Biography
Filmmaker Antonio Campos addressed issues of media obsession and image and the cultural rise of voyeurism and scopophilia in such potent independent dramas as "Afterschool" (2008), "Simon Killer" (2012) and "Christine" (2016). Born February 24, 1983 in New York City, he was the son of acclaimed independent producer Rose Ganguzza and Brazilian journalist Lucas Mendes. Campos became obsessed with films at an early age, and directed his first short film, "Puberty" (1997), for a New York Film Academy program at the age of 13. Numerous short films followed, both before and after he enrolled at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, as did a production company, Borderline Films, which Campos co-founded with fellow Tisch students Sean Durkin and Josh Mond. In 2005, Campos' short "Buy It Now," about a young woman auctioning her virginity online, won top prize at the Cannes Film Festival Cinefoundation. He was subsequently invited to join the Cannes Residence, where he worked on the script for his feature debut, "Afterschool," a harrowing drama about a student (Ezra Miller) who records the drug overdose death of two fellow students at his school. The picture earned numerous nominations from major film festivals and award organizations, including the Cannes and Deauville Film Festivals and Independent Spirit Awards. After serving as executive producer on features by his Borderline partners, including Durkin's "Martha Marcy May Marlene" (2011), he issued his second film, "Simon Killer," another drama about a troubled young man whose voyeuristic tendencies and obsession with film lead to a criminal situation. It too received critical praise and a Grand Jury Prize nomination from the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. Production efforts with his partners, including Mond's "James White" (2015) and the acclaimed Portuguese horror film "The Eyes of My Mother" (2015), preceded his third feature, "Christine," a powerful drama about the newscaster Christine Chubbuck (played by Rebecca Hall), who committed suicide on camera in 1974. The film earned stellar reviews for both Hall and Campos, who also received his second Grand Jury Prize nomination from the Sundance Film Festival.
