Ana Lily Amirpour

Ana Lily Amirpour
Born England, United Kingdom
Residence Los Angeles
Occupation Film director, screenwriter
Years active 2009–present
Website www.analilyamirpour.com

Ana Lily Amirpour (Persian: آنا لیلی امیرپور‎‎; born 1980) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. She is most known for her feature film debut, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, a self-described "Iranian Vampire Spaghetti Western" that made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014,[1] and which was based on a previous short film with the same title she wrote and directed that won Best Short Film at the 2012 Noor Iranian Film Festival.[2]

Early life

Amirpour was born in England, and moved to Miami, Florida with her family when she was young.[3] Her family then settled in Bakersfield, California, where she attended high school.[4] Later, she attended San Francisco State University as an art major for her undergraduate degree, and then graduated from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.[5] She has been making films ever since she was 12 years old.[6]

Career

Feature films

Amirpour's feature directorial debut was A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014), self-described as "the first Iranian vampire spaghetti western" and starring Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh, Dominic Rains, Mozhan Marnò and Rome Shadanloo. The film built up significant buzz when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, eventually being picked up by Kino Lorber and distributed by VICE films.[7] The film also won the "Revelations Prize" at the 2014 Deauville Film Festival and the Carnet Jove Jury Award, as well as the Citizen Kane Award for Best Directorial Revelation from the Sitges Film Festival. The film was also nominated for the Halekulani Golden Orchid award at the Hawaii International Film Festival.

At the film's premiere, VICE Creative Director Eddy Moretti, whose company released the film, called Amirpour "the next Tarantino".[8] The New York Times's A.O. Scott also remarked that the film had a "Jim Jarmusch-like cool" and a "disarmingly innocent outlaw romanticism."[9] In the wake of the film's release, Filmmaker named her to their 2014 list of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film.[10]

Amirpour has described her next project, an English-language film entitled The Bad Batch as "a post-apocalyptic cannibal love story set in a Texas wasteland" where a "muscled cannibal breaks the rule ‘don’t play with your food’" - "It’s Road Warrior meets Pretty in Pink with a dope soundtrack."[11][12] She has also described it as "very violent" and "very romantic" and like "El Topo meets Dirty Dancing".[13] She set the lead of the film with American actors Jason Momoa,[14] Jim Carrey and Keanu Reeves.[15] It premiered at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival on September 6, 2016 and won the Special Jury prize.[16]

Short films

Amirpour has written, produced and directed a number of short films before her directorial debut with A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Among them is a 2011 short of the same name, which won a "Best Short Film" award at the 2012 Noor Iranian Film Festival and features Nazanin Boniadi in the role played by Sheila Vand in the feature, as well as Marshall Manesh and Dominic Rains from the feature film version.

Among the short films that Amirpour has both directed and written are A Little Suicide (2012), which received nominations for Best Short Film from the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Oldenburg Film Festival and the Zlin International Film Festival for Children and Youth, Pashmaloo (2011), also starring Sheila Vand from the feature film version of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and screened at Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival) in 2011, Ketab (2010), which also stars Sheila Vand, as well as Marshall Manesh from A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, True Love (2010), which won an Audience Award for Best International Short from the Milano International Film Festival Awards, You (2009), a music video featuring San Francisco rock duo Juanita and the Rabbit, and Six and a Half (2009).

Amirpour has also directed the short documentary entitled Ana Lily Amirpour Likes This, which is described as "a look at how we sculpt and customize our 'identities' in various social networks" that is "inspired by tweets and various social networks."

Amirpour has written the short films I Feel Stupid (2012) (directed by Milena Pastreich), and part of the story for the feature film The Garlock Incident (2012), in which she also stars.

Filmography

Features

Year Film Director Writer Actor Role
2012 The Garlock Incident Yes Yes Lily
2014 A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night Yes Yes Yes Skeleton Partygirl
2016 The Bad Batch Yes Yes

Short Films

Year Film
2009 Six and a Half[17]
2010 True Love
2010 Ketab
2011 Pashmaloo
2011 A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night
2012 A Little Suicide

Music Videos

Year Song Musician
2009 "You" [18] Juanita and the Rabbit

References

  1. ↑ Talking to the Star and Director of 'A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night' - VICE Meets
  2. ↑ Festival, Noor Iranian Film. "2012 Winners - Noor Iranian Film Festival". Retrieved 2016-08-16.
  3. ↑ S.M., 25 New Faces of Independent Film 2014, Ana Lily Amirpour, http://filmmakermagazine.com/people/ana-lily-amirpour/
  4. ↑ Daniel Schindel, Los Angeles Magazine, The Vampire Western Noir Set in Iran and Filmed Near Bakersfield, http://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/vampire-western-noir-romance-set-iran-filmed-near-bakersfield/
  5. ↑ Jeff Beer, Fast Company Create, DIRECTOR ANA LILY AMIRPOUR’S GUIDE TO FILMMAKING AND "BACK TO THE FUTURE" APPROACH TO CREATIVITY, http://www.fastcocreate.com/3038883/director-ana-lily-amirpours-guide-to-filmmaking-and-a-back-to-the-future-approach-to-creativ
  6. ↑ Id.
  7. ↑ S.M., 25 New Faces of Independent Film 2014, Ana Lily Amirpour, http://filmmakermagazine.com/people/ana-lily-amirpour/
  8. ↑ Beer, Jeff. (September 3, 2014) "Take A Look Inside the Headquarters of Vice". Fast Company. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
  9. ↑ Scott, A.O. and Dargis, Manohla. (March 18, 2014) "Pushing Buttons and Boundaries on Movie Screens: New Directors/New Films Opens With Bold Strokes". New York Times. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
  10. ↑ Kang, Inkoo. (July 21, 2014) "Half of Filmmaker's 25 New Faces Are Women". Indiewire. Retrieved June 20, 2016.
  11. ↑ Eric Edelstein, Ana Lily Amirpour Is the Raddest Filmmaker Working Right Now, http://www.indiewire.com/article/ana-lily-amirpour-is-the-raddest-filmmaker-working-right-now-20141120
  12. ↑ Ana Lily Amirpour Working On Cannibal Love Story The Bad Batch
  13. ↑ Staci Layne Wilson, Exclusive: Ana Lily Amirpour Talks A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and What’s Next, http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/78957/exclusive-ana-lily-amirpour-talks-girl-walks-home-alone-night-whats-next/
  14. ↑ “Game of Thrones” Star Joins ‘The Bad Batch’
  15. ↑ Cannibal Flick The Bad Batch Eats Up Jim Carrey and Keanu Reeves
  16. ↑ "Venice Film Festival: Golden Lion To 'The Woman Who Left'; Tom Ford's 'Nocturnal Animals', Emma Stone Take Major Prizes – Full List". Deadline. 11 September 2016. Retrieved 11 September 2016.
  17. ↑ https://www.nowness.com/series/directors-cuts/six-and-a-half
  18. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKVoPFmXAAA

External links

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