11 New and Upcoming Films from Columbia Grads

Elle Fanning and Timothee Chalamet in A Complete Unknown
Elle Fanning and Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown. (Searchlight Pictures)

A Complete Unknown

James Mangold ’99SOA cowrote and directed this Bob Dylan biopic, which stars former Columbia student Timothée Chalamet. The film portrays the legendary singer-songwriter as he makes a controversial shift from acoustic to electric.

 

Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg in A Real Pain
Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg in A Real Pain. (Searchlight Pictures)

A Real Pain

Two cousins visit Poland to honor their Holocaust-survivor grandmother in this dramady, which was executive produced by Jennifer Westin ’06SOA. 

 

A scene from Sugarcane documentary
Emily Kassie / Sugarcane Film LLC

Sugarcane

Julian Brave NoiseCat ’15CC won the directing award for US documentary at the Sundance Film Festival as the codirector of Sugarcane, a film about historic abuse in Canada’s Indian residential-school system. 

 

Adam Pearson and Sebastian Stan in A Different Man
Adam Pearson and Sebastian Stan in A Different Man. (A24)

A Different Man

Gabriel Mayers ’17CC, the head of film at the indie production company Killer Films, produced this Gotham Award-winning thriller about an actor who receives a new face.

 

Ebon Moss-Bachrach in Hold Your Breath
Ebon Moss-Bachrach in Hold Your Breath. (Searchlight Pictures)

Hold Your Breath

Karrie Crouse ’11SOA wrote and codirected this dust-bowl thriller, which stars former Columbia student Ebon Moss-Bachrach as a menacing preacher.

 

Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore in The Room Next Door
Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore in The Room Next Door. (WB Media)

The Room Next Door

This Pedro Almodóvar–directed film starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore is based on the 2020 novel What Are You Going Through, by National Book Award winner Sigrid Nunez ’72BC, ’75SOA. 

 

Nickel Boys cast
Amazon MGM Studios

Nickel Boys

Plan B Entertainment copresident Dede Gardner ’90CC executive-produced this adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel of the same name, about two Black teens sent to a reform school in the Jim Crow South. 

 

Jeremy Xido (right) in Transamazonia
Jeremy Xido (right) in Transamazonia (The Party Film Sales)

Transamazonia

This drama set in the Amazon jungle stars Jeremy Xido ’94CC as an American missionary who believes his daughter has healing powers. 

 

A scene from War Game
Thorsten Thielow

War Game

This documentary thriller, in which American officials simulate a response to a hypothetical military coup after a disputed election, was codirected by Tony Gerber ’95SOA.

 

Paul Walter Hauser in The Luckiest Man in America
Paul Walter Hauser in The Luckiest Man in America. (IFC Films)

The Luckiest Man in America

Maggie Briggs ’19SOA cowrote this film based on the true story of Michael Larson, an Ohio man who beat the game show Press Your Luck in 1984. Daniel Ragussis ’05SOA served as an associate producer. 

 

A scene from April
Metrograph Pictures

April

The winner of the special jury prize at the Venice International Film Festival, this Georgian film from writer-director Dea Kulumbegashvili ’18SOA tells the story of an ob-gyn who performs illegal abortions. 

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