Floria Sigismondi

Sigismondi was born in Pescara, Abruzzo, Italy. Her parents, Lina and Domenico Sigismondi, were opera singers. Her family, including her sister Antonella, moved to Hamilton, Ontario, Canada^[1] when she was two. Starting in 1990, she studied painting and illustration at the Ontario College of Art, today's Ontario College of Art & Design University (OCADU).^{[citation needed]}

Sigismondi started a career as a fashion photographer. She came to directing music videos when she was approached by the production company The Revolver Film Co., and directed music videos for a number of Canadian bands.^{[citation needed]} Her innovative, but also disturbing video works, located in sceneries she once described as "entropic underworlds inhabited by tortured souls and omnipotent beings,"^{[citation needed]} attracted a number of very prominent musicians. She has further described her works as, "Something quite textural and brutal" and something quite beautiful and light. It's like blending two worlds."^[2]

With her photography and sculpture installations she had solo exhibitions in Hamilton and Toronto, New York City, Brescia (Italy), Gothenburg (Sweden), and London.^{[citation needed]} Her photographs also were included in group exhibitions, together with artists Cindy Sherman, Joel-Peter Witkin, and Francesco Clemente.^{[citation needed]} The German art press Die Gestalten Verlag has published two monographs of her photography, Redemption (1999) and Immune (2005). Sigismondi also creates her own set props for various music video productions such as, Perfume Genius's "Die 4 U". "If I don't create them myself, I design or draw them, I can get quite tactile detailed as far as what I see."^[2] She has an affinity for strange yet alluring things and created a flesh-esque chair to appeal to the sexual tension and desire to the spectator.^[2]

Sigismondi's first feature-length film was The Runaways, a period piece about the 1970s all-girl rock and roll band The Runaways. The film is largely about the relationship between Joan Jett and Cherie Currie. Sigismondi wrote the screenplay based on Currie's book Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway. The film premiered in 2010 at the Sundance Film Festival and was released in Canada and the United States in March 2010.^{[citation needed]}

In 2020, Sigismondi directed the horror film The Turning, which was inspired by the 1898 Henry James novella The Turn of the Screw, and stars Mackenzie Davis and Finn Wolfhard.^[3]

Short film

• Postmortem Bliss (2006)
• Leaning Towards Solace (2012)

Feature film

• The Runaways (2010)
• The Turning (2020)
• The Silence of Mercy (TBA)

Television

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

Director

Cinematographer

• 2000 "4 Ton Mantis", Amon Tobin

• 1997 MTV Music Video Awards, USA - Nomination for Best Rock Video: "Beautiful People" (Marilyn Manson)
• 1998 British Music Video Awards, UK - Nomination for Best Video: "Little Wonder" (David Bowie)
• 1999 German Kodak Photobook Award, for her book Redemption
• 2003 MTV European Awards - Best International Video Award, for Untitled (Sigur Rós)
• 2003 New York Underground Film Festival - Audio/Visual Award, for Untitled (Sigur Rós)
• 2003 Advertising and Design Awards, Toronto, Ontario, Canada - Special Merit Award for Music Video, for "Fighter" (Christina Aguilera)
• 2004 Juno Awards, Canada - Best Music Video, for "Fighter" (Christina Aguilera)
• 2013 MTV Music Video Award, USA - Winner for Video of The Year, for Mirrors (Justin Timberlake)
• 2024 UK Music Video Awards - Icon Award