Josef Fares | |
|---|---|
 Fares in June 2018 | |
| Born | 19 September 1977 Beirut, Lebanon |
| Nationality | Swedish |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter, actor, video game designer |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Relatives | Fares Fares (brother) |
Josef Fares (born 19 September 1977) is a Swedish-Lebanese film director and video game designer of Assyrian descent. [1] [2] His brother is the actor Fares Fares, who has appeared in many of his films. [3] He is the founder of Hazelight Studios.
Josef Fares moved to Sweden when he was 10 years old, fleeing the Lebanese Civil War with his family. Variety declared him one of ten upcoming directors to watch in 2006. [4] The same year he won the Nordic Council Film Prize for his film Zozo . [5] In 2013, he directed his first video game, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons . The game was well received by critics. Its focus is on the interaction between two brothers and on their journey to save their father. He then formed his development company named Hazelight Studios, and partnered with publisher Electronic Arts for his next video game, A Way Out , which was released 23 March 2018. [6]
On 7 December 2017 Josef appeared on The Game Awards 2017 and gave a "passionate" speech while on stage with host Geoff Keighley, where he covered many topics including EA's microtransaction controversy with Star Wars Battlefront II , and his game A Way Out ; he also spent time to heavily criticize the Oscars due to their dispassionate take on video games, in what became known as his "fuck the Oscars" speech. [7] Because of his speech, he has received international praise among fans and his speech has created a new Internet meme involving mass vandalism of relevant Wikipedia pages, usually to reference the 2003 movie The Room , as many people compared him to the movie's director, Tommy Wiseau. [8] [9] [10] Fares includes his "fuck the Oscars" speech as an Easter egg in his 2021 game It Takes Two , [11] albeit being censored, and referenced the speech, while adding that the "Oscars got fucked", while accepting the game's Game of the Year Award at The Game Awards 2021. [12]
In an interview to The Washington Post following It Takes Two's win at The Game Awards 2021, Fares expressed his perspective on several topics in the game industry. He said he would "rather get shot in the knee" than include NFTs in future games, he also put forward that adjusting game design to make the player pay is wrong, and stated "For me, gaming is art". Fares has also commented on the topic of sexual harassment within the gaming industry which was brought up at The Game Awards 2021 with respect to Activision Blizzard and its CEO Bobby Kotick, saying "I think sometimes you need to go through some shit to get to the other side. That’s what’s happening", as well as that unions help "but that’s just one of the things. I don’t think it solves everything. Education and knowledge, I think that’s most important." [13]
| Year | Game | Role | Studio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons | Director | Starbreeze Studios |
| 2018 | A Way Out | Director | Hazelight Studios |
| 2021 | It Takes Two | Director | Hazelight Studios |
| 2025 | Split Fiction | Director | Hazelight Studios |
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Zozo is a Swedish-Lebanese drama film which was released to cinemas in Sweden on 2 September 2005. The film was selected as the official Swedish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 78th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.
Uwe Boll is a German filmmaker. He came to prominence during the 2000s for his adaptations of video game franchises. Released theatrically, the films were critical and commercial failures; his 2005 Alone in the Dark adaptation is considered one of the worst films ever made. Boll's subsequent projects, released during the 2010s, were mostly released straight to home media. After retiring in 2016 to become a restaurateur, Boll returned to filmmaking in 2022. His films are financed through his production companies Boll KG and Event Film Productions.
Fares Fares is a Swedish actor, producer, and director. He is known for his collaborations with Swedish director Tarik Saleh in The Nile Hilton Incident (2017) and Boy from Heaven (2022). He has received various accolades, including a Guldbagge Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role and two Robert Awards for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
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Film i Väst is a film company located in Trollhättan, Sweden, nicknamed "Trollywood"), founded in 1992 by the Älvsborg County Council. Lars von Trier used its facilities in his movies, such as Dogville and Manderlay. Film i Väst became known early on under the nickname Trollywood. Since its inception, Film i Väst has co-produced a total of more than 1,000 Swedish and international feature films, TV dramas, documentaries and short films.
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Lars Jönsson is a Swedish film producer connected to Memfis Film and the "Trollywood" facilities. Since the early 1990s he has been the producer of several films in Sweden and Scandinavia, being the usual producer for among others Lukas Moodysson, Josef Fares and Maria Blom, while also having co-produced many films by Lars von Trier.
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Oscar bait is a term used in the film community for movies that appear to have been produced for the sole purpose of earning nominations and/or winners for Academy Awards, or "Oscars", as they are commonly known. They are usually released just in advance of Oscar season, late in the calendar year, so as to meet the minimum eligibility requirements for the awards and be fresh in the minds of Oscar voters. The prestige or acclaim the studio may receive from the nomination or award is often secondary to the increased box office receipts such a film may garner; some films may even be depending on it to turn a profit.
The following lists events that happened during 2000 in Sweden.
A Way Out is a 2018 cooperative action-adventure video game developed by Hazelight Studios and published by Electronic Arts. It is the second video game to be directed by Josef Fares after Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. The game does not have a single-player option; it is playable on local or online split screen co-op between two players.
Hazelight Studios is a video game development company based in Stockholm, Sweden. Founded by director Josef Fares in 2014, the company is best known for developing cooperative multiplayer games A Way Out and It Takes Two. Both games were published by Electronic Arts under the EA Originals label.
The Game Awards 2017 was an award show that honored the best video games of 2017, and took place at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on December 7, 2017. The event was hosted by Geoff Keighley, and was live streamed around the world across various platforms, with 11.5 million viewers in total watching the event. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild won three awards, including Game of the Year. Two indie games, Cuphead and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, also won three awards each.
It Takes Two is a 2021 cooperative action-adventure game developed by Hazelight Studios and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S in March 2021, and was released for Nintendo Switch in November 2022.
Split Fiction is an upcoming action-adventure video game developed by Hazelight Studios and published by Electronic Arts. As a cooperative multiplayer-only game, Split Fiction is set to be released for Windows, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and Series S in March 2025.
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