

Steven Soderbergh is one of the pioneers of the independent cinema movement. He made his breakthrough as a director with the independent drama film ‘Sex, Lies and Videotape’ (1989) for which he won the prestigious ‘Palme d`Or’ at the ‘Cannes Film Festival.’ He has worked in a number of genres, but his niche centers largely on crime, psychological, and heist thrillers.
His high rated directional credits include ‘King of The Hill’ (1993), ‘Out of Sight’ (1998), ‘The Limey’ (1999), and ‘And Everything is Going Fine’ (2010). His crime drama film Traffic (2000) won him the 'Academy Award for Best Director.'
He has appeared as himself in ‘Walking Life’ (2001) and ‘Side by Side’ (2012). He has also produced several films of which ‘The Jacket’ (2005) and ‘Rumor Has It’ (2005) did not do well at the box office.
Soderbergh was executive producer for television shows like ‘The Kink’ (2014 – 2015) and ‘Red Oaks’ (2014 – 2017) that received positive reviews.
He appeared as a guest on the show ‘Charlie Rose’ (2014) and directed the psychological drama television series ‘Mosaic’ (2018).
Immediately after release on parole, charismatic thief Danny Ocean gathers a team of eleven specialist criminals and devises a sophisticated plan for the biggest casino heist in history. However, midway through the arrangements, it is revealed that his ex-wife, Tess, is the girlfriend of the target, Terry Benedict, owner of all the three casinos.
The movie explores America’s drug fight through four stories. The US drug czar discovers that his own daughter is an addict. The wife of a drug lord discovers her husband’s true profession and tries to protect it. A witness familiar with her husband’s activities is protected by two DEA agents. A committed cop begins to doubt his superior’s true motives in drug war.
Eva is a travel writer and publisher, who gives up her freedom and her lifestyle and decides to start a family. She soon gets pregnant although she doesn’t enjoy it. Soon, she gives birth to a baby boy named Kevin, but she is unable to bond with him, and he soon grows up to be a sociopath.
David, who enjoys 1950s TV shows, and Jennifer, who is his opposite in many ways, receive a magical remote control which mysteriously transports them to ‘Pleasantville,’ a simple place from 1950s black-n-white sitcom, with simple-minded people and perfect things. The twin siblings from the real world help add some wonderful colors to the drab lives of the ‘Pleasantville’ people.
In this critically acclaimed historical drama, CBS broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow works to expose the U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy and his fear mongering crusade to root out Communists in America. He is ably supported in his endeavour by his producer friend Fred W. Friendly and his team who, regardless of pressures from CBS' corporate sponsors, work to bring down McCarthy.
The life of a suburban housewife in 1950s America is turned upside down when the police detain her husband for visiting gay bars. She catches him in the embrace of another man soon enough. Her new friendship with a black man becomes town gossip as she questions her new realities.
Based on the true story of the eponymous Erin Brockovich, this biographical drama centres around a struggling single mother and legal assistant who unearths a water supply poisoning scandal covered up by a California power company and ends up winning one of the largest class-action lawsuits in American history. Julia Roberts won an Oscar for her titular role in this film.
Michael Clayton works for a New York law firm and is their fixer in any messy situation. However, his financial situation is bad; he owes a huge sum to loan shark and his future in the company, undergoing a merger, is uncertain. To get a loan, he has to fix a situation wherein one of the firm's top attorney dealing with a complicated case has turned a whistle-blower.
LAPD detectives Will Dormer and Hap Eckhart come to Nightmute, Alaska, to assist in the investigations of the murder of a 17-year-old teenage girl, but while trying to entrap prime suspect Walter Finch, Dormer accidentally shoots Eckhart. With young local detective Ellie Burr investigating Eckhart's death, insomniac Dormer becomes an easy pawn in Finch's psychological game.
Sex, Lies and Videotape is an American drama film which tells the story of a wife who is sexually repressed, as her husband is having an affair with her own sister. However, things take a turn after the arrival of a visitor.
This is the first part of biopic on the life of Marxist revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara. An Argentinian doctor, Che joins Cuban exile Fidel Castro and his rebels in mid-1950s and turns a global revolutionary. After signing Castro’s campaign in 1956, he and the rebels reach Cuba, gather support of local peasant population, and after a guerrilla war, topple Batista’s dictatorial regime.
The Report is a historical drama thriller film which revolves around FBI agent Daniel Jones, who performs investigation into the use of torture on suspected terrorists by the CIA. This soon leads him to shocking secrets.
A depressed Emily Taylor is prescribed an experimental drug by her psychiatrist, Jonathan Banks; however the drug makes Emily sleepwalk as a side effect. Once while sleepwalking, she kills her husband and is consequently sent to a psychiatric hospital. Jonathan’s reputation is hit too but he figures out that Emily is not what she pretends to be and there is an insidious conspiracy at play.
Jack Starks, a Gulf War veteran suffering from amnesia, returns to Vermont, where he is blamed for a policeman’s death. Sent to a mental asylum, he is subjected to experimental treatment by Dr. Becker, who puts him in a straitjacket-like device and locks in a morgue drawer. Starks experiences visions of his future, and approaching death. So, what’s in store for him?
Laid off from his tunnel construction job under the Charlotte Motor Speedway, Jimmy Logan teams up with his war veteran brother Clyde, who has lost his lower arm in Iraq, to rob the Speedway. For help, they enlist their hairstylist sister Mellie, safe-cracker Joe Bang, now in jail, and Joe's dimwitted brothers, Sam and Fish. But very soon a mix up forces them to put off the operation.
Based on an unauthorized autobiography by the famous television personality, Chuck Barris, the story begins with Barris dreaming of becoming a successful showbiz personality and also of winning the hearts of beautiful women. While struggling to make his dreams come true, he is recruited as a CIA assassin and travels on duty across the world. But what happens to his original dreams?
The Limey follows Wilson, a tough English ex-convict who travels to Los Angeles to avenge the death of his daughter. Upon arrival, he is forced to fight against some of the toughest criminals in Los Angeles, and he also tries to find information regarding his daughter’s death.
Jack Foley, a bank robber, breaks out of jail along with a friend, and ends up kidnapping Federal Marshal Karen Sisco, who happens to witness their escape. But the mutual attraction, which develops as they both travel in the same car-trunk, doesn’t deter Sisco from hunting him as he plots his final big job. Can she bring herself up to arrest him?
I’m Not There is a 2007 musical drama film, in which six diverse characters inspired by the life and music of Bob Dylan, portray different aspects of his life.
Kafka is a clerk working for an insurance company, who is drawn into a strange world of mystery and danger when a close friend and colleague disappears all of a sudden. Eventually, this event leads him to discover a mysterious and underground society, having strange objectives.
In this final film in the Ocean's trilogy, Danny Ocean and his team set out to bring down hotelier and casino owner Willy Bank after the latter betrayed Reuben Tishkoff. His audacious plan, if successful, will lead to the failure of Bank’s new casino on its opening day itself.
The geopolitical thriller revolves around petroleum politics and the influence of the oil industry worldwide. With interconnected storylines, the movie focuses on Bennett Holiday, an American lawyer, facilitating a deceitful merger, Bryan Woodman, an energy analyst and veteran CIA agent Bob Barnes, who uncovers an assassination plot.
This biographical drama film, revolves around the life of Ernesto Guevara, popularly known as Che, who leads a small partisan army to fight an ill-fated revolutionary guerilla war in Bolivia, South America.
When Beth Emhoff and her son Clark die because of unknown causes, it is just the beginning of deadly infection. It soon spreads and turns into a pandemic. As people panic, medical researchers and public health officials around the world continuously try to determine the cause of the disease and its cure.
Following the success Ocean’s Eleven, the sequel Ocean’s Twelve sees the return of Danny Ocean’s heist-gang who need to return the millions, they stole from Terry Benedict. They are also being pursued by Europol detective Isabel Lahiri and are up against master-thief Night Fox, François Toulour as they try to steal the first-ever stock certificate.
Rising Archer Daniels Midland's executive, Mark Whitacre, decides to spy on his own company for their price-fixing tactics. Working with the FBI he gains enough evidence but struggles with his bipolar disorder. As the movie progresses it is revealed that Mark also embezzled money from his own company and ends up in jail.
After being repeatedly stalked by a pursuer and often imagining others as the stalker, Sawyer Valentini decides to consult mental health personnel. She involuntarily admits herself in a mental facility where her sanity is questioned, consequently extending her stay. Then she realizes that one of the staffers is the stalker in disguise. Now she must fight to prove her sanity…..and, get out alive.
Solitary Man is a romantic drama film which tells the story a successful car magnate who finds his life falling apart, due to some mishaps in his personal as well as his professional life.
Cosimo is a petty thief who gets a perfect heist plan from his cellmate. However, he is unable to carry it out due to him being in prison. He therefore asks his girlfriend to find his replacement so that his plan can be executed.
Criminal is a comedy crime drama film which revolves around Rodrigo and Richard, two con-artists, who try to swindle a currency collector by selling him a counterfeit copy of a very rare currency bill.
Ellen and her husband Joe are on a boat trip, but due to an accident, Joe and many others end up drowning. Ellen tries to get compensation for the death of Joe, from the boating company, but she is unable to. She smells a fraud, and starts investigating, which leads her to a pair of lawyers, who is exploiting the financial system.
Based on Stanisław Lem’s sci-fi novel, the movie follows psychologist. Dr. Chris Kelvi,n who goes on a solo mission to bring back home the crew of a space station orbiting the planet Solaris. But once abroad, strange phenomenon and behavior of the crew start affecting Kelvin as well as he realizes nothing is what it seems.
Nightwatch is a horror thriller film which tells the story of a law student named Martin who takes up a job as a night watchman in a hospital morgue. However, he soon starts discovering clues that can point to him as a suspect in a series of murders. He tries to discover clues that can lead him to the real culprit.
Michael Chambers is a gambling addict who returns to Texas for the wedding of his mother. He soon starts having an affair with his ex-wife Rachel, who is now dating a thug named Dundee. When Dundee discovers this, Chambers is forced to become part of a heist.
Mike is the star stripper at Xquisite Strip Club in Tampa but also does odd-jobs in the morning to save up enough to start his own business. When he takes young upstart Adam under his wing he also starts falling for Adam’s sister Brooke. However, Adam’s reckless actions soon threaten Mike’s lifestyle and romance.
The Good German is a mystery thriller film which tells the story of a journalist who is in Berlin shortly after the Second World War to cover the Potsdam Conference. He soon gets involved in a murder investigation which involves his former lover and driver.
Just before the winter vacations begin, a young girl asks one of her male classmates for a lift home. They begin their trip and start knowing each other on the way. However, a reckless motorist drives them off the road, and they find themselves stranded in the snow on the remote highway. The night grows colder and things turn worse as the two find themselves facing ghostly apparitions.
MMA Black Ops operative, Mallory Kane, is sent on a mission to Dublin where she is deceived and left for dead by someone from her agency whom she knew well. In order to survive, she needs to find the facts behind the betrayal. Hounded by skilled assassins, she has to employ all the tricks of her training to outwit her killers.
A sequel to Magic Mike, the film features retired stripper Mike Lane, who meets old friends, the Kings of Tampa, after three years. Mike decides to join the troupe as they travel for one last performance at a stripping convention at Myrtle Beach. On the way as they stop at Jacksonville and Savannah, Mike revives old memories and enjoys some special moments.
Recently engaged journalist, Sarah Huttinger, visits her Pasadena family with her fiancé, Jeff Daly, for her sister’s wedding. She learns that probably the book and film The Graduate were based on her family and her father may not be her biological parent. For an answer, she must meet the man concerned, Beau Burroughs, now an internet tycoon, who could be her real father.
Full Frontal is a comedy drama film which revolves around a group of men and women in Hollywood who are trying to sort out their complicated lives.
The film follows a young man who moves through a dreamscape, travels around various situations, and meets several people as he tries to find difference between wakefulness and dream-state. In his surreal experience, the characters he meets give their inputs – some add a sentence of wisdom while some talk at length about meaning and philosophies of life, and also, what is reality.
In a near-future America where one-fifth of the population is addicted to the drain damaging drug, Substance D, Bob Arctor works as an undercover agent known only by his codename 'Fred'. As Bob himself becomes addicted and schizophrenic while trying to cozy up with drug dealer Donna, Fred's senior officer orders him to begin invasive surveillance on Bob.
Steven Soderbergh Awards
Traffic | Best Director | 2001 |
Behind the Candelabra | Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Miniseries or a Movie | 2013 |
Behind the Candelabra | Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special | 2013 |