Who directed Home Alone?

The American filmmaker Christopher Joseph Columbus, better known as Chris Columbus, directed Home Alone (1990) as well as Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).

Columbus was approached by fellow director John Hughes in the late 1980s to direct Home Alone (1990). The Chicago Tribune's Dave Kehr commended Columbus for his "wit and warmth" and Hughes for creating renowned characters. Since then, Home Alone has been considered a "classic" to watch over the holidays. Columbus returned in 1992 to direct Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, the follow-up to the original movie.

Columbus achieved success again for directing the 2001 and 2002 film adaptations of J. K. Rowling's books, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and its follow-up, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Columbus not only directed but also produced the drama The Help (2011), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, and he also produced Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004).

Who directed Home Alone?

The American filmmaker Chris Columbus directed the Christmas classic Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992).

Columbus, the only child of factory worker Mary Irene (née Puskar) and coal miner and aluminum plant worker Alex Michael Columbus, was born in Spangler, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Champion Heights, Ohio. He has Czech and Italian ancestry. He loved creating storyboards and Marvel Comics as a kid, and in high school, he started making 8mm movies.

He attended the Tisch Department of the Arts at New York University's film department after graduating from John F. Kennedy High School in Warren, Ohio, where he was a classmate with Alec Baldwin and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman. He was given a scholarship, but he neglected to renew it, so he had to work in a factory to pay for his education. He secretly wrote a 20-page screenplay during his shifts, which one of his instructors would later use to help him land an agency. According to Columbus, the event "saved my life" and allowed him to accept "the terrifying reality I faced of having to live and work in that factory for the rest of my life in that town if I didn't make it."

Columbus frequently explores characters who lose loved ones in his films, which are based on stories of unusual and dysfunctional families. His study of modern domesticity has earned him the reputation of a "sentimental" filmmaker. Also, Columbus is renowned for his "emotionally vivid scenes" and acknowledges that he is drawn to strong feelings.

Also read: Where to watch Home Alone?