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Sidney Lumet (born June 25, 1924 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American film director, with over 50 films to his name, including the critically acclaimed 12 Angry Men (1957), Serpico (1973), Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Network (1976) and The Verdict (1982), all of which earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Director. He won an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2005, for his "brilliant services to screenwriters, performers, and the art of the motion picture".

His parents were Polish Yiddish theater actor Baruch Lumet and dancer Eugenia Wermus. A graduate of the Professional Children's School, Lumet was an actor before he was a director. Lumet made his stage debut at New York's Yiddish Art Theater at the age of four and acted in Yiddish theater and on Broadway into the 1950s. Sidney was also the former son-in-law of Lena Horne as he was married to her daughter, the journalist and author Gail Lumet Buckley (née Gail Jones). The couple had two children before divorcing. He has also been married three other times, including once to Gloria Vanderbilt.

At a press conference following a New York Film Festival press screening of his 2007 film, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, Lumet announced his intention to shoot all future projects on HD instead of film, and predicted that celluloid would be abandoned by most of the industry within five years. ^[1]

In the 2002 Sight and Sound Directors' poll, Lumet revealed his top-ten films: The Best Years of Our Lives, Fanny and Alexander, The Godfather, The Grapes of Wrath, Intolerance, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Ran, Roma, Singin' in the Rain, and 2001: A Space Odyssey. ^[2]

• 12 Angry Men (1957)
• Stage Struck (1958)
• That Kind of Woman (1959)
• The Fugitive Kind (1959)
• A View from the Bridge (1961)
• Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962)
• The Pawnbroker (1964)
• Fail-Safe (1964)
• The Hill (1965)
• The Group (1966)
• The Deadly Affair (1967)
• Bye Bye Braverman (1968)
• The Sea Gull (1968)
• The Appointment (1969)
• King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970)
• Last of the Mobile Hot Shots (1970)
• The Anderson Tapes (1971)
• Child's Play (1972)
• The Offence (1972)
• Serpico (1973)
• Lovin' Molly (1974)
• Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
• Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
• Network (1976)
• Equus (1977)
• The Wiz (film) (1978)
• Just Tell Me What You Want (1980)
• Prince of the City (1981)
• The Verdict (1982)
• Daniel (1983)
• Garbo Talks (1984)
• Power (1986)
• The Morning After (1986)
• Running on Empty (1988)
• Family Business (1989)
• Q & A (1990)
• A Stranger Among Us (1992)
• Guilty as Sin (1993)
• Night Falls on Manhattan (1997)
• Critical Care (1997)
• Gloria (1999)
• Strip Search (2004)
• Find Me Guilty (2006)
• Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)
• Getting Out (2008)

• Sidney Lumet on GreatPosters.com, accessed August 8, 2005.
• Fresh Air interview from 2006 (audio)
• Sidney Lumet biography on AMCTV.com. Accessed August 30, 2006.

• Sidney Lumet at the Internet Movie Database
• Sidney Lumet at the Internet Broadway Database
• FilmForce profile
• A serious voice in American Cinema
• FilmStew interview
• On the digital revolution NYFF07