Richard Linklater

Richard Linklater is an American filmmaker whose work is closely associated with independent cinema, conversational structure, time, memory and everyday life. Born in Houston, Texas, in 1960, he spent formative years in Texas before becoming a central figure in Austin film culture. His path to filmmaking was self-directed: after studying briefly and working on an offshore oil rig, he bought film equipment, moved to Austin and immersed himself in repertory cinema and independent production.

Linklater helped found the Austin Film Society in 1985, an institution that became important to the city's film community. His early features established the concerns that would follow him for decades. Slacker, made on a very small budget, wandered through Austin characters and conversations and became a landmark of American independent film. Dazed and Confused used the rituals of a 1970s high-school night to build a relaxed but sharply observed ensemble portrait. Both films showed Linklater's interest in character, mood and digressive conversation over conventional plotting.

The Before trilogy became one of Linklater's defining achievements. Before Sunrise introduced Jesse and Celine as young strangers talking through Vienna; Before Sunset returned to them nine years later in Paris; Before Midnight revisited them again in middle age. Developed with Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy and co-writer collaborators, the series turned aging, conversation and changing emotional perspective into its structure. Linklater used a related long-view method on Boyhood, filmed intermittently over twelve years with the same actors. Boyhood earned major critical acclaim, Academy Award nominations and a Golden Globe for Linklater's direction.