--- name: "Jonathan Nossiter" canonical: "https://film.one/person/jonathan-nossiter" fi1m_id: "jonathan-nossiter" imdb_id: "nm0636506" tmdb_id: 146949 wikidata_id: "Q3183432" roles: ["Director"] born: "12 November 1961" reviewed_on_fi1m: 1 average_as: "director" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-26T03:21:00.551608+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." --- # Jonathan Nossiter ## Identity Jonathan Nossiter - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/jonathan-nossiter - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** jonathan-nossiter - **IMDb ID:** nm0636506 - **TMDB ID:** 146949 - **Wikidata ID:** Q3183432 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Nossiter, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3183432, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0636506/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/146949 Director. Born 12 November 1961 in Washington, D.C., USA. ## Details - **Work:** Director - **Born:** 12 November 1961, Washington, D.C., USA - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Nossiter, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3183432, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0636506/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/146949 ## Fi1m on Jonathan Nossiter > Jonathan Nossiter is curious about people and the places that shape them. We value his feel for actors, but *Signs & Wonders* shows how readily that curiosity can turn into a lecture. In *Signs & Wonders* (2001), Charlotte Rampling and Stellan Skarsgård give emotional force to people who are difficult to judge. Nossiter's willingness to let characters remain awkward or disagreeable gives the actors something worth attempting, and what they leave uncertain is more interesting than a tidy explanation would be. That seriousness keeps a frustrating film from being easy to dismiss. We rate his interest in human behaviour more highly than his ability to trust it: the writing keeps pressing for a judgement where the performances have left us room to think. His feature debut, *Resident Alien* (1991), mixed fiction and documentary; *Sunday* (1997), co-written with James Lasdun, established him in narrative cinema. Lasdun returned for *Signs & Wonders*, which used digital video in pursuit of intimacy. With *Mondovino* (2004), a documentary about the globalisation of wine, Nossiter turned that close attention towards people within an industry. Across these changes of form, place, memory and the passing on of knowledge remain recurring concerns. In *Signs & Wonders*, Adrian Utley's music sustains the unease even when the drama labours. But Lasdun and Nossiter's screenplay returns to its concerns after we have had time to understand them. We grew impatient with the lecturing because it crowded out the uncertainty Rampling and Skarsgård could suggest. The problem is not that the characters are difficult company; it is that the film keeps telling us how much their difficulties matter. A little less insistence would have helped those performances. In *Mondovino*, Nossiter is also cinematographer and editor, so the closeness of the filming and the selection of voices are both his responsibility. The small-crew observation makes room for spontaneous exchanges, though the editing can push its case too hard. His interest in passing culture on extends to the post-apocalyptic *Last Words* (2020), which brings cinema itself into that concern. It is an interest worth following, provided the people on screen are allowed to do more than explain it. Approach *Signs & Wonders* for its actors, with no expectation that the film will leave them alone. ## Biography Jonathan Nossiter is an American filmmaker. He directed and co-wrote the screenplay for the psychological thriller *Signs & Wonders* (2000), which starred Charlotte Rampling and Stellan Skarsgård and premiered in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. Born in 1961 in Washington, D.C., he is the son of journalist Bernard Nossiter. Raised in France, England, Italy, Greece and India, Nossiter studied painting at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the San Francisco Art Institute, as well as Ancient Greek at Dartmouth College. He worked as an assistant director in English theatre and on Adrian Lyne’s *Fatal Attraction* (1987). His other films include the award-winning *Sunday* (1997), the documentary *Mondovino* (2004) and *Rio Sex Comedy* (2010). He has also worked as a sommelier. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (1) - *Signs & Wonders* (2001), Fi1m 54, Screenplay, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/signs-and-wonders.md) ## Complete filmography (13) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Last Words* (2020), Producer, Director, Writer, Editor - *Desistenza a Milano* (2014), Director - *Resistenza alsaziana* (2014), Director - *Natural Resistance* (2014), Director of Photography, Producer, Director - *Rio Sex Comedy* (2010), Writer, Director, Editor, Producer - *OK* (2007), Executive Producer - *Mondovino: The Complete Series* (2005), series, Director, Editor, Producer, Creator - *Mondovino* (2004), Director, Editor, Writer, Producer, Cinematography - *Signs & Wonders* (2001), Director, Screenplay — Fi1m 54, [page](https://film.one/film/signs-and-wonders.md) - *Losing the Thread* (2000), Co-Producer, Cinematography, Editor, Director - *Searching for Arthur* (1998), Director - *Sunday* (1997), Director, Writer, Producer - *Resident Alien* (1990), Director, Producer, Writer, Editor ## Awards ### Other awards — 1 won, 1 nominated - César Award for Best Film from the European Union 2005: César Award for Best Film from the European Union (nominated), for *Mondovino* - Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award 1997: Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award (won), for *Sunday* *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/jonathan-nossiter