Peter Cowie (born 24 December 1939) is a film historian and author of more than thirty books on film. In 1963 he was the founder/publisher and general editor of the annual International Film Guide, a survey of worldwide film production, which he continued to edit for forty years. Life and career Educated at Charterhouse School, and an exhibitioner in history at Magdalene College, Cambridge, he began writing about film in 1960. He has contributed to many of the world's leading newspapers and periodicals, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Sunday Times (London), the Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, Expressen, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Sight and Sound, Variety and Film Comment. His books include definitive surveys of the Scandinavian cinema, in particular the work of Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman. In fact, Cowie himself has said that he belongs to a generation whose life was changed by seeing The Seventh Seal. In 1963 he published the first edition of International Film Guide which he continued to publish annually for 40 years. During the period 1963–1988, he published almost 100 books on film by various authors at The Tantivy Press in London, including classics like Robin Wood's Hitchcock's Films. He also launched annual publications on sport (International Cycling Guide, International Running Guide), classical music (International Music Guide), television (International TV and Video Guide) and the Nordic area (The Scandinavian Guide). Other aspects of his work in the area of Scandinavian cinema include his service on the "Quality Awards" Jury of the Swedish Film Institute for 11 years from the 1970s where he was its only non-Nordic member. In 1989 he was decorated by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden with the Royal Order of the Polar Star for his services to Swedish culture. During the 1980s he spent several years in Finland, and since 1983 was the director of the Nordic Film Festival in Hanasaari, Helsinki. Cowie has been on various juries, at the Cannes, Venice, Berlin, and Tampere festivals. In 1989 he joined Variety and served as the international publishing director until 2000. After he joined, International Film Guide was published as Variety International Film Guide until 2006. In 1999, he edited The Variety Insider with detailed information on the year in entertainment as well as historical information. He is also interested in the work of American film directors as different as Francis Ford Coppola, Orson Welles, and