Bob Degus - Biography

Biography

Producer of two Academy Award-nominated short films, two-time CableACE Award nominee and a Satellite Awards Nominee, Bob Degus started from the ground up and has, at one point or another, done almost every job in filmmaking; including writer, director, cinematographer, editor, post-production supervisor, Oxberry-animation cameraman, and most importantly, caterer. Growing up in Rochester, New York, his family has a long history of working for Eastman Kodak - Following somewhat in their footsteps, Bob wanted to make film as well - just not film stock. He wanted to take it a step further and actually make movies.

Degus directed the 2006 independent feature, 9/Tenths, starring Gabrielle Anwar, Henry Ian Cusick and Dave Ortiz. He also directed and edited a 35mm short film, Another Round that was invited to screen at the Los Angeles International Film Festival, received an award at the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival, and was subsequently purchased by Showtime for airing on their network. He has produced films starring Brad Pitt, Tobey Maguire, Reese Witherspoon, Gary Sinise, Vin Diesel, Elijah Wood, to name a few.

He likes to say he has produced or worked with more first time feature directors than just about any other producer in Hollywood, most notably producing Gary Ross' feature debut film, the triple Academy Award nominated Pleasantville which he produced alongside Steven Soderbergh and John Kilik. Bob continued to work with Gary Ross for the next five years.

He was the production executive on F. Gary Gray's highly successful feature-directorial debut film, Friday and also worked with Gray again on Set It Off (which was New Line's highest grossing film the year it was produced) and he later produced F. Gary Gray's A Man Apart.

Bob also worked as a production executive at New Line Cinema, where he oversaw Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Trial and Error with Jeff Daniels, B*A*P*S, with Halle Berry, to name a few; and numerous independent projects including the film adaptation of the Broadway play Love! Valour! Compassion!. Bob served as head of production at Chanticleer Films where he oversaw, produced or was directly involved with more than 40 short-features, directed by first-time directors, made under the auspices of the award winning The Discovery Program, which received more than seven Academy Award nominations during the period he oversaw the program, and literally hundreds of other awards from film festivals throughout the world.

He also produced and conceptualized Funk Blast, the premiere centerpiece attraction at Paul Allen's "Experience Music Project" Museum, in Seattle, where he brought together James Brown, Maceo Parker, Bootsy Collins, George Clinton, Chaka Kahn, and Herbie Hancock, producing a state-of-the-art 70mm ride-film, which dramatically advanced editing techniques in ride movies.

In the summer of 2005 Bob produced the low-budget independent feature Graduation alongside Jane Sindell, Jason Blum, Fred Fuchs, Robin Bradford and Scott Hansen.

In addition to all this, Bob is an avid photographer and an active, voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He regularly serves on the Foreign Language Film Award Nominating Committee and is a member of the executive board for his branch.