JohnJacobsen

directed and produced the Emmy Award-winning national television show on PBS, The Artist Toolbox.  He directed the feature film Around the Fire (starring Tara Reid and Devon Sawa), which premiered at The Seattle International Film Festival and was nominated for its Best Independent Filmmaker’s Award, and which won Best Film at the Giffoni Film Festival in Italy. He has directed numerous shorts, including Arthur (Gold Medal of Excellence, Best of Fest Winner, 2 Accolade Awards, and selected for over 50 festivals), and Spinning, and served as the Creative Consultant on many films, recently on The Gift, supervising everything creative from script to casting to planning the shots to final cut. He co-produced the Columbia/Tri-Star feature Nervous Ticks; his other production credits include the HBO movie of the week, Danger of Love, John Frankenheimer's 52 Pick Up, and The Assassin. Several short films he produced won awards including the Aspen Film Festival and the gold, silver, and bronze awards at the Houston International Film.  He has directed over thirty stage productions regionally and in New York, as well as directing numerous commercials, documentaries and corporate videos, and worked as an assistant on Broadway and off to the legendary director, Hal Prince. He produced the Tribute to Katherine Dunham on CBS's Emmy Award-winning Kennedy Center Honors and worked under the Academy Award-winning documentary maker, Charles Guggenheim. He is the co-founder and former Executive Director of TheFilmSchool and served as its board President since its inception in 2003 until 2013. He was the Vice President of the ACT Theatre, one of the country’s leading regional theatres, and is on the Advisory Board of The New Century Theatre Company, Seattle’s most innovative Equity theatre company. John has sold numerous screenplays, won writing awards and competitions, been produced, and is a writer of short stories.  He is a script doctor, mentors directors and writers on their film and television projects, and has taught master classes in acting (film and stage), directing (film and stage) and writing all around the country and abroad at such fine institutions as The University of Washington, Seattle University, UCLA, Cornish College, Seattle Central Community College, Freehold and TheFilmSchool. He also speaks on the importance of STORY in filmmaking, branding and motivating.  He was a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute (AFI), a member of the honor society Omnicron Delta Kappa, has won numerous writing and directing awards, won several awards for his photography, and won the Big Brother of the Year Award.