Dan Mirvish / Biography

A co-founder of the upstart Slamdance Film Festival, Dan Mirvish is also an active director, screenwriter and producer. Labeled a "cheerful subversive" by The New York Times, and "Hollywood's Bad Boy" by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Mirvish has been named as one of Variety's Top 50 Creatives to Watch, as well as one of Film Festival Today's Top 25 Most Influential People in Independent Film.Mirvish directed, co-wrote and produced the unique real estate musical Open House (2004), which is being distributed by The Weinstein Company. The Academy Awards literally rewrote their rules in response to Mirvish's controversial Oscar campaign to revive the dormant Original Musical category. Mirvish is the rare filmmaker who's actually made money on an Oscar campaign in a category that didn't exist, for a movie that no one had seen. The film, which stars Oscar-nominee Sally Kellerman, 'Ann Magnuson', Kellie Martin and Anthony Rapp, has won universal critical and audience acclaim at festivals such as the Hamptons, Austin and Slamdance.In order for the Academy to recognize the requisite number of films eligible for the Original Musical category, Mirvish went so far as to write, produce and shoot yet another feature musical, Half Empty (2006). Shot in ten days in Germany and France with an international cast, the film recently premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival. Meanwhile, Open House (2004) has turned into a veritable franchise, spawning a pod cast, video game and soon to be a theatrical stage show.Mentored by Robert Altman, Mirvish wrote, directed and produced his first feature Omaha (The Movie) (1995) on 35mm for $38,0000. On the heels of Slamdance, the film went on to play at over 30 other film festivals. Mirvish then self-distributed the film to 32 cities in the U.S. - including an 11-week run at Laemmle's Theaters in Los Angeles. Ironically, Robert Redford's Sundance Channel acquired the TV rights to the film which started Slamdance. Later, Mirvish found a unique way to distribute 350,000 units of the DVD by getting them stuffed into every Pioneer DVD player sold in North America.In the TV world, Mirvish recently directed the controversial comedy, A Message from the President of Iran (2006) which was broadcast on Al Gore's CurrentTV, as well as streaming on the Internet and on mobile phones around the world. His short pilots "Sheldon" and "The Few & The Proud" screened at the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival, and "Sheldon" also screened in Aspen at the HBO Comedy Arts Festival, where Dan slipped and broke his leg.Mirvish has been a consultant for Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett's FOX-TV show, "On the Lot," as well as for Fremantle Media's "American Idol," also on FOX.Last year, Mirvish directed a music video for Conor Oberst's critically acclaimed band "Bright Eyes" off its Billboard Top 20 album, "Digital Ash in a Digital Urn." Mirvish has also directed other short-form material including music videos, network television promos, and DVD-extra material, including over 2 hours of featurettes on the Weinstein's Open House (2004) DVD.Mirvish remains actively involved with Slamdance, and as "Co-Founder-at-Large," he's frequently the face of the festival as master of ceremonies and mentor to the incoming crop of filmmakers each year. Mirvish has also written feature material for Twentieth Century Fox, NuImage, Phoenician Films and Primary Pictures.Prior to getting an M.A. from USC's graduate film production program, Mirvish was a Washington-based speech writer for U.S. Senator Tom Harkin and a freelance journalist for such publications as The New York Times and The Washington Monthly. He's continued freelancing for such film magazines and books as Film Threat, Filmmaker, The Independent Film & Video Monthly, British Savvy, and Chris Gore's Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide. Mirvish wrote the introduction to Bret Stern's How to Make a Film for Under $10,000 and Not Go to Jail published by HarperCollins.Mirvish is a frequent juror, panelists and guest at various film festivals, IFP events, and national radio & TV shows. He's taught a UCLA extension class and was a contributing producer to Film Fest DVD (for which he went to Chile and got tear gassed). He's been a freelance graphic artist for NASA. Occasionally called upon to perform cameos, Mirvish appears in the feature My Big Fat Independent Movie (2005). The envy of his struggling filmmaker peers, bon vivant Mirvish is married to a pediatrician with whom he has procreated three times. A member of ASCAP, Mirvish is also DGA and SAG-eligible.