Winner | |
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Directed by | Susanna Fogel |
Screenplay by | Kerry Howley |
Based on | "Who Is Reality Winner?" by Kerry Howley |
Produced by |
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Starring | |
Cinematography | Steve Yedlin |
Edited by | Joseph Krings |
Music by | Heather McIntosh |
Production companies |
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Distributed by | Vertical |
Release dates |
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Running time | 103 minutes [1] |
Countries |
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Language | English |
Winner is a 2024 black comedy drama film directed by Susanna Fogel and written by Kerry Howley. The film stars Emilia Jones as Reality Winner. It also stars Connie Britton, Danny Ramirez, Kathryn Newton and Zach Galifianakis.
It had its world premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2024, and was released on September 13, 2024, by Vertical.
The film is based on the life of Reality Winner, who leaked an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. [2]
Described as a darkly comedic biopic, Emilia Jones was confirmed to be portraying the whistle-blower Reality Winner from a script written by Kerry Howley based on her own 2017 New York magazine feature, "Who Is Reality Winner?," with Susanna Fogel also on board to direct. [3] It marks the second collaboration between Fogel and Jones following Cat Person . [4]
In October 2022 it was confirmed that principal photography had started with Connie Britton and Zach Galifianakis playing Winner’s parents and Kathryn Newton as her sister. [5] In May 2023 it was revealed Shannon Berry was part of the cast. [6]
Filming started around the areas in Winnipeg and elsewhere in Manitoba, [7] [8] and was wrapped in November 21, 2022.
The film premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2024. [9] In May 2024, Vertical acquired distribution rights to the film. [10] It was released on September 13, 2024. [11]
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 56% of 18 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.10/10. [12] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 60 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. [13]
Molly Shannon is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live from 1995 to 2001. In 2017, she won the Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actress for her playing Joanne Mulcahey in the Chris Kelly autobiographical film Other People.
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Connie Britton is an American actress. Britton made her feature film debut in the independent comedy-drama film The Brothers McMullen (1995), and the following year, she was cast as Nikki Faber on the ABC sitcom Spin City. She later starred in the short-lived sitcoms The Fighting Fitzgeralds (2001) and Lost at Home (2003), and appeared in several films, most notably the sports drama film Friday Night Lights (2004) and the thriller film The Last Winter (2006).
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Kerry Howley is an American feature writer at New York magazine, a professor at the University of Iowa's Nonfiction Writing Program, and a screenwriter. She is the author of the work of literary nonfiction Thrown (2014).
Reality Leigh Winner is an American U.S. Air Force veteran and former NSA translator. In 2018, she was given the longest prison sentence ever imposed for an unauthorized release of government information to the media after she leaked an intelligence report about Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. She was sentenced to five years and three months in federal prison.
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