Zach has been around film sets almost his entire life. He started working in the film industry as a child actor, when his producer mom decided to put him in front of the camera. In these early years, he starred in many Canadian films and television shows, and by high school was creating his own body of work. By- passing college, he joined a filmmaking cooperative and combined his acting and filmmaking experiences with his natural skills in vfx and post production, to create visually stunning yet emotionally engaging films.
Crazy Late, his award winning short for the 2005 Crazy 8s, gained him notoriety amongst his filmmaking peers in Vancouver, as well as pushed him forward in the worldwide search for up and coming filmmakers for ‘On the Lot’, a television series produced by Steven Spielberg and Mark Burnett. At 23, Zach was the only Canadian to make it to the top 18, beating out 12,000 filmmakers. From the first filmmaking challenge, he quickly stood out from the pack and throughout the competition, his unique talents had the judges’ attention. He grew with each filmmaking challenge to reach the final weeks of the competition working with top Hollywood crews.
Finishing 5th on the show, Zach’s talents gained the attention of many industry professionals. He acquired LA Representation and began directing commercials and developing his own scripts. In late 2011, Zach directed his first feature length movie, ‘Tasmanian Devils’, a Syfy Original monster movie starring Danika McKeller (Wonder Years) and famed speed-skater, Apolo Ono.
Next, partnering with a group filmmaking friends from his childhood, Zach co-produced and was Special Effects Supervisor for ‘Afflicted’, a Canadian genre found footage film that sold at Cannes to CBS, Alliance Atlantis and Sony. In 2013 the film premiered at TIFF, winning Best Canadian First Feature. The film went on to win Best Picture, Screenplay and Direction at Austin Fantastic Fest and Best Special Effects at Sitges – Catalonian International Film Festival.
He then directed the reboot of the Leprechaun Franchise for Lionsgate and WWE Studios, ‘Leprechaun: Origin’s, which was released in August 2014.
Also in 2013, Zach was tapped by the Hollywood Reporter as one of the Next Generation: 20 Young Canadian Stars on the Rise in LA and in 2014, Playback, Canada’s Film Industry Magazine, featured him as one of The 2014 New Establishment – Top 5 to Watch.
Zach Lipovsky is the creative designer for the filmmakers app, Shot Lister. It allows the entire crew to keep in synch, rearrange schedules and shots on the fly and is available on iTunes. It was his frustrating experiences with a paper based shot listing and scheduling system, that was the catalyst for developing a better way to shot list.
Zach is directing his next feature in Vancouver for Legendary Films, Sony Pictures & Lorenzo di Bonaventura, ‘Dead Rising’. He is also working with Rhombus Media on ‘Dogs of War’, a comic book styled War of 1812 epic.
