Look up moma in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Moma may refer to:

• Moma (moth), an owlet moth genus
• Moma Airport, a Russian public airport
• Moma District, Nampula, Mozambique
• Moma River, a right tributary of the Indigirka River
• Google Moma, the Google corporate intranet
• An acronym for Museum of Modern Art.

• Particularly MoMA, the museum of modern art in New York.
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

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Marina Abramović
Abramović performing The Artist is Present, MoMA, May 2010
Born	(1946-11-30) November 30, 1946 (age 65) Belgrade, PR Serbia, FPR Yugoslavia
Field	Performance Art
Training	Academy of Fine Arts, Belgrade Academy of Fine Arts, Zagreb
Movement	Conceptual art
Works	Rhythm Series (1973–1974) Works with Ulay (1976–1988) Balkan Baroque (1997) The Artist is Present (2010)

Marina Abramović (Serbian Cyrillic: Марина Абрамовић; born November 30, 1946) is a Belgrade-born New York-based Serbian performance artist who began her career in the early 1970s. Active for over three decades, she has recently begun to describe herself as the "grandmother of performance art". Abramović's work explores the relationship between performer and audience, the limits of the body, and the possibilities of the mind.

Early life[link]

Marina Abramović's great uncle was Patriarch Varnava of the Serbian Orthodox Church.^[1] Both of her parents were Partisans^[2] during the Second World War: her father Vojo was a commander who was acclaimed as a national hero after the War; her mother Danica was a major in the army, and in the mid-sixties was Director of the Museum of the Revolution and Art in Belgrade.

Abramović's father left the family in 1964. In an interview published in 1998, she described how her "mother took complete military-style control of me and my brother. I was not allowed to leave the house after 10 o'clock at night till I was 29 years old. ... [A]ll the performances in Yugoslavia I did before 10 o'clock in the evening because I had to be home then. It's completely insane, but all of my cutting myself, whipping myself, burning myself, almost losing my life in the firestar, everything was done before 10 in the evening."^[3]

Abramović was a student at the Academy of Fine Arts in Belgrade from 1965–70. She completed her post-graduate studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, SR Croatia in 1972. From 1973 to 1975, she taught at the Academy of Fine Arts at Novi Sad, while implementing her first solo performances.

From 1971 to 1976, she was married to Neša Paripović. In 1976, Abramović left Yugoslavia and moved to Amsterdam.

Selected early works[link]

[edit] Rhythm 10, 1973

In her first performance Abramović explored elements of ritual and gesture. Making use of twenty knives and two tape recorders, the artist played the Russian game in which rhythmic knife jabs are aimed between the splayed fingers of her hand. Each time she cut herself, she would pick up a new knife from the row of twenty she had set up, and record the operation.

After cutting herself twenty times, she replayed the tape, listened to the sounds, and tried to repeat the same movements, attempting to replicate the mistakes, merging together past and present. She set out to explore the physical and mental limitations of the body – the pain and the sounds of the stabbing, the double sounds from the history and from the replication. With this piece, Abramović began to consider the state of consciousness of the performer. “Once you enter into the performance state you can push your body to do things you absolutely could never normally do.”^[4]

[edit] Rhythm 5, 1974

Abramović sought to re-evoke the energy of extreme body pain, in this case using a large petroleum-drenched star, which the artist lit on fire at the start of the performance. Standing outside the star, Abramović cut her nails, toenails, and hair. When finished with each, she threw the clippings into the flames, creating a burst of light each time. Burning the communist five-pointed star represented a physical and mental purification, while addressing the political traditions of her past.

In the final act of purification, Abramović leapt across the flames, propelling herself into the center of the large star. Due to the light and smoke given off by the fire, the observing audience didn't realize that, once inside the star, the artist had lost consciousness from lack of oxygen. Some members of the audience realized what had occurred only when the flames came very near to her body and she remained inert. A doctor and several members of the audience intervened and extricated her from the star.

Abramović later commented upon this experience: “I was very angry because I understood there is a physical limit: when you lose consciousness you can’t be present; you can’t perform.”^[5]

[edit] Rhythm 2, 1974

As an experiment testing whether a state of unconsciousness could be incorporated into a performance, Abramović devised a performance in two parts.

In the first part, she took a pill prescribed for catatonia, a condition in which a person’s muscles are immobilized and remain in a single position for hours at a time. Being completely healthy, Abramović's body reacted violently to the drug, experiencing seizures and uncontrollable movements for the first half of the performance. While lacking any control over her body movements, her mind was lucid, and she observed what was occurring.

Ten minutes after the effects of that drug had worn off, Abramović ingested another pill – this time one prescribed for aggressive and depressed people – which resulted in general immobility. Bodily she was present, yet mentally she was completely removed. (In fact, she has no memory of the lapsed time.) This project was an early component of her explorations of the connections between body and mind, which later took her to Tibet and the Australian desert. Following Rhythm 2, she set to develop the rest of the series of rhythm projects, continually testing her endurance.

[edit] Rhythm 0, 1974

To test the limits of the relationship between performer and audience, Abramović developed one of her most challenging (and best-known) performances. She assigned a passive role to herself, with the public being the force which would act on her.

Abramović had placed upon a table 72 objects that people were allowed to use (a sign informed them) in any way that they chose. Some of these were objects that could give pleasure, while others could be wielded to inflict pain, or to harm her. Among them were a rose, a feather, honey, a whip, scissors, a scalpel, a gun and a single bullet. For six hours the artist allowed the audience members to manipulate her body and actions.

Initially, members of the audience reacted with caution and modesty, but as time passed (and the artist remained impassive) people began to act more aggressively. As Abramović described it later:

“What I learned was that... if you leave it up to the audience, they can kill you.” ... “I felt really violated: they cut up my clothes, stuck rose thorns in my stomach, one person aimed the gun at my head, and another took it away. It created an aggressive atmosphere. After exactly 6 hours, as planned, I stood up and started walking toward the audience. Everyone ran away, to escape an actual confrontation.”^[6]

Works with Ulay (Uwe Laysiepen)[link]

In 1976, after moving to Amsterdam, Abramović met the West German performance artist Uwe Laysiepen, who went by the single name Ulay. They have the same birthday, in different years.

When Abramović and Ulay began their collaboration, the main concepts they explored were the ego and artistic identity. This was the beginning of a decade of influential collaborative work. Each performer was interested in the traditions of their cultural heritages and the individual’s desire for ritual. Consequently, they decided to form a collective being called “the other”, and spoke of themselves as parts of a “two-headed body”.^[7] They dressed and behaved like twins, and created a relationship of complete trust. As they defined this phantom identity, their individual identities became less accessible. In an analysis of phantom artistic identities, Charles Green has noted that this allowed a deeper understanding of the artist as performer, for it revealed a way of “having the artistic self made available for self-scrutiny.”^[8]

While some critics have explored the idea of a hermaphroditic state of being as a feminist statement, Abramović herself denies considering this as a conscious concept. Her body studies, she insists, have always been concerned primarily with the body as the unit of an individual, a tendency she traces to her parents' military pasts. Rather than concern themselves with gender ideologies, Abramović/Ulay explored extreme states of consciousness and their relationship to architectural space. They devised a series of works in which their bodies created additional spaces for audience interaction. In "Relation in Space" (1976) they ran around the room – two bodies like two planets, mixing male and female energy into a third component called “that self.” "Relation in Movement" had the pair drive their car inside of a museum for 365 laps; a black liquid oozed from the car, forming a kind of sculpture, each lap representing a year. (After 365 laps they entered the New Millennium.)

In discussing this phase of her performance history, Abramović has said: “The main problem in this relationship was what to do with the two artists’ egos. I had to find out how to put my ego down, as did he, to create something like a hermaphroditic state of being that we called the death self.”^[9]

To create this “Death self,” the two performers devised a piece in which they connected their mouths and took in each other’s exhaled breaths until they had used up all of the available oxygen. Seventeen minutes after the beginning of the performance they both fell to the floor unconscious, their lungs having filled with carbon dioxide. This personal piece explored the idea of an individual's ability to absorb the life of another person, exchanging and destroying it.

In Imponderabilia (1977, reenacted in 2010) two performers, both completely nude, stand in a doorway. The public must squeeze between them in order to pass, and in doing so choose which one of them to face.

In 1988, after several years of tense relations, Abramović and Ulay decided to make a spiritual journey which would end their relationship. Each of them walked the Great Wall of China, starting from the two opposite ends and meeting in the middle. As Abramović described it: “That walk became a complete personal drama. Ulay started from the Gobi desert and I from the Yellow Sea. After each of us walked 2500 km, we met in the middle and said good-bye.”^[10]

Abramović conceived this walk in a dream, and it provided what she thought was an appropriate, romantic ending to a relationship full of mysticism, energy and attraction. She later described the process: “We needed a certain form of ending, after this huge distance walking towards each other. It is very human. It is in a way more dramatic, more like a film ending … Because in the end you are really alone, whatever you do.”^[10]

Abramović reported that during her walk she was reinterpreting her connection to the physical world and to nature. She felt that the metals in the ground influenced her mood and state of being; she also pondered the Chinese myths in which the great wall has been described as a “dragon of energy.”

[edit] Seven Easy Pieces, November 2005

Abramović performing Bruce Nauman's "Body Pressure." Guggenheim Museum, November 2005.

Beginning on November 9, 2005, Abramović presented Seven Easy Pieces at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. On seven consecutive nights for seven hours she recreated the works of five artists first performed in the 60s and 70s, in addition to re-performing her own "Lips of Thomas" and introducing a new performance on the last night. The performances were arduous, requiring both the physical and the mental concentration of the artist. Included in Abramović's performances were recreations of Gina Pane's Self-Portraits, which required lying on a bed frame suspended over a grid of lit candles, and of Vito Acconci's 1972 performance in which the artist masturbated under the floorboards of a gallery as visitors walked overhead. It is argued that Abramović re-performed these works as a series of homages to the past, though many of the performances were altered from their originals.^[11]

Here is a full list of the works performed:

• Bruce Nauman's Body Pressure (1974)
• Vito Acconci's Seedbed (1972)
• Valie Export's Action Pants: Genital Panic (1969)
• Gina Pane's The Conditioning (1973)
• Joseph Beuys's How to Explain Pictures to a Dead Hare (1965)
• Abramović's own Lips of Thomas (1975)
• Abramović's own Entering the Other Side (2005)

[edit] The Artist Is Present, March–May 2010

Abramović performing in "The Artist is Present" at the Museum of Modern Art, March 2010.

From March 14 to May 31, 2010, the Museum of Modern Art held a major retrospective and performance recreation of Abramović's work, the biggest exhibition of performance art in MoMA's history.^[12] During the run of the exhibition, Abramović performed "The Artist is Present," a 736-hour and 30-minute static, silent piece, in which she sat immobile in the museum's atrium, while spectators were invited to take turns sitting opposite her.^[13] A support group for the "sitters", "Sitting with Marina", was established on Facebook^[14] as was the blog "Marina Abramović made me cry".^[15] In September 2011, a video game version of Abramović's performance was released by Pippin Barr.^[16]

Later life[link]

Marina Abramović purchased a theater two hours north of Manhattan in Hudson, NY, intending to establish a nonprofit organization, Marina Abramović Foundation for the Preservation of Performance Art. She will use the space to work and develop ideas with video and post-production equipment and there will be a second property to house resident artists.^[17]

In 2009, Abramović was featured in Chiara Clemente's documentary Our City Dreams and a book of the same name. The five featured artists – also including Swoon, Ghada Amer, Kiki Smith, and Nancy Spero – "each possess a passion for making work that is inseparable from their devotion to New York," according to the publisher.^[18]

Abramović is also the subject of an independent feature documentary movie currently titled "MARINA" that is based on her life and performance at her retrospective "The Artist is Present" at the Museum of Modern Art in 2010. The film will be broadcast in the United States on HBO.^[19]

In January 2011, Abramović was on the cover of Serbian ELLE, photographed by Dushan Reljin.

Prizes and awards[link]

• Golden Lion Award, XLVII Venice Biennale, 1997
• Niedersächsischer Kunstpreis, 2003
• New York Dance and Performance Awards (The Bessies), 2003
• International Association of Art Critics, Best Show in a Commercial Gallery Award, 2003
• Honorary Doctorate of Arts, University of Plymouth UK, 25 September 2009
• Cultural Leadership Award, American Federation of Arts, 26 October 2011
• Honorary Doctorate of Arts, Instituto Superior de Arte, Cuba, 14 May 2012

See also[link]

• Avant-garde
• Experimental theatre
• Fluxus
• Richard Foreman
• Happening
• Dick Higgins
• Intermedia
• Allan Kaprow
• Elizabeth LeCompte
• Ontological-Hysteric Theater
• Performance art
• Richard Schechner
• Speculations: An Essay on the Theater
• The Flea Theater
• The Wooster Group
• Mac Wellman

Bibliography[link]

Works by Abramović and collaborators[link]

• Artist Body: Performances 1969–1998, artist, Abramović; authors Abramović, Toni Stooss, Thomas McEvilley, Bojana Pejic, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Chrissie Iles, Jan Avgikos, Thomas Wulffen, Velimir Abramović; English ed. (Charta, 1998) ISBN 978-88-8158-175-7.
• The Bridge / El Puente, artist Abramović, authors Abramović, Pablo J. Rico, Thomas Wulffen (Charta, 1998) ISBN 978-84-482-1857-7.
• Performing Body, artist Abramović, authors Abramović, Dobrila Denegri (Charta, 1998) ISBN 978-88-8158-160-3.
• Balkan Baroque, (Pierre Coulibeuf, 1999)
• Public Body: Installations and Objects 1965–2001, artist Abramović, authors Celant, Germano, Abramović (Charta, 2001) ISBN 978-88-8158-295-2.
• Marina Abramović, fifteen artists, Fondazione Ratti; co-authors Abramović, Anna Daneri, Giacinto Di Pietrantonio, Lóránd Hegyi, Societas Raffaello Sanzio, Angela Vettese (Charta, 2002) ISBN 978-88-8158-365-2.
• Student Body, artist Abramović, vari; authors Abramović, Miguel Fernandez-Cid, studenti; (Charta, 2002) ISBN 978-88-8158-449-9.
• The House with the Ocean View, artist Abramović; authors Abramović, Sean Kelly, Thomas McEvilley, Cindy Carr, Chrissie Iles, RosaLee Goldberg, Peggy Phelan (Charta, 2004) ISBN 978-88-8158-436-9; the 2002 piece of the same name, in which Abramović lived on three open platforms in a gallery with only water for 12 days, was reenacted in Sex and the City in the HBO series' sixth season.^[20]
• Marina Abramović: The Biography of Biographies, artist Abramović; co-authors Abramović, Michael Laub, Monique Veaute, Fabrizio Grifasi (Charta, 2004) ISBN 978-88-8158-495-6.
• Balkan Epic, (Skira, 2006).
• Balkan Erotic Epic, as producer and director, Destricted (Offhollywood Digital, 2006)
• Seven Easy Pieces, artist, Abramović; authors Nancy Spector, Erika Fischer-Lichte, Sandra Umathum, Abramović; (Charta, 2007). ISBN 978-88-8158-626-4.

Critical and academic studies[link]

• Laurie Anderson, “Marina Abramović,” Bomb Summer 2003: 25–31.
• Patrick Anderson, "How to Stage Self-Consumption," So Much Wasted: Hunger, Performance, and the Morbidity of Resistance. Durham: Duke University Press, 2010. pp. 85–109.
• Klaus Biesenbach (ed.), Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present, Exhibition Catalog with essays by Klaus Biesenbach, Arthur C. Danto, Chrissie Iles, Nancy Spector, and Jovana Stokić, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2010
• Aline Brandauer,. "Marina Abramović: Double Blind." Sculpture, July/August 1995, pp. 23–27.
• A Daneri, et al., (eds.), Marina Abramović, (Charta, 2002)
• Jovan Despotovic, Marina Abramović, ’Fin de siecle’ – Balkans way, Borba, Belgrade, September 6–7, 1997, p. 17
• Jennifer Fisher, “Interperformance: The Live Tableaux of Suzanne Lacy, Janine Antoni, and Marina Abramović,” Art Journal 56 (1997): 28–33.
• Charles Green, “Doppelgangers and the Third Force: The Artistic Collaborations of Gilbert & George and Marina Abramović/Ulay,” Art Journal 59.2: 36–45.
• Shogo Hagiwara, “Art Hurts: Blood and Pain are Abramović’s Media,” The Daily Yomiuri April 1, 2004 p18.
• Janet Kaplan, “Deeper and Deeper: Interview with Marina Abramović,” Art Journal 58:2 (1999):6–19.
• Zoe Kosmidou, “A Conversation with Marina Abramović,” Sculpture Nov. 2001: 27–31.
• Tom Lubbock, “Visual Arts: Caught In the Act; It’s Video But Not As We Know It,” The Independent September 2, 2003.
• Thomas McEvilley, “Performing the Present Tense,” Art in America April 2003: 114–117; 153.
• Thomas McEvilley, "Art, Love, Friendship: Marina Abramović and Ulay, Together & Apart," book, Documentext (McPherson & Company), 2010.
• Asami Nagai, “Art in Harmony with Nature,” The Daily Yomiuri July 24, 2003, p. 13.
• Anna Novakov, “Point of Access: Marina Abramović’s 1975 Performance Role Exchange,” Woman’s Art Journal Fall 2003/Winter 2004: 31–35.
• Jennifer Phipps, “Marina Abramović/Ulay/Ulay/Marina Abramović,” Art & Text 3 (1981).
• Theresa Smalec, “Not What It Seems: The Politics of Re-Performing Vito Acconci's Seedbed,” PMC: Postmodern Culture 17 (1) 2006^[21]
• “Writing Art,” Art Monthly 1999 230:13–17.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiversity has learning materials about Performance art

• Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present at MoMA
• Artfacts.Net profile with major exhibitions and public collections.
• Coulibeuf, Pierre. Balkan Baroque 1999 (video). "The autobiography, both real and imaginary, of Marina Abramović...."
• Interview with Bernard Goy for Journal of Contemporary Art, June 1990
• Marina Abramović, The Hero (for Antonio) – 2001. Vejer de la Frontera, Spain: NMAC Foundation.
• Marina Abramović, Human Nests – 2001. Vejer de la Frontera, Spain: NMAC Foundation.
• Marina Abramović Institute, San Francisco, California, USA.
• Marina Abramović: Seven Easy Pieces, November 9–15, 2005, 5PM to 12AM. New Way: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.
• Mediateca Media Art Space documentary archive with biography, works, and references.
• Rosenberg, Karen. Provocateur: Marina Abramović (interview). New York magazine, December 4, 2005.
• Lisson Gallery Marina Abramović artist page. Including works, bio, exhibitions and catalogues
• Sean Kelly Gallery artist page with biography, works, press, exhibitions, and catalogues.
• Spector, Nancy. Marina Abramović, Rhythm 5, 1974, published 1994. Guggenheim collection online.
• "Marina" the feature documentary film
• Interview, March 2010, with Robert Ayers at A Sky filled with Shooting Stars.
• Arthur C. Danto, "Sitting with Marina", New York Times, 2010/05/23
• Vice magazine interview, November 2010.
• 2011 James T. Demetrion Lecture: "How Performance Art is Entering the History of Art", press release, March 9, 2011, Hirschorn Museum, Washington, DC, USA; lecture April 5, 2011.
• Conversation: Marina Abramovic, interview with Jeffrey Brown, PBS Newshour Art Beat, April 8, 2011; transcript and video. Link: The Hirshhorn conducted a Twitter forum with Abramovic in late March; Q&A here.
• Tate: Meet the Artist: Marina Abramovic The artist talks about her performance practice. January 29, 2009.
• | EAI Artist biography and list of video works.

Paola Antonelli at the Digital Life and Design Conference, Munich in 2008

Paola Antonelli, Sassari, Sardinia 1963, is a Senior Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art.^[1] She was recently rated as one of the top one hundred most powerful people in the world of art by Art Review.'

The recipient of a laurea degree in Architecture from the Politecnico di Milano university in 1990, she never worked as an architect. Paola Antonelli has curated several architecture and design exhibitions in Italy, France, and Japan. She has been a Contributing Editor for Domus magazine (1987–91) and the Design Editor of Abitare (1992–94). She has also contributed articles to several publications, among them Metropolis, the Harvard Design Review, I.D. magazine, Paper, Metropolitan Home, Harper's Bazaar and Nest.

MoMA Curator[link]

Antonelli joined the Museum of Modern Art, in New York, in February 1994 and is a Curator in the Department of Architecture and Design. Her first acclaimed exhibition for MoMA, Mutant Materials in Contemporary Design (1995), was followed by Thresholds: Contemporary Design from the Netherlands (1996), Achille Castiglioni: Design! (1997–98), Projects 66: Campana/Ingo Maurer (1999), Open Ends, and Matter (September 2000 - February 2001). Her exhibition, Workspheres (2/8-4/22/2001) was devoted to the design of the workplace of the near future. In 2005 she curated the groundbreaking exhibition entitled Safe: Design takes on Risk at MoMA.

From 1991 to 1993, Antonelli was a Lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she taught design history and theory. In the spring of 2003, she started to teach a course of Design Theory at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She has lectured on design and architecture in Europe and the United States and has served on several international architecture and design juries.

Antonelli's goal is to promote design's understanding role until its influence on society and on progress is fully acknowledged. She has curated the exhibition entitled Safe in 2005 based on her show at the International Design Conference in Aspen (August 20–23, 2003) similarly entitled Safe: Design Takes on Risk. Other recent projects include a book about foods from all over the world as examples of outstanding design and a television program on design. She's also trying to get a Boeing 747 into the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Appearances[link]

• TED Talks: Paola Antonelli treats design as art at TED in 2007
• Tom Bieling interviews Paola Antonelli: Thinking and Problem Making for [Design Research Network] in 2009

Charlie Rose Show: http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/05/07/1/design-and-the-elastic-mind

External links[link]

• "an Ambassador for Design", profile on BAIA, Business Association * [http://iphone5live.com Paola Antonelli- The Future Italy America

References[link]

Tim Burton
Burton at the 64th Venice Film Festival in 2007
Born	Timothy Walter Burton (1958-08-25) August 25, 1958 (age 53) Burbank, California, U.S.
Nationality	American
Education	Burbank High School
Alma mater	California Institute of the Arts
Occupation	Film director, film producer, writer, artist
Years active	1982–present
Notable work(s)	The Nightmare Before Christmas, Beetlejuice, Batman, Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Corpse Bride, Dark Shadows (film), Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (film)
Influenced by	Edgar Allan Poe, Stanley Kubrick, Christopher Lee, Wes Craven, Vincent Price, Ray Harryhausen, Roger Corman, Alan Moore, Ed Wood, Stephen King, John Carpenter, Alfred Hitchcock, Charles Addams, Steven Spielberg
Influenced	Shane Acker, Zack Snyder, Len Wiseman, Daniel Knauf, David Slade, Joss Whedon, Rob Zombie, James Wan
Spouse	Lena Gieseke (1989–1993)
Partner	Lisa Marie (1993–2001) Helena Bonham Carter (2001–present)
Children	Billy Ray Burton (2003–) Nell Burton (2007–)
Awards	See below
Website
timburton.com

Timothy Walter "Tim" Burton^[1] (born August 25, 1958) is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Dark Shadows and for blockbusters such as Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Batman, Batman Returns, Planet of the Apes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Alice in Wonderland, which was the second highest-grossing film of 2010, and the tenth highest-grossing film of all time.^[2]

Burton is known for using recurring collaborators on his works; among them are Johnny Depp, who has become a close friend of Burton since their first film together; musician Danny Elfman, who has composed for all but five of the films Burton has directed or produced; and domestic partner Helena Bonham Carter. He also wrote and illustrated the poetry book The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories, published in 1997, and a compilation of his drawings, entitled The Art of Tim Burton, was released in 2009. Burton has directed 16 films and produced 12, as of 2012. His latest films are an adaptation of the soap opera Dark Shadows, released on May 10, 2012,^[3] and a remake of his 1984 short, Frankenweenie, scheduled to be released on October 5, 2012.^[4]

Early life[link]

Burton was born in 1958, in the city of Burbank, California, to Jean Burton (née Erickson), the owner of a cat-themed gift shop, and Bill Burton, a former minor league baseball player who would later work for the Burbank Park and Recreation Department.^[5][6] As a preteen, Burton would make short films in his backyard on Evergreen Street using crude stop motion animation techniques or shoot them on 8 mm film without sound. (One of his oldest known juvenile films is The Island of Doctor Agor, that he made when he was 13 years old.) Burton studied at Burbank High School, but he was not a particularly good student. He was a very introspective person, and found his pleasure in painting, drawing and watching films. His future work would be heavily influenced by the works of such childhood heroes as Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl,^[7] as well as Edgar Allan Poe and the horror and science fiction films he watched, such as Godzilla, and films made by Hammer Film Productions, the works of Ray Harryhausen and Vincent Price.

After graduating from Burbank High School with Jeff Riekenberg, Burton attended the California Institute of the Arts to study character animation. Some of his classmates were John Lasseter, Brad Bird, John Musker and Henry Selick. (In the future, Selick and Burton would work together in The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach.)

As a student in CalArts, Burton made the shorts Stalk of the Celery Monster and King and Octopus.^[8] They remain only in fragments today.

Early career: 1980s[link]

Burton graduated from CalArts in Santa Clarita, California in 1979. The success of his short film Stalk of the Celery Monster attracted the attention of Walt Disney Productions' animation studio, who offered young Burton an animator's apprenticeship at their studio. He worked as an animator, storyboard artist and concept artist on films such as The Fox and the Hound, The Black Cauldron and Tron. However, Burton's personal style clashed with Disney's standards, and he longed to work on solo projects.

While at Disney in 1982, Burton made his first short, Vincent, a six-minute black-and-white stop motion film based on a poem written by the filmmaker, and depicting a young boy who fantasizes that he is his (and Burton's) hero Vincent Price, with Price himself providing narration. The film was produced by Rick Heinrichs, whom Burton had befriended while working in the concept art department at Disney. The film was shown at the Chicago Film Festival and released, alongside the teen drama Tex, for two weeks in one Los Angeles cinema. This was followed by Burton's first live-action production Hansel and Gretel, a Japanese-themed adaptation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale for the Disney Channel, which climaxes in a kung-fu fight between Hansel and Gretel and the witch. Having aired once at 10:30 pm on Halloween 1983 and promptly shelved, prints of the film are extremely difficult to locate, which contributes to the rumor that this project does not exist. (In 2009, the short went on display in the Museum of Modern Art, and in 2011 the short also played at the Tim Burton art exhibit at the LACMA).

Burton's next live-action short, Frankenweenie, was released in 1984. It tells the story of a young boy who tries to revive his dog after it is run over by a car. Filmed in black-and-white, it stars Barret Oliver, Shelley Duvall (with whom he would work again in 1986, directing an episode of her Faerie Tale Theatre) and Daniel Stern. After Frankenweenie was completed, Disney fired Burton, under the pretext of him spending the company's resources on doing a film that would be too dark and scary for children to see.

Pursuing then an opportunity to make a full-length film, he was approached by Griffin Dunne to direct the black comedy film After Hours. However, after Martin Scorsese's project The Last Temptation of Christ was cancelled (although it would later be completed and released in 1988), he showed an interest in directing it. Respectfully, Burton bowed out.

[edit] Pee-wee's Big Adventure

Not long after, actor Paul Reubens saw Frankenweenie and chose Burton to direct the cinematic spin-off of his popular character Pee-wee Herman. Pee-wee Herman gained mainstream popularity with a successful stage show at The Groundlings and then the Roxy which was later turned into an HBO special. The film, Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985), was made on a budget of $8 million and grossed more than $40 million at the box office. Burton, a fan of the eccentric musical group Oingo Boingo, asked songwriter Danny Elfman to provide the music for the film. Since then, Elfman has provided the score for all but five of the films Burton has directed and/or produced, those exceptions being Cabin Boy, Ed Wood, James and the Giant Peach and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

[edit] Beetlejuice

After directing episodes for the revitalized version of TV series of '50s/'60s anthology horror series Alfred Hitchcock Presents and Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre, Burton received his next big project: Beetlejuice (1988), a supernatural comedy horror about a young couple forced to cope with life after death, as well as a family of pretentious yuppies invading their treasured New England home including their teenage daughter Lydia (Winona Ryder) whose obsession with death allows her to see them. Starring Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis, and featuring Michael Keaton as the obnoxious bio-exorcist Beetlejuice, the film grossed $80 million on a relatively low budget and won an Academy Award for Best Makeup. It would be converted into a cartoon of the same name, with Burton playing a role as executive producer, that ran on ABC and later Fox.

[edit] Batman

Burton's ability to produce hits with low budgets impressed studio executives, and he received his first big budget film, Batman. The production was plagued with problems. Burton repeatedly clashed with the film's producers, Jon Peters and Peter Guber, but the most notable debacle involved casting. For the title role, Burton chose to cast Michael Keaton as Batman following their previous collaboration in Beetlejuice, despite Keaton's average physique, inexperience with action films, and reputation as a comic actor. Although Burton won in the end, the furor over the casting provoked enormous fan animosity, to the extent that Warner Brothers' share price slumped.^{[citation needed]} Burton had considered it ridiculous to cast a "bulked-up" ultra-masculine man as Batman, insisting that the Caped Crusader should be an ordinary (albeit fabulously wealthy) man who dressed up in an elaborate bat costume to frighten criminals. Burton cast Jack Nicholson as The Joker (Tim Curry being his second choice) in a move that helped assuage fans' fears, as well as attracting older audiences not as interested in a superhero film.^{[citation needed]}

When the film opened in June 1989, it was backed by the biggest marketing and merchandising campaign in film history at the time, and became one of the biggest box office hits of all time, grossing well over US$250 million in the US alone and $400 million worldwide (numbers not adjusted for inflation) and earning critical acclaim for the performances of both Keaton and Nicholson, as well as the film's production aspects, which won the Academy Award for Best Art Direction. The success of the film helped establish Burton as a profitable director, and it also proved to be a huge influence on future superhero films, which eschewed the bright, all-American heroism of Richard Donner's Superman for a grimmer, more realistic look and characters with more psychological depth. It also became a major inspiration for the successful 1990s cartoon Batman: The Animated Series, in as much as the darkness of the picture and its sequel allowed for a darker Batman on television.

Burton claimed that The Killing Joke was a major influence on his film adaptation of Batman:

"I was never a giant comic book fan, but I've always loved the image of Batman and The Joker. The reason I've never been a comic book fan—and I think it started when I was a child—is because I could never tell which box I was supposed to read. I don't know if it was dyslexia or whatever, but that's why I loved The Killing Joke, because for the first time I could tell which one to read. It's my favorite. It's the first comic I've ever loved. And the success of those graphic novels made our ideas more acceptable."^[9]

1990s[link]

[edit] Edward Scissorhands

In 1990, Burton co-wrote (with Caroline Thompson) and directed Edward Scissorhands, re-uniting with Winona Ryder from Beetlejuice. His friend Johnny Depp, a teen idol at the end of the 1980s due primarily to his work on the hit TV series 21 Jump Street, was cast in the title role of Edward, who was the creation of an eccentric and old-fashioned inventor (played by Vincent Price in one of his last screen appearances). Edward looked human, but was left with scissors in the place of hands due to the untimely death of his creator. Set in suburbia (and shot in Lutz, Florida), the film is largely seen as Burton's autobiography of his childhood in Burbank. Price at one point is said to have remarked, "Tim is Edward." Depp wrote a similar comment in the foreword to Mark Salisbury's book, Burton on Burton, regarding his first meeting with Burton over the casting of the film. Edward is considered one of Burton's best movies by some critics.^[10] Following this collaboration with Burton, Depp starred in Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Corpse Bride, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Alice in Wonderland, and Dark Shadows.

In 2004, Matthew Bourne came to Burton with the idea to turn the story of Edward into a ballet. In 2005, the ballet first aired. It has now toured the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and parts of Europe.

[edit] Batman Returns

The day Warner Brothers had declined to make the more personal Scissorhands even after the success of Batman, Burton finally agreed to direct the sequel for Warner Brothers on the condition that he would be granted total control. The result was Batman Returns which featured Michael Keaton returning as the Dark Knight, and a new triad of villains: Danny DeVito (as the Penguin), Michelle Pfeiffer (as Catwoman) and Christopher Walken as Max Shreck, an evil corporate tycoon and original character created for the film (similar to Superman III's Ross Webster). Darker and considerably more personal than its predecessor, concerns were raised that the film was too scary for children. Audiences were even more uncomfortable at the film's overt sexuality, personified by the sleek, fetish-inspired styling of Catwoman's costume. One critic remarked, "too many villains spoiled the Batman", highlighting Burton's decision to focus the storyline more on the villains instead of Batman. The film also polarized the fanbase, with some loving the darkness and quirkiness, while others felt it was not true to the core aspects of the source material. Burton made many changes to the Penguin which would be applied to the Penguin in both comics and television. While in the comics, he was an ordinary man, Burton created a freak of nature resembling a penguin with webbed, flipper-like fingers, a hooked, beak-like nose, and a penguin-like body (resulting in a rotund, obese man). Released in 1992, Batman Returns grossed $282.8 million worldwide, making it another financial success, though not to the extent of its predecessor. Paul Reubens a.k.a. Pee-Wee from Pee-wee's Big Adventure has a cameo as the Penguin's father.

[edit] The Nightmare Before Christmas

Next, Burton wrote and produced (but did not direct, due to schedule constraints on Batman Returns) The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), originally meant to be a children's book in rhyme. The film was directed by Henry Selick and written by Caroline Thompson, based on Burton's original story, world and characters. The film received positive reviews for the film's stop motion animation, musical score and original storyline and was a box office success, grossing $50 million. Burton collaborated with Selick again for James and the Giant Peach (1996), which Burton co-produced. The film helped to generate a renewed interest in stop-motion animation.

A deleted scene from The Nightmare Before Christmas features a group of vampires playing hockey on the frozen pond with the decapitated head of Burton. The head was replaced by a jack-o'-lantern in the final version.

[edit] Cabin Boy

In 1994, Burton and frequent co-producer Denise Di Novi produced the 1994 fantasy-comedy Cabin Boy, starring comedian Chris Elliott and directed/written by Adam Resnick. Burton was originally supposed to direct the film after seeing Elliott perform on Get a Life, but handed the directing responsibility to Resnick once he was offered Ed Wood. The film was almost entirely panned by critics, even earning Chris Elliott a 1995 Razzie Award for "Worst New Star".^[11] The film also has a 45% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, indicating more mixed contemporary reviews.

[edit] Ed Wood

His next film, Ed Wood (1994), was of a much smaller scale, depicting the life of Ed Wood, a filmmaker sometimes called "the worst director of all time". Starring Johnny Depp in the title role, the film is an homage to the low-budget science fiction and horror films of Burton's childhood, and handles its comical protagonist and his motley band of collaborators with surprising fondness and sensitivity. Owing to creative squabbles during the making of The Nightmare Before Christmas, Danny Elfman declined to score Ed Wood, and the assignment went to Howard Shore. While a commercial failure at the time of its release, Ed Wood was well-received by critics. Martin Landau received an Academy Award in the Best Supporting Actor category for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi, as well as the Academy Award for Best Makeup.

[edit] Batman Forever

Despite his intention to still lead the Batman franchise, Warner Bros. considered Batman Returns too dark and unsafe for children. To attract the young audience, it was decided that Joel Schumacher, who had directed films like The Client, lead the third film, while Burton would only produce it in conjunction with Peter McGregor-Scott. Following this change and the changes made by the new director, Michael Keaton resigned from the lead role and was replaced by Val Kilmer. Filming began in late 1994 and recognized with new actors: Tommy Lee Jones, Nicole Kidman, Chris O'Donnell and Jim Carrey; the only two actors who returned were Pat Hingle and Michael Gough. The film, a mixture of darkness that characterized the saga with colors and neon signs proposed by Schumacher, was a huge box office success of $336 million, despite controversy over the characters and plot. Despite their friendship, Burton often disagreed with Schumacher's decisions, especially in the filming of several scenes which were removed from the final cut (later added as deleted scenes on the 2005 DVD release). Warner Bros. demanded Schumacher delete those scenes so the film did not have the same tone as its predecessor Batman Returns. According to an interview with Janet Scott Batchler, Burton's only involvement as producer with Batman Forever was approving Schumacher as director and Lee and Janet Scott Batchler as the writers. Burton did not contribute story ideas and the Riddler was not considered for the villain until Schumacher and the Batchlers were at the development stage. Schumacher was rehired to lead another sequel, the infamous Batman & Robin, in which Burton, for unknown reasons, did not participate.

[edit] James and the Giant Peach

In 1996, Burton and Selick reunited for the musical fantasy James and the Giant Peach, based on the book by Roald Dahl. The film, a combination of live action and stop motion footage, starred Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, David Thewlis, Simon Callow and Jane Leeves among others, with Burton producing and Selick directing. The film was mostly praised by critics, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score (by Randy Newman).

[edit] Mars Attacks!

Elfman and Burton reunited for Mars Attacks! (1996). Based on a popular science fiction trading card series, the film was a hybrid of 1950s science fiction and 1970s all-star disaster films. Coincidence made it an inadvertent spoof of the blockbuster, Independence Day, made around the same time and released five months earlier. The film boasted an all-star cast, including Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Anette Bening, Danny DeVito, Pierce Brosnan, Michael J. Fox, Sarah Jessica Parker, Natalie Portman, Lukas Haas, Martin Short, Rod Steiger, Christina Applegate, and Jack Black.

[edit] Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow, released in late 1999, had a supernatural setting and another offbeat performance by Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane, now a detective with an interest in forensic science rather than the schoolteacher of Washington Irving's original tale. With Hollow, Burton paid homage to the horror films of the English company Hammer Films. Christopher Lee, one of Hammer's stars, was given a cameo role. A host of Burton regulars appeared in supporting roles (Michael Gough, Jeffrey Jones and Christopher Walken, among others) and Christina Ricci was cast as Katrina van Tassel. A well-regarded supporting cast was headed by Miranda Richardson, Michael Gambon, Richard Griffiths and Ian McDiarmid. Mostly well-received by critics, and with a special mention to Elfman's Gothic score, the film won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction, as well as two BAFTAs for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. A box office success, Sleepy Hollow was also a turning point for Burton. Along with change in his personal life (separation from actress Lisa Marie), Burton changed radically in style for his next project, leaving the haunted forests and colorful outcasts behind to go on to directing Planet of the Apes which, as Burton had repeatedly noted, was "not a remake" of the earlier film.

2000s[link]

[edit] Planet of the Apes

Planet of the Apes was a commercial success, grossing $68 million in its opening weekend. The film has received mixed reviews and is widely considered inferior to the first adaptation of the novel. One criticism was that the movie went for a more watered down "popcorn" feel than the dark, cerebral and nihilistic tone of the 1968 film. The film was a significant departure from Burton's usual style, and there was much subsequent debate about whether the film was really Burton's, or if he was just a "hired gun" who did what he was asked.^[12] Burton reportedly clashed with the studio during the whole making of the film, once going as far as abruptly leaving the set for the day. There were also many reports about last-minute changes in the film. The film enjoyed commercial success and had an ending that clearly suggested the possibility of a sequel, but neither the studio nor Burton gave indications of making another Apes movie. During the making of the film, Burton met actress Helena Bonham Carter, who would later become his long-term domestic partner. In 2011, Rise of the Planet of the Apes was released without Burton's involvement.

[edit] Big Fish

In 2003, Burton directed Big Fish, based on the novel Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions by Daniel Wallace. The film is about a father telling the story of his life to his son using exaggeration and color. Starring Ewan McGregor as young Edward Bloom and Albert Finney as an older Edward Bloom, the film also stars Jessica Lange, Billy Crudup, Danny DeVito, Alison Lohman and Marion Cotillard. Big Fish is also notable as the first role, playing "Young Ruthie", of Miley Cyrus, credited under her birth name, Destiny Hope Cyrus. Big Fish received four Golden Globe nominations as well as an Academy Award nomination for the musical score by Danny Elfman. Big Fish was also the second collaboration with Burton and Helena Bonham Carter, who played the characters of Jenny and the Witch.

[edit] Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Burton at premiere of the film in 2005.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005) is an adaptation of the book of the same name by Roald Dahl. Starring Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka, Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Bucket, the film generally took a more faithful approach to the source material than the 1971 adaptation, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, although some liberties were taken, such as adding Wonka's issue with his father (played by Christopher Lee). Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was later nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. The film made over $207 million domestically. Filming proved difficult as Burton and Danny Elfman had to work on this and Burton's Corpse Bride at the same time.

[edit] Corpse Bride

Corpse Bride (2005) was Burton's first full-length stop-motion film as a director, featuring the voices of Johnny Depp as Victor and Helena Bonham Carter (for whom the project was specifically created) as Emily in the lead roles. In this film, Burton was able again to use his familiar styles and trademarks, such as the complex interaction between light and darkness, and of being caught between two irreconcilable worlds.

"Bones"[link]

"Bones" (2006) is the only music video Burton has directed to date. The song "Bones" is the sixth overall single by American indie rock band The Killers, the second released from their second studio album, Sam's Town. Starring in this video were actors Michael Steger and Devon Aoki. Also featured in the video are scenes from films like Creature from the Black Lagoon, Jason and the Argonauts and Lolita.

The band, as well as Steger and Aoki, change temporarily into partial CG skeletal versions of themselves, before becoming complete skeletons by the end of the video. At the 2007 Shockwaves NME Awards, it won the award for Best Video.

[edit] Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Tim Burton (right) and Pedro Almodóvar (left) at the première of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in Madrid, in 2007

The DreamWorks/Warner Bros. production was released on December 21, 2007. Burton's work on Sweeney Todd won the National Board of Review Award for Best Director,^[13] received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director^[14] and won an Academy Award for Best Art Direction. Helena Bonham Carter won an Evening Standard British Film Award for her portrayal of Mrs. Lovett, as well as a Golden Globe nomination. The film blends explicit gore and Broadway tunes, and was well received by critics. Johnny Depp was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for the role of Sweeney Todd. Depp also won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical/Comedy, as well as the award for Best Villain as Todd in the 2008 MTV Awards.

[edit] 9

Tim Burton speaking about 9 at Comic-Con, 2009.

In 2005, filmmaker Shane Acker released his short film 9, a story about a sentient rag doll living in a post-apocalyptic world who tries to stop machines from destroying the rest of his eight fellow rag dolls. The film won numerous awards and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. After seeing the short film, Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov, director of Wanted, showed interest in producing a feature-length adaptation of the film. Directed by Acker, the full-length film was produced by Burton, written by Acker (story) and Pamela Pettler (screenplay, co-writer of Corpse Bride) and featured the voice work of Elijah Wood, John C. Reilly, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, Crispin Glover and Fred Tatasciore, among others. This was Burton's first animated movie aside from his stop-motion films.

2010s[link]

[edit] Alice in Wonderland

In Burton's version, the story is set 13 years after the original Lewis Carroll tales. Mia Wasikowska, who featured in the HBO series In Treatment and Defiance, was cast as Alice. The original start date was May 2008.^[15] Torpoint and Plymouth were the locations used for filming from September 1 – October 14, and the film remains set in the Victorian era. During this time, filming took place in Antony House in Torpoint.^[16] 250 local extras were chosen in early August.^[17][18] Other production work took place in London.^[19] The film was originally to be released in 2009, but was pushed to March 5, 2010.^[20] Johnny Depp plays the Mad Hatter, while Matt Lucas, star of Little Britain, is both Tweedledee and Tweedledum; Helena Bonham Carter portrays the Red Queen; Stephen Fry is the Cheshire Cat; Anne Hathaway stars as the The White Queen; Alan Rickman voices Absolem the Caterpillar, Michael Sheen voices McTwisp the White Rabbit and Crispin Glover's head and voice were added onto a CGI body to play the Knave of Hearts.

Tim Burton appeared at the 2009 Comic-Con in San Diego, California, to promote both 9 and Alice in Wonderland. When asked about the filmmaking process by an attendee, he mentioned his "imaginary friend" who helps him out, prompting Johnny Depp to walk on stage to the applause of the audience. The film won two Academy Awards for Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.

[edit] Dark Shadows

Burton's film Dark Shadows once again starred Johnny Depp in the leading role. The film was based on the original Dark Shadows gothic soap opera, which aired on ABC from 1966 to 1971. Members of the cast included Helena Bonham Carter, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, Bella Heathcote, Gulliver McGrath, and Chloë Grace Moretz. The filming began in April 2011, with the film released on May 11, 2012. Danny Elfman once again composed and conducted the score and soundtrack for the film, and Colleen Atwood was the costume designer. It has received mixed to negative reviews from critics, some of whom think it is a tongue-in-cheek gothic comedy, visually appealing and fitting as an adaptation of the melodramatic soap opera, whereas others think the film has a very loose plot, is not particularly humorous, and that Burton and Depp's collaborative efforts have worn thin. Depp's performance has also had a mixed reception, with some claiming his performance is the best thing about the film, while others have accused him of overacting.

Future projects[link]

Burton is remaking his 1984 short film Frankenweenie as a feature-length stop motion film, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures.^[21] The film is set to be released on October 5, 2012.^[22]

On January 19, 2010, it was announced that after Dark Shadows, Burton's next project would be a Wicked-like film that showed the origin and the past of Sleeping Beauty's antagonist Maleficent. In an interview with Fandango published February 23, 2010, however, he denied he was directing any upcoming Sleeping Beauty film.^[23] However, on November 23, 2010, in an interview with MTV, Burton confirmed that he was indeed putting together a script for Maleficent.^[24] It was announced in The Hollywood Reporter on May 16, 2011 that Burton was no longer attached to Maleficent.^[25]

Burton will also co-produce Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter with Timur Bekmambetov, who will also serve as director. The film, set to be released on June 22, 2012, is based on the novel by Seth Grahame-Smith, also author of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, who also wrote the film's screenplay. It has also been reported that Burton will be directing a 3-D stop-motion animation adaptation of The Addams Family, which was confirmed by Christopher Meledandri.^[26] On July 19, 2010, he was announced as the director of the upcoming film adaptation of Monsterpocalypse.^[27]

Personal life[link]

Burton was married to Lena Gieseke, a German-born artist, for two years, whom he left to live with model and actress Lisa Marie; she acted in the films he made during their relationship from 1992 to 2001, most notably in Ed Wood and Mars Attacks!. After leaving her, Burton then developed a romantic liaison with English actress Helena Bonham Carter, whom he met while filming Planet of the Apes. Lisa Marie responded in 2005 by holding an auction of personal belongings that Burton had left behind, much to his dismay.^[28]

Burton and Bonham Carter have two children: a son, Billy Raymond, named after his and Bonham Carter's fathers, born October 4, 2003; and a daughter, Nell, born December 15, 2007.^[29] Close friend Johnny Depp is a godfather of both of Burton's children. In Burton on Burton, Depp wrote the introduction, stating, "What more can I say about him? He is a brother, a friend, my godson's father. He is a unique and brave soul, someone that I would go to the ends of the earth for, and I know, full and well, he would do the same for me."

Burton was the President of the Jury for the 63rd annual Cannes Film Festival, which was held from May 12 to May 24, 2010 in Cannes, France.^[30]

On March 15, 2010, Burton received the insignia of Chevalier of Arts and Letters from Minister of Culture, Frédéric Mitterrand.^[31]

Burton has stated his favorite films are Dracula AD 1972, The Wicker Man, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, The War of the Gargantuas, and The Omega Man.^[32]

Recurring collaborators[link]

Burton often casts certain actors in multiple directing projects. This includes Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Depp, Danny DeVito, Conchata Ferrell, Albert Finney, Carmen Filpi, Michael Gough, Pat Hingle, Jan Hooks, Rance Howard, Jeffrey Jones, O-Lan Jones, Michael Keaton, Christopher Lee, Lisa Marie, Catherine O'Hara, Michelle Pfeiffer, Vincent Price, Missi Pyle, Paul Reubens, Alan Rickman, Deep Roy, Winona Ryder, Diane Salinger, Glenn Shadix, Martin Short, Timothy Spall, Sylvia Sidney, Christopher Walken, Frank Welker, and Paul Whitehouse.

Burton also often works with certain crew members in multiple directing projects. This includes composer Danny Elfman, screenwriters Caroline Thompson, John August, and Seth Grahame-Smith, producers Denise Di Novi, Allison Abbate, and Richard D. Zanuck, costume designer Colleen Atwood, production designers Bo Welch, Alex McDowell, and Rick Heinrichs, cinematographers Philippe Rousselot and Dariusz Wolski, and editor/executive producer Chris Lebenzon.

Exhibitions[link]

"Tim Burton" at Museum of Modern Art[link]

From November 22, 2009 to April 26, 2010, Burton had a retrospective at the MoMA in New York with over 700 "drawings, paintings, photographs, storyboards, moving-image works, puppets, maquettes, costumes, and cinematic ephemera," including many from the filmmaker's personal collection.^[33][34] The show also includes amateur and student films, music videos, commercials, and digital slide shows, as well as a complete set of features and shorts.^[35]

"Tim Burton" at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI)[link]

From MoMA, the "Tim Burton" exhibition traveled directly to Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne. Running from June 24 to October 10, 2010, the ACMI exhibition will incorporate additional material from Burton's Alice in Wonderland, which was released in March.^[36]

"Tim Burton" at the TIFF Bell Lightbox[link]

The exhibition was displayed at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto, Ontario, Canada from November 26, 2010 to April 17, 2011. It was accompanied by several personal appearances by Burton as well as a retrospective of his films.

"Tim Burton" at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA)[link]

"The Art of Tim Burton" was exhibited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from May 29 to October 31, 2011 in the Museum's Resnick Pavilion.^[37] LACMA has also featured six films of Tim Burton's idol, Vincent Price, for the actor's 100th birthday during the closing weekend of the Exhibit.

"Tim Burton" at the Cinémathèque Française[link]

"Tim Burton, the exhibition/Tim Burton, l'exposition" is exhibiting at the Cinémathèque Française from March 7 to August 5, 2012 in Paris, France.^[38] All Tim Burton's movies are programmed during the exhibition.

Bibliography[link]

• Burton on Burton, edited by Mark Salisbury (1995, revised editions 2000, 2006)
• The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories (1997)
• The Art of Tim Burton, written by Leah Gallo (2009)

Filmography[link]

Year	Film	Director	Producer	Writer
1982	Vincent	Y		Y
1984	Frankenweenie	Y		Y
1985	Pee-wee's Big Adventure	Y
1988	Beetlejuice	Y
1989	Batman	Y
1990	Edward Scissorhands	Y	Y	Y
1992	Batman Returns	Y	Y
1993	The Nightmare Before Christmas		Y	Y
1994	Cabin Boy		Y
	Ed Wood	Y	Y
1995	Batman Forever		Y
1996	James and the Giant Peach		Y
	Mars Attacks!	Y	Y
1999	Sleepy Hollow	Y
2001	Planet of the Apes	Y
2003	Big Fish	Y
2005	Charlie and the Chocolate Factory	Y
	Corpse Bride	Y	Y
2007	Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street	Y
2009	9		Y
2010	Alice in Wonderland	Y
2012	Dark Shadows	Y
	Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter		Y
	Frankenweenie	Y	Y	Y

Short films[link]

• The Island of Doctor Agor (1971)
• Houdini: The Untold Story (1976)
• Stalk of the Celery Monster (1979)
• Doctor of Doom (1979)
• Luau (1982)

Animator filmography[link]

• The Lord of the Rings (1978) (uncredited)
• Stalk of the Celery Monster (1979)
• The Fox and the Hound (1981) (uncredited)
• Tron (1982) (uncredited)

Cameos and other film work[link]

• Singles (1992)
• Hoffa (1992)
• The Nightmare Before Christmas (deleted scene)
• Men in Black 3 (2012)

Art filmography[link]

• Frankenweenie (1984) (storyboard artist, uncredited)
• The Black Cauldron (1985) (conceptual artist, uncredited)

Internet shorts[link]

• The World of Stainboy (2000)

Television[link]

• Hansel and Gretel (1982) (director)
• Faerie Tale Theatre – episode Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (1989) (director)
• The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents – episode The Jar (1984) (director)
• Beetlejuice: The Animated Series (1989–1991) (executive producer)
• Family Dog (1993) (animation designer, executive producer)
• Hollywood Gum – French commercial, director (1997)
• Kung Fu and Mannequin – Timex commercials, director (2001)

Music videos[link]

• "Bones" by The Killers (2006)

See also[link]

• List of unproduced Tim Burton projects

Awards[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2011)

Emmy Award

• (1990) Won — Outstanding Animated Program / Beetlejuice

Academy Awards

• (2006) Nominated — Best Animated Feature / Corpse Bride

BAFTA Awards

• (2004) Nominated — Best Direction / Big Fish

Cannes Film Festival

• (1994) Nominated — Palme d'Or / Ed Wood

Chicago Film Critics Association Awards

• (2004) Nominated — Best Director / Big Fish

Golden Globe Awards

• (2008) Nominated — Best Director – Motion Picture / Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

National Board of Review Awards

• (2008) Won — Best Director / Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Producers Guild of America Awards

• (2006) Nominated — Animated Motion Picture / Corpse Bride
• (2008) Honored — Scream Awards: Scream Immortal Award, for his unique interpretation of horror and fantasy
• (2009) Won — Best Producer / 9

64th Venice International Film Festival

• (2007) Honored — Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement

Lacanian Psychoanalysis Prize

• (2010) Won

the Order of the Arts and Letters

• (2010) Knighted by Culture Minister of France

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Bassil-Morozow, Helena (2010): Tim Burton: The Monster and the Crowd. Routledge, London, ISBN 978-0-415-48971-3 Read Introduction at JungArena.com
• Heger, Christian (2010): Mondbeglänzte Zaubernächte. Das Kino von Tim Burton. Schüren, Marburg, ISBN 978-3-89472-554-9 Read Excerpts at Libreka.de
• Gallo, Leah (2009): The Art of Tim Burton. Steeles Publishing, Los Angeles, ISBN 978-1-935539-01-8
• Magliozzi, Ron / He, Jenny (2009): Tim Burton. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, ISBN 978-0-87070-760-5
• Lynette, Rachel (2006): Tim Burton, Filmmaker. KidHaven Press, San Diego, CA, ISBN 0-7377-3556-2
• Page, Edwin (2006): Gothic Fantasy: The Films of Tim Burton. Marion Boyars Publishers, London, ISBN 0-7145-3132-4
• Salisbury, Mark (2006): Burton on Burton. Revised Edition. Faber and Faber, London, ISBN 0-571-22926-3
• Fraga, Kristian (2005): Tim Burton – Interviews. University Press of Mississippi, Jackson, MS, ISBN 1-57806-758-8
• Odell, Colin / Le Blanc, Michelle (2005): Tim Burton. The Pocket Essentials, Harpenden 2005, ISBN 1-904048-45-5
• McMahan, Alison (2005): The Films of Tim Burton: Animating Live Action in Contemporary Hollywood. Continuum, New York, ISBN 0-8264-1566-0 Read Chapter 3 at FilmsOfTimBurton.com
• Smith, Jim / Matthews, J. Clive (2002): Tim Burton. Virgin, London, ISBN 0-7535-0682-3
• Woods, Paul A, (2002): Tim Burton: A Child's Garden of Nightmares. Plexus, London, ISBN 0-85965-310-2
• Merschmann, Helmut (2000): Tim Burton: The Life and Films of a Visionary Director (translated by Michael Kane). Titan Books, London, ISBN 1-84023-208-0
• Hanke, Ken (1999): Tim Burton: An Unauthorized Biography of the Filmmaker. Renaissance Books, Los Angeles, ISBN 1-58063-046-4