Marc Forster

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Marc Forster 6'2" (born 1969 in Ulm, Germany) is a Swiss film director and screenwriter.

He was born the son of a Swiss doctor and a German architect and grew up in Davos, a winter resort in eastern Switzerland. Although he was born in Germany, he considers himself Swiss. The first film he saw in a cinema was Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola, only when he was 12. But he was so excited about it, that from that time on he didn't hesitate when asked about his dream job: "Director".

In 1990, when he was 20 years old, Forster moved to New York. For the next three years, he attended New York University's film school, making several documentary films. In 1995, he moved to Hollywood and shot an experimental low budget film ($10,000) called Loungers, which won the Slamdance Audience Award. Forster's first motion picture was the psychological drama Everything Put Together, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

The drama Monster's Ball (2001) was his breakthrough as a director. Halle Berry won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in this film. His next film, Finding Neverland (2004), was nominated for five Golden Globe Awards and was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Actor in a Leading Role (Johnny Depp).

His next film, a thriller called Stay, was released in October 2005 and was mostly poorly received by critics.^[1]

His latest film is Stranger Than Fiction, a surreal comedic romance starring Will Ferrell.

Currently, he is post-production on The Kite Runner.

Marc Forster is, together with Renée Zellweger, taking part in the 2005 HIV prevention campaign of the Swiss federal health department. He's shown smiling and making the V sign with his hand and the text "Don't take semen or blood into the mouth" and "Penetrate only with preservatives". (see http://www.lovelife.ch/stopaids.php, "English" --> "Campaign")