Adam Wingard Biography

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Adam Wingard (born December 3, 1982) is an American film director, editor, cinematographer, and writer.

Life and career

Wingard was born in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and graduated from Full Sail University in 2002. His first feature, the horror comedy Home Sick, starring Bill Moseley and Tiffany Shepis, proved to be a stepping stone to his second feature, the psychotropic ghost story horror film Pop Skull. Made on a total budget of $2,000, Pop Skull had its international premiere at the Rome Film Festival and its domestic premiere at the AFI Film Festival in 2007. A Horrible Way to Die (2010) and What Fun We Were Having (2011) followed.

The serial killer love story horror film A Horrible Way to Die premiered at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival in the "?Vanguard"? section and was acquired by Starz/Anchor Bay at the festival for a North American theatrical and home media release. What Fun We Were Having is a 4-part anthology dealing with the taboo subject of date rape. The anthology had its premiere at the 2011 Fantastia Film Festival in Montreal where Wingard was honored by the festival with his very own sidebar section: "Medicated Monsters - A Spotlight on Filmmaker Adam Wingard"?.

In 2011, Wingard co-directed Autoerotic with mumblecore icon (and frequent actor in Wingard films) Joe Swanberg. He was selected to direct one chapter of The ABCs of Death, a 26-chapter horror comedy anthology for Drafthouse Films and Magnet. A recent solo directorial effort, You're Next, a home invasion slasher, premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival as part of the "?Midnight Madness"? section. The film was acquired by Lionsgate, and received a wide release in August 2013 to favorable reviews.

His most recent film, The Guest starring Dan Stevens, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival, and Fantastic Fest and has received critical acclaim upon its wider theatrical release in mid-September. In February 2015 Lionsgate confirmed Wingard will direct the horror film Blair Witch, based on a script by Simon Barrett and a sequel to the 1999 found footage horror classic, The Blair Witch Project.

More recently, Adam Wingard has signed on to direct an upcoming live-action American film adaptation of Takeshi Obata's popular manga series Death Note.

All of Adam Wingard's films are given a contemporary backdrop, briefly alluding to current events and attitudes prevalent in the social zeitgeist of the 2010s, as well as trends in pop culture. For example, The Guest references the ongoing war in Afghanistan, while You're Next alludes through one of its characters to the 2010s hipster subculture as well as through another character to popular skepticism of the defense industry.

Critical acclaim

Wingard's film Pop Skull won the Best Feature Film award at the Indianapolis International Film Festival and the Jury award at the Boston Underground Film Festival.

Wingard's A Horrible Way to Die won Best Screenplay (Simon Barrett), Best Actor (A.J. Bowen) and Best Actress (Amy Seimetz) at the 2010 Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.

Wingard's You're Next won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (Simon Barrett), and Best Actress (Sharni Vinson) at the 2011 Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas.

Filmography

As director

Year	Title	Notes
2004	The Little One	Short film
2005	The Girlfriend	Short film
2007	Home Sick
	1000 Year Sleep	Short film
	Pop Skull	Also actor, writer and producer
2008	Laura Panic	Short film
	Paradox Mary	Short film
	Little Sister Gone	Short film
2009	Her Name is Laura Panic	Short film
2010	A Horrible Way to Die
2011	Autoerotic	Co-directed with Joe Swanberg, also writer and actor
	You're Next
	60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero
	What Fun We Were Having	Also writer
2012	V/H/S	"Tape 56" segment (also actor)
	The ABCs of Death	"Q is for Quack" segment (also actor)
2013	V/H/S/2	"Phase I Clinical Trials" segment (also actor and executive producer)
2014	The Guest
2016	Outcast	Episode: "A Darkness Surrounds Him"
	Blair Witch	Completed
TBA	Death Note	Filming, adaptation of the 2003 manga
	I Saw the Devil	Remake of the 2010 film