FILMMAKERS

He is the recipient of six Emmy Awards, two Writers Guild nominations, an NAACP Image Award and one Directors Guild nomination.

His most recent directorial effort is HERBLOCK – THE BLACK & THE WHITE, the feature documentary on the life of the editorial cartoonist, Herbert Block. It had its premiere at the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival.

In 2011 he produced and directed the film adaptation of the Broadway play, THURGOOD, starring Laurence Fishburne, for HBO, which was nominated for three Emmy Awards, a SAG Award and a Directors Guild of America Award for outstanding direction.

For the last seven years, he has co-produced and co-written the KENNEDY CENTER HONORS, propelling the HONORS to Emmy Nominations in 2007 and 2008, and Emmy Awards in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 for Outstanding Primetime Special.

The recording project that he produced, BETTYE LAVETTE: THE BRITISH ROCK SONGBOOK was nominated for Outstanding Contemporary Blues album in 2011.

In 2009 he wrote and produced WE ARE ONE: THE OBAMA INAUGURAL CELEBRATION (HBO) before an audience of 600,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial. He was awarded an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Special.

His most recent fiction feature film is SIN – a modern-day western set in Reno that stars Gary Oldman and Ving Rhames. It was sold to Columbia Pictures/ Screen Gems at the Sundance Film Festival.

His other feature film credits include BAD CITY BLUES (Dennis Hopper, Michael Massee, Michael McGrady), which he produced and directed and had its premiere at the AFI International Film Festival – and THE THIN RED LINE, where he worked for Terry Malick as associate producer on the film nominated for seven Academy Awards.

Michael Stevens' television producing credits include CHRISTMAS IN WASHINGTON for the past 20 years (NBC/TNT) and THE AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE SALUTES. . . from 1993-’98 (ABC/CBS/NBC), which was nominated for an Emmy in 1995. His first production in 1993, THE GREAT ONES: THE NATIONAL SPORTS AWARDS (NBC), was also nominated for an Emmy. For the past ten years, he has also directed the multi-camera production of CHRISTMAS IN WASHINGTON.

In 1999 he produced Steven Spielberg’s film history of the 20th century, THE UNFINISHED JOURNEY with an original score by John Williams. It had its premiere on the CBS broadcast of AMERICA’S MILLENNIUM, the three-hour live television special which he produced with Quincy Jones for the President and First Lady on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before an audience of 350,000.

Mr. Stevens was born and raised in Washington, DC, graduated from Duke University (B.A. ’89 English Literature and Political Science) and now lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Alexandra, son, John Cooper, and daughter, Lily.

GEORGE STEVENS, JR. has achieved an extraordinary creative legacy over a career spanning almost 50 years. He is a writer, director, producer, playwright and author. He has enriched the film and television arts as a filmmaker and is widely credited with bringing style and taste to the national television events he has conceived, including The Kennedy Center Honors, which took place for the 35th time in 2012.

Stevens has earned many accolades, including fifteen Emmys, two Peabody Awards for Meritorious Service to Broadcasting, the Humanitas Prize and eight awards from the Writers Guild of America, including the Paul Selvin Award for writing that embodies civil rights and liberties. In 2012 the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voted to present Stevens with an Honorary Academy Award for “extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement.”

Stevens serves as Co-chairman of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities following his appointment by President Obama in 2009.

Stevens is founder of the American Film Institute and during his tenure, more than 10,000 irreplaceable American films were preserved and catalogued to be enjoyed by future generations. In addition, he established the AFI’s Center for Advanced Film Studies, which gained a reputation as the finest learning opportunity for young filmmakers.

Stevens made his debut as a playwright in 2008 with Thurgood, which opened at the historic Booth Theater on Broadway. The play had an extended run starring Laurence Fishburne as Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall. Fishburne received a Tony nomination and returned to the role in the summer of 2010 with runs at the Kennedy Center and the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles. Thurgood was filmed while at the Kennedy Center and shown on HBO in 2011.

Stevens was executive producer of The Thin Red Line, which was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. He co-wrote and produced The Murder of Mary Phagan, starring Jack Lemmon, which received the Emmy for Outstanding Mini-Series. He wrote and directed Separate But Equal starring Sidney Poitier and Burt Lancaster which also won the Emmy for Outstanding Mini-Series. Stevens won two Emmys for the 1994 documentary, George Stevens: D-Day to Berlin, which depicted the wartime experiences of his father – one of the most highly regarded directors of all time. He produced an acclaimed feature length film about his father, George Stevens: A Filmmaker’s Journey.

In 2006, Alfred A. Knopf published Stevens’ Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood’s Golden Age – the first book to bring together the interviews of master moviemakers from the American Film Institute’s renowned Harold Lloyd Master Seminar Series. Conversations with the Great Moviemakers – The Next Generation was released by Knopf in April, 2012.

Stevens, in collaboration with his son and partner Michael Stevens, recently completed a feature length documentary Herblock – The Black & The White on the famed political cartoonist Herbert Block.