Andrew Dominik

Andrew Dominik
Dominik at the Killing Them Softly Australian Premiere in September 2012
Born	(1967-10-07) October 7, 1967 (age 49) Wellington, New Zealand
Alma mater	Swinburne Film School
Occupation	Film director, producer, screenwriter
Years active	2000–present
Notable work	Chopper, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing Them Softly

Andrew Dominik (born 7 October 1967) is a New Zealand-born Australian film director and screenwriter. He has directed the crime film Chopper, the Western drama film The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and the neo-noir crime film Killing Them Softly.

Dominik has lived in Australia since he was two years old and graduated from Melbourne's Swinburne Film School in 1988.

His career in films began in 2000 when he directed Chopper based on notorious Australian criminal Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read, starring Eric Bana and Simon Lyndon.Chopper received generally positive reviews, and Bana in particular was widely praised for his intense portrayal of Chopper. The Australian Film Institute awarded the film with Best Director (Dominik), Best Actor (Bana), and Best Supporting Actor (Lyndon).

His next film was The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, starring Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, based on the novel of the same name which he came across in a second-hand bookstore. The film explores the peculiar relationship between Jesse James and his eventual assassin Robert Ford. Pitt was a big fan of Dominik's first feature Chopper, and had hoped to collaborate with the filmmaker in the future, especially when Pitt had the chance to work with Chopper star Eric Bana in Troy. Pitt contacted the director, and with a big star interested to lead his new film, Dominik was therefore able to get Warner Bros. to finance the production.