Short Film Director Case Study - Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese was born November 17th 1942. Scorsese was born in New York with Italian-American parents. As a resident of Little Italy for much of his childhood, Scorsese was inspired with this in several of his later films. Whilst Scorsese has grown to be one of Hollywood's most iconic Director's, his career begun with a series of short films, including prize winning 'The Big Shave' of 1968.


Scorsese's rise to fame began in 1970, where he served as an assistant Director and editor on critically acclaimed documentary 'Woodstock', and three years later the same with 'Mean Streets' 1973. With links to his Italian-American heritage, this linked Scorsese to actor Robert De Niro. With De Niro as a friend and actor, Scorsese managed to win the Palme D'or at Cannes Film Festival in 1976 with his film 'Taxi Driver'. Following this link to De Niro, Scorsese Directed 'Raging Bull', with De Niro once again as his lead, which earned the actor an Oscar.

Despite giving huge amounts to the film world, Scorsese had still not won an Oscar of his own. He had managed Golden Globes, and Oscar's for other parts of his films in 'Gang's of New York' and 'Aviator'. His break through came with the film 'The Departed' in 2006 where he won his first Oscar for best Director.

Despite much success in the 2000's, acknowledgement must be placed on 1996, for his film 'Romeo and Juliet', where he first worked with young actor Leonardo Di'Caprio. Another Italian American actor, whom he would use as leading actor in several other blockbuster films, such as 'The Departed' 2006, 'Shutter Island' of 2010 and 'The Wolf Of Wall Street' of 2014.

Whilst Scorsese has been creidted with honours for his Directing skills on films, an interesting project that gained a huge amount of success was 2011's 'Hugo'. This was an animated film, which went on to win a Golden Globe and five Academy Awards. This film proved that Scorsese had the ability to create a masterpiece with whatever format he was given.