Daniel Joseph Borgman (born 9 August 1981) is a New Zealand film director.

Daniel Joseph Borgman
Born1981
Dunedin, New Zealand
NationalityNew Zealander
OccupationFilm director
Years active2007 - present

Education

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Borgman attended Bayfield High School.[1] Borgman studied film science at Otago University in New Zealand, before moving to Copenhagen where he worked in post production, first as an assistant and later as a colorist and visual effects artist. In 2009 he started studying at the Danish film school Super16, his graduation project in 2012 being an experimental live film / theatre / happening entitled How to Say Goodbye.

Career

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Borgman's first short The Man & the Albatross (2007) premièred in the Leopards of Tomorrow competition at the Locarno International Film Festival.[2][3] His second short film, Lars and Peter (2009), that captures the difficult emotions of a young boy and his relationship to his father in the face of great loss, was in the Official Selection in the short film competition at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for a Robert Award, the Danish Film Academy's national film prize.[4][5]

In 2009 Borgman completed production of three more short films, Behaviour, Kaleidoscope and Berik. Berik is about a severely disabled man, blind and deformed due to radiation poisoning, who lives a lonely life in eastern Kazakhstan until the 11-year-old Adil one day lose his football and knocks on Berik's door to get his help to find it. Berik won the Canal+ Grand Prix in 49th Semaine de la Critique's short film section at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival,[6][7][8] and Best European Short Film at Flanders International Film Festival Ghent in 2010, the latter meriting the film a nomination for Best Short Film at the 24th European Film Awards in 2011.[9][10] The 2011 short drama Brainy, a 30-minute novel film made with funding from The Danish Film Institute's New Danish Screen scheme, was about the 10-year-old Brian, an imaginative boy who deals with the loss of his grandfather by constructing a fantasy world.[11]

With a grant from Cinéfondation, Borgman spend five months in Paris writing his début feature film project, The Weight of Elephants (2013). An adaption of Australian author Sonya Hartnett's book Of a Boy, the film is a coming of age drama about 14-year-old Jess, a local paper boy, whose life is flipped upside down when a horrific murder happens in the street where he delivers newspapers.[12][13][14] The Zentropa-produced film was screened at Riga International Film Festival, Beijing International Film Festival, Saint-Quentin Ciné-Jeune Film Festival, Paris Cine Junior, Göteborg International Film Festival, and won the Youth Jury Award for Best Picture at the 2013 Vlissingen, Film by the Sea Festival, and the Oecumenical Prize at the 2013 Kyiv Molodist International Film Festival. It was selected for the Forum at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.[15][16]

Filmography

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Work Year Credit Notes
The Weight of Elephants 2013 Direction Feature
How to Say Goodbye 2012 Direction Short fiction
Brainy 2011 Direction Short fiction
The Woman Who Dreamt of a Man 2010 Grading Feature
Freedom on Parole 2010 Grading Feature
Sky 2010 Colorist Short fiction
Berik 2010 Direction Short fiction
When Heaven Falls 2009 Digital grading Feature
Winnie and Karina 2009 Colorgrading Feature
The Coach 2009 Grading Short fiction
The Red Chapel 2009 Grading Documentary
Lars and Peter 2009 Direction Short fiction
Behaviour 2009 Direction Short fiction
Flame & Citron 2008 Conforming Feature
Young Man Falling 2008 Compositing Short fiction
What No One Knows 2008 Compositing Feature
The Cliffwood 2007 Compositing Documentary
Manden og mågen 2007 Direction Short fiction
Terapi 2006 Visual effects Short fiction

References

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  1. ^ Porteous, Debbie (2 May 2009). "Ex-Bayfield pupil shocked as film picked for Cannes". Otago Daily Times. Archived from the original on 8 May 2021. Retrieved 14 November 2023.
  2. ^ Diario de Navarra (19 October 2013). "Nueve directores debutan en la Seminci de Valladolid". diariodenavarra.es. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  3. ^ "Festival de Cannes — From 15th to 26th May 2013". Archived from the original on 4 February 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  4. ^ "Cannes : les films de l'édition 2009". Le Monde. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  5. ^ "Struggling to Deal with Life". Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  6. ^ "Kiwi filmmaker wins big at Cannes". Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  7. ^ "Cinefondation Atelier: 400 sessions for 15 projects". Festival de Cannes. Archived from the original on 4 February 2015. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  8. ^ "'Armadillo' wins Critics' Week Grand Prix". Variety. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  9. ^ "When We Live takes Ghent prize". Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  10. ^ "14 Danish EFA nominations". Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  11. ^ "Brainy". Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  12. ^ "New Zealand, Denmark co-produce Borgman's debut feature". Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  13. ^ "Zentropa-familien har fået et nyt lovende medlem". Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  14. ^ David Rooney. "The Weight of Elephants: Berlin Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  15. ^ "Berlinale — Archive — Annual Archives - 2013 - Programme — The Weight of Elephants — Das Gewicht der Elefanten". Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  16. ^ "The Weight of Elephants". Retrieved 4 February 2015.
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