Stephen Cone | |
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 Cone in 2023 | |
| Born | Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Actor, film director, editor, producer, writer |
| Years active | 2005–present |
Stephen Cone is an American filmmaker, best known for Henry Gamble's Birthday Party and Princess Cyd . He has received early career retrospectives on the Criterion Channel, Mubi, and at the Museum of the Moving Image, Berlin's Unknown Pleasures Festival and Manchester's Bigger Than Life. [1]
Cone was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and raised in South Carolina. [2] He moved to Chicago in 2004 and, in his words, taught himself to make movies "by making movies." [3]
In 2006, Cone wrote, produced and directed his first short film Church Story, starring Isabel Liss, Bill McGough and Arian Moayed. In 2007, Cone followed with the short film Young Wives. A medium-length film, a metaphysical drama called The Christians, was completed in 2008 and featured performances by J. Kingsford Goode, Bill McGough, Arian Moayed, Sadie Rogers, Laurel Schroeder, Krissy Shields and Robert Belushi, oldest son of actor Jim Belushi.
Cone's feature film In Memoriam, was released in 2011, and follows a group of college students reenacting the last hours of two dead peers who fell to their deaths attempting to make love. In Memoriam was praised by film critic Roger Ebert as "a touching film." [4] Cone later reflected on the effect Ebert's review had, writing:
I had had almost zero success or exposure up to that point. In Memoriam was bombing with festival programmers. I, to this day, do not know why he reviewed that film, and I can't believe he actually liked it. (I'm too hard on that film, I think.) I'm not sure I would've kept going without a) those Ebert reviews, and b) programmer Kim Yutani programming The Wise Kids at Outfest. [5]
Cone's third theatrical film, the coming-of-age drama The Wise Kids , also released in 2011, was a critical success. It also garnered praise from Ebert, [6] Variety 's Robert Koehler [7] and Stephen Holden of The New York Times . [8] The film was a Critics' Pick for The New York Times and won the Grand Jury Prizes for U.S. Feature and Best Screenplay at Outfest. [8] [9] It was subsequently released on cable/VOD and DVD by Wolfe Video. [9]
In 2013, Cone released his fourth theatrical film Black Box . While not as widely seen as The Wise Kids, due to an initial lack of distribution, [10] the film garnered praise from Newcity 's Ray Pride [11] and Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune , who gave the film 3½ out of 4 stars, and called it "a worthy follow-up to Cone's previous film." [12] Black Box was later acquired by Devolver Digital Films for a late 2014 cable/VOD release.
Cone completed two unreleased experimental features in 2014, The Mystery of Life and This Afternoon, and in 2015 completed the coming-of-age drama Henry Gamble's Birthday Party . [13] [14] [15] Henry Gamble was featured in The New York Times' "Anatomy of a Scene" series, screened within BAMcinemaFest and BFI Flare, and was the winner of the Silver Q Hugo Award at the 2015 Chicago International Film Festival. His next feature film, Princess Cyd , [16] appeared on Vanity Fair's Ten Best Films of the 2010s after appearing on multiple Best of 2017 lists, including IndieWire, Vulture, Vanity Fair, Vox and NPR, and screening at dozens of festivals worldwide, including the BFI London Film Festival, BAMcinemaFest, Frameline and the Maryland Film Festival. It was acquired for distribution by Wolfe Releasing.
| Year | Film | Credited Director | Credited Producer | Credited Writer | Credited Actor | Credited Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Church Story | Yes | Yes | Yes | Short film | ||
| 2007 | Young Wives | Yes | Yes | Yes | Short film | ||
| 2008 | The Christians | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| 2011 | In Memoriam | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Eric | |
| The Wise Kids | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Austin | ||
| 2013 | Black Box | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| 2014 | This Afternoon | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| The Mystery of Life | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||
| 2015 | Henry Gamble's Birthday Party | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| 2016 | Show Yourself | Yes | Daniel | ||||
| 2017 | Princess Cyd | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
Sisters is a 1972 American psychological horror film directed by Brian De Palma and starring Margot Kidder, Jennifer Salt, and Charles Durning. It follows a French Canadian model's separated conjoined twin who is suspected of having committed a brutal murder witnessed by a newspaper reporter in Staten Island, New York City.
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.
Desert Hearts is a 1985 American romantic drama film directed by Donna Deitch. The screenplay, written by Natalie Cooper, is an adaptation of the 1964 lesbian novel Desert of the Heart by Jane Rule. Set in Reno, Nevada in 1959, it tells the story of a university professor awaiting a divorce who finds her true self through a relationship with another, more self-confident woman. The film stars Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau with a supporting performance by Audra Lindley.
Boyhood is a 2014 American epic coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Richard Linklater, and starring Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, and Ethan Hawke. Filmed from 2002 to 2013, Boyhood depicts the childhood and adolescence of Mason Evans Jr. (Coltrane) from ages six to eighteen as he grows up in Texas with divorced parents. Richard Linklater's daughter Lorelei plays Mason's sister, Samantha.
Something, Anything is a 2014 American independent film written and directed by Paul Harrill. The film was produced by Ashley Maynor, and stars Ashley Shelton, Bryce Johnson, and Linds Edwards.
Elvira Madigan is a 1967 Swedish romantic drama film directed by Bo Widerberg and starring Pia Degermark and Thommy Berggren. It is based on the tragedy of the Danish slackrope dancer Hedvig Jensen, working under the stage name of Elvira Madigan at her stepfather's travelling circus, and her romance with Swedish nobleman lieutenant Sixten Sparre.
Wolfe Video is the oldest and largest exclusive producer and distributor of LGBT films in North America.
The Kids Are All Right is a 2010 American comedy drama film directed by Lisa Cholodenko and written by Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg. It is among the first mainstream movies to show a same-sex couple raising two teenagers. A hit at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival, it opened in limited release on July 9, 2010, expanded to more theaters on July 30, 2010, and was released on DVD and Blu-ray on November 16, 2010. The film was awarded the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and Annette Bening was awarded the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. The film also received four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, at the 83rd Academy Awards. As of 2024, it is the last film Cholodenko has directed.
Pornography: A Thriller is a 2009 American mystery/thriller film, written and directed by David Kittredge.
The Wise Kids is a 2011 American drama film written and directed by Stephen Cone and starring Molly Kunz, Tyler Ross, Allison Torem, Matt DeCaro, Sadieh Rifai, and Stephen Cone. An ensemble, coming-of-age piece, the film follows a group of young members of a South Carolina Baptist church as they confront issues of homosexuality and a crisis of faith.
Black Box is a 2013 drama film written and directed by Stephen Cone and starring Josephine Decker and Austin Pendleton.
Josephine Decker is an English–born American filmmaker. Films she has directed include Butter on the Latch (2013), Thou Wast Mild and Lovely (2014), Madeline's Madeline (2018), Shirley (2020), and The Sky is Everywhere (2022). She also co-directed the documentary Bi the Way (2008) with Brittany Blockman.
The Homestretch is a 2014 American documentary film produced and directed by Anne de Mare and Kirsten Kelly. De Mare and Kelly intended the film to serve as a challenge to the negative stereotypes of youth homelessness. The film premiered at the 2014 HotDocs Film Festival on April 26, 2014. It went on to play at the 2014 AFI Docs Film Festival and the 2014 Human Rights Watch Film Festival.
Tiger Orange is a 2014 American drama film directed by Wade Gasque and written by Gasque and Mark Strano. The film starts Strano and Frankie Valenti as Chet and Todd, two gay brothers struggling to reconnect after their father's death.
Henry Gamble's Birthday Party is a 2015 drama film written and directed by Stephen Cone.
Naz & Maalik is a 2015 American drama film written and directed by Jay Dockendorf and starring Curtiss Cook Jr. and Kerwin Johnson Jr. It follows two closeted Muslim teenagers over the course of a summer afternoon, as their secretive behavior and small-time scheming accidentally lead them into the crosshairs of FBI surveillance.
Owen Joseph Kline is an American filmmaker and actor. He is best known for his directorial debut Funny Pages (2022) and his performance as Frank Berkman in The Squid and the Whale (2005).
Steve Zissis is an American actor, writer and producer. A longtime friend of Jay and Mark Duplass, he has appeared in and co-produced some of their productions, including the films Baghead (2008), Cyrus (2010), The Do-Deca-Pentathlon (2012) and the TV series Togetherness (2015–2016). He has also appeared in other films and TV shows, including the 2013 film Her.
Tyler Ross is an American actor best known for playing Kyle Stansbury in season four of the television series The Killing and for starring in the Stephen Cone films The Wise Kids (2011), Henry Gamble's Birthday Party (2015), and Princess Cyd (2017). Ross has also appeared in the series Boss, NCIS, Major Crimes, Crash & Bernstein, Battle Creek, and 9-1-1 and the films The Lovers (2017), Officer Downe (2016), American Milkshake (2013), and Nate & Margaret (2012).
Princess Cyd is a 2017 American coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Stephen Cone and starring Rebecca Spence, Jessie Pinnick, and Ro White.
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