Andrew Wagner

Writer / Director

BREAKABLE YOU, starring Holly Hunter, Tony Shalhoub, Alfred Molina, Cristin Milioti and Omar Metwally, is writer/director Andrew Wagner’s third feature film. It had its World Premiere at the 2017 Palm Springs International Film Festival and screened in the Film Independent Series at the LACMA, curated by Elvis Mitchell. BREAKABLE YOU was released by Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions in March 2018 and is currently streaming on Hulu.

 

Andrew’s second feature, STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING, starring Frank Langella, Lili Taylor, and Lauren Ambrose, premiered in competition at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 and was released theatrically by Roadside Attractions. Frank Langella was voted Best Actor of 2007 by the Boston Critics Association and was Runner-Up for Best Actor in voting by critics associations in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Dallas/Ft. Worth. STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING was named one of the Top 10 Independent Films of 2007 by the National Board of Review and made over 30 critics’ Best Films of 2007 lists, including A.O. Scott’s and Stephen Holden’s of the NEW YORK TIME, and Roger Ebert’s of the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES. It was nominated for two Spirit Awards: Best Male Lead and Best Screenplay.

 

Andrew’s first feature, THE TALENT GIVEN US, was an Official Selection at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. THE TALENT GIVEN US also won the Jury Prize at the CineVegas Film Festival and Best First Feature at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival. It went on to play theatrically in over 30 cities and made the NEW YORK TIMES' and other critics’ Best Films of 2005 lists. Andrew was a Breakthrough Director nominee at the 2005 Gotham Awards.

 

Andrew majored in Creative Writing at Brown University. He attended NYU’s Graduate Film School where his short, THE HARDEST HIT, won the Francois de Menil Scholarship. He moved to Los Angeles to write WACCABUC, a screenplay for United Artists and director Mark Rydell, and then became a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute where he received a Masters in Fine Arts and his thesis film, THE LAST DAYS OF HOPE AND TIME, won the Franklin J. Schaffner Fellowship for Excellence in Directing. Andrew went on to develop his adaptation of THE MAN WHO GAVE UP HIS NAME -- from the collection of novellas, LEGENDS OF THE FALL, by Jim Harrison -- at the Sundance Writer’s Lab. Andrew was the cinematographer on Julie Delpy’s feature, LOOKING FOR JIMMY.

 

Andrew is a Senior Lecturer & Thesis Development/Directing Mentor at the American Film Institute.