Steven Soderbergh’s Media Diet for 2019

Every year, director Steven Soderbergh publishes a list of the movies, books, TV series, short films, and short stories he’s watched and read over the course of the year (one of the inspirations for my media diet posts). For many creators, the key to making good work is to read and watch widely with an emphasis on quality — it’s difficult make great work if your ingredients are poor — so Soderbergh’s 2019 list is a fascinating look at the director’s inputs for the next year’s creative endeavors.

Some observations:

• The pace here is incredible…2,3,4 movies in a day, several episodes of TV shows in a sitting.
• He didn’t watch Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker but did watch the Kenobi fan film.
• He binged Succession in three days. Finishing Fleabag took him more than a month.
• He watched Marriage Story and The Irishman on the same day.
• One day he did a mini Mike Judge film festival: Office Space and Idiocracy.
• I remember from past lists that he watches some movies over and over…that doesn’t seem to be the case this year.

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