Neill Blomkamp

Neill Blomkamp ( born September 17, 1979 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a South African director of TV commercials, short films and feature films. He achieved fame as a director of the science fiction film District 9

Life

Blomkamp began with 17 years in South Africa as a professional animator in Deadtime under Simon Hansen and Sharlto Copley. In 1997 his family moved to Vancouver, Canada, where he enrolled in the Vancouver Film School. In 2003 he was commissioned to illustrate photo-realistic aircraft of the future for the popular science of the "Next Century in Aviation ". In 2004, he received an order to illustrate "The Future of the Automobile ". Blomkamp then worked as an artist for Visual Effects at The Embassy Visual Effects in Vancouver and the Rainmaker Digital Effects.

His breakthrough came in 2007 Blomkamp as director of the trilogy landfall of live-action short films that play in the Halo universe in order for the release of Halo 3 to advertise. Halo: Combat, the second film of the landfall trilogy, won the Cannes Lions 2008 - Film Lions Grand Prix. Then Blomkamp was offered the director for his first feature film, an adaptation of the video game Halo. However, its funding failed because of disagreements between Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox. Peter Jackson, the producer of the project provided Blomkamp instead of to produce District 9, an adaptation of the short film Alive in Joburg in 2005 by Spy film in which Neill Blomkamp, Sharlto Copley, Simon Hansen and Shanon Worley led the Director. In District 9 was directed by Blomkamp and Copley played the lead role; it was mid-August 2009 published and praised by the critics. Blomkamp used for his documentary style mostly handheld camera perspective, the Cinéma vérité technique and a mixture of natural and photo-realistic computer- generated effects.

Blomkamp's second feature film is called Elysium and also treated a dark sci-fi setting. Filming began in July 2011. The film was released on August 9, 2013 in theaters.

Blomkamp lives in Vancouver.

Filmography

Movies

• 2009: District 9 ( writer, director )
• 2013: Elysium ( writer, director )

Short Films

• Tetra Vaal (2005) (director, visual FX)
• Alive in Joburg (2005) (director, visual FX)
• Yellow ( 2006) (director, visual FX)
• Tempbot ( 2006) ( director)
• Halo: Landfall ( 2007) ( director)

Commercials

• Nike - Crab ( 2003) / Evolution ( 2004)
• Citroën C4 - Alive with technology (2004)
• Gatorade Rain ( 2006)

Other works

• Stargate - Kommando SG -1 ( 1998) ( 3D animator)
• First Wave ( 1998) ( 3D animator)
• Mercy Point ( 1998) ( 3D animator)
• Aftershock: Earthquake in New York ( 1999) ( 3D animator)
• Dark Angel (2000) (supervising animator)
• Art of Dying ( ehemalsSunLikeStar ) Music Video - Day Survive (2001) (director, visual FX)
• 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001) (lead 3D animator)
• Smallville ( 2001) ( 3D animator)
• BV -01 ( 2005) ( special thanks)
• Best Ever Ads 2 (2006) (as himself )
• Crossing the Line (2008 ) (additional director)

Awards

• 2004, First Boards Awards - "One of the top five directors to watch"
• 2004 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival - " Saatchi & Saatchi New Directors Showcase "
• 2004 Shark Awards ( shortlisted )
• 2005, VES awards "Outstanding VFX in a commercial" for Citroen - Alive with technology
• 2008 Cannes Lions 2008 - Film Lions Grand Prix - Halo: Combat
• 2009 Nebula Award " Best Script ( Best Screenplay ) " District 9 for (along with Terri Tatchell )
• 2010 Oscar nomination in the category " Best Adapted Screenplay " for District 9