Derek Cianfrance
Birthdate: Jan 23, 1974
Birthplace: Lakewood, Colorado, USA
Derek Cianfrance (birthname: Derek M. Cianfrance) has a track record as a bold American filmmaker, whose feature debut—as director/co-writer/cinematographer/co-editor—was the U.S./Australia co-production, Brother Tied (1998), co-written by Joey Curtis and Mike Tillman, starring Christina Chang, and which premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival.
Cianfrance was director/co-writer (with Curtis and Cami Delavigne) of the complex erotic drama, Blue Valentine (2010), co-starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, launching at the Sundance Film Festival and then internationally in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard selection before a release by The Weinstein Company.
Cianfrance as director/co-writer (with co-writers Ben Coccio and Darius Marder) reunited with Ryan Gosling for the ambitious crime drama, The Place Beyond the Pines (2012), co-starring Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta, Ben Mendelsohn, Rose Byrne, Mahershala Ali, Bruce Greenwood and Harris Yulin, premiering at the Toronto Film Festival and released by Focus Features for a solid $47 million return.
Cianfrance was director/writer/executive producer of the romantic drama, The Light Between Oceans (2016), adapted from M.L. Stedman’s novel, co-starring Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Rachel Weisz, Bryan Brown and Jack Thompson, and notable for being the final movie from Touchstone Pictures, which distributed via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (North America)/Entertainment One (U.K./Australia/New Zealand)/Reliance Entertainment (India) for a $26 million gross.
Derek Cianfrance was the Oscar-nominated story writer (only) of director/co-writer Darius Marder’s Best Picture Oscar-nominated rock drama, Sound of Metal (2020), based on Cianfrance’s aborted feature, Metalhead, and starring Oscar-nominated Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Oscar-nominated Paul Raci, Lauren Ridloff, and Mathieu Amalric, and which launched at the Toronto Film Festival before a theatrical and streaming release by Amazon Studios.
Cianfrance returned as director/co-writer (after a nine-year absence from the big screen) of the true crime comedy, Roofman (2025), co-written by Kirt Gunn, starring Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, Peter Dinklage, Uzo Aduba, Juno Temple, Emory Cohen, LaKeith Stanfield, and Melonie Diaz, premiering at the Toronto Film Festival and distributed in wide pattern via Miramax and Paramount Pictures.
Cianfrance was the cinematographer only for director/co-writer/co-producer Joey Curtis’ action drama, Quattro Noza (2003), with Brihanna Hernandez, Victor Larios, and Robert Beaumont, and for which Cianfrance won the Excellence in Cinematography Award in the U.S. Dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival.
Personal life
Derek Cianfrance was born and raised in Lakewood, Colorado, by his parents. Cianfrance attended and graduated from Green Mountain High School. Cianfrance studied film production under the tutelage of experimental cinema maestros Stan Brakhage and Phil Solomon at the University of Colorado Boulder, from which he graduated. Cianfrance has been married to director/writer/actor Shannon Plumb since 2005; the couple has two children, Cody and Walker. Cianfrance’s height is 5’ 9”.
Known For
The Place Beyond the Pines
(2012)
Sound of Metal
(2019)
Derek Cianfrance Movies
director
Previous (3)
- 2025 |
- 2016 |
The Light Between Oceans
A lighthouse keeper and his wife living off the coast of Western Australia raise a baby they rescue from a drifting rowing boat.
- 2010 |
Blue Valentine
The relationship of a contemporary married couple, charting their evolution over a span of years by cross-cutting between time periods.
producer
Previous (1)
- 2024 |
Exhibiting Forgiveness
A Black artist on the path to success is derailed by an unexpected visit from his estranged father, a recovering addict desperate to reconcile. Together, they struggle and learn that forgetting might be a greater challenge than forgiving.
actor
Previous (7)
Facts About Derek Cianfrance
Condition: Derek Cianfrance has the condition of tinnitus from blowing his eardrums as a metal drummer.
Actor: Cianfrance has acted in a movie, Towheads (2013), directed by his wife Shannon Plumb, with their sons Cody and Walker.
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