---
name: "Francis Lawrence"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/francis-lawrence"
fi1m_id: "francis-lawrence"
imdb_id: "nm1349376"
tmdb_id: 10943
wikidata_id: "Q561387"
roles: ["Director","Producer"]
born: "26 March 1971"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 7
average_fi1m_score: 66
average_as: "director"
average_over: 7
updated: "2026-10-22T04:29:48.774258+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Francis Lawrence

## Identity

Francis Lawrence

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/francis-lawrence
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** francis-lawrence
- **IMDb ID:** nm1349376
- **TMDB ID:** 10943
- **Wikidata ID:** Q561387
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Lawrence, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q561387, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1349376/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/10943

Director and producer. Born 26 March 1971 in Vienna, Austria.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Producer
- **Born:** 26 March 1971, Vienna, Austria
- **Active:** 2005–present
- **Also known as:** 프란시스 로렌스
- **Frequently works with:** [Nina Jacobson](https://film.one/person/nina-jacobson.md), [Elizabeth Banks](https://film.one/person/elizabeth-banks.md), [Jennifer Lawrence](https://film.one/person/jennifer-lawrence.md), [Jon Kilik](https://film.one/person/jon-kilik.md), [Josh Hutcherson](https://film.one/person/josh-hutcherson.md), [Liam Hemsworth](https://film.one/person/liam-hemsworth.md), [Woody Harrelson](https://film.one/person/woody-harrelson.md), [Brad Simpson](https://film.one/person/brad-simpson.md)
- **Average Fi1m score:** 66, as director, over 7 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 2000s 64 (2), 2010s 67 (3), 2020s 66 (2)
- **Fi1m against the critics:** 66 to 64 across 7 titles
- **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 6 at 60–79, 0 under 60
- **Genres:** Science Fiction 6, Action 4, Adventure 3, Thriller 3, Horror 2, Drama 1
- **Screen time:** 15 hours of reviewed films
- **Box office:** $3,491m across 7 films with figures
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Lawrence, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q561387, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1349376/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/10943

## Coming up

- *The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping* (2026-11-18), Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-hunger-games-sunrise-on-the-reaping.md)

## Streaming the US now

- **Netflix:** [*The Hunger Games: Catching Fire*](https://film.one/film/the-hunger-games-catching-fire.md) (80), [*The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2*](https://film.one/film/the-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-2.md) (61), [*The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1*](https://film.one/film/the-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-1.md) (60)
- **HBO Max:** [*The Long Walk*](https://film.one/film/the-long-walk.md) (72), [*Constantine*](https://film.one/film/constantine.md) (62)
- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*I Am Legend*](https://film.one/film/i-am-legend.md) (65)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Francis Lawrence

> Francis Lawrence is a dependable director of grim adaptations, at his most persuasive when the spectacle gets smaller and the actors have room to work. We rate the plainness, but his storytelling can run out of energy.

In *The Long Walk* (2025), teenage boys keep moving along a country road while soldiers follow in a truck. Francis Lawrence needs little more to make the rules frightening: fall below the required pace, exhaust the warnings, and be shot. We were disturbed by how quickly we grew used to the violence; after the first shooting made us flinch, the ones that followed had less effect. Lawrence makes that change in our response part of the film, and it is a sharper choice than any speech explaining what we ought to feel.

He came to features through music videos and commercials, making his debut with *Constantine* (2005) before directing *I Am Legend* (2007). Taking over the series with *The Hunger Games: Catching Fire* (2013) made him a regular interpreter of Suzanne Collins's novels. That work requires him to keep a complicated fictional society comprehensible while finding something for the actors to play beyond the next piece of exposition. He is dependable at establishing the rules, but cannot always sustain the drama for as long as the story requires.

*The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes* (2023) gives him a useful starting point: a shabby contest that needs to learn how to attract an audience. Tom Blyth's young Coriolanus Snow is poor and concealing it, while Rachel Zegler's tribute knows to sing for the cameras. Lawrence has characters with immediate wants, and for two acts the film holds our attention. The final forty minutes lose much of that grip. His seriousness about the material cannot make the last stretch feel as purposeful as the first.

The plainer *The Long Walk* benefits from Cooper Hoffman and David Jonsson, whose conversation remains absorbing because it can be interrupted at any moment. Lawrence gives their exchanges enough weight to make a single road serve where the *Hunger Games* films needed an arena and a capital. Even here, 108 minutes tests how far one idea can go, and our interest does not last quite to the end. Start here, if an evening on that road sounds bearable.

## Biography

Francis Lawrence (born 26 March 1971) is an American film director and producer. Born in Vienna, Austria, to American parents, he moved to Los Angeles at the age of four and studied film production at Loyola Marymount University.

He began his career directing music videos and commercials before making his feature directorial debut with *Constantine* (2005). Lawrence has since directed *I Am Legend* (2007), *Water for Elephants* (2011), four films in *The Hunger Games* series including *The Hunger Games: Catching Fire* (2013), the two *Mockingjay* parts (2014–2015) and *The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes* (2023), *Red Sparrow* (2018) and *The Long Walk* (2025), on which he also served as producer.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (7)

- *The Long Walk* (2025), Fi1m 72, Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-long-walk.md)
- *The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes* (2023), Fi1m 61, Producer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-hunger-games-the-ballad-of-songbirds-and-snakes.md)
- *The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2* (2015), Fi1m 61, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-2.md)
- *The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1* (2014), Fi1m 60, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-1.md)
- *The Hunger Games: Catching Fire* (2013), Fi1m 80, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-hunger-games-catching-fire.md)
- *I Am Legend* (2007), Fi1m 65, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/i-am-legend.md)
- *Constantine* (2005), Fi1m 62, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/constantine.md)

## Complete filmography (31)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping* (2026), Director, Producer — coming soon, [page](https://film.one/film/the-hunger-games-sunrise-on-the-reaping.md)
- *The Long Walk* (2025), Director, Producer — Fi1m 72, [page](https://film.one/film/the-long-walk.md)
- *Chief of War* (2025), series, Executive Producer
- *The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes* (2023), Producer, Director — Fi1m 61, [page](https://film.one/film/the-hunger-games-the-ballad-of-songbirds-and-snakes.md)
- *Slumberland* (2022), Producer, Director
- *The Serpent Queen* (2022), series, Executive Producer
- *See* (2019), series, Director, Executive Producer
- *Red Sparrow* (2018), Director
- *The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2* (2015), Director — Fi1m 61, [page](https://film.one/film/the-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-2.md)
- *The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1* (2014), Director — Fi1m 60, [page](https://film.one/film/the-hunger-games-mockingjay-part-1.md)
- *The Hunger Games: Catching Fire* (2013), Director — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/the-hunger-games-catching-fire.md)
- *Touch* (2012), series, Director, Executive Producer
- *Water for Elephants* (2011), Director
- *P!NK: Greatest Hits... So Far!!!* (2010), Director
- *Kings* (2009), series, Director, Executive Producer
- *I Am Legend: Awakening - Story 2: Isolation* (2008), Thanks
- *I Am Legend* (2007), Director — Fi1m 65, [page](https://film.one/film/i-am-legend.md)
- *Natalie Imbruglia - Glorious: The Singles 97-07* (2007), Director
- *Constantine* (2005), Director — Fi1m 62, [page](https://film.one/film/constantine.md)
- *Unscripted* (2005), series, as Francis Lawrence
- *Britney Spears: Greatest Hits - My Prerogative* (2004), Director
- *Janet Jackson: From Janet. To Damita Jo: The Videos* (2004), Director
- *Green Day: International Supervideos!* (2001), Director
- *Jennifer Lopez | Feelin' So Good* (2000), Director
- *Marching Out of Time* (1993), Assistant Director
- *Pump Up the Volume* (1990), Second Assistant Camera
- *Carry Me to My Grave*, Director, Producer
- *Steel*, Director
- *BioShock*, Director, Producer
- *Untitled Sublime Biopic*, Executive Producer
- *Constantine 2*, Director

## Gallery

- ![Francis Lawrence](https://film.one/media/person/7982/gallery-46f29de99870.jpg) Francis Lawrence — Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/Francis_Lawrence_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg/1280px-Francis_Lawrence_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Francis Lawrence at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International in San Diego, California.](https://film.one/media/person/7982/gallery-41e137bcf93f.jpg) Francis Lawrence at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International in San Diego, California. — Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Francis_Lawrence_by_Gage_Skidmore_2.jpg/1280px-Francis_Lawrence_by_Gage_Skidmore_2.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Conan O'Brien, Francis Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Nina Jacobson speaking at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International, fo](https://film.one/media/person/7982/gallery-f167df404b50.jpg) Conan O'Brien, Francis Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Nina Jacobson speaking at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International, fo — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/SDCC_2015_-_Conan_O%27Brien%2C_Francis_Lawrence%2C_Josh_Hutcherson%2C_Jennifer_Lawrence%2C_Liam_Hemsworth_%26_Nina_Jacobson_%2819033921394%29.jpg/1280px-SDCC_2015_-_Conan_O%27Brien%2C_Francis_Lawrence%2C_Josh_Hutcherson%2C_Jennifer_Lawrence%2C_Liam_Hemsworth_%26_Nina_Jacobson_%2819033921394%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Conan O'Brien, Francis Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth speaking at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International, for "The Hunger G](https://film.one/media/person/7982/gallery-d117d530f5a5.jpg) Conan O'Brien, Francis Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth speaking at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International, for "The Hunger G — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6f/SDCC_2015_-_Conan_O%27Brien%2C_Francis_Lawrence%2C_Josh_Hutcherson%2C_Jennifer_Lawrence_%26_Liam_Hemsworth_%2819035435903%29.jpg/1280px-SDCC_2015_-_Conan_O%27Brien%2C_Francis_Lawrence%2C_Josh_Hutcherson%2C_Jennifer_Lawrence_%26_Liam_Hemsworth_%2819035435903%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Francis Lawrence](https://film.one/media/person/7982/gallery-bb93e0eecc83.jpg) Francis Lawrence — Image via TMDB
- ![Francis Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Willow Shields speaking at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International, for "The Hunger ](https://film.one/media/person/7982/gallery-2e56be906155.jpg) Francis Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth and Willow Shields speaking at the 2015 San Diego Comic Con International, for "The Hunger  — Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3f/SDCC_2015_-_Francis_Lawrence%2C_Josh_Hutcherson%2C_Jennifer_Lawrence%2C_Liam_Hemsworth_%26_Willow_Shields_%2819649431702%29.jpg/1280px-SDCC_2015_-_Francis_Lawrence%2C_Josh_Hutcherson%2C_Jennifer_Lawrence%2C_Liam_Hemsworth_%26_Willow_Shields_%2819649431702%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Other awards — 2 won

- Independent Spirit Awards 2025: Independent Spirit Robert Altman Award (won), for *The Long Walk*
- Grammy Award for Best Music Video 2011: Grammy Award for Best Music Video (won), for *Bad Romance*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/francis-lawrence