John Goldschmidt


John Goldschmidt is a British-Austrian film director and producer. Goldschmidt was born in London, but grew up in Vienna leaving at the age of 16 to return to London. Goldschmidt has both Austrian and British nationality. He went to the Gymnasium Wasagasse in Vienna and studied at the Czech National Film School and at The Royal College of Art's Department of Film and Television, where he graduated in 1968 with a Master of Arts degree.

Life and career

Goldschmidt was born on 1 August 1943. He made documentary and fiction films for BBC Television, BBC Films, Granada Television, Granada Films, Associated Television, Thames Television, Channel 4, Film4 in the UK, and ZDF, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Österreichischer Rundfunk, SRG SSR idée suisse, France 3, Rai 1, Bavaria Film, on the European continent, and HBO Films in the United States.
His award winning films as producer/director have included Just one Kid and It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow, as director Spend, Spend, Spend and The Devil's Lieutenant, A Crime of Honour, Maschenka.
Goldschmidt's award winning films as producer include Utz, Deadly Voyage starring Omar Epps, written by Stuart Urban.
His television films included directing Speech Day, directing Vampires, executive producing Shooting Stars starring Helmut Griem, and producing the mini-series Murder East, Murder West. Goldschmidt directed She'll Be Wearing Pink Pyjamas starring Julie Walters and produced Captain Jack starring Bob Hoskins, both films had theatrical distribution. He co-produced and directed the television mini-series Nobody's Hero. His German language drama-documentary films as director include Egon Schiele starring Felix Mitterer and Der Narr von Wien. His award winning music films as director include The Emperor of Atlantis. His UK drama-documentaries as producer/director include Life for Christine and The Other Spike.
Goldschmidt's early television documentaries include films for World in Action, "Bernadette Devlin", Doing her own Thing,''The Games that Children play, The Mirror of Maigret, Our Live Experiment is worth more than 3,000 Textbooks, The Unlucky Australians, The Dead End Lads, Telling it like it is and A Kind of Exile. At this time, Goldschmidt was blacklisted from the BBC and his file was marked by a member of the BBC staff working for MI5.
He advised the European Union on their audiovisual policy and proposed the setting up of a European Script Fund as part of the EU's MEDIA programme. Goldschmidt's production company Viva Films was set up through an output deal for fiction films with Granada Television in London and NDR in Hamburg. Goldschmidt has been a member of both BAFTA and European Film Prize juries. He co-wrote the report which proposed Channel 4's involvement in theatrical films, recently co-wrote The Director's Guild of Great Britain's report to the British government on the UK tax credit for feature film production and has been a member of the board of Directors UK and of the Directors UK film committee.
Goldschmidt directed Dough'' in London and Budapest in 2015, starring Jonathan Pryce. The film was released in the US in 2016, and won several awards.

Awards for film productions

  • The British Academy of Film and Television Award - Director,
  • The Prix Italia RAI Prize - Music - Director/Writer,
  • The Golden Nymph - Monte Carlo - Director,
  • The Cine de Luca Award - Monte Carlo - Director,
  • Fehrnsehpeis der Oestereichischen Volksbildung - Director/Writer,
  • Silver Hugo - Chicago Film Festival - Director/Producer,
  • Royal Television Society Award - Director,
  • German Cinema Owner's Prize - Berlin Film Festival - Producer,
  • The Silver Bear—Berlin Film Festival - Producer,
  • Silver Nymph - Monte Carlo - Producer,
  • International Emmy Award Nomination—Drama Series - Director/Producer,
  • Prix Italia Prize—Nomination for Drama - Director/Producer,
  • CableAce Award - Nomination – Producer.