Ana Lily Amirpour

Ana Lily Amirpour
Born England
Residence Los Angeles
Occupation Film director, screenwriter
Years active 2009-present
Website www.analilyamirpour.com

Ana Lily Amirpour is an Iranian-American film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. She is most known for her feature film debut, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, a self-described "Iranian Vampire Spaghetti Western"[1] that made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014, and which was based on a previous short film with the same title she wrote and directed that won "Best Short Film" at the 2012 Noor Iranian Film Festival.

Background

Amirpour was born in England, and moved to Miami, Florida with her family when she was young.[2] Her family then settled in Bakersfield, California, where she attended high school.[3] Later, she attended San Francisco State University as an art major for her undergraduate degree, and then graduated from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television.[4] She has been making films ever since she was 12 years old.[5]

Career

Feature films

Amirpour's feature directorial debut was A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014), self-described as "the first Iranian vampire spaghetti western" and starring Sheila Vand, Arash Marandi, Marshall Manesh, Dominic Rains, Mozhan Marnò and Rome Shadanloo. The film built up significant buzz when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, eventually being picked up by Kino Lorber and distributed by VICE films.[6] The film also won the "Revelations Prize" at the 2014 Deauville Film Festival and the Carnet Jove Jury Award, as well as the Citizen Kane Award for Best Directorial Revelation from the Sitges Film Festival. The film was also nominated for the Halekulani Golden Orchid award at the Hawaii International Film Festival.

Upon the film's premiere, VICE Creative Director Eddy Moretti, whose company is releasing the film, has called Amirpour "the next Tarantino". The New York Times's A.O. Scott also remarked that the film had a "Jim Jarmusch-like cool" and a "disarmingly innocent outlaw romanticism."

Short films

Amirpour has written, produced and directed a number of short films before A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Among them is a 2011 short of the same name, which won a "Best Short Film" award at the 2012 Noor Iranian Film Festival and features Nazanin Boniadi in the role played by Sheila Vand in the feature, as well as Marshall Manesh and Dominic Rains from the feature film version.

Among the short films that Amirpour has both directed and written are A Little Suicide (2012), which received nominations for Best Short Film from the Edinburgh International Film Festival, the Oldenburg Film Festival and the Zlin International Film Festival for Children and Youth, Pashmaloo (2011), also starring Sheila Vand from the feature film version of A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and screened at Berlinale (Berlin International Film Festival) in 2011, Ketab (2010), which also stars Sheila Vand, as well as Marshall Manesh from A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, True Love (2010), which won an Audience Award for Best International Short from the Milano International Film Festival Awards, You (2009), a music video featuring San Francisco rock duo Juanita and the Rabbit, the husband/wife combo Brett and Elizabeth 'Lizard' Cline, and Six and a Half (2009).

Amirpour has also directed the short documentary entitled Ana Lily Amirpour Likes This, which is described as "a look at how we sculpt and customize our 'identities' in various social networks" that is "inspired by tweets and various social networks."

Amirpour has written the short films I Feel Stupid (2012) (directed by Milena Pastreich), and part of the story for the feature film The Garlock Incident (2012), which she also stars in.

Future projects

Amirpour has described her next project, an English-language film tentatively entitled The Bad Batch[7] as "a post-apocalyptic cannibal love story set in a Texas wasteland" where a "muscled cannibal breaks the rule ‘don’t play with your food’" - "It’s Road Warrior meets Pretty in Pink with a dope soundtrack."[8] She has also described it as "very violent" and "very romantic" and like "El Topo meets Dirty Dancing".[9] She set the lead of the film with American actors Jason Momoa,[10] Jim Carrey and Keanu Reeves.[11]

References

  1. ↑ Talking to the Star and Director of 'A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night' - VICE Meets
  2. ↑ S.M., 25 New Faces of Independent Film 2014, Ana Lily Amirpour, http://filmmakermagazine.com/people/ana-lily-amirpour/
  3. ↑ Daniel Schindel, Los Angeles Magazine, The Vampire Western Noir Set in Iran and Filmed Near Bakersfield, http://www.lamag.com/culturefiles/vampire-western-noir-romance-set-iran-filmed-near-bakersfield/
  4. ↑ Jeff Beer, Fast Company Create, DIRECTOR ANA LILY AMIRPOUR’S GUIDE TO FILMMAKING AND "BACK TO THE FUTURE" APPROACH TO CREATIVITY, http://www.fastcocreate.com/3038883/director-ana-lily-amirpours-guide-to-filmmaking-and-a-back-to-the-future-approach-to-creativ
  5. ↑ Id.
  6. ↑ S.M., 25 New Faces of Independent Film 2014, Ana Lily Amirpour, http://filmmakermagazine.com/people/ana-lily-amirpour/
  7. ↑ Eric Edelstein, Ana Lily Amirpour Is the Raddest Filmmaker Working Right Now, http://www.indiewire.com/article/ana-lily-amirpour-is-the-raddest-filmmaker-working-right-now-20141120
  8. ↑ Ana Lily Amirpour Working On Cannibal Love Story The Bad Batch
  9. ↑ Staci Layne Wilson, Exclusive: Ana Lily Amirpour Talks A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night and What’s Next, http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/78957/exclusive-ana-lily-amirpour-talks-girl-walks-home-alone-night-whats-next/
  10. ↑ “Game of Thrones” Star Joins ‘The Bad Batch’
  11. ↑ Cannibal Flick The Bad Batch Eats Up Jim Carrey and Keanu Reeves

External links

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