Gus Van Sant is an American filmmaker, best known for his films Good Will Hunting, Milk, and My Own Private Idaho. He has been nominated for two Academy Awards and won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2003 for his film Elephant. Van Sant's career began in the 1980s with the release of his first feature film Mala Noche. Since then, he has gone on to direct a variety of films, including the biopic Milk, the drama Finding Forrester, and the psychological thriller Psycho.