ROLAND JOFFÉ (Director, Writer) is one of the few directors—if any—to enter the cinematic medium with Oscar® nominations for each of his first two motion pictures. It marked an auspicious beginning for Roland Joffé as he was universally praised for his international style of moviemaking on ‘The Killing Fields’ and ‘The Mission’. Joffé also immediately endeared himself to Hollywood as a filmmaker par excellence in his choice of material.

Joffé’s background is in the British theater. After completing his education at Carmel College and the University of Manchester, he was the youngest director at the National Theatre before entering the world of television via Granada, Thames and the BBC. Successful shows such as “Coronation Street,” “The Stars Look Down” and ‘Bill Brand’ gave him the opportunity to hone his craft and, at the same time, allowed him to write many of the shows he directed.

Joffé found his initial success with two episodes of “Play for Today”, namely “The Spongers” and “United Kingdom,” featuring Colin Welland. For the latter show, Joffé was nominated for a BAFTA. This laid the groundwork for his first film, ‘The Killing Fields’, a frighteningly realistic depiction of a Cambodia torn apart by war and terrorism.

With unanimous raves from domestic and international critics alike, the memoirs of New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg gave movie-going audiences a reality seldom seen on the screen. ‘The Academy of Motion’ Picture Arts and Sciences’ acknowledged Joffé with his first of two Best Director nominations and his filmmaking future was assured. Nominations for the Golden Globe®, BAFTA and Critics Circle Awards bear testimony to his outstanding work on this film.

The director’s second feature, ‘The Mission’, (starring Robert De Niro, Jeremy Irons, Liam Nesson, Ray McAnally), is hailed as a sweeping, cinematically beautiful historical drama about an 18th-century Jesuit mission in the Brazilian jungle. The film was the recipient of seven Oscar® nominations, including one for Best Director.

It was also awarded the coveted Palme d’Or as best motion picture at the Cannes Film Festival and won Italy’s Michelangelo Prize.

Joffé next addressed the invention of the atomic bomb in the film ‘Fat Man’ and Little Boy, starring Paul Newman as the U.S. general who made a Faustian bargain with the brilliant but vulnerable physicist Robert Oppenheimer. This film, later dubbed “prophetic”, stirred up controversy with its revelation that experiments to determine the harmful effects of radiation were performed on unsuspecting mentally handicapped patients.

‘For City of Joy’, an adaptation of Dominique LaPierre’s book, Joffé set off to India to film the tale of a disillusioned American heart surgeon Max Lowe played by late Patrick Swayze who flees to Calcutta after losing a patient. Again, Joffé displayed his ability to take a personal story and analyze the dramatic effects the protagonist has on the lives of those around him.

Joffé has never been afraid of controversy. Passionate debates and massive media coverage followed The Scarlet Letter, his adaptation of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s classic. This was followed by the witty and pointed black comedy about moral relativism ‘Goodbye Lover’, starring Patricia Arquette and Don Johnson, and the sumptuous and moving ’Vatel’, starring Gerard Depardieu and Uma Thurman.

For the small screen, Joffé created the MTV series “Undressed”. An innovative and fresh look at the foibles of human sexuality, the series was twice nominated for GLAAD Media Awards and introduced a host of new young actors onto the television scene. 225 episodes were shot, a mark of success by any standard.

The director made headlines again with his first collaboration with RAMCO (Russian American Movie Company), the 2007 dramatic thriller ‘Captivity’, starring Elisha Cuthbert and Daniel Gilles.

Innovation has always been Joffé’s credo and his independent spirit rose again when he reunited with RAMCO for the unique drama You And I, starring Mischa Barton and in her first screen role, Shantel VanSanten.

In early 2011, production will wrap on Joffé’s latest directorial project, Singularity. The project, penned by Joffé, is an epic romance spanning centuries starring Josh Hartnett, Olga Kurylenko and Bipasha Basu.

“Mr. ROLAND JOFFÉ PHILANTHROPIC WORKS”

His philanthropic work merits distinction as well as his film and television achievements. He is a board member of Operation USA, a non-profit humanitarian organization dedicated to helping communities alleviate the effects of disaster, disease, and endemic poverty throughout the world by providing privately-funded relief, reconstruction, humanitarian aid and development aid. He is the voice of the Waunana, an indigenous tribe in Colombia who have been removed from their ancestral lands and are on the verge of extinction. He is a board member of the nonprofit organization Operation USA. He was the official patron of the 2011 Cambodia Volleyball World Cup held from 23 to 29 July at the National Olympic Stadium Phnom Penh.

Arriving from Los Angeles where he is currently working on a new project, Roland Joffè will head the jury for the Angel Film Festival in Monaco; the only film festival recognizing non-violent film.