Moderated talk with film producer
A discussion about the art and business of acting on film!
Monday, April 28, 2014 | 7:30pm (doors at 7pm)
HB Playwrights Theatre, 124 Bank Street, NYC
All are welcome! Meet & Greet Reception to follow
$10 suggested donation | $5 HB students & staff
RSVP HERE
JOSHUA ASTRACHAN, in July 2012, co-founded ANIMAL KINGDOM, the film and television production company under whose banner he produced SHORT TERM 12, by writer/director Destin Daniel Cretton. That film, starring Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr, Kaitlyn Dever, Rami Malek and Keith Stanfield, premiered at SXSW in 2013, where it was awarded the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature. It went on to receive awards at numerous additional festivals, from Little Rock to Los Angeles to Locarno – and beyond. SHORT TERM 12 was released by Cinedgim to extraordinary critical acclaim –and was named one of the 10 best films of 2013 by, among others, New York Magazine, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Forbes, and E! Online. For her performance in the film, Brie Larson was awarded the Best Actress prize at both the 66° Locarno Film Festival and the 23rd IFP Gotham Independent Film Awards.
In 2011, under the LOCOMOTIVE banner (a company he founded with producer Lucy Barzun Donnelly), Astrachan produced Jennifer Westfeldt’s celebrated ensemble comedy FRIENDS WITH KIDS, starring Westfeldt, Adam Scott, Jon Hamm, Kristen Wiig, Chris O’Dowd, Maya Rudolph, Megan Fox and Edward Burns. The film premiered at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and was theatrically released by Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions in March, 2012. The film was named by New York Magazine’s film critic, David Edelstein, as one of the 10 best films of 2012.
Prior to LOCOMOTIVE, Astrachan was a producer for the better part of a decade for the great American film director Robert Altman. He produced Altman’s last film, A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION(2006), written by Garrison Keillor and starring Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, John C. Reilly, Woody Harrelson and Kevin Kline. Astrachan also produced THE COMPANY(2003), Altman’s narrative feature set in the world of dance, starring Neve Campbell, James Franco, Malcolm McDowell and the company members of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago.
He co-produced the critically-acclaimed, Academy Award-winning and seven-time Oscar-nominated GOSFORD PARK(2001), starring, among others, Maggie Smith, Clive Owen, Kelly Macdonald, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jeremy Northam, Emily Watson and Bob Balaban. For GOSFORD PARK, Altman received the Golden Globe and New York Film Critics Circle Award as Best Director.
Before working in film, Astrachan was the co-founder and Artistic Director of NEW ARTS, a not-for- profit theater production company that developed and presented new plays by American writers in New York City.
This program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.