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Steven Cantor
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Steven Cantor

Writer/Producer/Director, Steven Cantor is a graduate of the USC School of Cinema-Television and a partner in Stick Figure Productions. He received a 1994 Academy Award Nomination for his first documentary, Blood Ties: The Life and Work of Sally Mann, about the controversial photographer, and a 1997 National Emmy Award for a NBA Stay-In-School commercial.

Prior to film school, Steven was a commercial and music video director and a segment producer for MTV's top-rated show, House of Style, with Cindy Crawford. At USC, Steven wrote and produced a 12-minute sci-fi special effects short, Recon, starring Peter Gabriel (in his acting debut), Charles Durning, and Elizabeth Pena. He also wrote a feature-length version, which was purchased, along with the short, by Miramax in 1998.

He has since directed numerous commercials and music videos including the award winning Look Better Naked campaign for David Barton Gym and the video for Lisa Loeb's song All Day released on Interscope Records' soundtrack for The Rugrats Movie which reached number 7 on VH-1's top ten list. In addition, he has produced and directed education promotional films for Teach For America, LEARN and Camp Ronald McDonald For Good Times.

Last year, he produced and directed a feature length documentary, Bounce: Behind The Velvet Rope, which takes a humorous look at the world of nightclub bouncers. The film had its world premiere at the 2000 Los Angeles Independent Film Festival where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature Film. The film will be theatrically released this summer by Artistc License Films with a subsequent exhibition on Showtime.

Steven recently produced and co-directed (with his sister) a special for Bravo called The Green Room, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of theatrical productions. He is currently producing and directing Crossover, a special for the Independent Film Channel about musicians who make the transition to film acting, and is also producing the feature length documentary, Devil's Playground, an HBO/Channel Four/Winstar co-production about the rebellious tendencies of Amish youth, which was recently awarded the $50,000 Grand Prize of the Sony/AFI DVCAM Fest. This summer he will begin producing and directing Willie Nelson: Still is Still Moving a PBS American Masters piece about the legendary singer.

In the feature world, Steven just completed his first film as a writer-director, a mock documentary called Endsville. The ensemble comedy, about a hapless doomsday cult, stars Kyle Secor, Alan Ruck, Laraine Newman, David Moscow, Jim Gaffigan, Judd Nelson, William Fichtner and Debbie Matenopoulos and features an already popular website at www.Endsville.com.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2003.

Steven Cantor Facts

OccupationDirector, Writer, Producer

Selected Filmography

Not available.