Samuel Gonzalez Jr.

Samuel Gonzalez Jr. is a Emmy-nominated, multi award winning film director and Iraq War Veteran. A 2013 graduate of the Los Angeles prestigious Art Center College of Design, Gonzalez's unique cinematic identity caught the eye of legendary Hollywood producer Edward R. Pressman (The Crow, American Psycho, Wall Street) who optioned his published Novel "The Chords of WAR" - a semi-autobiographical war story about his experience playing rock n roll while a soldier during the Iraq War. This professional relationship led Gonzalez to new opportunities in film and music videos. 'Railway Spine' a period war and crime drama and his feature film debut was nominated for the Chris Brinker Award for Best New Director and won the coveted Golden Eagle Award for Best Military Film at the 2016 San Diego International Film Festival, released on VOD and Amazon Prime in early 2020. He recently directed a psychological horror film ' The Springfield Three' centered around the true unsolved 1992 Springfield Missouri disappearance. To date, the film has been accepted in over 10 festivals and has garnered 12 nominations and 7 Best Short Film and 3 Best Director awards including Best Short film at the Crimson Screen Horror Film Fest. It received worldwide distribution by academy award qualifying ShortsTV and had its television premiere in November 2020. His novel 'The Chords of WAR was published by White Whisker Books in 2017 and won the Foreword Indies Book of the YEAR award. Acclaimed writer and television show runner Graham Yost (Band of Brothers, The Americans, Justified) called the book "Brilliant!" He recently co-directed the upcoming high octane thriller film 'The Retaliators' for Better Noise Films with the producers who brought you Netflix's 'The Dirt' - recently directing music videos for diverse artists such as 'Papa Roach, Escape the Fate, Eva under Fire and Grammy Award winner Kimbra for Warner Bros. Records. With over 20 short films, several commercials and music videos over the past decade, Samuel Gonzalez Jr. has firmly established himself as one of the industry's most sought out up and coming talents.