MICHAEL HOFFMAN

Vision Award
206

edited by Colin Kelly Hingel and Aidan Brezonick

An acclaimed American filmmaker, writer, and producer raised in Payette, Idaho, and a Boise State University alumnus, Hoffman co-founded the Idaho Shakespeare Festival before becoming the university’s first Rhodes Scholar. While studying at Oriel College, Oxford, he founded the Oxford University Film Foundation and directed “Privileged” (1982), which marked the screen debut of Hugh Grant and launched a career spanning studio hits and prestige dramas including “Soapdish,” “One Fine Day,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and “The Emperor’s Club.”

photography by Dawson Gutierrez

His film “Promised Land” was nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and garnered an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Meg Ryan. The period drama “Restoration,” starring Robert Downey Jr., won Academy Awards for Production Design and Costume Design, and “The Last Station” received five Independent Spirit Award nominations and earned Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations for Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer, cementing Hoffman as one of Idaho’s most accomplished voices in international cinema. Most recently, Hoffman wrote and directed “American Classic,” a TV series set in the theater starring Kevin Kline and Laura Linney, currently streaming on MGM+ and Amazon Prim