Real Genius

Martha Coolidge (born August 17, 1946) is an American film director and former President of the Directors Guild of America.

Born in New Haven, Connecticut, Ms. Coolidge first made her reputation by directing many award winning documentaries in New York before moving out to Hollywood in 1976. She spent several years as a part of the Zoetrope Studio created by Francis Coppola. Her breakthrough film in Hollywood was the independently produced Valley Girl (1983). In that film she launched the career of Nicolas Cage. Her film Rambling Rose (1991) won three IFP Independent Spirit Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actress for Diane Ladd, and earned Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for Ms. Ladd and Laura Dern (Best Actress). Rambling Rose was universally well reviewed and made virtually all the top ten lists for the year. Despite a limited release hampered by economic problems suffered by the production company the film played for months without advertising and earned many honors. In 1992, she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry. Ms. Coolidge’s Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999) for HBO was nominated for numerous Emmy Awards, winning five including Best Actress for Halle Berry and earned Ms. Coolidge a nomination for Best Director for an Emmy and from the DGA (Director’s Guild of America). Halle Berry won the Best Actress Golden Globe, Screen Actor’s Guild Best Actress Award and the NAACP Best Actress Award and Entertainer of the Year for her portrayal of Dorothy Dandridge the first African American Actress to be nominated for an Oscar. Ms. Berry went on to later earn the first Oscar for Best Actress ever won by an African American.

Ms. Coolidge has enjoyed a diverse career including independent films, TV movies and television series. She also served on the board of the Directors Guild of America, the Academy of Motion Pictures and the American Film Institute among others.

Ms. Coolidge studied illustration at Rhode Island School of Design changing that to become the first Film major of the school. She earned her MFA from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and helped found the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers and the IFP in New York. She is a grand daughter of Arthur W. Coolidge former Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts and cousin of President Calvin Coolidge. —Wikipedia