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.
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.
Based on real events, King of the Hill is a drama film which tells the story of a boy whose mother with tuberculosis is sent to a sanatorium. Meanwhile his younger brother is sent to live with his uncle. The boy is left to struggle on his own at a run-down hotel.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Scizopolis is a comedy film which tells the story of Fletcher Munson, a passive and lethargic worker for a religious self-help company. When he receives a promotion, he becomes emotionally distant from his wife, and she starts having an affair with his doppelganger, Dr. Jeffrey Korchek, a dentist.
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.
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.
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.
Angela Childs is an employee of a tech company known as Amygdala. Due to her agoraphobia, she works from home. Her life takes a turn when she comes across evidence of a violent crime, but upon trying to report it, she is met with resistance. Eventually, she comes to realize that she must confront her fears and do what she is afraid of the most: Leave her apartment.
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.
Ray Burke is a sports agent who finds himself in a complicated situation when there is a face-off between the league and the players. Although his career is on the line, he discovers a loophole, and he tries to come up with a plan that can change the game forever.
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.
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.
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.
Eros is an anthology romantic drama film which tells us three different stories. The first story is about a call girl named Miss Hua, who is visited by a shy dressmaker’s assistant Zhang, as he needs to take her measures. The second story is about Nick, an ad executive who suffers tremendous work pressure. He discusses about a beautiful naked woman he saw in his dream with his psychiatrist Dr Pearl. The third story is about a bored couple who notices a gorgeous young woman while taking a stroll near a lake resort.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Scizopolis is a comedy film which tells the story of Fletcher Munson, a passive and lethargic worker for a religious self-help company. When he receives a promotion, he becomes emotionally distant from his wife, and she starts having an affair with his doppelganger, Dr. Jeffrey Korchek, a dentist.
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.
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 |
