Mitchell Block

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Mitchell Block
Bornc. 1950
NationalityAmerican
OccupationFilmmaker

Mitchell Block (born c. 1950) is an American

filmmaker, primarily a producer of documentary films
.

He was the executive producer of the 2000

Best Documentary (Short Subject) at the 73rd Academy Awards. He produced the 2010 film Poster Girl, which was nominated in the same category at the 83rd Academy Awards. He also produced The Testimony (2015) and executive produced Women of the Gulag (2018), which were shortlisted in the Best Documentary (Short Subject) category at the 88th Academy Awards and the 91st Academy Awards, respectively.[1][2] In 2022, Block, among Anna Rezan, Kim Magnusson, and Zafeiris Haitidis, produced the feature documentary My People, which premiered to rave reviews in Los Angeles.[3][4]

Early life and education

Block was born about 1950. He attended the

UCLA in film and television history, criticism, theory and business.[5]

Career

Block began to work in television and film. He became particularly interested in documentaries. He established his own company, Direct Cinema, in 1974, of which he is president. It produces and distributes films.

Since 1980, Block has been on the 40-person Documentary Screening Committee of the Academy Awards. They nominate the short list of finalists for awards.[6] In 2022, Block, among Anna Rezan, Kim Magnusson and Zafeiris Haitidis produced the feature documentary My People, which premiered to rave reviews in Los Angeles.[3][4]

Conflict of interest claims

In 1990, a group of 45 filmmakers filed a protest to the

Warner Brothers) was omitted from the nominees, although it had been highly praised by numerous critics and was ranked by many critics as one of the top ten films of the year.[6]

Works

Block produced the documentary

Academy Award for Best Documentary (Short Subject). He was executive producer for the film Big Mama (2000), which won an Academy Award for a documentary short.[10]

Among the films and documentary series that Block has conceived, created and produced are

Emmy Award
in 2009 for Best Cinematography in a prime time series.

In 2008, Block's short film No Lies (1973) was selected for the National Film Registry by the Librarian of Congress.[11] In 2016, film critics for the website IndieWire selected No Lies as one of the ten best short films ever made.[12]

In 2022, Block, among Anna Rezan, Kim Magnusson and Zafeiris Haitidis produced the feature documentary My People that premiered to rave reviews in Los Angeles.[3][4] A segment of the film titled My People: Jews of Greece was eligible for consideration in the documentary feature category

Oscars in 2021,[13]
but was not a finalist.

Personal life

Since 1978, Block has been an adjunct professor at the School of Cinematic Arts of the University of Southern California. He teaches in The Peter Stark Producing Program.

His moving image collection, the Direct Cinema/Mitchell Block Collection, is held at the Academy Film Archive.[14]

References

  1. ^ "10 DOC SHORTS ON OSCAR'S 2015 SHORTLIST". 2015-10-26. Retrieved 2016-08-30.
  2. ^ Oscars: Film Academy Narrows the List of Contenders in Nine Categories // Variety
  3. ^ a b c "Chavurah: Greek by Birth, Jewish by Blood – NEO Magazine".
  4. ^ a b c Aswestopoulos, Wassilis (November 7, 2016). "Frau mit Auftrag". Jüdische Allgemeine.
  5. ^ a b Staff. "Mitchell Block ’68 film Poster Girl Nominated for an Oscar" Archived 2011-02-08 at the Wayback Machine, Hun School of Princeton, January 26, 2011. Accessed March 6, 2011.
  6. ^ a b Collins, Glenn. "Film Makers Protest to Academy", The New York Times, 24 February 1990. Accessed March 6, 2011.
  7. ^ With Direct Cinema Limited (Sorted by Release Date Ascending) |work=IMDb
  8. ^ Galuppo, Mia (November 6, 2015). "'The Testimony' Trailer: A Short Documentary About the Largest Rape Trial in Congo's History". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
  9. ^ "10 DOC SHORTS ON OSCAR'S 2015 SHORTLIST". 2015-10-26. Retrieved 2016-08-30.
  10. ^ 2001|Oscars.org
  11. ^ "Films Selected to the Library of Congress National Film Registry 1989-2010". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on 2013-05-24. Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  12. ^ Ehrlich, David (July 25, 2016). "What Is The Best Short Film Ever Made? — Critics Survey". IndieWire. Retrieved September 12, 2016.
  13. ^ Eligibility List
  14. ^ "Direct Cinema/Mitchell Block Collection". Academy Film Archive.
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