28 Sep Dan Kleinman

American screenwriter Dan Kleinman discovered his interest in filmmaking during his senior year at Princeton University, where he was concentrating in mathematics. Accepted to graduate school in both math and film, he chose film and has never regretted it. The Applicant, a short film that he wrote and directed while a student at New York University, won the Gold Medal of the photographic Society of America, the Cine Golden Eagle, and Best narrative Short at the Melbourne (Australia) Film Festival.

As a screenwriter, Dan’s credits include the original screenplays Rage (Warner Brothers, 1972) and Welcome to Oblivion (Concorde Films, 1990). He has also written for the television series tales From the Dark Side.

Dan has taught filmmaking at two major American film schools, New York University and Columbia University, for a total of 33 years. At Columbia, He was chair of the film program from 2000-2005 and acting dean of the School of the Arts from 2005-2007. He has also been a mentor at the Sundance Screenwriting Lab.

Among Dan’s many successful former students are Patricia Riggen (director, Under the Same Moon), Ang Lee (director, crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), Jim Taylor (screenwriter, Sideways), and Keir Pearson (screenwriter, Hotel Rwanda). At Columbia, he was adviser to Sabrina Dhawan for her thesis screenplay Monsoon Wedding, which became and award-winning film directed by Mira Nair.