David Wark Griffith (1875–1948) was an American film director and producer, considered one of the most influential and innovative figures in the history of cinema. He is credited with codifying modern cinematic grammar, having experimented with and perfected fundamental narrative techniques such as the close-up, cross-cutting, and the fade. His most famous work, *The Birth of a Nation* (1915), was an epic film and an enormous commercial success, but it sparked fierce controversy for its glorification of the Ku Klux Klan. He responded to this with the ambitious *Intolerance* (1916). His other masterpieces include *Broken Blossoms* (1919) and *Way Down East* (1920). A co-founder of the United Artists studio in 1919, along with Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks, he received an honorary Academy Award in 1936 for his revolutionary contributions to the art of motion pictures. He remains a crucial figure in the evolution of film language, although his legacy is inextricably linked to the controversies sparked by his works.