Becky Johnston (born in South Haven, Michigan) is an American screenwriter and No Wave filmmaker.
Johnston attended public school in South Haven, Michigan but graduated from the Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen, Michigan in 1973.
Johnston was a No Wave Cinema (aka New Cinema) co-founder as part of Collaborative Projects in New York City in the late-1970s. [1] Her most noted No Wave film from the post-punk era is her 49 minute Super 8 film Sleepless Nights (1979), written by Johnston and Gary Indiana, starring René Ricard, John Lurie, Eric Mitchell and Maripol. Music was by John Lurie and Evan Lurie. In 2018 it was screened at MoMA where Johnston described her film as an East Village reinvention of the Otto Preminger movie Laura that plays fast and loose with the film noir detective genre. [2]
She appeared on film in the Jean-Michel Basquiat documentary Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child (2010), directed by Tamra Davis. [3]
In the mid-1980s Johnston wrote the screenplays for Under the Cherry Moon , and in the 90s The Prince of Tides (with Pat Conroy), [4] Seven Years in Tibet , [5] Arthur Newman , and as yet unfilmed sequel to Salt . [6] She lived in the Los Altos Apartments in Los Angeles while working on Under the Cherry Moon and The Prince of Tides. [7] In 2021 she co-wrote the screenplay for the movie House of Gucci.
Johnston received Best Adapted Screenplay nominations at the Academy Awards and the WGA Awards for The Prince of Tides , having previously received a Razzie nomination for Worst Screenplay for Under the Cherry Moon .
Jean-Michel Basquiat was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement.
The Prince of Tides is a 1991 American romantic drama film directed and co-produced by Barbra Streisand, from a screenplay written by Pat Conroy and Becky Johnston, based on Conroy's 1986 novel. It stars Streisand and Nick Nolte. It tells the story of the narrator's struggle to overcome the psychological damage inflicted by his dysfunctional childhood in South Carolina.
Sleepless in Seattle is a 1993 American romantic comedy film directed by Nora Ephron, from a screenplay she wrote with David S. Ward and Jeff Arch. Starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, the film follows a journalist (Ryan) who becomes enamored with a widowed architect (Hanks), when the latter's son calls in to a talk radio program requesting a new partner for his grieving father. In addition to Bill Pullman, Ross Malinger, and Rob Reiner, the film features Rosie O'Donnell, Gaby Hoffmann, Victor Garber, Rita Wilson, Barbara Garrick, and Carey Lowell.
Boogie Nights is a 1997 American period drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Paul Thomas Anderson. It is set in Los Angeles's San Fernando Valley and focuses on a young nightclub dishwasher who becomes a popular star of pornographic films, chronicling his rise in the Golden Age of Porn of the 1970s through his fall during the excesses of the 1980s. The film is an expansion of Anderson's mockumentary short film The Dirk Diggler Story (1988), and stars Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Heather Graham.
Martin Ritt was an American director, producer, and actor, active in film, theatre and television. He was known mainly as an auteur of socially-conscious dramas and literary adaptations, described by Stanley Kauffmann as "one of the most underrated American directors, superbly competent and quietly imaginative."
Bryan Forbes CBE was an English film director, screenwriter, film producer, actor and novelist described as a "Renaissance man" and "one of the most important figures in the British film industry".
Under the Cherry Moon is a 1986 romantic musical comedy-drama film starring Prince. It was his directorial debut and follow-up to 1984's Purple Rain. The film also stars former The Time member Jerome Benton, Steven Berkoff, Kristin Scott Thomas, and Francesca Annis. The film underperformed both critically and commercially at time of release, winning five Golden Raspberry Awards and tying with Howard the Duck for Worst Picture. However, the soundtrack album Parade sold over a million copies and achieved platinum status. Since Prince's death in 2016, several contemporary critics have also revisited the film and now consider it a cult classic.
Edo Bertoglio is a Swiss photographer, film director and screenwriter. He is the director of Downtown 81 and Face Addict.
Paul Osborn was an American playwright and screenwriter. Osborn's original plays are The Vinegar Tree, Oliver Oliver, and Morning's at Seven and among his several successful adaptations, On Borrowed Time has proved particularly popular. He wrote the screenplays for East of Eden (1955) and South Pacific (1958), among other films.
Cory McAbee is an American writer, director, singer and songwriter.
Giovanna Cecchi, known professionally as Suso Cecchi d'Amico, was an Italian screenwriter and actress. She was one of the first female Italian screenwriters and helped pioneer the Italian neorealist movement. Though her screenwriting career spanned sixty years, she won the 1980 David di Donatello Award for lifetime career as well as the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 1994 Venice Film Festival.
Ricardo Arreola Lee is a Filipino screenwriter, journalist, novelist, and playwright. He was conferred the Order of National Artists of the Philippines for Film and Broadcast Arts in 2022.
The 2009 Sundance Film Festival was held during January 15, 2009 until January 25 in Park City, Utah. It was the 25th iteration of the Sundance Film Festival.
The Razzie Award for Worst Screenplay is an award presented at the annual Golden Raspberry Awards for the worst film screenplay of the past year. The following is a list of nominees and recipients of that award, including each screenplay's author(s).
Scott B and Beth B were among the best-known New York No Wave underground film makers of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
James Allan Curtis, known professionally as Diego Cortez, was an American filmmaker and art curator closely associated with the no wave period in New York City. Cortez was the co-founder of the Mudd Club, and he curated the influential post-punk art show New York/New Wave, which brought the then aspiring artist Jean-Michel Basquiat to fame.
Coleen Fitzgibbon is an American experimental film artist associated with Collaborative Projects, Inc.. She worked under the pseudonym Colen Fitzgibbon between the years 1973–1980.
The Times Square Show was an influential collaborative, self-curated, and self-generated art exhibition held by New York artists' group Colab in Times Square in a shuttered massage parlor at 201 W. 41st and 7th Avenue during the entire month of June in 1980. The Times Square Show was largely inspired by the more radical Colab show The Real Estate Show, but unlike it, was open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in what was then a Times Square full of porno theaters, peep shows, and red light establishments. In addition to experimental painting and sculpture, the exhibition incorporated music, fashion, and an ambitious program of performance and video. For many artists the exhibition served as a forum for the exchange of ideas, a testing-ground for social-directed figurative work in progress, and a catalyst for exploring new political-artistic directions.
Annina Nosei is an Italian-born art dealer and gallerist. Nosei is best known for being Jean-Michel Basquiat’s first art dealer and providing him with studio space in the basement of her gallery. From 1981 to 2006, the Annina Nosei Gallery represented or exhibited work by artists such as Barbara Kruger, Robert Longo, Ghada Amer, and Shirin Neshat.