Jonathan Glazer facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Jonathan Glazer
Glazer in 2023
Born	(1965-03-26) 26 March 1965 (age 60) London, England
Education	Nottingham Trent University (BA)
Occupation	Film director screenwriter
Years active	1993–present
Notable work	Birth (2004) Under the Skin (2013) The Zone of Interest (2023)
Spouse(s)	Rachael Penfold
Children	3

Jonathan Glazer (born 26 March 1965) is an English film director and screenwriter. He began his career in theatre before transitioning into film, directing the features Birth (2004), Under the Skin (2013), and The Zone of Interest (2023). Glazer accepted the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film on behalf of the United Kingdom for The Zone of Interest.

Glazer's work is defined by depictions of flawed and desperate characters; themes such as alienation, loneliness and individualism; and a bold visual style uses an omniscient perspective and dramatic music. He has been nominated for six BAFTA Awards and two Academy Awards. For the historical drama The Zone of Interest, he won the Grand Prix and the FIPRESCI Prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Glazer has directed music videos for acts including Radiohead, Massive Attack, Richard Ashcroft and Jamiroquai. He received nominations for the MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction for his videos for Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity" (1996) and Radiohead's "Karma Police" (1997). He has also directed commercials for brands including Kodak, Sony, Nike, Barclays and Alexander McQueen.

Early life and education

Jonathan Glazer was born on 26 March 1965 in London, England, and is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. His ancestors were Ukrainian Jews and Bessarabian Jews who fled the Kishinev pogrom and arrived in the United Kingdom in the 1900s. He said: "My great-grandparents were born in Vilnius and Odesa. One was a tailor. His wife, a seamstress." His family lived in Hadley Wood, near Barnet, and was Reform Jewish: "Synagogue three times a year, and Friday-night dinners every week." His father was a cinephile, with whom he frequently watched David Lean, Sidney Lumet, Sydney Pollack, and Billy Wilder movies.

Glazer attended the Jewish Free School, then located in the borough of Camden. During his childhood, he participated in the Givat Washington programme, spending five months in a religious boarding school in Israel. After finishing high school, he went to art school, saying drawing was the only thing he was good at.

After graduating with an emphasis in theatre design from Nottingham Trent University, Glazer began his career directing theatre and making film and television trailers.

Career

1993–1999: Early work and short films

In 1993, Glazer wrote and directed three short films ("Mad", "Pool" and "Commission"), and joined Academy Commercials, a production company based in Central London. He directed campaigns for Guinness (Dreamer, Swimblack and Surfer) and Stella Artois (Devil's Island).

Glazer directed music videos for "Street Spirit" (1996) and "Karma Police" (1997) by the rock band Radiohead,. He said "Street Spirit" was a turning point in his work: "I knew when I finished that, because [Radiohead] found their own voices as an artist, at that point, I felt like I got close to whatever mine was, and I felt confident that I could do things that emoted, that had some kind of poetic as well as prosaic value."

Glazer won the MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction in 1997 for his work on "Karma Police" and Jamiroquai's "Virtual Insanity" (1996). He was unsatisfied with his "Karma Police" video, saying he had "missed emotionally and dramatically". He described his video for the 1998 single "Rabbit in Your Headlights", by Unkle and the Radiohead singer Thom Yorke, as a more successful partner to the "Karma Police" video. Glazer's 1999 television advert "Surfer", for Guinness, was voted the best of all time in a poll conducted by Channel 4 and The Sunday Times the following year.

2013: Under the Skin

In 2013, Glazer directed Under the Skin, a loose adaptation of the 2000 novel by Michel Faber, starring Scarlett Johansson. It premiered at the 2013 Telluride Film Festival and received a theatrical release in 2014. The film was named the best film of 2014 by numerous critics and publications, was included in many best-of-the-decade lists, and ranked 61st on the BBC's 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century list, an international poll of 177 top critics.

2019–present: The Zone of Interest

Glazer's fourth feature film, The Zone of Interest, based loosely on the 2014 novel by Martin Amis, premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival to acclaim. It competed for the Palme d'Or, and won the Grand Prix and FIPRESCI Prize. At the 96th Academy Awards, The Zone of Interest won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

Personal life

Known to be discreet about his private life, Glazer is married to the visual effects supervisor Rachael Penfold. They live in Camden, North London with their three children. He is Jewish. Glazer named Stanley Kubrick as his favourite director and said he was close to Italian and Russian cinema. His influences include Ingmar Bergman, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Federico Fellini, and Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Selected filmography

Feature films

Short films

Music videos

Commercials

Idents

• Channel 4 presentation (September 2015)

Selected awards and nominations