Allison Anders
Encyclopedia
Allison Anders is an American film
and television director
. Anders has directed many independent films, on which she frequently collaborates with fellow UCLA film school
graduate Kurt Voss
.
to raise her first child. She attended the UCLA School of Theater Film and Television
and was granted a Nicholl Fellowship by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
. Her screenplay "Lost Highway" (unrelated to the David Lynch
film of the same title) also earned her a Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award
.
Her first film effort co-written and co-directed by Kurt Voss and Dean Lent was the punk music-heavy Border Radio
, which was nominated for Best Feature of 1989 by the Independent Feature Project. Anders followed up with her popular 1992 film Gas Food Lodging
, for which she won a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best New Director, and for which actress Fairuza Balk
won an Independent Spirit Award. The film received five Spirit Award nominations including Best Director and Best Screenplay. Gas Food Lodging
also won the Deauville Film Festival Critics Award. The film was also nominated for the Golden Bear
at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival
.
Her next film for Cineville was Mi Vida Loca
(My Crazy Life), about girl gang
s in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, where Anders lived. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival
in 1993, and saw wide release in 1994.
In 1995, she was awarded a "genius grant
" by the MacArthur Foundation
. Although the 1995 collaborative film Four Rooms
in which she participated in was largely panned by critics, it now has a cult following . In 1996, she won more acclaim with Grace of My Heart
, the story of a backroom songwriter (Illeana Douglas
) who tires of making other people famous. Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach had their first collaboration on her film and were nominated for a Grammy Award
.
In the late 1980s, Anders had become friends with some members of the pop group Duran Duran
, and frequently inserted small references to the band in her films (character names, posters on walls, and so on). In 1999, after bassist John Taylor
had left Duran Duran and was beginning to launch an acting career, she co-wrote and co-directed the film Sugar Town
with Kurt Voss about the Los Angeles film and music industry, which starred several musical friends of hers, including Taylor, X singer John Doe
, Spandau Ballet
bassist Martin Kemp
, and singer/actor Michael Des Barres
. The film was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards, one for Best Film and one for best Newcomer for Jade Gordon. The film won the Fantasporto
award for Best Screenplay for Anders and Voss.
Her 2001 film Things Behind the Sun
, dealing with the long-term aftermath of a rape, won an Emmy Award
nomination for actor Don Cheadle for Best Supporting Actor, 3 Independent Spirit Award Nominations: Don Cheadle for Best Supporting Actor, Kim Dickens
for Best Actress, and Best Film. She and co-writer Kurt Voss received a nomination for the Edgar Award
. The film was awarded the SHINE Award as well as the Peabody Award
.
Anders began directing shows for broadcast and cable television in 1999, including several episodes in the second and third seasons of Sex and the City
, as well as episodes of Grosse Pointe and Cold Case, The L Word
, Men In Trees
, and What About Brian?.
In 2002 Anders received the Spirit Of Silver Lake Award from the Silver Lake Film Festival. In 2003 Anders became a Distinguished Professor at UC Santa Barbara where she teaches in the Film And Media Studies Department one quarter every year.
In 2006 she appeared in the road-trip documentary Wanderlust. 2007 saw the DVD release of Border Radio
as part of the Criterion Collection.
Anders is the co-founder with musician daughter Tiffany Anders of the Don't Knock The Rock Film And Music Festival in Los Angeles. She has also contributed to the web series
Trailers From Hell
.. First cousin of musician Mark Fosson
.
In 2011 she directed an episode of John Wells' productions Southland
.
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
and television director
Television director
A television director directs the activities involved in making a television program and is part of a television crew.-Duties:The duties of a television director vary depending on whether the production is live or recorded to video tape or video server .In both types of productions, the...
. Anders has directed many independent films, on which she frequently collaborates with fellow UCLA film school
UCLA School of Theater Film and Television
The UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television , is one of the twelve schools within UCLA. It is located in Los Angeles, California, USA, and is unique in that it combines all three of these aspects into a single school. The graduate programs are usually ranking within the top 3 nationally,...
graduate Kurt Voss
Kurt Voss
Kurt Voss is an American film director, screenwriter and musician/songwriter. He often works with fellow UCLA alumnus Allison Anders...
.
Biography
According to an article in Creative a series of adventures that often ended in jails and foster homes—experiences she credits with giving her raw inspiration for her cinematic portraits of rural Americans." At eighteen, she moved to England, then returned to Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
to raise her first child. She attended the UCLA School of Theater Film and Television
UCLA School of Theater Film and Television
The UCLA School of Theatre, Film, and Television , is one of the twelve schools within UCLA. It is located in Los Angeles, California, USA, and is unique in that it combines all three of these aspects into a single school. The graduate programs are usually ranking within the top 3 nationally,...
and was granted a Nicholl Fellowship by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
. Her screenplay "Lost Highway" (unrelated to the David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
film of the same title) also earned her a Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award
Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards
The Samuel Goldwyn Writing Awards are bestowed annually by the Samuel Goldwyn Foundation, which is funded by a trust established by the Goldwyn family. Started in 1955, the awards are a competitive writing prize open to all University of California students...
.
Her first film effort co-written and co-directed by Kurt Voss and Dean Lent was the punk music-heavy Border Radio
Border Radio
Border Radio is a 1987 independent film directed by Allison Anders, Dean Lent and Kurt Voss, in which two musicians and a roadie who haven't been paid rob money from a club and one flees to Mexico leaving his wife and daughter behind...
, which was nominated for Best Feature of 1989 by the Independent Feature Project. Anders followed up with her popular 1992 film Gas Food Lodging
Gas Food Lodging
Gas Food Lodging is a 1992 movie directed by Allison Anders about a waitress trying to find romance while raising two daughters in a trailer-park. It stars Brooke Adams, Ione Skye, and Fairuza Balk. The film was adapted from the novel Don't Look and It Won't Hurt by Richard Peck...
, for which she won a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best New Director, and for which actress Fairuza Balk
Fairuza Balk
Fairuza Alejandra Balk is an American film actress. She made her theatrical film debut as Dorothy Gale in Disney's Return to Oz...
won an Independent Spirit Award. The film received five Spirit Award nominations including Best Director and Best Screenplay. Gas Food Lodging
Gas Food Lodging
Gas Food Lodging is a 1992 movie directed by Allison Anders about a waitress trying to find romance while raising two daughters in a trailer-park. It stars Brooke Adams, Ione Skye, and Fairuza Balk. The film was adapted from the novel Don't Look and It Won't Hurt by Richard Peck...
also won the Deauville Film Festival Critics Award. The film was also nominated for the Golden Bear
Golden Bear
According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....
at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival
42nd Berlin International Film Festival
The 42nd annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 13 to 24, 1992.-Jury:* Annie Girardot * Charles Champlin* Sylvia Chang* Ildikó Enyedi* Irving N...
.
Her next film for Cineville was Mi Vida Loca
Mi Vida Loca
Mi Vida Loca is a 1993 American drama film directed and written by Allison Anders. This film includes Jason Lee's first performance as an actor in a small role alongside director Spike Jonze as a drug buyer....
(My Crazy Life), about girl gang
Gang
A gang is a group of people who, through the organization, formation, and establishment of an assemblage, share a common identity. In current usage it typically denotes a criminal organization or else a criminal affiliation. In early usage, the word gang referred to a group of workmen...
s in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, where Anders lived. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
in 1993, and saw wide release in 1994.
In 1995, she was awarded a "genius grant
MacArthur Fellows Program
The MacArthur Fellows Program or MacArthur Fellowship is an award given by the John D. and Catherine T...
" by the MacArthur Foundation
MacArthur Foundation
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is one of the largest private foundations in the United States. Based in Chicago but supporting non-profit organizations that work in 60 countries, MacArthur has awarded more than US$4 billion since its inception in 1978...
. Although the 1995 collaborative film Four Rooms
Four Rooms
Four Rooms is a 1995 portmanteau comedy film telling four stories set in a hotel in the US city of Los Angeles on New Year's Eve. Tim Roth stars as the principal character of the frame tale; he also takes part to some degree in all four stories....
in which she participated in was largely panned by critics, it now has a cult following . In 1996, she won more acclaim with Grace of My Heart
Grace of My Heart
Grace of My Heart is a 1996 film written and directed by Allison Anders, set in the pop music world, starting off in New York's Brill Building early 1960s era, weaving through the California Sound of the mid '60s and culminating with the adult-contemporary scene of the early 1970s.The plot follows...
, the story of a backroom songwriter (Illeana Douglas
Illeana Douglas
Illeana Douglas is an American actress, director, screenwriter, and producer.-Background:Douglas is a granddaughter of the actor Melvyn Douglas and his first wife, artist Rosalind Hightower, and has said that her grandfather's performance in Being There, in particular, was influential on her own...
) who tires of making other people famous. Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach had their first collaboration on her film and were nominated for a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
.
In the late 1980s, Anders had become friends with some members of the pop group Duran Duran
Duran Duran
Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...
, and frequently inserted small references to the band in her films (character names, posters on walls, and so on). In 1999, after bassist John Taylor
Nigel John Taylor
John Taylor is an English musician who is best known as the bass guitarist and co-founder of pop rock band Duran Duran....
had left Duran Duran and was beginning to launch an acting career, she co-wrote and co-directed the film Sugar Town
Sugar Town (film)
Sugar Town is a 1999 independent film written and directed by Allison Anders and Kurt Voss, concerning a tangled web of characters coping with ambition, fame, and the aftermath of fame...
with Kurt Voss about the Los Angeles film and music industry, which starred several musical friends of hers, including Taylor, X singer John Doe
John Doe (musician)
John Doe is an American singer, songwriter, actor, poet and bass player. Doe founded the much-praised L.A. punk band X, of which he is still an active member. His musical performances and compositions span the rock, country and folk music genres...
, Spandau Ballet
Spandau Ballet
Spandau Ballet are a British band formed in London in the late 1970s. Initially inspired by, and an integral part of, the New Romantic fashion, their music has featured a mixture of funk, jazz, soul and synthpop. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s, achieving ten Top Ten singles...
bassist Martin Kemp
Martin Kemp (actor)
Martin John Kemp is an English actor, musician, and occasional television presenter, best known as the bassist in the New Romantic band Spandau Ballet, as well as for his portrayal as Steve Owen from the BBC soap opera EastEnders...
, and singer/actor Michael Des Barres
Michael Des Barres
Lord Michael Philip Des Barres is a British actor and rock singer. He is known for playing the recurring role of Murdoc on the television show MacGyver and for replacing the late Robert Palmer in the band Power Station, fronting the band at the 1985 Live Aid concert...
. The film was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards, one for Best Film and one for best Newcomer for Jade Gordon. The film won the Fantasporto
Fantasporto
Fantasporto, also known as Fantas, is an international film festival, annually organized since 1981 in Porto, Portugal. Giving screen space to commercial feature films, auteur films and experimental projects from all over the world, Fantasporto has created enthusiastic audiences, ranging from...
award for Best Screenplay for Anders and Voss.
Her 2001 film Things Behind the Sun
Things Behind the Sun
Things Behind the Sun is a 2001 film starring Kim Dickens and Gabriel Mann and directed by Allison Anders. Its title is taken from a song by Nick Drake....
, dealing with the long-term aftermath of a rape, won an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
nomination for actor Don Cheadle for Best Supporting Actor, 3 Independent Spirit Award Nominations: Don Cheadle for Best Supporting Actor, Kim Dickens
Kim Dickens
Kimberly Jan "Kim" Dickens is an American actress and model.-Early life:Dickens was born in Huntsville, Alabama, graduated from that city's Lee High School, and attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she majored in communication...
for Best Actress, and Best Film. She and co-writer Kurt Voss received a nomination for the Edgar Award
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
. The film was awarded the SHINE Award as well as the Peabody Award
Peabody Award
The George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished and meritorious public service by radio and television stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals. In 1939, the National Association of Broadcasters formed a committee to recognize outstanding achievement in radio broadcasting...
.
Anders began directing shows for broadcast and cable television in 1999, including several episodes in the second and third seasons of Sex and the City
Sex and the City
Sex and the City is an American television comedy-drama series created by Darren Star and produced by HBO. Broadcast from 1998 until 2004, the original run of the show had a total of ninety-four episodes...
, as well as episodes of Grosse Pointe and Cold Case, The L Word
The L Word
The L Word is an American co-production television drama series originally shown on Showtime portraying the lives of a group of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people and their friends, family and lovers in the trendy Greater Los Angeles, California city of West Hollywood...
, Men In Trees
Men in Trees
Men in Trees is an American romantic television dramedy series which premiered on September 12, 2006 on ABC and starred Anne Heche who played relationship coach Marin Frist. The series was set in the fictional town of Elmo, Alaska and concerned Marin Frist's misadventures in relationships...
, and What About Brian?.
In 2002 Anders received the Spirit Of Silver Lake Award from the Silver Lake Film Festival. In 2003 Anders became a Distinguished Professor at UC Santa Barbara where she teaches in the Film And Media Studies Department one quarter every year.
In 2006 she appeared in the road-trip documentary Wanderlust. 2007 saw the DVD release of Border Radio
Border Radio
Border Radio is a 1987 independent film directed by Allison Anders, Dean Lent and Kurt Voss, in which two musicians and a roadie who haven't been paid rob money from a club and one flees to Mexico leaving his wife and daughter behind...
as part of the Criterion Collection.
Anders is the co-founder with musician daughter Tiffany Anders of the Don't Knock The Rock Film And Music Festival in Los Angeles. She has also contributed to the web series
Web series
A web series is a series of episodes released on the Internet or also by mobile or cellular phone, and part of the newly emerging medium called web television. A single instance of a web series program is called an episode .While the popularity of web series is continuing to rise, the concept...
Trailers From Hell
Trailers From Hell
Trailers From Hell! is a web series featuring trailers from cinema classics ranging from silent comedy to the splatter flicks of the 1980s, with a particular focus on horror and exploitation films. Trailers are accompanied by commentaries from Hollywood screenwriters, producers and directors...
.. First cousin of musician Mark Fosson
Mark Fosson
Songwriter and guitarist Mark Fosson grew up in Kentucky, where he began writing songs while he was still in his early teens. In the late '70s he sent some song demos to John Fahey's West Coast-based Takoma Records, and Fahey, impressed with what he heard, offered Fosson a recording deal...
.
In 2011 she directed an episode of John Wells' productions Southland
Southland (TV series)
Southland is an American drama series created by writer Ann Biderman and produced by Warner Bros. Television. It premiered on NBC on April 9, 2009...
.
Filmography
- Border RadioBorder RadioBorder Radio is a 1987 independent film directed by Allison Anders, Dean Lent and Kurt Voss, in which two musicians and a roadie who haven't been paid rob money from a club and one flees to Mexico leaving his wife and daughter behind...
(1987) - Gas, Food Lodging (1992)
- Mi Vida LocaMi Vida LocaMi Vida Loca is a 1993 American drama film directed and written by Allison Anders. This film includes Jason Lee's first performance as an actor in a small role alongside director Spike Jonze as a drug buyer....
(1994) - Four RoomsFour RoomsFour Rooms is a 1995 portmanteau comedy film telling four stories set in a hotel in the US city of Los Angeles on New Year's Eve. Tim Roth stars as the principal character of the frame tale; he also takes part to some degree in all four stories....
(1995) - Grace of My HeartGrace of My HeartGrace of My Heart is a 1996 film written and directed by Allison Anders, set in the pop music world, starting off in New York's Brill Building early 1960s era, weaving through the California Sound of the mid '60s and culminating with the adult-contemporary scene of the early 1970s.The plot follows...
(1996) - Sugar TownSugar Town (film)Sugar Town is a 1999 independent film written and directed by Allison Anders and Kurt Voss, concerning a tangled web of characters coping with ambition, fame, and the aftermath of fame...
(1999) - Things Behind the SunThings Behind the SunThings Behind the Sun is a 2001 film starring Kim Dickens and Gabriel Mann and directed by Allison Anders. Its title is taken from a song by Nick Drake....
(2001) - A Crush on YouA Crush on You'A crush on you' is a 2011 Hallmark Channel original movie that tells the story of a Charley Anderson-a single mother- and Ben Martin, the man who began an e-mail relationship with her thinking she was another women. It is a romantic- comedy starring Brigid Brannagh, Sean Patrick Flanery and Kim...
(2011)