Kimberly Peirce, Chloë Grace Moretz and Julianne Moore in Carrie (2013)
Ms. Kimberly Peirce – Writer, Director, Producer
Artemis Women in Action Film Festival is proud to honor Kimberly Peirce with the Artemis Action Unsung Heroine Award for using her unique voice and talent to create stories about people not typically seen in film.
Kimberly Peirce staked her place as a writer and director of singular vision and craft with her unflinching debut feature, BOYS DON’T CRY (Hilary Swank, Chloë Sevingy, Peter Sarsgaard), which earned numerous honors including the Best Actress Oscar and Golden Globe for Hilary Swank, and Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for co-star Chloe Sevigny. Swank also took home Independent Spirit, NY and LA Film Critics, and National Board of Review Awards. Sevigny won the Independent Spirit Award and LA Film Critics awards for Best Supporting Actress.
Peirce won honors as Best Debut Director from the National Board of Review and the Boston Society of Film Critics. The film received the Best Film International Critics prize at the London and Stockholm Film Festivals, the Satyajit Ray Award, and was named “Best American Feature” by Janet Maslin.
Peirce subsequently co-wrote and directed STOP-LOSS (Channing Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Abbie Cornish, Ryan and Phillipe), a topical and emotionally penetrating drama inspired by real-life stories of American soldiers, including her brother, fighting in Iraq, and in 2013 she directed a masterful remake of CARRIE (Julianne Moore, Chloë Moretz, Judy Greer, Portia Doubleday, and introducing Ansel Elgort).
Kimberly has directed acclaimed cable TV shows: AMERICAN CRIME, TURN, HALT AND CATCH FIRE, MANHATTAN, SIX (for which she won an WOMEN’S IMAGE AWARD), I LOVE DICK, THE L WORD, DEAR WHITE PEOPLE, the upcoming P-VALLEY, and upcoming second season of KIDDING. She is Executive Producer and Director of IMPACT at A&E.
Kimberly has directed acclaimed cable TV shows: AMERICAN CRIME, TURN, HALT AND CATCH FIRE, MANHATTAN, SIX (for which she won an WOMEN’S IMAGE AWARD), I LOVE DICK, THE L WORD, DEAR WHITE PEOPLE, the upcoming P-VALLEY, and upcoming second season of KIDDING. She is Executive Producer and Director of IMPACT at A&E.
She is next directing two films — THIS IS JANE, the true story of the women who started the 1960’s Chicago illegal underground abortion ring, starring Michelle Williams and UNTITLED, a butch femme romantic, sex comedy.
A tireless activist for human and civil rights, Kimberly is proud to be a Governor of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and head of the Diversity Committee, as well as Executive Board member of the Director’s Guild of America, and a founding member of REFRAME, an industry-wide effort to end discrimination against women and people of color behind and in front of the lens. She is a member of Time’s Up and the WGA.
Kimberly received her BA from the University of Chicago and her MFA from Columbia University Graduate Film. She graduated from Sundance Institute’s Writing, Directing And Producing Labs.
