The Robert G. Silvers Memorial Seminar Series: Celebrating the Best of the Human Mind
Next seminar:
History, Humanity, and the Screen: Reflections of a Global Filmmaker
Friday, Oct. 10, 2025 at 10:00 a.m. in Moss A
Open to all current Osher members and other guests, by invitation.
Osher@Mizzou is proud to present the 2025 installment of the Robert G. Silvers Seminar Series: Celebrating the Best of the Human Mind, generously established by Sally Silvers in honor of her husband’s insatiable curiosity, wondrous intelligence, and humanity.
Robert was a beloved member of the Osher community who set records for course enrollment before becoming an instructor himself. His passion for the beauty of wood and opulent veneers was so great that he was teaching a woodworking course at Osher in 2008 when he became ill. Join Sally’s family, friends and fellow Osher members in honoring the legacy of one of the program’s most dedicated and caring instructors, someone who embodied the spirit of lifelong learning.
“Because of how my Robert loved this program, I wanted to give a gift to him and to our community by creating an endowment establishing The Robert G. Silvers Seminar Series: Celebrating the Best of the Human Mind. Robert wanted to learn everything ... all of the time. This tribute series is a bequest to all who seek, as he did, to grow in knowledge and understanding.” –Sally Silvers
Instructor: Daniel Dreifuss is an acclaimed film and television producer based in Los Angeles, with the rare distinction of having produced Oscar-contending films for two different countries: the Oscar-nominated No (2012) and the Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front (2022).
Born in the UK and raised in Rio de Janeiro and Columbia, Missouri, Dreifuss has worked globally on a wide range of celebrated projects. His most recent is Ghosts of Beirut, a limited series filmed in Morocco and released on Showtime and Paramount+ in 2023. The show chronicles the international manhunt for Imad Mughniyeh, one of the most significant espionage stories of our time.
Dreifuss also produced the critically acclaimed All Quiet on the Western Front, directed by Edward Berger and released by Netflix. Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022, the film won four Academy Awards and seven BAFTAs – the most ever for a non-English language film.
Earlier in his career, he produced No, directed by Pablo Larraín and starring Gael García Bernal. The film won the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes and screened at major international film festivals including NYFF, TIFF, Telluride, Tokyo, Sundance, and London. It was Chile’s first film to receive an Academy Award nomination. He later returned to Chile to produce You’ll Never Be Alone, which won the Teddy Award at the 2016 Berlinale.
Dreifuss holds an MFA in Producing from the American Film Institute and has served on juries at major international festivals, including the Queer Palm at Cannes, and festivals in Zurich, São Paulo, SANFIC, Rio de Janeiro, Guadalajara, and José Ignacio.