Spencer Susser is an American film director

Film director

A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 and screenwriter

Screenwriter

Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

.

Susser is the only American member of the Australian filmmaking collective Blue-Tongue Films. His short film I Love Sarah Jane, featuring Mia Wasikowska

Mia Wasikowska

Mia Wasikowska is an Australian actress. After starting her career in Australian television and film, she first became known to a wider audience following her critically acclaimed work on the HBO television series In Treatment...

, won Best Narrative Short at the 2008 Nashville Film Festival

Nashville Film Festival

The Nashville Film Festival , held annually in Nashville, Tennessee, is the oldest running film festival in the South and one of the oldest in the United States. In 2009, Nashville Film Festival received close to 2000 submissions from 86 countries, programmed nearly 260 films and had an attendance...

, the Reel Frontier Merit Award at the Arizona International Film Festival

Arizona International Film Festival

The Arizona International Film Festival is the oldest and longest running independent film festival in Arizona. Taking place yearly, film programmes include a mix of shorts, children's films, feature length films, documentaries and animation films. The festival is also a Film Festival Grant...

, and the Canal+

Canal+

Canal+ is a French premium pay television channel launched in 1984. It is 80% owned by the Canal+ Group, which in turn is owned by Vivendi SA. The channel broadcasts several kinds of programming, mostly encrypted...

 Award at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival. Susser co-wrote the project with David Michôd

David Michôd

David Michôd is an Australian filmmaker, director of the highly acclaimed Animal Kingdom in 2010.-Education and early career:Michôd was educated at Sydney Grammar School before moving to Melbourne to study arts at the University of Melbourne. After working for the Victorian Department of Education...

. In February 2011, it was reported that Susser is developing a feature-length film based on the short.

His feature film debut Hesher

Hesher (film)

Hesher is a 2010 American dark comedy/drama film written and directed by Spencer Susser and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Rainn Wilson, and Natalie Portman. First screened at the Sundance Film Festival January 22, 2010, the film was released in the United States on May 13, 2011...

stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt is an American actor whose career as both a child and adult has included television series and theatrical films....

 and Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman

Natalie Hershlag , better known by her stage name Natalie Portman, is an actress with dual American and Israeli citizenship. Her first role was as an orphan taken in by a hitman in the 1994 French action film Léon, but major success came when she was cast as Padmé Amidala in the Star Wars prequel...

. It appeared at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival

Sundance Film Festival

The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...

and was released in the United States on May 13, 2011.

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