Darren Aronofsky was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. His latest film THE WRESTLER premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival where it won the esteemed Golden Lion. It is only the third American film in history to win this grand prize. One day later it was acquired by Fox Searchlight hours after its gala screening at the Toronto Film Festival.
Aronofsky’s previous feature, THE FOUNTAIN, a science-fiction romance which he wrote and directed, starred Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz. MTV’s Kurt Loder called the film “a classic; dazzling and visually intoxicating” and Glenn Kenny from Premiere stated that THE FOUNTAIN “may well restore your faith in the idea that a movie can take you out of the mundane and into a place of wonderment.”
In 1999, Aronofsky premiered REQUIEM FOR A DREAM at the Cannes Film Festival. The film was named to over 150 Top Ten lists of 2000 including the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly and the American Film Institute. The accolades continued with five Independent Spirit Award nominations, including one for Best Director and a win for Best Actress Ellen Burstyn. Burstyn also received Golden Globe and Academy Award® nominations for her stunning performance.
Aronofsky’s premier feature, ?, won the Director’s Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival and an Independent Spirit Award for Best First Screenplay.
In 2001, the American Film Institute honored Aronofsky with the prestigious Franklin J. Schaffner Alumni Medal. In 2007, the Stockholm Film Festival awarded Aronofsky the Golden Horse Visionary Award.

Mark Heyman was born and raised in New Mexico, and graduated from Brown University in 2002.
After attending NYU’s graduate film program, he began working as the director of development for Protozoa Pictures, the production company of filmmaker Darren Aronofsky (PI, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, THE FOUNTAIN).
Outside of his work at Protozoa, he co-wrote the screenplays for THE SKELETON TWINS, a finalist for the 2007 Sundance Screenwriting Lab, WORKING STIFFS which is being produced by Benderspink, and SARAHN_12, winner of the 2007 Sloan Feature Film Grant. Currently, he’s a co-producer on Aronofsky’s latest film, THE WRESTLER, starring Mickey Rourke, Marisa Tomei and Evan Rachel Wood.
Mark Heyman was awarded a Feature Production grant at NYU in 2007 for SARAHN_12

Andres Heinz attended UCLA and NYU film school where he completed his B.F.A with the highest honors; his thesis film "Ground Level B" was the winner of the 1st Place Mobil Award.
After graduation, Andres worked in film and television production, including Production Coordinator for the film unit at Saturday Night Live.
Andres went on to direct his first feature, "Origin of the Species" and has since sold several original screenplays.
"Black Swan" is based on his original screenplay "The Understudy."