1989: directorial debut After Soderbergh returned to Baton Rouge, he wrote the screenplay for
Sex, Lies, and Videotape on a
legal pad during an eight-day cross-country drive. The film tells the story of a troubled man who videotapes women discussing their lives and sexuality, and his impact on the relationship of a married couple. Soderbergh submitted
Sex, Lies, and Videotape to the
1989 Cannes Film Festival where, at age 26, he became the youngest solo director to win the
Palme d'Or, the top prize. Its critical performance led it to become a worldwide commercial success, grossing $36.7 million on a $1.2 million budget.
Sex, Lies, and Videotape is considered to be the most influential catalyst of the 1990s
Independent Cinema movement. Film critic
Roger Ebert called Soderbergh the "
poster boy of the
Sundance generation". His relative youth and sudden rise to prominence in the film industry had him referred to as a "sensation" and a prodigy. In 2006,
Sex, Lies, and Videotape was selected by the
Library of Congress for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", and the
American Film Institute nominated it as one of the greatest movies ever made.
1990–1997: critical and commercial downturn Soderbergh's directorial debut was followed by a series of low-budget box-office disappointments. In 1991, he directed
Kafka, a biographical film of
Franz Kafka written by
Lem Dobbs and starring
Jeremy Irons. The film returned one tenth of its budget and received mixed reviews from critics.
Roger Ebert's review stated: "Soderbergh does demonstrate again here that he's a gifted director, however unwise in his choice of project". Two years later, he directed the drama
King of the Hill (1993), which again underperformed commercially, but fared well with critics. Based on the memoir of writer
A. E. Hotchner, the film is set during the
Great Depression and follows a young boy (played by
Jesse Bradford) struggling to survive on his own in a hotel in
St. Louis after his mother falls ill and his father is away on business trips. Also in 1995, he directed a remake of
Robert Siodmak's 1949 film noir
Criss Cross, titled
The Underneath, which grossed $536,020 on a $6.5 million budget and was widely panned by critics. Soderbergh has since called the film "dead on arrival" and described the making of it as his bottoming out. Soderbergh, formerly a member of
Writers Guild of America West, left and maintained
financial core status in 1995. Soderbergh directed
Schizopolis in 1996, a comedy which he starred in, wrote, composed and shot as well as directed. The film was submitted to the
Cannes Film Festival to such a "chilly response" that he reworked the entire introduction and conclusion before releasing it commercially. In the movie's introduction, he said: "In the event that you find certain sequences or events confusing, please bear in mind this is your fault, not ours. You will need to see the picture again and again until you understand everything". He starred in
Schizopolis as Fletcher Munson, a spokesman for a
Scientology-esque lifestyle cult, and again as Dr. Jeffrey Korchek, a dentist having an affair with Munson's wife. During the months following his debut of
Schizopolis, he released a small, edited version of the
Spalding Gray monologue film ''
Gray's Anatomy.
Soderbergh would later refer to Schizopolis'' as his "artistic wake-up call".
1998–2008: reemergence and ''Ocean's'' trilogy Soderbergh's reemergence began in 1998 with
Out of Sight, a stylized adaptation of an
Elmore Leonard novel, written by
Scott Frank and starring
George Clooney and
Jennifer Lopez. The film was widely praised, though only a moderate box-office success. The critical reception of the movie began a multi-movie artistic partnership between Clooney and Soderbergh. Soderbergh followed up on the success of
Out of Sight by making another crime caper,
The Limey (1999), from a screenplay by
Lem Dobbs and starring actors
Terence Stamp and
Peter Fonda. The film was well-received and established him within the
cinematic niche of thriller and heist films. He ventured into his first biographical film since Kafka in 2000 when he directed
Erin Brockovich, written by
Susannah Grant and starring
Julia Roberts in her
Oscar-winning role as a single mother taking on industry in a civil action. In late 2000, Soderbergh released
Traffic, a social drama written by
Stephen Gaghan and featuring an ensemble cast.
Time compared him to a baseball player hitting
home runs with
Erin Brockovich and
Traffic.
(pictured) in his transition from
independent to
studio filmmaking. In early 2001, he was approached to direct ''
Ocean's Eleven, a reboot of the 1960s Rat Pack-movie Ocean's 11'' written by
Ted Griffin. After Griffin wrote the screenplay, Soderbergh signed on to direct. The film opened to critical acclaim and widespread commercial success. It quickly became Soderbergh's highest-grossing movie to date, grossing more than $183 million domestically and more than $450 million worldwide.
Rolling Stone credited the movie with "[spawning] a new era of heist movies". A year later, he was asked by executives at
Warner Bros Studios to direct the psychological thriller
Insomnia (2002), starring Academy Award winners
Al Pacino,
Robin Williams, and
Hilary Swank. Despite their insistence, Soderbergh declined, preferring to see it directed by up-and-coming director
Christopher Nolan. Before returning to the ''Ocean's
series, Soderbergh directed K Street (2003), a ten-part political HBO series he co-produced with George Clooney. The series was both partially improvised and each episode being produced in the five days prior to airing to take advantage of topical events that could be worked into the fictional narrative. Actual political players appeared as themselves, either in cameos or portraying fictionalized versions of themselves, notably James Carville and Mary Matalin. Matt Singer of IndieWire called it a "Great Sequel About How Hard It Is to Make a Great Sequel." Also in 2004, Soderbergh produced and co-wrote the adapted screenplay for the film Criminal—a remake of the Argentine film Nine Queens''—with his longtime assistant director
Gregory Jacobs, who made his directorial debut with the film. A year later, Soderbergh directed
Bubble (2005), a $1.6 million film featuring a cast of nonprofessional actors. It opened in selected theaters and
HDNet simultaneously, and four days later on
DVD. Industry heads were reportedly watching how the film performed, as its unusual release schedule could have implications for future feature films. Theater-owners, who at the time had been suffering from dropping attendance rates, did not welcome so-called "
day-and-date" movies.
National Association of Theatre Owners chief executive John Fithian indirectly called the film's release model "the biggest threat to the viability of the
cinema industry today." Soderbergh's response to such criticism: "I don't think it's going to destroy the movie-going experience any more than the ability to get takeout has destroyed the restaurant business." A romantic drama set in post-war Berlin,
The Good German, starring
Cate Blanchett and Clooney, was released in late 2006. The film performed poorly commercially grossing $5.9 million worldwide against a budget of $32 million. Soderbergh next directed ''
Ocean's Thirteen, which was released in June 2007 to further commercial success and increased critical acclaim. Grossing $311.3 million on an $85 million budget, it is the second highest-grossing film of his career after the first Ocean's
. The film concluded what would later be known as the Ocean's
trilogy, a collection of heist movies that would go on to be described as defining a new era of heist films. Soderbergh directed Che, which was released in theaters in two parts, titled The Argentine
and Guerrilla
, and was presented in the main competition of the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, on May 22. Benicio del Toro played the Argentine guerrilla Ernesto "Che" Guevara in an epic four-hour double bill which looks first at his role in the Cuban Revolution before moving to his campaign and eventual death in Bolivia. Soderbergh shot his feature film The Girlfriend Experience'' in New York in 2008. Soderbergh cast adult film star
Sasha Grey as the film's lead actress to great reception and controversy.
2009–2016: mainstream success and brief hiatus Soderbergh's first film of 2009 was
The Informant!, a black comedy starring
Matt Damon as corporate whistleblower
Mark Whitacre. Whitacre wore a wire for years for the
FBI as a high-level executive at a
Fortune 500 company,
Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), in one of the largest
price-fixing cases in history. The film was released on September 18, 2009. The script for the movie was written by
Scott Z. Burns based on
Kurt Eichenwald's book,
The Informant. The film grossed $41 million on a $22 million budget and received generally favorable reviews from critics. Also in 2009, Soderbergh shot a small improvised film with the cast of the play,
The Last Time I Saw Michael Gregg, a comedy about a theatre company staging Chekhov's
Three Sisters. He has stated that he does not want it seen by the public, and only intended it for the cast. Soderbergh nearly filmed a feature adaptation of the baseball book
Moneyball, starring
Brad Pitt and
Jonah Hill. The book, by
Michael Lewis, tells of how
Billy Beane, general manager of
Oakland Athletics, used
statistical analysis to make up for what he lacked in funds to beat the odds and lead his team to a series of notable wins in 2002. Disagreements between Sony and Soderbergh about revisions to
Steven Zaillian's version of the screenplay led to Soderbergh's dismissal from the project only days prior to filming in June 2009. In 2010, Soderbergh shot the action-thriller
Haywire, starring
Gina Carano,
Ewan McGregor,
Michael Fassbender and
Channing Tatum which, though shot in early 2010, was not released until January 2012. '' at the 2013
Cannes Film Festival In 2010, Soderbergh shot the epic virus thriller
Contagion, another film written by Burns. With a cast including Damon,
Kate Winslet,
Gwyneth Paltrow,
Laurence Fishburne,
Marion Cotillard and
Jude Law, the film follows the outbreak of a lethal
pandemic across the globe and the efforts of doctors and scientists to discover the cause and develop a cure. Soderbergh premiered it at the
68th Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy on September 3, 2011, and released it to the general public six days later to commercial success and widespread critical acclaim. It grossed $135.5 million on a $60 million budget, and
Manohla Dargis of
The New York Times called it a "smart, spooky thriller about a thicket of contemporary plagues—a killer virus, rampaging fear, an unscrupulous blogger—is as ruthlessly effective as the malady at its cool, cool center." In August 2011, Soderbergh served as a
second unit director on
The Hunger Games and filmed much of the District 11 riot scene. In September and October 2011, he shot
Magic Mike, a film starring Tatum, about the actor's experiences working as a male stripper in his youth. Tatum played the title mentor character, while
Alex Pettyfer played a character based on Tatum. The film was released on June 29, 2012, to a strong commercial performance and favorable critical acclaim. Throughout 2012, Soderbergh had announced his intention to retire from feature filmmaking. He stated that "when you reach the point where you're saying, 'If I have to get into a van to do another scout, I'm just going to shoot myself,' it's time to let somebody who's still excited about getting in the van, get in the van." Soderbergh later said that he would retire from filmmaking and begin to explore painting. A few weeks later, Soderbergh played down his earlier comments, saying a filmmaking "
sabbatical" was more accurate. For his then-final feature film, he directed the psychological thriller
Side Effects, which starred Law,
Rooney Mara, Tatum and
Catherine Zeta-Jones. It was shot in April 2012 and was released on February 8, 2013. Screened at the
63rd Berlin International Film Festival,
A. O. Scott of
The New York Times stated that Soderbergh "[handled] it brilliantly, serving notice once again that he is a crackerjack genre technician." In the end, while promoting
Side Effects in early 2013, he clarified that he had a five-year plan that saw him transitioning away from making feature films around his fiftieth birthday. Around that time, he gave a much publicized speech at the
San Francisco International Film Festival, detailing the obstacles facing filmmakers in the current corporate Hollywood environment. Soderbergh had planned to commence production in early 2012 on a feature version of
The Man from U.N.C.L.E., also written by Burns.
George Clooney was set for the lead role of
Napoleon Solo but had to drop out due to a recurring back injury suffered while filming
Syriana. In November 2011 Soderbergh withdrew from the project due to budget and casting conflicts, and was eventually replaced by
Guy Ritchie. His final televised project before heading into retirement was
Behind the Candelabra. Shot in the summer of 2012, it starred
Michael Douglas as legendarily flamboyant pianist
Liberace and Damon as his lover
Scott Thorson. The film is written by
Richard LaGravenese, based on Thorson's book
Behind the Candelabra: My Life with Liberace, and produced by
HBO Films. It was selected to compete for the
Palme d'Or at the
2013 Cannes Film Festival. In May 2013—only months into his retirement—Soderbergh announced that he would direct a ten-part miniseries for
Cinemax called
The Knick. The series followed doctors at a fictionalized version of the
Knickerbocker Hospital in Manhattan in the early twentieth century. The series starred
Clive Owen,
Andre Holland,
Jeremy Bobb,
Juliet Rylance,
Eve Hewson and
Michael Angarano and was filmed in 2013. It began airing in August 2014 to critical acclaim. After completing the second season, Soderbergh revealed he was finished directing for the show, and said: "I told them [Cinemax] that I'm going to do the first two years and then we are going to break out the story for seasons 3 and 4 and try and find a filmmaker or filmmakers to do this the way that I did. This is how we want to do this so that every two years, whoever comes on, has the freedom to create their universe." in 2014 After his work with
The Knick, Soderbergh began working on a variety of personal projects starting with directing an
Off-Broadway play titled
The Library, starring
Chloë Grace Moretz in January 2014. On February 24, 2014, Soderbergh released a mash-up of Alfred Hitchcock's
Psycho (1960) and Gus Van Sant's
1998 shot-by-shot remake on his website, titled
Psychos. On April 21, 2014, Soderbergh released an alternate cut of
Michael Cimino's controversial 1980 Western ''
Heaven's Gate'' on his website. Credited to his pseudonym Mary Ann Bernard and dubbed "The Butcher's Cut", Soderbergh's version runs 108 minutes. On September 22, 2014, he uploaded a black-and-white silent version of
Raiders of the Lost Ark, with
Trent Reznor and
Atticus Ross's score of
The Social Network. The purpose of it is to study the aspects of
staging in filmmaking. It was announced in June 2014 that Soderbergh would be executive producing a series based on his earlier film
The Girlfriend Experience for the
Starz network, to premiere sometime in 2016. In September 2015, Soderbergh was announced to be directing
Mosaic, a series for HBO. Starring
Sharon Stone, it was a dual-media project; it was released as both an
interactive movie app in November 2017 and as a six-part miniseries airing in January 2018.
2016–present: return to filmmaking In February 2016, Soderbergh officially came out of his retirement to direct a
NASCAR heist film,
Logan Lucky, starring
Channing Tatum,
Adam Driver, and
Daniel Craig, among others. The film was produced entirely by Soderbergh, with no studio involved in anything other than
theatrical distribution. The film was released on August 18, 2017, by
Bleecker Street and Fingerprint Releasing, his own distribution and production company.
Logan Lucky was met with widespread critical acclaim;
Matt Zoller Seitz writing for
RogerEbert.com stated: "The odds seem stacked in
Logan Lucky's favor the instant you spot 'Directed by Steven Soderbergh' in the
opening credits". In July 2017, it was revealed that Soderbergh had also secretly shot a horror film using
iPhones titled
Unsane, and starring
Claire Foy and
Juno Temple. The film was released on March 23, 2018 and was well received by critics, with Scott Meslow of
GQ noting its relevance to the modern plight of women in
patriarchal societies, and called it a "nerve-jangling modern-day
Kafka story". His usage of an iPhone in
4K to film the movie was considered "inspirational to aspiring filmmakers" for breaking down the perceived costs associated with producing a feature film in the United States. In 2018, Soderbergh directed
High Flying Bird, starring
Andre Holland who played the role of a sports agent representing his rookie client with an intriguing and controversial business opportunity during an
NBA lockout. The film began production in February 2018 and was released on February 8, 2019, by
Netflix. Soderbergh's film
The Laundromat is a political thriller about the international leak of the
Panama Papers, written by
Scott Z. Burns and based on the book
Secrecy World, by Pulitzer Prize-winner
Jake Bernstein. It stars
Meryl Streep,
Gary Oldman,
Antonio Banderas,
Jeffrey Wright,
Matthias Schoenaerts,
James Cromwell and
Sharon Stone and premiered at the
Venice Film Festival on September 1, 2019 before airing on Netflix. Soderbergh's 2020 film
Let Them All Talk, was written by
Deborah Eisenberg, and starred
Meryl Streep,
Candice Bergen,
Gemma Chan,
Lucas Hedges and
Dianne Wiest. It was shot in 2019, primarily aboard the ocean liner , and also in New York and the UK, and premiered on December 10, 2020, on
HBO Max.
No Sudden Move (formerly
Kill Switch) is a 1950s period crime film shot in Detroit from September to November 2020. From
Mosaic writer
Ed Solomon, it stars
Don Cheadle,
Benicio del Toro,
David Harbour,
Amy Seimetz,
Jon Hamm,
Ray Liotta,
Kieran Culkin,
Brendan Fraser,
Noah Jupe,
Bill Duke,
Frankie Shaw and
Julia Fox. It had its world premiere at the
Tribeca Film Festival on June 18, 2021. It was released on
HBO Max on July 1, 2021.
Kimi, released on HBO Max in 2022, was shot in Seattle and Los Angeles in April and May 2021. It stars
Zoë Kravitz as an agoraphobic tech worker who discovers evidence of a violent crime, and reunites Soderbergh with
Traffic actors
Erika Christensen and
Jacob Vargas. ''
Magic Mike's Last Dance, was filmed in London in early 2022. This third episode in the Magic Mike'' franchise brought back Channing Tatum and also introduced
Salma Hayek to the series. The film was originally set to premiere on HBO Max, but was instead released in theaters on February 10, 2023.
Full Circle is a six-part miniseries starring
Zazie Beetz,
Claire Danes,
Jharrel Jerome and
Timothy Olyphant. It was written by Ed Solomon, who also wrote
Mosaic, and follows "an investigation into a botched kidnapping" that "uncovers long-held secrets connecting multiple characters and cultures in present-day New York City". It premiered on
Max on July 13, 2023. Also in July 2023, Soderbergh debuted his science fiction web series
Command Z, which is inspired by
Kurt Andersen's 2020 book,
Evil Geniuses: The Unmaking of America. His film,
Presence, a haunted house thriller starring
Lucy Liu and
Julia Fox, premiered at the
2024 Sundance Film Festival. Soderbergh filmed the 2025 spy thriller
Black Bag, written by
Kimi and
Presence screenwriter
David Koepp and starring
Cate Blanchett and
Michael Fassbender, from May to June 2024 in London. He also produced the Off-Broadway play
The Fears, his first stage credit. He shot
The Christophers, a dark comedy from
Full Circle writer Solomon, in London in early 2025. It stars
Ian McKellen,
Michaela Coel and
James Corden and premiered in September 2025 at the
Toronto International Film Festival. In April 2025, it was announced that he was at work on a documentary about the final interview given by
John Lennon and
Yoko Ono. == Filmmaking ==