Oscar nominated director Richard Linklater has most recently made the coming-of-age drama Boyhood, (2014), for which he won the Golden Globe for Best Director and Best Motion Picture in 2015. One of the stars of the 1990s generation of independent filmmakers, Richard Linklater has become known primarily for his wry, slice of life feature films that focus on youth culture and the initiation rites of “slackers”.

Born in Houston, Texas, Linklater relocated to Austin where he began work on his 1987 debut film ‘It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow By Reading Books. His breakthrough indy film came three years later–Slacker (1991)–an ambient, sometimes non-linear approach to storytelling about Generation X’s youth culture and disaffected approach to the mainstream zeitgeist.

‘Slacker’ inspired the term to enter the language, and defined a generation, The film was a success on the festival circuit and at Sundance in 1991 where it cemented Linklater’s reputation. The coming of age comedy Dazed and Confused (1993) furthered his reputation as a youth culture director.

Further movies like Waking Life (2001) which used rotoscoping animation styles to visualize his stream of consciousness philosophy firmly established him as an avante guard filmmaker. His 2006 film A Scanner Darkly was also rotoscope-animated, and adapted a Philip K. Dick book of the same name.

Linklater’s themes have been described as a “trademark style of minimal camera movements and lack of narrative”, and many of his films use a narrative technique where the events unfold in the course of a single day.

In 2014 he released a film in the making for 12 years titled Boyhood, which received overwhelming critical acclaim.

FILMOGRAPHY

2014/I Boyhood

2013 Before Midnight

2011 Bernie

2008 Me and Orson Welles

2008 Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach (Documentary)

2006 A Scanner Darkly

2006 Fast Food Nation

2005 Bad News Bears

2004 Before Sunset

2003 School of Rock

2003 Live from Shiva’s Dance Floor (Short)

2001 Tape

2001 Waking Life (Documentary)

1998 The Newton Boys

1996 SubUrbia

1995 Before Sunrise

1993 Dazed and Confused

1991 Slacker

1988 It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books

1985 Woodshock (Documentary short)