Raised up in a winter resort in eastern Switzerland

Left home for New York City at age 20

Graduated from NYU's prestigious film program

Made two documentary films for European television

Directed first feature "Loungers" which won the Slamdance Audience Award

Helmed the drama "Everything Put Together" about a woman coping with the loss of a child; premiered at the Sundance Film Festival

Directed Halle Barry in her Academy Award-winning performance as the wife of a man on death row in "Monster's Ball"

Directed Johnny Depp as Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie in "Finding Neverland"; received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director and was nominated by the Directors Guild for Outstanding Directorial Achievement

Directed the thriller "Stay" about a psychiatrist (Ewan McGregor) whose suicidal client (Ryan Gosling) makes some bizarre predictions that come true

Helmed the comedy "Stranger than Fiction," starring Will Ferrell as an IRS Agent whose world is turned upside-down when he begins to hear his life being chronicled by a narrator only he can hear

Directed the feature adaptation of Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner"; the film follows an Afghani-American man who returns to his war-ravaged country to save the son of his former best friend

Filmed the twenty-second James Bond film, "Quantum of Solace" starring Daniel Craig in the lead role