Other
Jonathan Nossiter
Sommelier
- Discipline
- Other
i. Biography
The Climb
Wine work and screen work both live or die on timing, sequencing, and the ability to read a room. In New York, Jonathan Nossiter has moved between the restaurant floor, the rehearsal room, and the cutting room, with wine as the constant throughline. As a sommelier and wine specialist at various New York restaurants, his practice sits in the same discipline as his film and theater work: attention to texture, pacing, and the way a room is held together. Formation across Beaux Arts, Paris, San Francisco Art Institute, and Dartmouth College points to a career built by crossing disciplines rather than staying in one lane. Jonathan Nossiter’s path runs from arts education into theater, film, and hospitality, with each field asking for a different kind of control over form. In that mix, the common ground is not style but craft: how details accumulate, how a sequence lands, how atmosphere is made coherent. Theater credits at The Newcastle Playhouse in England and King's Head in England placed Jonathan Nossiter in the working machinery of live performance, where collaboration and timing are not abstractions. Assistant director work calls for proximity to process, and those roles sit close to the practical center of a production. The later assistant to director role at Fatal Attraction in New York carried that same close-up view into a cinematic setting, where decisions are made in layers and under pressure. Writing, producing, and directing came into view with Resident Alien (1991), then continued through Sunday (1997) as producer, co-writer, director, and Searching for Arthur in New York (1997) as director. The work then moved through Signs and Wonders in Greece (2000) and Losing The Thread in Italy / United States (2001) as director, producer. Across those projects, Jonathan Nossiter worked in different registers and geographies without leaving behind authorship as a core concern. Mondovino (2004) brought producer, director, cinematographer, editor into the same credit line, a full-house set of roles that signals direct involvement in how the work was shaped from start to finish. Later directing credits at Rio Sex Comedy (2010) and Last Words (2020) extend that body of work across time. In parallel, the wine side of the practice remained active: as a sommelier; wine list creator and staff trainer including Balthazar, Rice, Il Buco, Man Ray, Roberta Sudbrack, Claude Troisgros, and Aprazivel in New York, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro, Jonathan Nossiter worked in restaurant environments where the list is built, taught, and carried into service. The double line of filmmaker and wine professional both depend on judgment inside systems. Jonathan Nossiter’s career has consistently involved arranging experience from within — whether through a scene, a project, or a wine list — and making sure the result can be read at the table, in the room, or on screen.
Today
Wine remains the current craft in New York, where Jonathan Nossiter works as a sommelier at various New York restaurants. The specialty is wine, and the work reads as steady rather than theatrical: selection, placement, and service carried from one room to the next with the discipline the trade requires.
Profile updated July 2026
FAQ
Asked of Jonathan
Where did Jonathan Nossiter train or study?
Jonathan Nossiter trained at Beaux Arts, Paris and San Francisco Art Institute.
What recognition has Jonathan Nossiter received?
Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for Best Film.
