Devendra Obi Banhart is a Venezuelan singer-songwriter and visual artist. Banhart was born in Texas and raised in Venezuela and California. In 2000, he dropped out of the San Francisco Art Institute to pursue a musical career. In 2002, Banhart released his debut album and is best known for his albums in the late 2000s such as Cripple Crow and Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon. He has since expanded his career to incorporate his interest and training in the visual arts.
Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer are American and Canadian filmmakers. They have primarily worked on parody films, which they began writing and directing during the mid-2000s. Friedberg and Seltzer's first five films between 2006 and 2010 received wide theatrical releases to mostly commercial success, but universally negative reviews; their films Epic Movie (2007), Meet the Spartans and Disaster Movie are considered among the worst ever made. Following Vampires Suck (2010), their subsequent releases in the 2010s garnered less attention, largely due to their limited theatrical distribution.
Joe Swanberg is an American independent filmmaker. Known for micro-budget films which make extensive use of improvisation, Swanberg is considered a major figure in the mumblecore film movement. His films often focus on relationships, sex, technology, and the filmmaking process. He is also known for his early collaborations with Greta Gerwig.
Kris Swanberg is an American businesswoman, filmmaker, actress and former high school teacher living in Chicago, Illinois. She has been credited at various times as Kris Williams, Kris Swanberg and Kris Rey. Her works as a director include the short documentary Bathwater (2006), the Nerve.com documentary web series Boys and Girls and the feature films It Was Great, But I Was Ready to Come Home (2009), Empire Builder (2012), Unexpected (2015) and I Used to Go Here (2020). She has also had small roles in a number of films, including First Man (2018).
Louis Gabriel Basso III is an American actor. He began his career as a child actor and from 2010 to 2013, he had a regular role on the Showtime series The Big C. In film, he starred in the 2011 science fiction film Super 8 and the 2013 comedy-drama The Kings of Summer. In 2020, he portrayed JD Vance in the drama Hillbilly Elegy and in 2023, he played the title role in the action thriller series The Night Agent.
Afternoon Delight is a 2013 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Joey Soloway. It stars Kathryn Hahn, Juno Temple, Josh Radnor, and Jane Lynch. The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where it was awarded the U.S. Dramatic Directing Award. It was given a limited theatrical release in the United States on August 30, 2013.
Search Party is a 2014 American comedy film directed by Scot Armstrong, who co-wrote the screenplay with Mike Gagerman and Andrew Waller, based on a story by Gagerman and Waller. The film stars T.J. Miller, Adam Pally, Thomas Middleditch, Alison Brie, Shannon Woodward, and Krysten Ritter.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is a 2015 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon from a screenplay by Jesse Andrews, based on Andrews' 2012 novel of the same name. The film stars Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler and Olivia Cooke. It follows a socially awkward teenage boy who, along with an acquaintance, befriends a classmate after she is diagnosed with cancer. The film premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and was released in the United States on June 12, 2015, by Fox Searchlight Pictures. It received positive reviews from critics, who praised the screenplay and cast.
Life After Beth is a 2014 American zombie comedy film written and directed by Jeff Baena. The film stars Aubrey Plaza, Dane DeHaan, Molly Shannon, Cheryl Hines, Paul Reiser, Matthew Gray Gubler, and John C. Reilly. The film premiered in competition at 2014 Sundance Film Festival on January 19, 2014, and was given a limited release on August 15, 2014. This was Garry Marshall's final film appearance, although he continued to write and direct films and act in television until his death in 2016.
Thomas Steven Middleditch is a Canadian actor. He is known for his role as Richard Hendricks in the HBO series Silicon Valley (2014–2019), earning a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. He has voiced Penn Zero in the Disney XD animated series Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero (2014–2017), Harold Hutchins in Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie (2017), Sam Coleman in Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019), and Terry in the Hulu adult animated sci-fi series Solar Opposites. Middleditch made his Broadway debut in 2024 as Eli in Eureka Day. He also appeared in ads for Verizon Wireless.
Knock Knock is a 2015 thriller film directed by Eli Roth, who also co-wrote the script with Guillermo Amoedo and Nicolás López. The film stars Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo and Ana de Armas. The film was released on October 9, 2015, by Lionsgate Premiere. Knock Knock is a remake of Death Game, which was directed by Peter S. Traynor and starred Sondra Locke and Colleen Camp. All three individuals had a hand in the production of Knock Knock, while Camp also had a cameo in the newer film.
Digging for Fire is a 2015 American comedy-drama film directed by Joe Swanberg and co-written by Swanberg and Jake Johnson. It stars an ensemble cast led by Johnson, Rosemarie DeWitt, Brie Larson, Sam Rockwell, Anna Kendrick, Orlando Bloom and Mike Birbiglia. Johnson and DeWitt play a married couple who find a gun and a bone in the backyard of a house they are staying in.
Lionsgate Premiere is the speciality film division of entertainment company Lionsgate Films that specializes in direct-to-video and direct-to-video on demand.
The Film Arcade is an independent American film production and distribution company based in Los Angeles.
The 2016 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 21 to January 31, 2016. The first lineup of competition films was announced on December 2, 2015. The opening night film was Norman Lear: Just Another Version of You, directed by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. The closing night film was Louis Black and Karen Bernstein's Richard Linklater: Dream Is Destiny.
The Little Hours is a 2017 American medieval black comedy film written and directed by Jeff Baena. The film is loosely based on the first and second stories of day three of ten of The Decameron, a collection of novellas by Giovanni Boccaccio, a 14th-century Italian writer. It stars an ensemble cast featuring Alison Brie, Dave Franco, Kate Micucci, Aubrey Plaza, John C. Reilly, and Molly Shannon.
Only the Brave, originally titled Granite Mountain and subtitled as The True Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots in previews, is a 2017 American biographical drama film directed by Joseph Kosinski, and written by Ken Nolan and Eric Warren Singer, based on the GQ article "No Exit" by Sean Flynn. The film tells the story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, an elite crew of firefighters from Prescott, Arizona who lost 19 of 20 members while fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire in June 2013, and is dedicated to their memory. It features an ensemble cast, including Josh Brolin, James Badge Dale, Jeff Bridges, Miles Teller, Alex Russell, Taylor Kitsch, Ben Hardy, Thad Luckinbill, Geoff Stults, Scott Haze, Andie MacDowell, and Jennifer Connelly.
Jeff Baena is an American screenwriter and film director known for Life After Beth (2014), Joshy (2016), The Little Hours (2017), Horse Girl (2020), Spin Me Round (2022), and for co-writing I Heart Huckabees (2004). He is known for his frequent collaborations with actresses Alison Brie and his wife, Aubrey Plaza.
Most Likely to Murder is a 2018 American comedy film, directed by Dan Gregor, from a screenplay by Gregor and Doug Mand. It stars Adam Pally, Rachel Bloom, Vincent Kartheiser, John Reynolds and Doug Mand.
Horse Girl is a 2020 American psychological drama film directed and produced by Jeff Baena, from a screenplay written by Baena and Alison Brie. It stars Brie, Debby Ryan, John Reynolds, Molly Shannon, John Ortiz, and Paul Reiser.
