Bruce Pittman

Bruce Pittman was born in Toronto, Canada, and began his career in the advertising and publicity department of Famous Players Ltd. He then moved to a film market research division of Paramount Pictures. These jobs gave him a firm foundation in the art, craft, and business of selling films. He also opened the Revue Cinema in Toronto as a repertory cinema which still operates today. His first love was always film making, and his first break was to get to be an apprentice for John Frankenheimer and then as production assistant on the John Badham film Reflections of Murder (1974). Returning to Toronto, he co-created the long running series Saturday Night at the Movies (1974). This afforded him the opportunity to interview many of the original screen giants of American and British cinema. He considers these interviews to be his real education in film making. His first short films were aired by the Canadian Broadcasting corporation and subsequently at film festivals around the world. Three times his works won best short film awards from the Canadian Film and Television Association. One of them, The Painted Door (1984), was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Short Subject. Bruce Pittman has proved himself adept at moving from short film to television series, movies of the week and feature films. His work reflects a diversity of talents; from comedy to drama; from action to science fiction. This is because, to him, the three most important ingredients to a successful film are the script, the script and the script. After that, getting the right people in the right roles and then hiring talented technical collaborators. To date his film and television work has been cited for 97 nominations and awards around the world.