Martin Scorsese

Latest News: Martin Scorsese Makes History with One of His 2024 Oscar Nominations

Few directors have achieved the level of respect and acclaim that Martin Scorsese enjoys. His latest film, Killers of the Flower Moon, has earned him nominations for both Best Director and Best Picture at the 2024 Academy Awards. At 81 years old, Scorsese has made history as the oldest person ever nominated for the Best Director award. This marks his 10th nomination in the category, making him the most nominated living director in this field. However, the late William Wyler still holds the overall record with 12 nominations.

“I’m just so excited,” Scorsese expressed during a recent appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. “Looking back—10 nominations over the years, I honestly don’t know how that happened. You don’t make films for awards, you make them to the best of your ability.”

Despite his numerous Best Director nominations, Scorsese has won the award just once, for his 2006 film The Departed. Killers of the Flower Moon, which tells the haunting true story of the Osage murders in 1920s Oklahoma, has earned a total of 11 nominations at the 96th Academy Awards, including Best Picture. This marks Scorsese’s fourth nomination in the Best Picture category, following Hugo (2011), The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), and The Irishman (2019).

Who is Martin Scorsese?

Martin Scorsese is widely regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, known for his gritty, meticulous approach to storytelling. Scorsese’s love for cinema began in his childhood, and he quickly made a name for himself with his groundbreaking 1973 film Mean Streets. He went on to direct some of the most iconic films in American cinema, including Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas. Scorsese is particularly renowned for his collaborations with actors Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, having worked with them on films such as The King of Comedy, Cape Fear, Gangs of New York, The Aviator, and The Wolf of Wall Street. Over the course of his career, Scorsese has received 16 Academy Award nominations and won once: in 2007 for Best Director for The Departed, which also won Best Picture.

Early Life

Martin Charles Scorsese was born on November 17, 1942, in the Flushing neighborhood of New York City. Raised in the predominantly Italian-American community of Manhattan’s Little Italy, Scorsese often recalled the area feeling “like a village in Sicily.” His parents, Charles and Catherine, both worked part-time as actors, fostering an early interest in cinema for their son. Due to his struggle with severe asthma, Scorsese’s childhood was marked by limited physical activities. Instead of engaging in sports, he spent much of his time watching television or frequenting movie theaters, where he developed a deep appreciation for stories about the Italian-American experience and films by directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. By the age of 12, Scorsese was already drawing his own storyboards, often inscribing them with the phrase, “Directed and Produced by Martin Scorsese.”

Raised in a devout Catholic household, Scorsese even considered entering the priesthood before ultimately deciding to pursue filmmaking. Although his parents did not fully understand his passion for movies, Scorsese’s conviction was affirmed when a 10-minute comedy short earned him a $500 scholarship to New York University (NYU).

Early Career: NYU Instructor and Mean Streets

Scorsese completed a Master of Fine Arts in film directing at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, where he produced several short films. Following his graduation, he briefly worked as a film instructor at the university, teaching students such as Jonathan Kaplan and Oliver Stone.

In 1968, Scorsese completed his first feature-length film, Who’s That Knocking at My Door? During the production of this film, he met Harvey Keitel, an actor he would collaborate with on many future projects, as well as Thelma Schoonmaker, an editor with whom he formed a 50-year-long professional partnership. Scorsese garnered early recognition from film critic Roger Ebert, who praised his work, stating that it was “artistically satisfying and technically comparable to the best films being made anywhere.”

In 1973, just before his 31st birthday, Scorsese released Mean Streets, his first widely acclaimed masterpiece. Revisiting characters from Who’s That Knocking at My Door?, Mean Streets introduced audiences to key elements that would become hallmarks of Scorsese’s filmmaking style: dark themes, morally ambiguous lead characters, explorations of religion and the Mafia, innovative camera techniques, and the integration of contemporary music. The film also marked the beginning of Scorsese’s legendary collaboration with actor Robert De Niro, a partnership that would become one of the most influential in cinematic history. Actress Ellen Burstyn, who was impressed by Mean Streets, advocated for Scorsese to direct Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974), a film that earned Burstyn an Academy Award for Best Actress. Burstyn later described working with Scorsese as “one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.”

Acclaimed ’70s and ’80s Movies: Taxi Driver, The Last Waltz, and Raging Bull

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Martin Scorsese directed a series of groundbreaking films that defined a generation of cinema. His 1976 film Taxi Driver became an instant classic, with Robert De Niro portraying a mentally unstable cab driver and Vietnam veteran, driven to violence by his growing disdain for the crime-ridden streets of New York City. Widely regarded as a masterpiece, Taxi Driver solidified Scorsese’s signature gritty filmmaking style, marked by intricate camera movements, and won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. The film also played an unsettling role in inspiring John Hinckley Jr. to attempt the assassination of President Ronald Reagan five years later.

Following Taxi Driver, Scorsese and De Niro reunited for New York, New York (1977), a musical that diverged from the director’s usual fare. While the film was a commercial failure and a challenging experience for Scorsese, it was followed by a significant shift in his focus. In 1978, Scorsese turned his attention to the music industry with The Last Waltz, a documentary chronicling The Band’s farewell concert. Featuring iconic performances from Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Muddy Waters, The Last Waltz has since been hailed as one of the greatest concert films of all time. Its influence even extended to popular culture, inspiring the mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap (1984).

Scorsese’s 1980 film Raging Bull, which tells the story of troubled boxer Jake LaMotta, marked a pivotal moment in his career. After the difficult experience of making New York, New York, Scorsese initially planned Raging Bull as his final film. Determined to go out with a bold statement, he poured everything into the project. While initial reactions were mixed due to its graphic violence, Raging Bull is now considered one of the greatest films ever made. De Niro’s portrayal of LaMotta earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Despite considering retirement, Scorsese continued to create influential works through the 1980s. He re-teamed with De Niro for The King of Comedy (1982), a dark comedy about an aspiring comedian’s obsession with a famous comic, played by Jerry Lewis. The film was a commercial failure but has since gained cult status. Scorsese’s first major box-office success came in 1986 with The Color of Money, a sequel to The Hustler (1961), starring Paul Newman reprising his role as “Fast Eddie” Felson alongside a rising Tom Cruise.

Two years later, Scorsese directed The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), an adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis’ novel. The film, which portrayed Jesus Christ grappling with fear, temptation, and doubt, was met with fierce criticism from the Catholic Church, even sparking death threats against Scorsese. Despite the controversy, it earned critical acclaim and garnered an Oscar nomination for the director.

Continued Success with Crime Films

The 1990s saw the release of two of Scorsese’s most significant crime dramas: Goodfellas (1990) and Casino (1995). Goodfellas, based on Nicholas Pileggi’s Wiseguy, chronicles the rise and fall of gangster Henry Hill (played by Ray Liotta). With standout performances by Joe Pesci, whose portrayal of Tommy DeVito won him an Academy Award, and De Niro as gangster Jimmy Conway, Goodfellas is widely regarded as one of the greatest mob films ever made. Roger Ebert called it “the best mob movie ever.”

Scorsese reunited with De Niro and Pesci for Casino, a 1995 film about the corrupt world of Mafia-run casinos in Las Vegas during the 1970s. While it did not receive the same level of acclaim as Goodfellas, Casino was praised for its detailed depiction of the rise and fall of the gambling empire, particularly the Oscar-nominated performance by Sharon Stone.

Scorsese’s crime film output continued with Cape Fear (1991), which featured De Niro as the menacing Max Cady, and the epic Kundun (1997), a historical drama about the Dalai Lama. In 2002, Scorsese directed Gangs of New York, a historical drama set in 1860s New York City, marking his return to the world of crime films. The film, which took nearly 25 years to bring to fruition, starred Daniel Day-Lewis as the ruthless Bill the Butcher and Leonardo DiCaprio in his first collaboration with Scorsese.

Leonardo DiCaprio Collaborations: The Aviator, The Departed, and The Wolf of Wall Street

The partnership between Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio has often been compared to the director’s legendary collaborations with Robert De Niro. DiCaprio himself has credited Scorsese with helping him evolve into the actor he aspired to be. Following their collaboration in Gangs of New York, Scorsese and DiCaprio worked together on The Aviator (2004), a biographical film about Howard Hughes. The film, which also starred Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn, was both a critical and commercial success, earning 11 Academy Award nominations and winning five.

Scorsese and DiCaprio continued their successful partnership with The Departed (2006), a remake of the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. DiCaprio played an undercover cop infiltrating the Irish mob, while Matt Damon portrayed a mole within the Massachusetts State Police. The Departed won the Academy Award for Best Picture and earned Scorsese his long-awaited Oscar for Best Director.

Following The Departed, Scorsese and DiCaprio collaborated again on Shutter Island (2010), a psychological thriller, before diverging into the world of financial corruption with The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). In the latter, DiCaprio portrayed real-life stockbroker Jordan Belfort, whose rise and fall mirrored the excesses of the 1990s financial world. While the film was critically acclaimed and earned five Academy Award nominations, it sparked controversy for allegedly glorifying Belfort’s fraudulent activities. Scorsese, however, defended the film as a catalyst for important discussion, and The Wolf of Wall Street set a Guinness World Record for the most instances of profanity in a film, using the F-word 506 times.

Through these collaborations and his relentless exploration of complex characters and themes, Martin Scorsese’s influence on cinema remains unparalleled, with his work continuing to captivate audiences and inspire filmmakers worldwide.

Latest Films: The Irishman and Killers of the Flower Moon

Following the success of The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese directed the epic historical drama Silence (2016), which starred Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver as 17th-century Jesuit priests who travel to Japan during a time when the Tokugawa shogunate had banned Catholicism. Scorsese had long been passionate about adapting Shūsaku Endō’s novel, a project he had considered since reading it in 1989. In discussing the film’s themes, he remarked, “Questions, answers, loss of the answer again, and more questions, and this is what really interests me.” Despite critical acclaim, Silence failed at the box office, grossing only $22 million against a budget of $50 million.

In 2019, Scorsese reunited with Robert De Niro for The Irishman, a Netflix production that also featured Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel. This collaboration, which marked Scorsese’s first film with Al Pacino, tells the story of Frank Sheeran’s alleged confession to the murder of union boss Jimmy Hoffa. The film’s production cost exceeded $150 million, largely due to the use of expensive special effects to de-age the actors. However, The Irishman received widespread critical praise for its performances and direction.

Scorsese’s latest film, Killers of the Flower Moon (2023), premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was met with widespread acclaim. The film tells the true story of a series of murders within the Osage Nation Reservation in Oklahoma during the 1920s. It marks Scorsese’s seventh collaboration with Leonardo DiCaprio and his eleventh with Robert De Niro. DiCaprio portrays Ernest Burkhart, a member of the conspiracy who marries Mollie Kyle (played by Lily Gladstone) to gain her trust. Filming was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the budget for the film ballooned to $200 million. The film earned seven Golden Globe nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Drama, and Scorsese received nods for Best Director and Best Screenplay. At 81, Scorsese became the oldest nominee in the Best Director category at the Academy Awards, a distinction he holds alongside Steven Spielberg for the most nominated living director. Killers of the Flower Moon is also a strong contender for Best Picture at the 2024 Academy Awards.

Following Killers of the Flower Moon, Scorsese will reunite with DiCaprio for The Wager, based on David Grann’s nonfiction book about a British ship that crashes on a South American island while pursuing a Spanish vessel. After the survivors find refuge, they are accused of mutiny. The film is currently in production, and no release date has been set.

Personal Life: Wife and Children

Scorsese has been married five times, to Laraine Marie Brennan, Julia Cameron, Isabella Rossellini, and Barbara De Fina. His current wife, Helen Schermerhorn Morris, whom he married in 1999, is the mother of his daughter, Francesca. Francesca is an actress and filmmaker who has appeared in several of her father’s films, including The Departed, Hugo, and The Aviator.

Scorsese also has two older daughters from previous marriages: Catherine, his daughter with Laraine Marie Brennan, and Domenica, whom he shares with ex-wife Julia Cameron. Like Francesca, Domenica is an actress, appearing in Cape Fear and The Age of Innocence, both directed by her father.