Phil Alden Robinson


Phil Alden Robinson is an American film director and screenwriter whose films include Field of Dreams, Sneakers, and The Sum of All Fears.

Early life and education

Robinson was born in Long Beach, New York, the son of Jessie Frances and S. Jesse Robinson, who was a drama critic for the New York Journal American and a media coordinator for the liquor division of the National Distillers & Chemical Corp. in New York. Robinson graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Union College in 1996.

Career

Robinson directed the baseball film Field of Dreams. It earned Robinson nominations for the Directors Guild of America Award, the Writers Guild of America Award, and an Oscar for Best Screenplay Adaptation. Other accolades for the film include the Christopher Award, and Premiere Magazine's Readers Poll for Best Picture of 1989.
His next feature, Sneakers, was nominated for an Edgar Award by the Mystery Writers of America.
Robinson's 2000 TV drama Freedom Song won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Longform Screenplay, was nominated for two Emmy Awards, three NAACP Image Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Sound Editors Golden Reel Award, and the Humanitas Prize. It also received the Christopher Award, the San Francisco Film Society's "Golden Gate Award", and a National Association of Minorities in Communications Image Award.
For Band of Brothers, he was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award and won an Emmy Award for Best Directing of a Miniseries, Movie or Dramatic Special.
In 1990, Robinson was named "Screenwriter of the Year" by the National Association of Theatre Owners, and in 1994 received the Writers Guild of America's Valentine Davies Award for contributions to the entertainment industry and the community-at-large.
In 1992, he accompanied the United Nations High Commission for Refugees as an observer on relief missions to Somalia and Bosnia, for which he wrote and directed his first of five documentaries for ABC News Nightline. The last one, Sarajevo Spring, was nominated for a national News & Documentary Emmy Award in 1997.
Robinson is currently Vice President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is a past member of the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America, and serves on the Board of Overseers of the UCLA Hammer Museum.

Awards and nominations

Filmography as screenwriter