Boiler Room (film)

Boiler Room is a 2000 American crime drama film written and directed by Ben Younger and starring Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nia Long, Ben Affleck, Nicky Katt, Scott Caan, Tom Everett Scott, Ron Rifkin and Jamie Kennedy. This was based on real events. In the early and mid '90s Ben Younger worked for a brokerage firm called Kensington Wells in Mineola, NY, and conceived the idea that went on to become his first film, "Boiler Room". He spent a few years there and based the background for his screenplay on Matt DiMicco, one of the supervisors at Kensington at the time. DiMicco was Italian and had a crush on a sexy black sales assistant named Gail Kennard. These influenced to the point, the characters of Nicky Katt "DiMicco" and Nia Long "Kennard". The federal judge aspect of the film was based on one of the principals of Kensington was avoided jail because his own father was a retired judge from Long Island and had many connections to get his son, Adam Levy out of jail. Many of these people in real life were busted by the SEC and the US Attorneys office for wire fraud, mail fraud, extortion, stock fraud and many other crimes.

Boiler Room premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 28, 2000 before being released by New Line Cinema on February 18, 2000. The film received positive reviews from critics while grossing $28 million against a $7 million budget, and the film was nominated for several awards including a Black Reel Award, a British Independent Film Award and two Independent Spirit Awards. It won the Special Jury Prize at the 2000 Deauville Film Festival.