Filmmakers Who Never Went To Film School – Part 2

We’re back for the second and last installment and do let us know if we left any well-known filmmakers out!

Quentin Tarantino

Pulp Fiction. Kill Bill. Inglorious Basterds. The Hateful Eight. These highly visceral, cinematic wonders all came from a guy who ditched  high school for acting classes at the James Best Theater High School. Tarantino became bored quick and left. He went to work in Video Archives where he learned a great deal about cinema. Reservoir Dogs was Tarantino’s earliest work and had a very successful screening at the Sundance festival. He went on, wrote and directed Pulp Fiction 2 years later and finally popped his Oscar cherry.

The Wachowskis

Andy Wachowski attended Emerson College in Boston, while Lana went to Bard College in New York. Both decided to leave school to start their construction business while working as writers for Marvel Comics. Their first shot at the film industry was by way of Assassin, a movie they wrote the script for which Warner Bros snagged up. A few years later Warner Bros. gave them full reign on The Matrix, the most recognized work they ever did.

Paul Thomas Anderson 

Anderson was an English major who stayed in Emerson Collage for  only 2 semesters, and another 2 days in New York City. His directorial debut was for the short film Coffee and Cigarettes in 1993. Directing Hard Eight, Anderson’s first full length film in 1996, launched his career to new heights.

Ethan Coen

Ethan graduated with a philosophy degree from Princeton University. His brother, a film school graduate directed and wrote Blood Simple with him back in 1984. The duo later on came up with numerous project including The Big Lebowski in 1998, No Country for Old Men, 2007, and Burn After Reading back in 2008.

Steven Spielberg

And lastly, but certainly not the least, Steven Spielberg received his first ever award for the short film The Last Gunfire, given to him as a Boyscout award. At 16, he made his feature film with a $500-budget he borrowed from his father. He screened the movie at a local cinema and was able to get back the money he owed. He tried to attend film school at the University of Southern California State but was turned down because of low grades. He then settled for an English major at the California State University instead. The Sugarland Express was his very first feature film, and received great reviews from critics. Spielberg’s Academy award-winning Jaws and Close Encounters all came shortly afterwards