--- name: "Terrence Malick" canonical: "https://film.one/person/terrence-malick" fi1m_id: "terrence-malick" imdb_id: "nm0000517" tmdb_id: 30715 wikidata_id: "Q215478" roles: ["Writer","Director"] born: "30 November 1943" reviewed_on_fi1m: 7 average_as: "writer" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-09-17T09:11:36.396179+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." --- # Terrence Malick ## Identity Terrence Malick - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/terrence-malick - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** terrence-malick - **IMDb ID:** nm0000517 - **TMDB ID:** 30715 - **Wikidata ID:** Q215478 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrence_Malick, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q215478, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000517/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/30715 Writer and director. Born 30 November 1943 in Ottawa, Illinois, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Writer, Director - **Born:** 30 November 1943, Ottawa, Illinois, USA - **Active:** 1973–2019 - **Also known as:** 테런스 맬릭, 泰倫斯·馬利克, Terry Malick, 테렌스 맬릭, Terrence Frederick Malick, Lingard Jervey - **Titles on Fi1m:** 7: 5 directing, 1 writing, 1 other - **Frequently works with:** [Grant Hill](https://film.one/person/grant-hill.md), [Sean Penn](https://film.one/person/sean-penn.md) - **Cannes Film Festival:** 2 Cannes prizes (2 won) - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1970s 88 (2), 1990s 84 (1), 2000s 78 (2), 2010s 83 (2) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrence_Malick, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q215478, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000517/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/30715 ## Fi1m on Terrence Malick > Terrence Malick has spent fifty years pointing a camera at grass, light and water while a whispered voice asks what it all means. The pictures are why we keep going back; the questions are asked more often than they need to be. We rate him, with our patience prepared. A man lies in the grass, or wades through it, and a low voice asks where the evil comes from, or what love is, or why anyone must die. Terrence Malick has been filming that shot, and asking that question, since *Badlands* (1973). The pictures are what bring us back. In *Days of Heaven* (1978) the wheat matters because work and money still decide what happens in it; in *The Thin Red Line* (1998) John Toll photographs the plants and animals with such care that the soldiers look like trespassers. We found those images unexpectedly upsetting, because they made the men's urge to destroy seem worse, and no line of narration did that work. The career comes in two halves with a long silence between. *Badlands* and *Days of Heaven* arrived five years apart, then nothing for nearly twenty years, then *The Thin Red Line*, *The New World* (2005) and *The Tree of Life* (2011), which sets the beginning of the universe beside a boy's troubles with his parents and takes both seriously. From 2012 he became busier and looser, with *To the Wonder* (2012), *Knight of Cups* (2015) and *Song to Song* (2017), films most critics found indulgent and formless; we have not reviewed them. *A Hidden Life* (2019) came back to a story you can follow, about an Austrian farmer who will not swear an oath to Hitler. What works is the method. He has said that when things become too prepared, the life comes out of them, and the films bear that out: Emmanuel Lubezki, his cinematographer on five of them, shoots in natural light in the last hour of daylight with a camera that drifts rather than sits, and Jack Fisk, on five as well, builds rooms people appear to have lived in. Actors do well in that air. Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek make the lovers in *Badlands* compelling company, Linda Manz's dry narration keeps *Days of Heaven* from grandeur, and Jessica Chastain gives *The Tree of Life* a mother when the script wanted an emblem. What does not work is the writing, which is awkward for a man credited as writer on all of it. The voiceover asks questions after the pictures have already raised them. Different soldiers in *The Thin Red Line* begin to sound alike. In *A Hidden Life* August Diehl shows the farmer's resolve and Malick then explains it again, while three editors let scenes overlap and return until we are waiting for the film to move on; *The Tree of Life* needed five editors and still repeats itself past the point. His best writing is probably in *Badlands*, where the lovers barely understand themselves and the film declines to understand them on their behalf. His oddest credit is a shared screenplay on Steven Soderbergh's *Che: Part Two* (2008), which keeps close to Guevara's campaign diary and explains nothing at all. He is at his best when he trusts the picture and says nothing. Give him an uninterrupted evening, and expect to be told the important thing twice. ## Biography Terrence Malick is an American film director and screenwriter. He was born on 30 November 1943 in Ottawa, Illinois. His early feature films as director and writer are *Badlands* (1973) and *Days of Heaven* (1978). After a long hiatus Malick returned with *The Thin Red Line* (1998). Subsequent films include *The New World* (2005), *The Tree of Life* (2011), *To the Wonder* (2012), *Knight of Cups* (2015), *Song to Song* (2017) and *A Hidden Life* (2019). He wrote the screenplay for *Che: Part Two* (2008). *Sources: imdb.com, britannica.com, en.wikipedia.org, moviefone.com.* ## On Fi1m (7) ### Directed (5) - *A Hidden Life* (2019), Fi1m 82, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/a-hidden-life.md) - *The Tree of Life* (2011), Fi1m 84, Writer, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/the-tree-of-life.md) - *The Thin Red Line* (1998), Fi1m 84, Director, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/the-thin-red-line.md) - *Days of Heaven* (1978), Fi1m 85, as Mill Worker (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/days-of-heaven.md) - *Badlands* (1973), Fi1m 91, as Caller at Rich Man's House (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/badlands.md) ### Wrote (1) — the average rests on these - *Che: Part Two* (2008), Fi1m 76, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/che-part-two.md) ### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited - *Gone Baby Gone* (2007), Fi1m 79, Thanks — [page](https://film.one/film/gone-baby-gone.md) ## Complete filmography (49) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *I’m Glad You’re Dead Now* (2025), Thanks - *All Illusions Must Be Broken* (2024), Executive Producer - *Evolver* (2023), Executive Producer - *A Cooler Climate* (2022), Thanks - *Towards a Dream in the USA* (2022), Director - *Leading the Electric Revolution and Sustainability* (2021), Director - *The Book Of Vision* (2021), Executive Producer - *Awaken* (2021), Executive Producer - *Everybody’s Everything* (2019), Executive Producer - *A Hidden Life* (2019), Director, Writer — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/a-hidden-life.md) - *Filmed on Pixel 3* (2018), Director - *Thy Kingdom Come* (2018), Thanks - *Together* (2018), Director - *The Spearhead Effect* (2017), Executive Producer - *Song to Song* (2017), Director, Writer - *Voyage of Time: Life's Journey* (2017), Director, Writer - *Mon Guerlain: Notes of a Woman* (2017), Director - *Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience* (2016), Director, Writer - *The Vessel* (2016), Executive Producer - *Look & See: A Portrait of Wendell Berry* (2016), Executive Producer - *Knight of Cups* (2015), Director, Writer - *Almost Holy* (2015), Executive Producer - *The Seventh Fire* (2015), Executive Producer - *The Better Angels* (2014), Producer - *Red Wing* (2013), Executive Producer - *To the Wonder* (2013), Director, Writer - *The Tree of Life* (2011), Director, Writer — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/the-tree-of-life.md) - *Che: Part Two* (2008), Screenplay — Fi1m 76, [page](https://film.one/film/che-part-two.md) - *Gone Baby Gone* (2007), Thanks — Fi1m 79, [page](https://film.one/film/gone-baby-gone.md) - *The Unforeseen* (2007), Executive Producer - *Amazing Grace* (2006), Producer - *The New World* (2005), Director, Screenplay - *Undertow* (2004), Producer, Story - *The Beautiful Country* (2004), Producer, Story - *Bear's Kiss* (2002), Story - *The Grey Zone* (2001), Thanks - *Happy Times* (2000), Executive Producer - *Endurance* (1999), Producer - *The Thin Red Line* (1998), Director, Screenplay — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/the-thin-red-line.md) - *Good Will Hunting* (1997), Thanks — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/good-will-hunting.md) - *Days of Heaven* (1978), as Mill Worker (uncredited) · Director, Writer — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/days-of-heaven.md) - *The Dion Brothers* (1974), Writer - *Badlands* (1973), as Caller at Rich Man's House (uncredited) · Director, Producer, Writer — Fi1m 91, [page](https://film.one/film/badlands.md) - *Deadhead Miles* (1972), Screenplay - *Pocket Money* (1972), as Worksman (uncredited) · Screenplay - *Drive, He Said* (1971), as Additional Writing - *Lanton Mills* (1969), as Tilman · Writer, Director, Music - *Halo of Stars*, Executive Producer - *The Way of the Wind*, Writer, Director ## Gallery - ![Terrence Malick shooting the film Days of Heaven (1978). (2013)](https://film.one/media/person/9548/gallery-0a38b9178588.jpg) Terrence Malick shooting the film Days of Heaven (1978). (2013) — Jester-being, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/62/Malick%2C_Days_of_Heaven.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Terrence Malick](https://film.one/media/person/9548/gallery-dbb660377783.jpg) Terrence Malick — Image via TMDB - ![Terrence Malick](https://film.one/media/person/9548/gallery-623d2af0438e.jpg) Terrence Malick — Image via TMDB - ![Terrence Malick](https://film.one/media/person/9548/gallery-e4192bc580e6.jpg) Terrence Malick — Image via TMDB - ![Terrence Malick](https://film.one/media/person/9548/gallery-56f578bd2046.jpg) Terrence Malick — Image via TMDB - ![Terrence Malick](https://film.one/media/person/9548/gallery-ab60362dfa69.jpg) Terrence Malick — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 3 nominated - 2012: Best Director (nominated), for *The Tree of Life* - 1999: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (nominated), for *The Thin Red Line* - 1999: Best Director (nominated), for *The Thin Red Line* ### Cannes Film Festival — 2 won - 2011: Palme d'Or (won), for *The Tree of Life* - 1979: Cannes Best Director Award (won), for *Days of Heaven* ### Berlin International Film Festival — 1 won - 1999: Golden Bear (won), for *The Thin Red Line* ### Other awards — 1 won - Rhodes Scholarship 1966: Rhodes Scholarship (won) *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/terrence-malick