Jonathan Glazer (born 26 March 1965) is an English filmmaker. He began his career in theatre before transitioning into film, directing the features Sexy Beast (2000), Birth (2004), Under the Skin (2013), and The Zone of Interest (2023). His accolades include a BAFTA Award, a British Independent Film Award, and a César Award. He has been nominated for two Academy Awards.
Jonathan Glazer | |
|---|---|
 Glazer in 2023 | |
| Born | 26 March 1965 London, England |
| Education | Nottingham Trent University (BA) |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Notable work |
|
| Spouse | Rachael Penfold |
| Children | 3 |
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. For the historical drama The Zone of Interest, he won the Grand Prix at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film and received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. Glazer also accepted the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film on behalf of the United Kingdom.
Glazer has directed music videos for acts including Blur, Massive Attack, Radiohead, 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 directed commercials for brands including Kodak, Sony, Nike, Barclays, Guinness and Alexander McQueen.
Early life and education
"There were all these fantastic characters, who were in and out of my house when I was a little boy. Many of them were East End Jews who had moved to the suburbs for a better quality of life, not super-intellectual people, but incredible entertainers – vaudeville musicians, writers and the like. As a child, I loved and absorbed the richness of that culture."
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 watched David Lean, Sidney Lumet, Sydney Pollack, and Billy Wilder films.
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: Music videos
In 1993, Glazer wrote and directed three short films ("Mad", "Pool" and "Commission"), and joined Academy Commercials, a production company based in Central London.[citation needed] He directed campaigns for Guinness (Dreamer, Swimblack and Surfer) and Stella Artois (Devil's Island).
Glazer directed the music videos for "Karmacoma" by Massive Attack and "The Universal" by Blur, both released in 1995. He worked with Radiohead on their videos for "Street Spirit" (1996) and "Karma Police" (1997). 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.
2000–2011: Sexy Beast and Birth
Glazer was set to direct the film Gangster No. 1, written by Louis Mellis and David Scinto, but was replaced after disagreements with the producers regarding casting. Glazer left the production along with Mellis and Scinto. In 2000, Glazer worked with Mellis and Scinto again, directing his first feature, the gangster film Sexy Beast.Ben Kingsley was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2004, Glazer directed his second feature film, Birth, starring Nicole Kidman.
In 2002, Glazer directed the "Odyssey" spot for Levi Strauss jeans. In 2006, he directed the second Sony BRAVIA TV advertisement, which took ten days and 250 people to film. It was filmed at an estate in Glasgow, and featured paint exploding all over the tower blocks. Later the same year, he was commissioned to make a television advert for the new Motorola Red phone. The advertisement, showing two naked black bodies emerging from a lump of flesh rotating on a potter's wheel, was due to air in September 2006 but was shelved by Motorola. The advertisement was to benefit several charities in Africa.[citation needed]
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.The Zone of Interest won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, becoming the first British film to do so. The film also received three British Academy Film Awards, making it the first film to win both Best Film Not in the English Language and Outstanding British Film.
In his acceptance speech at the 96th Academy Awards, Glazer addressed the ongoing Gaza war:
All our choices are made to reflect and confront us in the present. Not to say, 'Look what they did then,' rather 'Look what we do now.' Our film shows where dehumanisation leads at its worst. It shaped all of our past and present. Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people. Whether the victims of October 7th in Israel or the ongoing attack on Gaza, all the victims of this dehumanization — how do we resist?
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, citing Ingmar Bergman, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Federico Fellini, and Pier Paolo Pasolini as his greatest influences.
Filmography
Feature film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Sexy Beast | Yes | No |
| 2004 | Birth | Yes | Yes |
| 2013 | Under the Skin | Yes | Yes |
| 2023 | The Zone of Interest | Yes | Yes |
Short film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Mad | Yes | Yes | Also producer and editor |
| 1997 | Commission | Yes | Yes | |
| 2019 | The Fall | Yes | Yes | |
| 2020 | Strasbourg 1518 | Yes | Yes | TV short |
| First Light: Alexander McQueen | Yes | No |
Music video
| Year | Title | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | "Karmacoma" | Massive Attack |
| "The Universal" | Blur | |
| 1996 | "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" | Radiohead |
| "Virtual Insanity" | Jamiroquai | |
| 1997 | "Into My Arms" | Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds |
| "Karma Police" | Radiohead | |
| 1998 | "Rabbit in Your Headlights" | UNKLE ft. Thom Yorke |
| 2000 | "A Song for the Lovers" | Richard Ashcroft |
| 2006 | "Live with Me" | Massive Attack |
| 2009 | "Treat Me Like Your Mother" | The Dead Weather |
Commercials
| Year | Title | Company |
|---|---|---|
| "Husband to Be" | Kodak | |
| "Linda 2" | Pretty Polly | |
| "Shock of the New" | Mazda | |
| "Chief Executive's Wife" | AT&T | |
| "City" | Club Med | |
| "Sales Director" | AT&T | |
| 1996 | "Frozen Moment" | Nike |
| "New York" | Caffrey's | |
| 1997 | "Parklife" | Nike |
| 1998 | "Swimblack" | Guinness |
| "Lamppost" | BT Easyreach | |
| 1999 | "Surfer" | Guinness |
| 2000 | "Kung Fu" | Levi Strauss |
| "Last Orders" | Stella Artois | |
| "Devil's Island" | ||
| "Protection" | Volkswagen Polo | |
| "Whatever You Ride" | Wrangler | |
| 2001 | "Dreamer" | Guinness |
| 2002 | "Odyssey" | Levi Strauss |
| 2003 | "Evil" | Barclays |
| "Bull" | ||
| "Chicken" | ||
| 2004 | "Bar" | Band Aid 20 |
| "Double Don" | ||
| "Rant" | ||
| "Razor" | ||
| 2006 | "Ice Skating Priests" | Stella Artois |
| "Paint" | Sony BRAVIA | |
| "Clay" | Motorola Red | |
| 2010 | "Temptation" | Cadbury's Flake |
| "Kaka" | Sony 3D | |
| "Last Tango in Compton" | Volkswagen Polo | |
| 2013 | "The Ring" | Audi |
| 2014 | "Risk Everything" | Nike |
| 2019 | "Flight" | Apple |
| 2024 | "The Galleria" | Prada |
Idents
- Channel 4 presentation (September 2015)
Awards and nominations
| Organizations | Year | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | 2024 | Best Director | The Zone of Interest | Nominated | |
| Best Adapted Screenplay | Nominated | ||||
| Best International Film | Won | ||||
| BAFTA Awards | 2001 | Outstanding British Film | Sexy Beast | Nominated | |
| 2015 | Under the Skin | Nominated | |||
| 2024 | The Zone of Interest | Won | |||
| Best Direction | Nominated | ||||
| Best Adapted Screenplay | Nominated | ||||
| Boston Society of Film Critics | 2023 | Best Adapted Screenplay | Won | ||
| Best Director | Won | ||||
| British Independent Film Awards | 2001 | Best Director | Sexy Beast | Won | |
| 2013 | Under the Skin | Nominated | |||
| Camerimage | 2023 | Golden Frog | The Zone of Interest | Nominated | |
| Cannes Film Festival | 2023 | Palme d'Or | Nominated | ||
| Grand Prix | Won | ||||
| FIPRESCI Prize | Won | ||||
| César Awards | 2025 | Best Foreign Film | Won | ||
| Cinema for Peace Dove | 2025 | Most Valuable Film of the Year | The Zone of Interest | Won | |
| Chicago Film Critics Association | 2002 | Most Promising Filmmaker | N/a | Nominated | |
| 2014 | Best Adapted Screenplay | Under the Skin | Nominated | ||
| 2023 | The Zone of Interest | Nominated | |||
| European Film Awards | 2023 | European Film | Nominated | ||
| European Director | Nominated | ||||
| European Screenwriter | Nominated | ||||
| Gotham Awards | 2014 | Audience Award | Under the Skin | Nominated | |
| Best Feature | Nominated | ||||
| 2023 | Best International Feature | The Zone of Interest | Nominated | ||
| Best Screenplay | Nominated | ||||
| Goya Awards | 2025 | Best European Film | Nominated | ||
| Independent Spirit Awards | 2002 | Best International Film | Sexy Beast | Nominated | |
| 2015 | Under the Skin | Nominated | |||
| 2024 | The Zone of Interest | Nominated | |||
| MTV Video Music Awards | 1997 | Best Direction | "Virtual Insanity" | Nominated | |
| Best Editing | Nominated | ||||
| Best Special Effects | Won | ||||
| 1998 | Best Direction | "Karma Police" | Nominated | ||
| Satellite Awards | 2002 | Best Director | Sexy Beast | Nominated | |
| 2024 | The Zone of Interest | Nominated | |||
| Best Adapted Screenplay | Nominated | ||||
| Venice International Film Festival | 2004 | Golden Lion | Birth | Nominated | |
| 2013 | Under the Skin | Nominated |
See also
- Independent cinema in the United Kingdom
- List of British film directors
- List of Academy Award winners and nominees from Great Britain
- List of European Academy Award winners and nominees
- List of Jewish Academy Award winners and nominees