William Friedkin

William Friedkin (1935–2023) was one of the fiercest and most technically adventurous directors of the 1970s New Hollywood renaissance. Honing a raw documentary aesthetic in Chicago television, Friedkin burst into cinematic history with The French Connection (1971), starring Gene Hackman as Popeye Doyle.

Featuring the most exhilarating and authentic car chase ever filmed under the Brooklyn elevated train, the film won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. He followed this with The Exorcist (1973), an atmospheric supernatural masterpiece adapted from William Peter Blatty's novel that became a massive global box office sensation and the first horror film nominated for Best Picture.

Friedkin's thrilling filmography also includes the existential thriller Sorcerer (1977), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), and Killer Joe (2011), standing as an uncompromising visionary of visceral cinema.