, picking up three awards, including the Palme d'Or, and catapulting the 26-year-old Soderbergh to fame. Kafka (1991), King of the Hill (1993), Underneath (1995), Gray's Anatomy (1996), and Schizopolis (1996) followed, but they were not as well received. At the height of his return to obscurity, a shunned Soderbergh was forced to make a living as a freelance, but he persisted in making films. He again found commercial and critical success with Out of Sight (1998), the story of a bank heist and unlikely romance between the lead characters, played by George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez (q.v.). The Limey (1999), a gritty gangster's tale, enjoyed similar kudos. That year he published the memoir Getting Away with It: or, The Further Adventures of the Luckiest Bastard You Ever Saw. Soderbergh continued to explore crime and its implications in Brockovich and Traffic. After the excitement of the 2001 Oscars, Soderbergh began work on Ocean's Eleven—a star-studded remake of the 1960 classic—which was released in December.Shanda Siler
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Universalium. 2010.