Robert Zemeckis has directed movies.
B. Vithalacharya or B. Vittalacharya ( 18 January 1920 -- 28 May 1999 ) was an Indian film director and producer known for his works in Telugu cinema , and Kannada cinema . Beowulf is a 2007 American 3D motion capture epic fantasy film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Neil Gaiman and Roger Avary , based on the Old English epic poem of the same name . Robert Zemeckis . Credited as `` one of the greatest visual storytellers in filmmaking '' , he first came to public attention in the 1980s as the director of Romancing the Stone ( 1984 ) and the science-fiction comedy Back to the Future film trilogy , as well as the live-action/animated comedy Who Framed Roger Rabbit ( 1988 ) . In the 1990s he diversified into more dramatic fare , including 1994 's Forrest Gump , for which he won an Academy Award for Best Director . The movies he has directed have ranged across a wide variety of genres , for both adults and families .