Owning Mahowny : About The Filmmakers


Richard Kwietniowski, Writer/Director
Richard Kwietniowski made his feature film debut in 1997 with Love and Death on Long Island. Adapted by Kwietniowski from a novel by Gilbert Adair, it stars John Hurt, in what had been hailed as arguably his best role in years, together with Jason Priestley and Fiona Loewi. This critically acclaimed film won the Prix Pierrot for Best First feature Film at Cannes 1997, 1998 New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Best First Film, the 2000 British Academy of Film and TV Arts (BAFTA) Best British Newcomer Award, was nominated for the Golden Spike at the 1997 Valladolid International Film Festival and won the 1997 FIPRESCI-Special Mention at the Chicago International Film Festival. Kwietniowski was born in London and studied literature and film at the University of Kent and then at the University of California. In 1987, he began making short films, Alfalfa (1987) for which he won Best Short Film Award at the 1987 Berlin International Film Festival, Ballad of Reading Gaol (1988), and Flames of Passion (1989). He has also worked extensively in British television.

Andras Hamori, Producer
Andras Hamori was born in Hungary and received his doctorate in law from the Budapest University and a diploma in Film and Theatre Journalism in 1977. He moved to Toronto, joined RSL Entertainment Corporation and worked on Joshua Then and Now, starring James Woods and Alan Arkin (Fox) and Heavenly Bodies (MGM). In 1985, Hamori became a founding partner and Senior Vice President of Alliance Entertainment where he produced the television series, Night Heat (CBS/CTV) which received the TV Guide Award for Most Popular Program of the Year (1987, 1988), Never Talk to Strangers, starring Rebecca De Mornay and Antonio Banderas (TriStar Pictures), The Gate, and The Gate II. In October 1989, Hamori formed Accent Entertainment Corporation and produced a number of television movies including: CBS's Mrs. 'Arris Goes to Paris starring Angela Lansbury, and Mesmer which won the 1994 Montreal Film Festival's Best Actor Award for its star Alan Rickman. In 1995, Hamori returned to Alliance Communication Corporation as President of Alliance Pictures. In the first year, he put into production David Cronenberg's Crash which won the Prix Special du Jury at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, and served as executive producer on Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes (1997), and earned Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. He also produced David Cronenberg's eXistenZ starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jude Law, (Miramax/Dimension Films) and executive produced Strike!, starring Kirsten Dunst and Lynn Redgrave (Miramax), and A Room For Romeo Brass with Bob Hoskins (USA Films). In 1999, Hamori produced Academy Award-winner Istvan Szabo's Sunshine, starring Ralph Fiennes, which was nominated for three Golden Globes in 2001, including Best Picture, and won Best Picture at the Canadian Academy Awards. Sunshine was the top grossing independent film of 2000.

In June 2000, Hamori formed H2O Motion Pictures, Inc. and started production on the quirky, action comedy, The 51st State, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Carlyle. Hamori is also executive producer of Movern Callar starring Samantha Morton, the second film from director Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher).

Seaton McLean, Producer
Seaton McLean is President of Production, Entertainment group, Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. , a leading broadcaster, creator and distributor of filmed entertainment with significant ownership in eighteen Canadian specialty television networks. The Company's principal business activities are conducted through three operating groups: The Broadcasting Group, The Entertainment Group and The Motion Pictures Distribution Group. In his current role, Mr. McLean oversees all aspects of the Company's productions. His current projects include producing The Good Thief, directed by Neil Jordan, and starring Nick Nolte, Morvern Callar - as executive producer - starring Samantha Morton and directed by award-winning director Lynne Ramsay and Formula 51, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Robert Carlyle. Television productions that McLean produced have won an Oscar (Boys and Girls), an Emmy (Lost in the Barrens) and numerous Cable ACE (The Ray Bradbury Theater) and Gemini (Traders) awards. Mr. McLean was one of the founding partners of Atlantis Films Limited which, in 1998, became Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc.

Oliver Curtis, Director of Photography
Oliver Curtis' film credits include: The Final Curtain (2001), Saltwater (2000), The Wisdom of Crocodiles (1998), "Vanity Fair" (1998) (mini) TV Series, Our Boy (1997) Love and Death on Long Island (1997) and Madagascar Skin (1995)

Taavo Soodor, Production Designer
Taavo Soodor earned Genie nominations for his design for Jeremy Podeswa's The Five Senses, Thom Fitzgerald's award-winning Hanging Garden and John Fawcett's The Boy's Club. . He also designed for the CBS television drama The Haven, A&E's remake of The Great Gatsby, starring Mira Sorvino, CBS's Flowers For Algernon, ABC's Labor of Love, USA network's Silent Echoes, Alliance Atlantis' Replikator, the pilot Total Recall 2070 , Turner Broadcasting's Anatomy of Love and Jeremy Podeswa's The Five Senses.

Mike Munn, Editor
Mike Munn's credits include Ice Men (00), Real Kids, Real Adventures for Discovery Kids Channel (1997), City of Dark (1997), Lulu (1996), Picture of Light (1994), Tectonic Plates (1992), Masala (1991), and Bruce McDonald's Roadkill (1989).

Gersha Phillips, Costume Design
Tangled (2001), My Father's Hands (1999), The Five Senses (1999), Heart of My Heart (1996) Bangs (1996)

Author : Sony Pictures Classics