Biography

Mr. Smolan is an award-winning director whose work spans features, documentaries, television, commercials and VR films.

His critically acclaimed debut feature film "Rachel River," was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at The Sundance Film Festival and took awards for Best Cinematography and a Special Jury Prize for Actress Viveca Lindfors.

Mr. Smolan's groundbreaking virtual reality film "The Click Effect" was awarded the Lumiere Award for Best VR Documentary of The Year. Produced by Annapurna Pictures, the film was nominated for an Emmy and premiered at The Sundance and Tribeca Film Festival.

His television movies include "The Last Soldier" for HBO, the mini-series "Beach Girls" with Rob Lowe and Julia Ormond for Lifetime", "A Place To Be" and "Taking A Stand" (Emmy Award) with Betty Buckley, for which he was also nominated for Best Director. Television credits include the pilot for "Middle Ages," as well as on over 80 episodes of network and streaming series including "Brothers & Sisters," "Ally Mcbeal," "The O.C.," "Dawson's Creek," "LA LAW," and "Northern Exposure".

His documentaries include, "The Human Face of Big Data" (Jury Prize for Best Cinematography at the Boston International Film Festival, US State Department "American Film Showcase" selection, broadcast nationally on PBS and streaming on HBO Max), "12 Stones" (Jury prize for Best Short Documentary at the Tallahassee and Newport Beach Film Festivals) and "Wall of Fire" (James Beard Award).

Mr. Smolan was the associate producer of two documentaries for CBS; "The Cowboy, The Craftsman and The Ballerina" with Morley Safer and "Juilliard: A Life in Music", narrated by Charles Kuralt (Peabody Award).

He was a featured speaker at the EG Conference in Monterey, California and The INK Conference in association with TED and he has been a panelist at The Sundance, Tribeca, Cannes, Hollywood Digital and Seattle Film festivals. He is a National Academy of Sciences Science and Entertainment Exchange Fellow and was a guest professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.

Smolan is married to the actress Pamela Reed.
- IMDb mini biography by: Michael Nolan