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About Sidney Lumet

Sidney Lumet is a recognized master of cinema with more than 50 films to his name, including the critically acclaimed 12 Angry Men (1957), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), and Network (1976). He won an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2005, for his “brilliant services to screenwriters, performers and the art of the motion picture.” Born in 1924 to parents who were performing artists, Lumet made his stage debut at the age of four at the Yiddish Art Theater in New York. He played many roles on Broadway in the 1930s and in 1947 he founded an off-Broadway group of actors including Yul Brynner and Eli Wallach. In the early 1950s Lumet moved behind the camera, becoming an important TV director. In 1957 he made his film debut. Over the course of the next 50 years, Lumet would earn a reputation as a director who had the rare combination of technical knowledge and a special skill for getting first-rate performances from actors (Al Pacino, Albert Finney, Faye Dunaway, and Ingrid Bergman are just some of the luminaries he has directed to Academy and Golden Globe Awards). His highly informative book Making Movies (1995) is considered a must-read for anyone interested in the art of filmmaking. His most recent film, Find Me Guilty, premiered in March to critical acclaim.