Julius Onah | |
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| Born | February 10, 1983 Otukpo, Benue State, Nigeria |
| Education | Wesleyan University (BA) New York University (MFA) |
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| Years active | 2002–present |
| Website | opencontinents |
Julius Onah (born February 10, 1983) is a Nigerian-American filmmaker. [1] He has directed the films The Girl Is in Trouble (2015), The Cloverfield Paradox (2018), Luce (2019), and the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World (2025).
Onah was born in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria. His father, Adoga Onah, was a Nigerian diplomat. He was raised in the Philippines, Nigeria, Togo, and the United Kingdom before moving to Arlington County, Virginia. Onah graduated from Washington-Lee High School in Arlington and received his B.A. in theater from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. He completed an M.F.A. from the graduate film program at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where he was selected as a Dean's Fellow. [1] He is also a recipient of the prestigious Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Scholarship. [2]
Onah's work has been screened at festivals around the world including Sundance, Berlin, Tribeca, London, Dubai, Los Angeles, Melbourne and Camerimage. In the summer of 2010, he was selected as one of Filmmaker magazine's New Faces of Independent Film. In 2013, he was selected as one of Studio System's 10 Up and Up Feature Directors and Forbes Magazine's 13 African Celebrities To Watch. While at NYU's graduate film program he completed his first feature as his thesis, The Girl Is in Trouble (2015) with executive producer Spike Lee, featuring Alicja Bachleda, Wilmer Valderrama, Columbus Short, and Jesse Spencer. Onah was previously set to direct the thriller film adaptation Brilliance for Legendary Pictures which David Koepp scripted with Will Smith and Noomi Rapace to star as leads. [3] [4] He then directed The Cloverfield Paradox (2018) [5] with producer J. J. Abrams. His latest film, Luce featuring Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Tim Roth and Kelvin Harrison Jr., premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. [6] He and J.C. Lee wrote the screenplay of the thriller film Bad Genius, a remake of the 2017 Thai film of the same name. [7] He then directed Captain America: Brave New World , the fourth Captain America film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, with Anthony Mackie starring in the title role. [8]
| Year | Film | Director | Writer | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | The Girl Is in Trouble | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2018 | The Cloverfield Paradox | Yes | No | No |
| 2019 | Luce | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2024 | Bad Genius | No | Yes | No |
| 2025 | Captain America: Brave New World | Yes | Yes | No |
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Open Continents is a global media project comprising Onah's short, feature, music video and television work.
| Continent | Title | Country | Subject | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EUROPE | SZMOLINSKY (Berlin Film Festival, SXSW Click, Melbourne Film Festival) | Germany | Euro Tales | 2008 |
| NIE PATRZ WSTECZ (London Film Festival, Camerimage Grand Jury Award) | Poland | 2008 | ||
| DRIK NU AGNES | Denmark | 2011 | ||
| AFRICA | GOODBYE CHICKEN, FAREWELL GOAT (Los Angeles Film Festival, Mill Valley Film Festival, True/False Film Festival) | Nigeria | African Days | 2010 |
| BIG MAN (Dubai Film Festival, New York Times, Los Angeles Film Festival) | 2012 | |||
| NORTH AMERICA | SHE WAITS IN THE RESTLESS HORIZON | USA | New York Streets | 2005 |
| LINUS (MTVu Film of the Week, 1st Place Calvin Klein Short Film Competition) | 2007 | |||
| THE GIRL IS IN TROUBLE | 2015 | |||
| MEDITATIONS/A LOVE STORY | American Lives | 2004 | ||
| THE BOUNDARY (Amnesty International Movies That Matter, Best Director NBC Short Cuts, HBO) | 2008 | |||
| "BROKEN ARROWS" (Avicii) | 2015 | |||
| LUCE | 2019 | |||
| THE CLOVERFIELD PARADOX | Hollywood Lights | 2018 |
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Noomi Rapace is a Swedish actress. She achieved international fame with her portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish film adaptations of the Millennium series (2009): The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest. For her performance in the Millennium series, Rapace won amongst others two Nymphe d'Ors, a Guldbagge Award, and a Satellite Award as Best Actress, and was nominated for a BAFTA Award, an International Emmy Award and a European Film Award. Following the success of the Millennium series, Rapace has gone on to star in American movies.
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Anthony Onah is a Nigerian-American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his debut feature, The Price (2017), which premiered in competition at the 2017 South by Southwest Film Festival.
10 Cloverfield Lane is a 2016 American science fiction horror thriller film directed by Dan Trachtenberg in his directorial debut, produced by J. J. Abrams and Lindsey Weber and written by Josh Campbell, Matthew Stuecken, and Damien Chazelle. The second film in the Cloverfield franchise, it stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead, John Goodman, and John Gallagher Jr. The story follows a young woman who, after a car crash, wakes up in an underground bunker with two men who insist that an event has left the surface of Earth uninhabitable.
Unlocked is a 2017 action thriller film directed by Michael Apted, written by Peter O'Brien, and starring Noomi Rapace, Orlando Bloom, Michael Douglas, John Malkovich and Toni Collette. It was Apted's final film before his death in 2021. It was released in the United Kingdom on May 5, 2017, by Lionsgate.
What Happened to Monday is a 2017 dystopian science-fiction action thriller film directed by Tommy Wirkola and written by Max Botkin and Kerry Williamson. The film stars Noomi Rapace, Glenn Close and Willem Dafoe.
The Cloverfield Paradox is a 2018 American science fiction horror film directed by Julius Onah and written by Oren Uziel, from a story by Uziel and Doug Jung, and produced by J. J. Abrams and Lindsey Weber. It is the third film in the Cloverfield franchise, following Cloverfield (2008) and 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016). It stars Daniel Brühl, Elizabeth Debicki, Aksel Hennie, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Chris O'Dowd, John Ortiz, David Oyelowo, and Zhang Ziyi. It follows an international group of astronauts aboard a space station who, after using a particle accelerator to try to solve Earth's energy crisis, must find a way home when the planet seemingly vanishes.
Stockholm is a 2018 crime comedy-drama film written, produced and directed by Robert Budreau. It stars Ethan Hawke, Noomi Rapace, Mark Strong, Christopher Heyerdahl, Bea Santos and Thorbjørn Harr. The film premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 19, 2018, and was released on April 12, 2019, by Smith Global Media. The film is loosely based on the true story of the 1973 bank heist and hostage crisis in Stockholm.
Max Botkin is an American screenwriter and producer. Botkin's original script for What Happened to Monday? was featured on the 2010 Blacklist for best unproduced screenplays in Hollywood.
Kelvin Harrison Jr. is an American actor. He is the recipient of such accolades as a Screen Actors Guild Award and nominations for a British Academy Film Award, Gotham Award, an Independent Spirit Award.
Aneesh Chaganty is an American film director and screenwriter. He made his feature film directorial debut with the 2018 thriller Searching, for which he won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.
Luce is a 2019 American social thriller drama film co-produced and directed by Julius Onah, who co-wrote the screenplay with JC Lee, based on the 2013 play of the same name by Lee. It stars Naomi Watts, Octavia Spencer, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Tim Roth. The film tells the story of a couple forced to reconsider their marriage and their family after an extremely disturbing essay written by their adopted son is brought to their attention by his teacher (Spencer).
The Secrets We Keep is a 2020 American thriller film directed by Yuval Adler and written by Adler and Ryan Covington. The film stars Noomi Rapace, Joel Kinnaman, and Chris Messina.
Topic Studios is an American film production company owned by First Look Media. The company is known for producing films Leave No Trace (2018), Luce (2019), The Climb (2019), and The Mauritanian (2021). The company also produces television shows including Love Fraud (2020) and 100 Foot Wave (2021).
Angel of Mine is a 2019 Australian-American psychological thriller film directed by Kim Farrant and written by Luke Davies and David Regal. It stars Noomi Rapace, Luke Evans, Yvonne Strahovski and Richard Roxburgh. It is a remake of the 2008 French film Mark of an Angel.
The Last Voyage of the Demeter is a 2023 American supernatural horror film directed by André Øvredal, and written by Bragi F. Schut Jr. and Zak Olkewicz. It is an adaptation of "The Captain's Log", a chapter from the 1897 novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. The film stars Corey Hawkins, Aisling Franciosi, Liam Cunningham, and David Dastmalchian. Its plot follows the doomed crew of the merchant ship Demeter who attempt to survive the treacherous ocean voyage from Transylvania to London while being stalked by a legendary vampire known as Dracula.
Bad Genius is a 2024 American heist thriller film directed by J.C. Lee and co-written by Julius Onah. It is an English-language remake of the 2017 Thai film of the same name. It stars Benedict Wong, Callina Liang, Jabari Banks, Taylor Hickson, and Sarah-Jane Redmond.
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