Contributor

Dan Mirvish

Director, screenwriter, author

Dan Mirvish is an active director, screenwriter, author and producer. Co-founder of the Slamdance Film Festival, Mirvish's newest feature is "Between Us," starring Julia Stiles, Taye Diggs, Melissa George & David Harbour, based on the hit Off-Broadway play. Earning rave reviews as "brilliant," "brutal," "scathing," "feverish," "powerful" and "hilarious", it's being favorably compared to such classics of the genre as Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Carnal Knowledge, and Carnage. An award-winning film that's played at 22 festivals in 7 countries, it is currently in limited theatrical release in North America.

As a HuffPo blogger, Mirvish was the first person to document the so-called "Hathaway Effect" which linked news accounts of Anne Hathaway to an increase in stock for Warren Buffett's Berkshire-Hathaway. News reports from the Atlantic Monthly to the Financial Times to Nobel-winning economist Paul Krugman writing in the New York Times acknowledged the effect. CNBC referred to Mirvish's work as "clever...genius/disturbing."

Mirvish made headlines around the world as the co-creator (with Eitan Gorlin) of the faux McCain adviser Martin Eisenstadt who was the self-admitted leak for the Sarah Palin Africa story. Their book, I Am Martin Eisenstadt: One Man's Wildly Inappropriate Adventures with the Last Republicans was released by Farrar, Straus Giroux and received rave reviews (one of the Top 8 Books of the Year, by The Washington Monthly). The Eisenstadt phenomenon was reported in the New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, CNN, NPR, BBC, and newspapers and magazines from Australia to Norway.

In the feature film world, Mirvish directed, co-wrote and produced the real estate musical Open House, which was distributed by The Weinstein Company. The Academy Awards literally rewrote their rules in response to Mirvish's controversial Oscar campaign to revive the dormant Original Musical category. Mirvish is the rare filmmaker who's actually made money on an Oscar campaign in a category that didn't exist, for a movie that no one had seen. The film starred Oscar-nominee Sally Kellerman, Ann Magnuson, Kellie Martin and Anthony Rapp.

In order for the Academy to recognize the requisite number of films eligible for the Original Musical category, Mirvish went so far as to write, produce and shoot yet another feature musical, Half Empty. Shot in 10 days in Germany and France with an international cast, the film premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Mentored by Robert Altman, Mirvish wrote, directed and produced his award-winning first feature Omaha (The Movie) which played at over 30 international film festivals, and theatrically throughout the US. In the TV world, Mirvish directed the controversial comedy A Message from the President of Iran, which was broadcast on the Emmy-winning season of Al Gore's CurrentTV.

Prior to getting an M.A. from USC's graduate film production program, Mirvish was a Washington-based speech writer for U.S. Senator Tom Harkin and a freelance journalist for such publications as the New York Times and the Washington Monthly.