Fred Zinnermann

Filmmakers

Alfred Zinnemann (April 29, 1907 – March 14, 1997) was an Austrian-born American film director. He won four Academy Awards for directing films in various genres, including thrillers, westerns, film noir and play adaptations. He made 25 feature films during his 50-year career. He was among the first directors to insist on using authentic locations and for mixing stars with civilians to give his films more realism. Within the film industry, he was considered a maverick for taking risks and thereby creating unique films, with many of his stories being dramas about lone and principled individuals tested by tragic events. According to one historian, Zinnemann’s style demonstrated his sense of “psychological realism and his apparent determination to make worthwhile pictures that are nevertheless highly entertaining.”

Among his films were The Search (1947), The Men (1950), with Marlon Brando, Teresa Wright, and Everett Sloane; High Noon (1952), with Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, and Lloyd Bridges; From Here to Eternity (1953), Oklahoma! (1955), The Nun’s Story (1959), with Audrey Hepburn; A Man For All Seasons (1966), with Paul Scofield, Wendy Hiller, Leo McKern, Orson Welles, Robert Shaw, Susannah York, and John Hurt; The Day of the Jackal (1973), and Julia (1977), with Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards, Hal Holbrook, Rosemary Murphy, Maximilian Schell and Meryl Streep.

His films have received 65 Oscar nominations, winning 24. He directed and introduced a number of stars in their U.S. film debuts, including Marlon Brando, Rod Steiger, Pier Angeli, Julie Harris, Brandon deWilde, Montgomery Clift, Shirley Jones and Streep. He directed 19 actors to Oscar nominations, including Frank Sinatra, Montgomery Clift, Hepburn, Glynis Johns, Scofield, Shaw, Wendy Hiller, Jason Robards, Vanessa Redgrave, Fonda, Cooper and Maximilian Schell.

Each review will be linked to the title below.

(*seen originally in theaters)

(**seen rereleased in theaters)

  • Redes Redes (aka The Wave) (1936) – co-director
  • Friends Indeed (1937) – short
  • That Mothers Might Live (1938) – short
  • The Story of Doctor Carver (1938) – short
  • Tracking the Sleeping Death (1938) – short
  • They Live Again (1938) – short
  • Weather Wizards (1939) – short
  • While America Sleeps (1939) – short
  • Help Wanted (1939) – short
  • One Against the World (1939 – short
  • The Ash Can Fleet (1939) – short
  • Forgotten Victory (1939) – short
  • Stuffie (1940) – short
  • The Great Meddler (1940) – short
  • The Old South (1940) – short
  • A Way in the Wilderness (1940) – short
  • Forbidden Passage (1941) – short
  • Your Last Act (1941) – short
  • The Greenie (1942) – short
  • The Lady of the Tiger? (1942) – short
  • Kid Glove Killer (1942)
  • Eyes in the Night (1942)
  • The Seventh Cross (1944)
  • The Clock (1945) – uncredited, replaced by Vincente Minnelli
  • Little Mister Jim (1946)
  • My Brother Talks to Horses (1947)
  • The Search (1948)
  • Act of Violence (1949)
  • The Men (1950)
  • Teresa (1951)
  • Benjy (1951) – short
  • High Noon (1952)
  • The Member of the Wedding (1952)
  • From Here to Eternity (1953)
  • Oklahoma! (1955)
  • A Hatful of Rain (1957)
  • The Old Man and the Sea (1959) – uncredited, replaced by John Sturges
  • The Nun’s Story (1959)
  • The Sundowners (1960)
  • Behold a Pale Horse (1964)
  • A Man For All Seasons (1966)
  • The Day of the Jackal (1973)
  • Julia (1977)
  • Five Days One Summer (1982)