Jim Hemphill

Jim Hemphill is a filmmaker, film historian, and Ridley Scott disciple whose writing on film has appeared in Film Comment, American Cinematographer, Variety, Filmmaker Magazine, and many other outlets. After receiving his B.F.A. from Columbia College in Chicago and his graduate degree from the film school at USC, Jim began his career by writing and directing the micro-budget horror movie “Bad Reputation,” which had international distribution from Warner Bros. and Twentieth-Century Fox. He is also the writer-director of the award-winning romantic dramedy “The Trouble with the Truth” and has been a screenwriter for hire on several movies that he may or may not take responsibility for depending on his mood. His movies have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, American Cinematheque, Facets Multimedia, Alamo Drafthouse, and other festivals and art houses, and he is the author of “The Art and Craft of Directing TV: Conversations With Episodic Television Directors.” He has worked as a researcher for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and regularly moderates Q&As at Quentin Tarantino’s New Beverly Cinema and the Egyptian and Aero Theatres in Los Angeles. His audio commentaries can be heard on Blu-rays and DVDs from the British Film Institute, Kino Lorber, Shout! Factory and other labels, and he was one of the original hosts of the American Cinematographer podcast. He now co-hosts IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast and is a features writer for the site specializing in filmmaking craft. He hopes to someday own his own 70mm print of “Boogie Nights.”