Empire of Light (2022)
Director: Sam Mendes Run Time: 115 min. Rating: R Release Year: 2022
Starring: Colin Firth, Micheal Ward, Olivia Colman, Toby Jones, Tom Brooke
Country: United States
Language: English
About the film:
World Premiere, 2022 Telluride Film Festival.
Official Selection, 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.
Empire of Light (2022) was nominated for Best Achievement in Cinematography (Roger Deakins) at the 95th Academy Awards. Celebrate Awards Season at the Film Center! Learn more here.
A compelling and poignant story about the power of human connection during turbulent times. Set in and around a faded old cinema in an English coastal town in the early 1980s, the story follows Hilary, a cinema manager struggling with her mental health, and Stephen, a new employee who longs to escape the provincial town. The two find a sense of belonging through their unlikely and tender relationship.
About the filmmaker:
Sam Mendes is a British film and stage director, producer, and screenwriter, who won an Academy Award for Best Director with his feature film debut, 1999’s American Beauty. His other notable films include Road to Perdition (2002), Jarhead (2005), Revolutionary Road (2008), Away We Go (2009), James Bond franchise films Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015), and 1917 (2019). In theatre, Mendes founded and ran the Donmar Warehouse in London for ten years, and his work has been seen at the National Theatre, RSC, Royal Court, Old Vic, Young Vic, BAM, the West End and on Broadway. His projects have earned him a multitude of accolades, including 5 BAFTA Awards, 3 Golden Globe Awards, 3 Tony Awards, 5 Olivier Awards, the Olivier Special Award, 3 Evening Standard Awards, 2 Directors Guild of America Awards, the PGA award, the Jason Robards Award, and the Hamburg Shakespeare Prize. In 2005, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Directors Guild of Great Britain.
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