biography

^{Austin Smithard was raised on the Isle of Wight, a small island off the coast of southern England. At the age of seven he was taken to see his first movie, 'Jaws' and declared his ambition to be a film director in Hollywood.

Nine
years later, after teaching himself cameras and lenses he was working
as a professional photographer for a London modeling agency, and
writing corporate reports for the Shell Oil Company.

One of his
short films, 'The Homerun', was spotted by acclaimed playwright Tom
Stoppard and, by extraordinary chance, soon gained the attention of
'Jaws' director Steven Spielberg himself.

Spielberg would go on to mentor the young filmmaker, who found himself under contract to Universal Pictures/Amblin Entertainment in Los Angeles. He spent a year sitting beside Dustin Hoffman on the set of 'Hook', learning the ropes
from the masters. Spielberg executive produced his first film
'The Scream', which led to a call from Francis Coppola's American
Zoetrope Company, who engaged the 22-year-old to write an original screenplay.

Smithard
began directing commercials and soon took the reins as director and
cinematographer on 80 national campaigns for Amtrak, the New York Stock
Exchange, Mercedes Benz, U.S Army and dozens of others. As writer, director and editor he has worked on the History Channel documentaries
'Avalanche', 'Intrepid', (a historical record of
world conflict through the eyes of the famous U.S. battleship), and "Marine One', a unique tribute to the Presidential Flight of the U.S Marines.

Smithard recently completed producing, writing and directing the 2007
release feature film 'Breaking the Fifth', starring Tony Award Winner
Frank Langella.

He is currently in production on the documentary
'Men of Character', to be released in 2008, and preparing the feature 'Geraldine Jameson', the tragic account of an English school teacher lost in the violent American wilderness of the 1800's.

He married actress Kaela
Dobkin in 2002 and lives in California, with their son, West.}