Paul Haggis

Filmmaker Paul Haggis’ screenwriting credits include back-to-back Best Picture winners: Million Dollar Baby in 2004 and Crash, which he also directed, in 2005. The Oscar for Crash is perhaps the most controversial best-picture victory in recent history, and Haggis has been through years of litigation over profits from the project. More recently, the filmmaker found himself making news of a different sort. In 2009, Haggis wrote a letter to a spokesperson for the Church of Scientology severing ties with the religion and denouncing many of the church’s practices. That letter of resignation later became public. Now, Haggis has written and directed a new movie, Third Person, his first to write and direct since his split with Scientology.