Darren Aronofsky

Arthouse Hit
Aronofsky's debut film Pi, released in 1996, won both a Sundance Film Festival award and an Independent Spirit Award. Funded by Aronofsky himself, who famously collected $100 donations from family and friends, the film again stars Sean Gullette, who, this time plays a man who haunts New York City streets and obsesses about mysterious patterns of numbers that he believes guide the universe. The low-budget, $60,000 production was sold to Artisan Entertainment for $1 million and grossed over $3 million.