Born David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946), an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist and musician. Known for his surrealist films, he has fashioned a unique cinematic style of his own. The "Lynchian" style is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound design. Lynch produced his first motion picture, the surrealist horror Eraserhead (1977). After Eraserhead became a cult classic on the midnight movie circuit, Lynch directed The Elephant Man (1980), for which he gained mainstream success followed by a the cult neo-noir crime film, Blue Velvet (1986). Proceeding to create his own television series with Mark Frost, the highly popular murder mystery Twin Peaks (1990–1992) and its prequel Fire Walk With Me (1992). Further exploring more surrealist filmmaking, his movies Lost Highway (1997), Mulholland Drive (2001) and Inland Empire (2006) all are characterized by "dream logic" non-linear narrative structures. Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director and a screenplay Academy Award nomination two César Awards for Best Foreign Film, as well as the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and a Golden Lion award for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival.