Jeffrey Leib Nettler Zimbalist (born August 15, 1978 in Northampton, Massachusetts) is an American filmmaker best known for his feature films Favela Rising, The Two Escobars, and The Scribe of Urabá. Along with his brother Michael, the Zimbalists have collaborated with eminent names in the entertainment industry, such as Quincy Jones, Pelé, Shakira, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mick Jagger, Javier Bardem, Russell Simmons, Naomi Campbell, Aishwarya Rai, and Amitabh BachChan, among others. Their films have been broadcast on HBO, MTV, PBS, ESPN, Channel 4 UK, the BBC and BET, as well as theatrically distributed worldwide.
Together with Matt Mochary, Jeff Zimbalist won the Best Emerging Filmmaker Award at the 2005 TriBeCa Film Festival for his film Favela Rising. Favela Rising also garnered a 2006 Emmy Nomination for Zimbalist, was named as the 2005 International Documentary Association's Film of the Year, was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2005, and won 36 International Film Festival Awards, including Best Documentary at Sydney and Leeds International Film Festivals. The film follows the life of Anderson Sa through the favelas of Rio de Janeiro in his attempt to use Afro-Reggae music to provide a positive outlet for the residents of a dangerous environment. The film was distributed by Thinkfilm and HBO Documentary Films in North America and was theatrically released in 16 countries, including by the Institute of Contemporary Art in the UK.
In 2010, Disney / ESPN Films released "The Two Escobars" which Jeff directed and produced with his brother Michael Zimbalist. Jeff also was credited as the director of photography and editor. The film was nominated for another Emmy and was an official selection at the Cannes Film Festival, the Tribeca Film Festival, the Los Angeles Film Festival, and the IDFA International Film Festival. It was called "one of the best documentaries in recent memory" by The Los Angeles Times, "masterful" by The Hollywood Reporter, a "knockout documentary" by Variety and "one of the best sports documentaries ever made" by Bill Simmons. In 2011, Jeff and Michael Zimbalist's script for The Two Escobars was nominated for a best nonfiction script by the Writers Guild of America and was named 2010 documentary of the year alongside The Tillman Story by Sports Illustrated.
Zimbalist co-directed "The Greatest Love Story Ever Told" about the Bollywood film industry in India, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011. As a director, cinematographer and editor, Zimbalist's work has been broadcast on HBO, PBS, ESPN, Channel 4, Sundance Channel, BET, BBC, and WE television, while his films have been featured at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. He has produced development documentaries for over a dozen clients throughout the United States, in South Asia, Africa and Latin America, including the Ford Foundation, the World Bank, the Templeton Foundation, the Inter-American Development Bank, as well as provided media consulting services to the UNDP and various international nonprofit service organizations. Jeff teaches at the New York Film Academy and the Maine Photographic Workshops. He is a Massachusetts State Cultural Council Fellow, a San Francisco Film Society Rainin Grant recipient, LEF grant recipient, and a Ford Foundation Grantee.
Jeff's charitable work includes a recruiting video for Amigos de las Américas, an organization that he volunteered with as a teenager.
Most recently, it was announced that the Zimbalist brothers will be writing and possibly directing a feature film on the early life of soccer legend Pelé for Imagine Entertainment with Brian Grazer producing.
Famous quotes containing the word jeff:
“Resorts advertised for waitresses, specifying that they must appear in short clothes or no engagement. Below a Gospel Guide column headed, Where our Local Divines Will Hang Out Tomorrow, was an account of spirited gun play at the Bon Ton. In Jeff Winneys California Concert Hall, patrons bucked the tiger under the watchful eye of Kitty Crawhurst, popular lady gambler.”
—Administration in the State of Colo, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)