A San Francisco based director, Rob Nilsson and co-director John Hanson won the Camera d’Or at Cannes for NORTHERN LIGHTS and Nilsson won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival for HEAT AND SUNLIGHT. He is the first American film director to have won both awards. He is also the creator of the Direct Action style of digital filmmaking taught in the Tenderloin yGroup Actor’s Ensemble, San Francisco and featured in workshops conducted around the world. Nilsson is a pioneer in the techniques of video to film transfer which led to today’s digital revolution. In 1985 SIGNAL 7 was the first small format video feature to be blown up to film and distributed around the world.

CHALK, his first feature with the Tenderloin Action Group (now the Tenderloin yGroup) a San Francisco inner city acting workshop, was featured in the Locarno and Toronto film festivals and played in theatres around the country in 2000. It was voted one of the top films of the year by the Village Voice. Production on the 9 @ Night film series with the Tenderloin yGroup was completed in 2007 it included STROKE (2000), SINGING (2000), SCHEME C6 (2001), ATTITUDE (2003), NOISE (2003) and NEED (2004), PAN (2006), USED (2007), and GO TOGETHER (2007).

Nilsson has traveled the world collaborating with local organizations to create digital feature films using his Direct Action Cinema methodology. Films telling indigenous stories have been made in Japan, WINTER ORANGES (2000); in South Africa, FRANK (2003); in Jordan, SAMT (2004); during a residency at the UC, Berkeley, SECURITY (2005), in Kansas City with the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee, OPENING (2006).

Recent awards include the Ted M. Larson Award for “outstanding contributions to the film industry” from the Fargo International Film Festival, the Indie Pioneer Award from the Kansas City Filmmakers Jubilee, a Filmmaker of the Year award from the Silver Lake Film Festival, Los Angeles and the Milley Award from the city of Mill Valley for achievement in the Arts. His book of poetry, FROM A REFUGEE OF TRISTAN DA CUNHA was released in September 2007 and is available at Authorhouse.com.

PRESQUE ISLE, a narrative feature co- produced by the San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking and Citizen Cinema was screened at KC FilmFest in 2009. Rob’s latest film, Imbued, from a story by Kansas Citian, Denny Dey, and featuring Stacey Keach will screen at this year’s KC FilmFest.