Screening

About Chuck Workman

Year Released:

2012

Genres:

For over 35 years, Chuck Workman has been a director, writer, and producer of award-winning films. His short-film work has earned him screenings around the world. Precious Images, made for the Directors Guild of America, won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short and has become the most widely shown short in film history. His mastery is seen every year by tens of millions of people, since he is the man behind the opening sequences for the Academy Awards®.

Full Bio
Workman's theatrical short, PRECIOUS IMAGES, made for the Directors Guild of America, won an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short and has become the most widely shown short in film history, appearing in schools, museums, international conferences, numerous film festivals and over 1000 theaters worldwide. It is one of five of his films circulating in the collection of The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Workman is the writer and director of an independent dramatic film, A HOUSE ON A HILL, which stars Phillip Baker Hall, Laura San Giacomo, and Henry Rollins. It played in several festivals and was released commercially in 2003. THE MONEY, his first dramatic feature, was invited to the Deauville Festival, and several other festivals and has been recently re-released on DVD with a new title, THE ATLANTIC CITY JACKPOT.

Workman created several short films and opening sequences for ten Academy Awards presentations and two Emmy Award shows, and in 1992 he was nominated for an Emmy for Directorial Achievement for his work on the Oscar show, and has also been nominated six times for editing on the Oscar show.

Workman wrote, directed and produced SUPERSTAR, a theatrical documentary on artist Andy Warhol which appeared at the Berlin Festival, London Film Festival, and several other festivals, and is in current video release. He produced and directed THE SOURCE, a documentary film on the Beat Generation, with performance sequences starring John Turturro, Dennis Hopper, and Johnny Depp. This film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, was released theatrically in 1999 and is in current video release.

His history of the motion picture, THE FIRST 100 YEARS, appeared on HBO, and will be released by Warner Video. It received a Cable ACE Award. His film history of the American Presidency, IMAGES OF GLORY, will be seen on PBS in 2006. He recently completed a new documentary, THE ACTOR'S LIFE. THE MAKING OF A DREAM for the U.S. Department of Education, is on Martin Luther King and was televised on Dr. King's 75th Birthday in 2004. Workman is also Executive Producer of two documentary reality series, Malibu Rehab for VH1 and L.A. Riding Club for Discovery.

Workman's short film, WORDS, was produced for the Writers Guild and was at several festivals, including New York and Denver, where it was awarded Best Short. His short, A TRIBUTE TO CHARLIE CHAPLIN, appeared at the Cannes Festival in 2002 and several festivals in 2003. He has directed several other shorts based on motion pictures and other media, including films for Paramount, Turner Broadcasting, PIECES OF SILVER for Eastman Kodak and THE GREAT MOVIE RIDE for Disneyworld. Recently, he designed a 22-screen installation for the Hollywood Entertainment Museum. His video work has been featured in London's Museum of the Moving Image, New York's American Museum of the Moving Image, and the Oakland Museum of Art.

Workman was also a leading maker of film trailers and promos. He created trailers for STAR WARS, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND, AMERICAN GRAFFITI, and other major films, and produced behind-the-scenes documentaries about film-making. Workman also created main titles for movies and TV series, and directed numerous television commercials, receiving three CLIO awards, and compilation films for Universal Pictures, Paramount, and Warner Bros.

Chuck Workman has also directed theater and opera in Los Angeles and New York, and was Artistic Director of the Chaplin Theatre Company in Hollywood. He has written four stage plays which have been produced in the Los Angeles area: THE MAN WHO WORE WHITE SHOES, DIPLOMACY, BRUNO'S GHOST, and BLOOMERS, which he is adapting into a feature film. Earlier in his career, Workman edited two films by the renowned Argentine director, Leopold Torre-Nilsson, MONDAY'S CHILD and THE TRAITORS of SAN ANGEL.

Chuck Workman is a former President of the International Documentary Association, and was a former Commissioner of the Santa Monica Arts Commission. He was on the faculty of the USC Film School, is a lecturer in filmmaking at many major media arts centers, and has contributed articles on filmmaking to several magazines.