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Dominic Sena

Dominic Sena is a founding father of Propoganda Films and a director of award-winning music videos, commercials and feature films.

Sena made his feature film directorial debut with the controversial crime drama Kalifornia, starring Brad Pitt, Juliette Lewis, David Duchovny and Michelle Forbes. The film earned the International Film Critics Award Jury Prize at the 1993 Montreal Film Festival as well as taking top honors for its cinematography. He followed that with the worldwide hit Gone in 60 Seconds, starring Nicolas Cage, Giovanni Ribissi and Angelina Jolie, which featured an explosive 40-minute car chase sequence; then collaborated with Whiteout producers Joel Silver and Susan Downey on the 2001 crime thriller Swordfish, starring John Travolta, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Don Cheadle and Sam Shepard. He next re-teams with Nicolas Cage for the adventure Season of the Witch, also starring Ron Perlman, currently in post-production and scheduled for a 2010 release.

Sena began his career as a cameraman. During the early 1980s he began to emerge as a top director of music videos, then still a developing and uniquely inventive medium. He worked on hundreds of music videos and was honored with various cinematography awards. In 1985 he became a director/cameraman and went on to create videos for such Alist artists as Sting, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, Tina Turner, Bryan Adams and Steve Winwood, but is best remembered for directing a series of clips starring Janet Jackson that helped to define the many facets of her career. Their choreography-focused collaborations include Miss You Much, The Pleasure Principal, Come Back to Me and Rhythm Nation, which earned Sena a Grammy Award for Best Long Form Video.

In the world of television commercials, he has created memorable spots for such clients as Nike, Apple Computers, Acura, IBM, Coke and Honda, among others. Three of Sena's spots helped earn Propaganda the Palme d'Or at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes. The Nike campaign also garnered Sena a Gold Lion for Individual Achievement.

Sena's commercials have won top honors at New York's prestigious AICP Awards and have been made a part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2009.
Read earlier biographies on this page.

Dominic Sena Facts

OccupationDirector
BirthdayApril 26, 1949 (74)
SignTaurus
BirthplaceNiles, Ohio, USA

Selected Filmography

Gone in Sixty Seconds
Season of the Witch
Whiteout
Gone in 60 Seconds
Swordfish
Kalifornia
Janet Jackson
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