Friday, Jan. 26, 2024

The awards season norm has seen the nearly annual occurrence of at least one difference between the lineups of Best Director Oscar and the DGA Award nominees. In only five of the 76 years of the DGA Awards have the Guild nominations exactly mirrored their Academy Award counterparts.

This...

Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024

The field of feature film nominees for the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Awards spanning two categories is set. Nominated for the DGA honor for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Theatrical Feature Film for 2023 are Greta Gerwig for Barbie, Yorgos Lanthimos for Poor Things...

Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023

When Paul Giamatti made "Sideways" with Alexander Payne, he stayed in a little house in the middle of a large vineyard. At the end of a day of shooting, he would drive home in darkness, with the California hills around him.

Giamatti was then a respected character actor, but this was one...

Friday, Oct. 27, 2023

On The Holdovers (Focus Features), director Alexander Payne fell in love with making period films. From the experience, Payne--an avid history reader who majored in the subject in college--said he realized that a period movie is “the next best thing to time travel.”

At the same...

Monday, Oct. 23, 2023

Alexander Payne brings audiences to a New England boarding school in 1970 in " The Holdovers," a textured, nostalgic and often funny piece about three lonely and mismatched souls stuck together over Christmas break. It's a keeper and possibly even destined to become a classic.

The holiday...

Wednesday, Sep. 6, 2023

The great films of the 1970s have long loomed in the imagination of filmmakers raised during one of the most fertile periods of American movies. But Alexander Payne wanted to take it a step further.

Payne's latest film, "The Holdovers," isn't just set in 1970, it seeks to imbibe the...

Thursday, Jun. 3, 2021

The Tribeca Festival has named the 2021 jury members who will select winning projects in the film, immersive, games and the festivals all new podcasts competition sections. The Festival has increased to 14 different competition categories where jurors will honor winning storytellers and creators...

Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2017

It's hard to say what's better about the first half of Alexander Payne's wonderfully weird — or is it weirdly wonderful? — "Downsizing": the audacity of its premise, or the delicious skill with which Payne executes that premise, detail by comically ingenious detail.

The fact that the film...

Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017

There are rituals to an Alexander Payne production. Movie nights on Wednesdays during pre-production at Payne's house, with pizza and soft drinks. Friday-night screenings during post-production with martinis. And, reliably, an endless struggle to secure financing.

"Only one studio guy...

Thursday, Dec. 7, 2017

Editor Kevin Tent and casting director John Jackson share a common bond--a lengthy, ongoing collaborative relationship with director/writer Alexander Payne, their latest round of creative togetherness having been on Downsizing (Paramount Pictures), a feature that’s part sci-fi, part...

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