From Book to Film 2026: Essential American Voices – American Fiction (2023)
- Sat, Aug 15
- Sun, Aug 16
Director: Cord Jefferson Run Time: 117 min. Rating: R Release Year: 2023
Starring: Erika Alexander, Jeffrey Wright, Leslie Uggams, Sterling K. Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross
Country: United States
Language: English
From Book to Film at Gateway Film Center
The essential summer film series returns! Admission is free with your library card. Don’t have a card? You can apply for one online.
No advanced tickets are available on From Book to Film screenings. Visit our Ticket Center on the day of the screening to grab your tickets and reserve your spot!
See the 2026 lineup
About the film:
Winner of the People’s Choice Award at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival
American Fiction (2023) received five nominations at the 96th Academy Awards, winning Best Adapted Screenplay for writer-director Cord Jefferson. The film also received two Golden Globe nominations and five Independent Spirit Award nominations.
Thelonious “Monk” Ellison’s writing career has stalled because his work isn’t deemed “Black enough.” Monk, a writer and English professor, writes a satirical novel under a pseudonym, aiming to expose the publishing world’s hypocrisies. The book’s immediate success forces him to get deeper enmeshed in his assumed identity and challenges his closely-held worldviews.
About the filmmaker:
Cord Jefferson is an American writer, director, journalist, and essayist who’s worked on multiple TV series including Succession (2018), Watchmen (2009), and The Good Place (2016). His directorial debut American Fiction (2023) is a comedy-drama film which won the People’s Choice Award at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.
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