The Woodsman

Background:

Nicole Kassell is perhaps best known as the director and co-writer of the film adaptation of Steven Fechter's play, “The Woodsman” (2004). She won Jury Special Prize at the Deauville Film Festival and Satyajit Ray Award at the London Film Festival as well as an Independent Spirit nomination for Best First Feature and the Grand Jury Prize nomination at the Sundance Film Festival,

not to mention nominations at the Ghent International Film Festival, the Gijón International Film Festival, the Gotham Awards and the Humanitas Prize. Her second film, “ A Little Bit of Heaven,” had its first release in February 2011 in the UK. Kassell also has directed episodes of “Cold Case,” “The Closer” and “The Killing.”

Tisch School

Childhood and Family:

Nicole Kassell was born in 1972, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU.

Nicole is currently married and has one son. The family now lives in Manhattan

A Little Bit of Heaven

Career:

While a student at NYU, Nicole Kassell directed three shorts films, including “Jaime,” which won the 1999 DGA Best Female Student Filmmaker Award, and “ The Green Hour,” which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002 and honored with the Warner Brothers Pictures Film Production Award. Her short films have screened at a number of film festivals around the world and sold internationally.

Kassell made her feature film directing debut with “The Woodsman” (2004), which she also wrote with Steven Fechter, based on Fechter's play of the same name. Starring Kevin Bacon, Kyra Sedgwick, Mos Def, Benjamin Bratt, Eve, and David Alan Grier, the film received critical acclaim, and was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. Other honors that the film has received include the Deauville Film Festival Jury Special Prize, the London Film Festival Satyajit Ray Award, a British Independent Film nomination for Best Foreign Film, the Grand Prix nomination at the Ghent International Film Festival, the Grand Prix Asturias nomination for Best Feature at the Gijón International Film Festival, the Breakthrough Director Award nomination at the Gotham Awards, the Humanitas Prize nomination for Sundance Film Category, an Independent Spirit nomination for Best First Feature, and the National Board of Review for Special Recognition.

In 2006, Kassell ventured to television by directing the episode “Disarming” of the short lived CBS drama series “3 lbs,” starring Stanley Tucci and Mark Feuerstein. She also directed two episodes of the CBS hit police procedural series “Cold Case” called “One Night” (2006) and “Sabotage” (2008) as well as two episodes of TNT's “The Closer” called “Elysian Fields” (2009) and “High Crimes” (2010).

Recently, Kassell returned to feature films with the romance/comedy “A Little Bit of Heaven” (2011), starring Kate Hudson and Gael García Bernal. On television, she directed an episode of “The Killing” called “Missing” (2011).

Awards:

• Deauville Film Festival: Jury Special Prize, “The Woodsman,” 2004

• London Film Festival: Satyajit Ray Award, “The Woodsman,” 2004