Surrealist filmmaker David Lynch has been nominated for three Oscars and has won awards at the Cannes and Venice film festivals.

Lynch enrolled in the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts in 1966 and created abstract and geometric art. He purchased his first camera in 1967 and made a series of short films now available on The Short Films of David Lynch DVD.

After moving to Los Angeles in 1971 he began planning Eraserhead at the American Film Institute. The film was finished and released in 1977. Mel Brooks was impressed with Eraserhead and hired Lynch to film The Elephant Man, for which he earned his first Oscar nomination.

Since The Elephant Man, Lynch has made a series of critically acclaimed films, including Blue Velvet, The Straight Story and Mulholland Drive. His 2006 film, Inland Empire, was met with mixed reviews based on its labyrinthine plot and three-hour length. It is the first of Lynch's films shot entirely with a digital camera.

• Note: The majority of the links in this timeline are to IMDb, which has pop-ups.

• January 20, 1946: Born in Missoula, Montana

• 1977: Eraserhead

• 1980: The Elephant Man

• 1984: Dune

• 1986: Blue Velvet

• 1990: Wild At Heart and Twin Peaks

• 1997: Lost Highway

• 1999: The Straight Story

• 2001: Mulholland Drive

• 2006: INLAND EMPIRE