Sophie Barthes

Last updated
Sophie Barthes
Sophie Barthes.jpg
Sophie Barthes in Karlovy Vary
Born1974 (age 4950)
France
Occupation(s)Film director, screenwriter
Years active2007–present
Notable work Cold Souls (2009), Madame Bovary (2014)
Spouse Andrij Parekh

Sophie Barthes (born 1974) is a French-American film director and screenwriter best known for her 2009 film Cold Souls .

Contents

Early life

Barthes was born in France and was raised in South America and the Middle East. [1] She moved to New York in 2001 to attend the Columbia University School of the Arts and also studied international relations, earning her degree in 2003. [2] [3] [4]

Career

Barthes' short film Happiness, which tells the story of a woman who purchases a box of happiness and cannot decide if she should open it, was shown at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. The film was well-received and earned her a place in the Sundance Institute's Screenwriters Lab, where she began to write the screenplay for her first feature film, Cold Souls . [5] Barthes had first begun to develop the idea for Cold Souls in 2005, after she had a dream about Woody Allen having his soul extracted. [2] [5] The film, directed by Barthes, premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where it was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize. [6] It was released in August 2009, and starred Paul Giamatti as a fictionalized version of himself who decides to have his soul removed. [7]

Barthes received artists' grants from the New York State Council on the Arts for both Happiness and Cold Souls, and both films received awards and nominations from numerous film festivals. She was a resident at the Nantucket Screenwriters Colony, the 2007 Sundance Screenwriters Lab, and the 2007 Sundance Directors Lab. [1] At the 25th Independent Spirit Awards, held in 2010, Barthes was nominated for the Best First Screenplay for Cold Souls. [8]

Barthes' second feature is Madame Bovary , an adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's novel of the same name to be released in 2014. [9]

Personal life

Barthes lives in the East Village of Manhattan with her partner, cinematographer Andrij Parekh, who filmed Cold Souls and Madame Bovary with Barthes. [7]

Filmography

Feature films

Short films

Related Research Articles

<i>Madame Bovary</i> 1857 novel by Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary, originally published as Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners, is a novel by French writer Gustave Flaubert, published in 1857. The eponymous character lives beyond her means in order to escape the banalities and emptiness of provincial life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Schamus</span> American filmmaker (born 1959)

James Allan Schamus is an American screenwriter, producer, business executive, film historian, professor, and director. He is a frequent collaborator of Ang Lee, the co-founder of the production company Good Machine, and the co-founder and former CEO of motion picture production, financing, and worldwide distribution company Focus Features, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal. He is currently president of the New York–based production company Symbolic Exchange, and is Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University, where he has taught film history and theory since 1989.

Nicole Holofcener is an American film and television director and screenwriter. She has directed seven feature films, including Walking and Talking, Friends with Money and Enough Said, as well as various television series. Along with Jeff Whitty, Holofcener received a 2019 Academy Award nomination for Adapted Screenplay, a BAFTA nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay, and won the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sian Heder</span> American writer and filmmaker (born 1977)

Siân Heder is an American filmmaker who is best known for writing and directing the films Tallulah and CODA. CODA earned Heder an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film also won the Academy Award for Best Picture and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for Troy Kotsur.

Malia Scotch Marmo is an American screenwriter and teacher, best known for writing Lasse Hallstrom's Once Around and Steven Spielberg's Hook. Scotch Marmo also collaborated with novelist Soman Chainani in adapting The School for Good and Evil, a Netflix production directed by Paul Feig. Scotch Marmo also teaches screenwriting and, through the Sundance Institute and other organizations, mentors aspiring filmmakers.

Courtney Hunt is an American Film director and screenwriter. She is best known for directing Frozen River, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, and was nominated for two Academy Awards.

Sally El-Hosaini is a Welsh-Egyptian BAFTA nominated film director and screenwriter.

<i>Cold Souls</i> 2009 American film

Cold Souls is a 2009 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Sophie Barthes. The film features Paul Giamatti, Dina Korzun, Emily Watson, and David Strathairn. Giamatti stars as a fictionalised version of himself, an anxious, overwhelmed actor who decides to enlist the service of a company to deep freeze his soul. Complications ensue when his soul gets lost in a soul trafficking scheme which has taken his soul to St. Petersburg. The film then follows Giamatti desperately trying to recover his soul.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Briar Grace-Smith</span> New Zealand Māori scriptwriter

Briar Grace-Smith is a screenwriter, director, actor, and short story writer from New Zealand. She has worked as an actor and writer with the Maori theatre cooperative Te Ohu Whakaari and Maori theatre company He Ara Hou. Early plays Don't Call Me Bro and Flat Out Brown, were first performed at the Taki Rua Theatre in Wellington in 1996. Waitapu, a play written by Grace-Smith, was devised by He Ara Hou and performed by the group on the Native Earth Performing Arts tour in Canada in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shonali Bose</span> Indian film director, writer and film producer

Shonali Bose is an Indian film director, writer and film producer. Having made her feature film debut in 2005, she has since won such accolades as a National Film Award, a Bridgestone Narrative Award, and a Sundance Mahindra Global Filmmaker Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Onah</span> American film director

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.

Mynette Louie is an American film producer of Chinese descent. She was nominated for a Primetime Emmy and Critics Choice Award in 2018 for HBO's The Tale, won the 2015 Independent Spirit Awards John Cassavetes Award for Land Ho!, and won the 2013 Independent Spirit Awards Piaget Producers Award. She was also nominated twice for "Best First Feature" at the Independent Spirit Awards for I Carry You With Me and The Tale. She is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Petra Costa</span> Brazilian actress and filmmaker

Petra Costa is a Brazilian filmmaker and actress. She has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Carmichael (filmmaker)</span> American film director, writer, and animator

Emily Carmichael is an American film director, screenwriter, and animator. Her short films have screened in competition at Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, Slamdance, and other US and International film festivals. Carmichael co-wrote the screenplay for the 2018 science fiction sequel Pacific Rim: Uprising and the 2022 film Jurassic World: Dominion.

<i>Madame Bovary</i> (2014 film) 2014 film

Madame Bovary is a 2014 historical romantic drama film directed by Sophie Barthes, based on the 1856 novel of the same name by French author Gustave Flaubert. The film stars Mia Wasikowska, Rhys Ifans, Ezra Miller, Logan Marshall-Green, Henry Lloyd-Hughes, Laura Carmichael, Olivier Gourmet, and Paul Giamatti.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Talkington</span> American filmmaker, screenwriter, and author

Amy Virginia Talkington is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and author.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eliza Hittman</span> American film director

Eliza Hittman is an American screenwriter, film director, and producer from New York City. She has won multiple awards for her film Never Rarely Sometimes Always, which include the New York Film Critics Circle Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award—both for best screenplay.

Lucy Alibar is an American screenwriter and playwright best known for co-writing the 2012 film Beasts of the Southern Wild with Benh Zeitlin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Johnny Ma</span> Chinese-Canadian film director

Johnny Ma is a Chinese-Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his debut feature film Old Stone, which premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2016. The film won the awards for Best Canadian First Feature Film at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, and Best First Feature at the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017. His second feature To Live To Sing premiered at the Director's Fortnight Section of the 2019 Cannes Film Festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sara Colangelo</span> American writer and film director

Sara Colangelo is an American film director and screenwriter known for her films Little Accidents and Worth. Filmmaker Magazine named her one of its "25 New Faces of Independent Film" in 2010.

References

  1. 1 2 "Inspiring Filmmaker: 2008". Lunafest. 2008. Archived from the original on April 26, 2014. Retrieved April 25, 2014.
  2. 1 2 Kaufman, Anthony (March 25, 2009). "ND/NF: Sophie Barthes Has a Chickpea For Your Soul". The Village Voice . Retrieved April 25, 2014.
  3. Indiewire; Indiewire (2009-01-09). "Sophie Barthes, "Cold Souls": Dreams, Psychoanalysis, and the Shape of the Soul". IndieWire. Retrieved 2022-12-24.
  4. "Columbia Filmmakers Head to Sundance 2023 | School of the Arts". arts.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2022-12-24.
  5. 1 2 Hill, Logan (January 12, 2009). "New Surrealist: Sophie Barthes". New York . Retrieved April 25, 2014.
  6. "COLD SOULS (2009)". British Board of Film Classification. 2009. Retrieved April 25, 2014.
  7. 1 2 Brooks, Brian (August 9, 2009). "From Dream to Screen: "Cold Souls" Director Sophie Barthes Must Have Great Karma!". IndieWire . Retrieved April 25, 2009.
  8. Fischer, Russ (December 1, 2009). "Awards: Hurt Locker Takes Top Gotham Honor; Independent Spirit and Annie Nominations Announced". /Film . Retrieved April 25, 2009.
  9. Lavallee, Eric (February 24, 2014). "Top 200 Most Anticipated Films for 2014: #76. Sophie Barthes' Madame Bovary". IonCinema. Retrieved April 25, 2014.