Industry |
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Founded | 1995 |
Founder | |
Headquarters | , United States |
Website | Killer Films |
Killer Films is a New York City-based independent film production company founded in 1995 by film producers Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler. The company has produced many acclaimed independent films over the past two decades including Far From Heaven (nominated for four Academy Awards), Boys Don't Cry (Academy Award winner), One Hour Photo , Kids , Hedwig and the Angry Inch , Happiness , Velvet Goldmine , Safe , I Shot Andy Warhol , Swoon , I'm Not There (Academy Award nominated), Kill Your Darlings , Still Alice (Academy Award winner) and Carol (nominated for six Academy Awards). Killer Films also executive produced Todd Haynes' five episode HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce , which went on to win five Emmys, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.
In 2014, Killer Films merged with Glass Elevator Media to form Killer Content, Inc. [1]
Killer Films productions have received multiple awards and nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Emmy Awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Independent Spirit Awards. On the occasion of Killer's 10th anniversary in 2005, the company was feted with a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art. [2]
Christine Vachon's first feature production, Poison, directed by Todd Haynes, won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival. Poison was one of the defining films of the emerging New Queer Cinema. [3] [4] [5] For her work on Far From Heaven , another Todd Haynes collaboration, Vachon was honored by the New York Film Critics Circle, and received the Producer of the Year Award from the National Board of Review. [6]
Vachon produced the Showtime television adaptation of the public broadcasting radio program, This American Life, for which she won an Emmy. In 2011, Christine was invited to give the State of Cinema Address at the San Francisco Film Society's 54th San Francisco International Film Festival.
Vachon has also written two books on her life and career, Shooting to Kill (1998), [7] and A Killer Life (2006). [8]
One of Killer's most recent films, Kill Your Darlings, directed by John Krokidas, and starred Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan, was selected for the Sundance Film Festival and went on to be nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. [9] After producing Magic Magic, which debuted at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival to wide acclaim, Killer re-teamed with writer-director Sebastián Silva on his new feature, Nasty Baby . [10]
In 2015, Julianne Moore won the Best Performance by an Actress Oscar for her part in the 2014 Killer film Still Alice , directed by Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer, based on the novel of the same name, written by Lisa Genova. [11] That same year, Killer re-teamed with director Todd Haynes on Carol , based on the 1952 romance novel, The Price of Salt , written by Patricia Highsmith. The film stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara. [12]
In 2017, the company produced Janicza Bravo's Lemon starring Brett Gelman and Judy Greer; [13] Beatriz at Dinner starring Salma Hayek and Chloë Sevigny; [14] and Dina directed by Dan Sickles & Antonio Santini, the latter of three winning the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. [15] [16]
In May 2017, the company signed a two-year first look deal with Amazon Studios. [17]
Year | Title | Worldwide box office | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1991 | Poison | $787,280 [18] | |
1992 | Swoon | — | |
1994 | Go Fish | $2.4 million [19] | |
1994 | Postcards from America | — | |
1995 | Safe | $512,245 [20] | |
1995 | Kids | $7.4 million [21] | |
1995 | Stonewall | $692,400 [22] | |
1996 | Plain Pleasures | — | |
1996 | I Shot Andy Warhol | $1.9 million [23] | |
1997 | Bad Bosses Go to Hell | — | Short film |
1997 | Office Killer | $76,054 [24] | |
1998 | Happiness | $2.8 million [25] | |
1998 | Velvet Goldmine | $1.1 million [26] | |
1998 | I'm Losing You | $13,996 [27] | |
1998 | Dark Harbor | — | |
1999 | Boys Don't Cry | $11.5 million [28] | Won one Academy Award |
2000 | Crime + Punishment in Suburbia | $26,394 [29] | |
2001 | Series 7: The Contenders | $195,065 [30] | |
2001 | Women in Film | — | |
2001 | The Safety of Objects | $319,299 [31] | |
2001 | Storytelling | $2 million [32] | |
2001 | Hedwig and the Angry Inch | $3.6 million [33] | |
2001 | The Grey Zone | $517,872 [34] | |
2001 | Chelsea Walls | $60,902 [35] | |
2002 | One Hour Photo | $52 million [36] | |
2002 | Far From Heaven | $29 million [37] | Nominated for four Academy Awards |
2003 | Party Monster | $742,898 [38] | |
2003 | Camp | $2.6 million [39] | |
2003 | The Company | $6.4 million [40] | |
2004 | A Home at the End of the World | $1.5 million [41] | |
2004 | A Dirty Shame | $1.9 million [42] | |
2005 | The Notorious Bettie Page | $1.8 million [43] | |
2006 | Infamous | $2.6 million [44] | |
2007 | An American Crime | $1.3 million [45] | |
2007 | Savage Grace | $1.4 million [46] | |
2007 | I'm Not There | $11.7 million [47] | Nominated for one Academy Award |
2007 | Then She Found Me | $8.4 million [48] | |
2008 | Gigantic | $165,888 [49] | |
2009 | Motherhood | $726,354 [50] | |
2009 | Cracks | $29,683 [51] | |
2009 | Cairo Time | $2 million [52] | |
2010 | Lulu at the Ace Hotel | — | Short film |
2010 | Loop Planes | — | Short film |
2010 | Virginia | $12,728 [53] | |
2010 | Dirty Girl | $55,125 [54] | |
2011 | Dragonslayer | — | |
2012 | Shut Up and Play the Hits | $629,107 [55] | |
2012 | At Any Price | $380,594 [56] | |
2013 | Magic Magic | — | |
2013 | Kill Your Darlings | $2.1 million [57] | |
2013 | Dealin' with Idiots | $17,909 [58] | |
2013 | Deep Powder | — | |
2013 | The Last of Robin Hood | $288,545 [59] | |
2013 | WildLike | — | |
2013 | Bluebird | — | |
2014 | Young Bodies Heal Quickly | — | |
2014 | Electric Slide | — | |
2014 | Still Alice | $44 million [60] | Won one Academy Award |
2014 | Mala Mala | $10,761 [61] | |
2015 | Nasty Baby | $80,828 [62] | |
2015 | Carol | $40.3 million [63] | Nominated for nine British Academy Film Awards Nominated for six Academy Awards Nominated for five Golden Globe Awards |
2015 | Big Sky | — | |
2016 | Woman in Deep | — | Short film |
2016 | Goat | $23,020 [64] | |
2016 | Wiener-Dog | $716,633 [65] [66] | |
2016 | White Girl | $200,242 [67] | |
2016 | Frank & Lola | $9,188 [68] | |
2016 | A Kind of Murder | $89,899 [69] | |
2016 | London Town | $1,126 [70] | |
2017 | Dina | $96,524 [71] | |
2017 | Lemon | $29,528 [72] | |
2017 | Where Is Kyra? | $59,717 [73] | |
2017 | Beatriz at Dinner | $7.4 million [74] | |
2017 | Wonderstruck | $3.3 million [75] | |
2017 | My Days of Mercy | $18,766 [76] | |
2017 | First Reformed | $3.9 million [77] | Nominated for one Academy Award |
2018 | Colette | $13.8 million [78] | |
2018 | Vox Lux | $1.4 million [79] | |
2019 | American Woman | $245,416 [80] | |
2019 | Inside the Rain | $8,140 [81] | |
2019 | Dark Waters | $23.1 million [82] | |
2020 | Zola | $4.5-5 million [83] | |
2020 | Shirley | $305,805 [84] [85] | |
2020 | The World to Come | $204,797 [86] | |
2020 | Brothers by Blood | $104,744 [87] | |
2021 | The Velvet Underground | — | |
2022 | Under the Influence | — | |
2022 | Anything's Possible | — | |
2023 | Past Lives | $38.7 million [88] | Nominated for two Academy Awards |
2023 | She Came to Me | $1.2 million [89] | |
2023 | Bleeding Love | TBA | |
2023 | A Good Person | $3.1 million [90] | |
2023 | May December | $5 million [91] | Nominated for one Academy Award |
2024 | A Different Man | TBA | |
2024 | Omni Loop | TBA | |
TBA | On Swift Horses | TBA | |
TBA | The Brutalist | TBA |
Year | Title | Notes |
---|---|---|
2005 | Mrs. Harris | TV movie Nominated for twelve Emmy Awards [92] |
2007–2009 | This American Life | TV series Won three Emmy Awards [93] |
2010 | The Neistat Brothers | TV series |
2011 | Mildred Pierce | TV miniseries Won five Emmy Awards [94] |
2015–2017 | Z: The Beginning of Everything | TV series |
2018–2019 | This Close | TV series |
2021 | Halston | TV miniseries |
2021 | Pride | TV miniseries |
Todd Haynes is an American film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender roles.
Anne Jacqueline Hathaway is an American actress. Her accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award. Her films have grossed over $6.8 billion worldwide, and she appeared on the Forbes Celebrity 100 list in 2009. She was among the world's highest-paid actresses in 2015.
Safe is a 1995 American psychological horror film written and directed by Todd Haynes and starring Julianne Moore. Set in 1987, it follows a suburban housewife in Los Angeles whose monotonous life is abruptly changed when she becomes sick with a mysterious illness caused by the environment around her.
Peter Biskind is an American cultural critic, film historian, journalist and former executive editor of Premiere magazine from 1986 to 1996.
Christine Vachon is an American film producer active in the American independent film sector.
Poison is a 1991 American science fiction drama horror film written and directed by Todd Haynes, starring Edith Meeks, Larry Maxwell, Susan Gayle Norman, Scott Renderer, and James Lyons.
Kill Your Darlings is a 2013 American biographical drama film written by Austin Bunn and directed by John Krokidas in his feature film directorial debut. The film had its world premiere at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, garnering positive first reactions. It was shown at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, and it had a limited theatrical North American release from October 16, 2013. Kill Your Darlings became available on Blu-ray and DVD in the US on March 18, 2014, and then in the UK on April 21, 2014.
John Sloss is an entertainment lawyer, film sales agent, and manager, who has produced or executive produced over 50 films including the Academy Award-winning The Fog of War, Boys Don't Cry and Boyhood. Other credits include Bernie, City of Hope, Friends with Kids, A Scanner Darkly, Far From Heaven, and Before Sunrise.
Carol is a 2015 historical romance film directed by Todd Haynes. The screenplay by Phyllis Nagy is based on the 1952 romance novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith. The film stars Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Sarah Paulson, Jake Lacy, and Kyle Chandler. Set in New York City during the early 1950s, Carol tells the story of a forbidden affair between an aspiring female photographer and an older woman going through a difficult divorce.
Elizabeth Karlsen is an American–British film producer. Her career has spanned over three and a half decades, and In 2019, she was awarded the BAFTA award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. Her work has garnered a total of 52 BAFTA nominations and wins, and 20 Academy Award® nominations and wins. In 2002, she co-founded Number 9 Films with production partner and husband, Stephen Woolley.
Wiener-Dog is a 2016 American anthology comedy film directed and written by Todd Solondz. Starring an ensemble cast led by Ellen Burstyn, Kieran Culkin, Julie Delpy, Danny DeVito, Greta Gerwig, Tracy Letts, and Zosia Mamet, the film serves as a spin-off from Solondz's 1995 film Welcome to the Dollhouse, which also features the character of Dawn Wiener. The film is also inspired by the 1966 French drama Au Hasard Balthazar, directed by Robert Bresson.
Wonderstruck is a 2017 American mystery drama film directed by Todd Haynes, based on the 2011 novel Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick, who adapted the novel into the screenplay. The film stars Oakes Fegley, Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams, and Millicent Simmonds in her film debut.
Where Is Kyra? is a 2017 American drama film directed by Andrew Dosunmu with a screenplay by Darci Picoult and a story by Dosunmu and Picoult. The film stars Michelle Pfeiffer and Kiefer Sutherland.
Number 9 Films is a British independent film production company co-founded in 2002 by producers Elizabeth Karlsen and Stephen Woolley, after a long collaboration at both Palace Pictures and Scala Productions. In 2018, Claudia Yusef joined the company as head of development.
Beatriz at Dinner is a 2017 comedy drama film directed by Miguel Arteta from a screenplay by Mike White. The film stars Salma Hayek, John Lithgow, Connie Britton, Jay Duplass, Amy Landecker, Chloë Sevigny, and David Warshofsky.
Lemon is an American comedy-drama film directed by Janicza Bravo in her feature directorial debut, from a screenplay by Bravo and Brett Gelman. It stars Gelman, Judy Greer, Michael Cera, Shiri Appleby, Fred Melamed, Rhea Perlman, David Paymer, Gillian Jacobs, Jon Daly, Martin Starr, Megan Mullally, Jeff Garlin, Elizabeth De Razzo, Marla Gibbs and Nia Long.
Dark Waters is a 2019 American legal thriller film directed by Todd Haynes and written by Mario Correa and Matthew Michael Carnahan. The story dramatizes Robert Bilott's case against the chemical manufacturing corporation DuPont after they contaminated a town with unregulated chemicals. It stars Mark Ruffalo as Bilott, along with Anne Hathaway, Tim Robbins, Bill Camp, Victor Garber, Mare Winningham, William Jackson Harper, and Bill Pullman.
Zola is a 2020 American black comedy crime film directed by Janicza Bravo and co-written by Bravo and Jeremy O. Harris. It is based on a viral Twitter thread from 2015 by Aziah "Zola" King and the resulting Rolling Stone article "Zola Tells All: The Real Story Behind the Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted" by David Kushner. Starring Taylour Paige, Riley Keough, Nicholas Braun, and Colman Domingo, the film follows a part-time stripper who is convinced by her new friend to go on a roadtrip to Tampa, Florida to earn money dancing, only to get in over her head.
Pamela Koffler is an American film and television producer and founding partner of Killer Films, an independent New York-based production company she co-leads with Christine Vachon.
David Hinojosa is an American film producer, and founding partner of 2AM. Hinojosa has produced Nasty Baby (2015), Beatriz at Dinner (2017), First Reformed (2017), Vox Lux (2018), Zola (2020), The World to Come (2020), Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022), and Past Lives (2023).