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Jane Schoenbrun

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Jane Schoenbrun
Schoenbrun in February 2024
Born1987 (age 36–37)
Queens, New York City, U.S.
Alma materBoston University
OccupationFilmmaker
Spouse
Melissa Ader
​
(m. 2014)​

Jane Flannery Schoenbrun (/ˈʃoʊnbrən/;[1] born 1987) is an American filmmaker. They[a] worked as a producer before making their directorial debut in 2018.

Early life

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Jane Flannery Schoenbrun[2] was born to Jewish parents in Queens, New York, in 1987.[3][4] They were raised in Ardsley, New York.[5] Growing up, they worked at a local movie theater.[6] They graduated from Boston University's film program in 2009.[7]

Career

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While in college, Schoenbrun worked as a production assistant on short films by the Safdie brothers.[7] After graduating, they moved back to New York and began working as a staffer for the Independent Filmmaker Project.[7] From 2011 to 2019, they wrote a significant number of articles for Filmmaker magazine.[8] In 2014, they served as the lead of film partnerships at Kickstarter.[9]

Schoenbrun made their directorial debut in 2018 with the documentary A Self-Induced Hallucination. The film centers the narrative of the fictional horror character and internet phenomenon Slender Man, as told through a found footage compilation of existing YouTube videos. Schoenbrun has stated that they do not wish to profit from A Self-Induced Hallucination.[10]

Their film We're All Going to the World's Fair premiered during the online 2021 Sundance Film Festival. The film follows the story of a teenage girl named Casey, portrayed by Anna Cobb, who joins an "occult online game".[11] The film was inspired and informed by creepypasta aesthetics and trans perspectives. Critics noted that it paid homage to low-budget horror films such as Paranormal Activity.[12] The majority of We're All Going to the World's Fair consists of original footage, with the exception of some online videos posted by content creators previously unrelated to the film.[7]

On October 7, 2021, Deadline reported that Schoenbrun's next feature, I Saw the TV Glow, was in development. The film would be co-produced by Fruit Tree, the production banner of actress Emma Stone, as well as A24, which would also distribute the film.[13] Starring Justice Smith and Brigette Lundy-Paine, I Saw the TV Glow follows two teenage outcasts who bond over their shared love for a paranormal television series, only for them to lose touch with reality upon the show's cancellation.[14] The film premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival before screening at the Berlin International Film Festival and the South by Southwest Film Festival.[15][16][17] I Saw the TV Glow was released in select theaters on May 3, 2024, before a wide release on May 17.[18] The film has received critical acclaim.[6]

In January 2023, The Film Stage announced that Schoenbrun was set to direct an adaptation of Imogen Binnie's 2013 novel Nevada, which is widely considered a classic of transgender literature.[19] However, Schoenbrun confirmed in a May 2024 interview with The Cut that they had exited the project due to "creative differences with cis people".[5] In a June 2024 profile that appeared in the New Yorker, Schoenbrun revealed that their next film would be a slasher called Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. According to Schoenbrun, the film will follow a queer director who, while shooting a new installment of a popular horror franchise, becomes obsessed with the process of casting the movie's "final girl" character.[3]

Schoenbrun is also currently working on a trilogy of novels called Public Access Afterworld, which will be published by Penguin Random House's imprint Hogarth Books.[20] The novels are reportedly a combination of fantasy, science fiction, horror, and coming-of-age literature. According to Schoenbrun, Public Access Afterworld will serve as the conclusion to a thematically-linked trilogy of works that includes We're All Going to the World's Fair and I Saw the TV Glow. Schoenbrun described the books as "my Dune. It's my epic and me trying to do Buffy, Lost, or Harry Potter. I've created this huge mythology about a giant cast of characters with a story that spans centuries and sprawls across alternate universes. It's got a scope that a 90-minute film couldn't hold, and it's about transition, becoming, and truly closing that gap between self and screen until you feel like you're approximating some form of real life."[21] The project was initially pitched as a television show.[22]

Personal life

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Schoenbrun is transfeminine and non-binary.[23][24] They said in a May 2024 Vanity Fair interview, "I don't think my relationship to gender is something that I completely understand. It's actually quite comforting to embrace incoherence."[23] They discovered they were trans while tripping on mushrooms in April 2019, during the process of writing We're All Going to the World's Fair.[7][23] They subsequently came out after the project wrapped in 2020; one of Schoenbrun's long-term partners, who was the first person to suggest they were trans, is thanked in the credits of the film.[23]

Gender identity and dysphoria are prominent themes in Schoenbrun's work.[24] They have frequently described I Saw the TV Glow as a film about the "egg crack", a term for the moment in a trans person's life when they realize their identity does not correspond to their assigned gender.[25][26][27] Additionally, Schoenbrun has described the presence of screens, which are frequently featured in their work, as "a metaphor for the ways in which we don't experience ourselves when we're going through dysphoria and coming to terms with transness".[28]

Schoenbrun married Melissa Ader in 2014.[3] With the exception of their mother, they are estranged from their immediate family.[27] They are polyamorous[23][29] and an anti-capitalist.[3] As of 2024, they maintain residences in Brooklyn and Chatham, New York.[3]

Filmography

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Films

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Year Title Producer Writer Director
2012 Speechless Yes No No
2016 Black Soil, Green Grass Yes No No
collective:unconscious Yes Yes No
Swallowed Yes No No
2017 Lovewatch Yes No No
Village People No Yes No
2018 A Self-Induced Hallucination Yes No Yes
Gwilliam's Tips For Turning Tricks Into Treats Yes No No
2019 Tux and Fanny Yes No No
Pots N' Tots Yes No No
Chained for Life Yes No No
Dick Pics! (A Documentary) Yes No No
Laying Out Yes No No
2020 The Starr Sisters Yes No No
2021 We're All Going to the World's Fair No Yes Yes
2023 Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape Yes No No
2024 I Saw the TV Glow No Yes Yes

Television shows

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Year Title Role
2017–present The Eyeslicer Co-creator

Music videos

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Year Song Artist Ref.
2023 "Night Shift" Lucy Dacus [30]

Accolades

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Year Award Category Nominated work Result
2021 Denver International Film Festival Best Feature Film We're All Going to the World's Fair Nominated
Fantasia Film Festival Camera Lucida AQCC Award Nominated
Gijón International Film Festival Best Film Nominated
Indie Memphis Film Festival Best Narrative Feature Nominated
Montclair Film Festival Future/Now Special Jury Prize for Visionary Filmmaking Won
Nashville Film Festival Grand Jury Prize of Best Graveyard Shift Feature Nominated
Oldenburg Film Festival German Independence Award/Audience Award for Best Film Nominated
Sundance Film Festival NEXT Innovator Award Nominated
Warsaw International Film Festival Free Spirit Award Nominated
2022 Gotham Awards Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award Nominated
Indiana Film Journalists Association, US Breakout of the Year Nominated
Chicago Film Critics Association Awards Most Promising Filmmaker Nominated
Americana Film Fest Audience Award Nominated
2024 Berlin International Film Festival Panorama Audience Award I Saw the TV Glow Nominated
Teddy Award Nominated
SXSW Film Awards Audience Award for Festival Favorites Nominated

Notes

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  1. ^ Schoenbrun uses "they/them" pronouns.

References

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  1. ^ "Interview with Jane Schoenbrun, director of "I SAW THE TV GLOW"". Teddy Award. February 21, 2024. Retrieved February 27, 2024.
  2. ^ Schoenbrun, Jane [@sapphicspielbrg] (January 3, 2024). "New year new (legal) name" (Tweet). Retrieved May 4, 2024 – via Twitter.
  3. ^ a b c d e Seidlitz, Holden (June 10, 2024). "Jane Schoenbrun Finds Horror Close to Home". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved June 13, 2024.
  4. ^ Scott, Lyvie (March 11, 2024). "Jane Schoenbrun Wants to Get Under Your Skin". Inverse. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
  5. ^ a b Zhang, Cat (May 3, 2024). "Jane Schoenbrun Doesn't Really Watch TV Anymore". The Cut. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  6. ^ a b Coyle, Jake (May 1, 2024). "'I Saw the TV Glow' is one of 2024's buzziest films. It took Jane Schoenbrun a lifetime to make it". AP News. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d e Suh, Elissa (April 13, 2022). "How Jane Schoenbrun's 'emo horror movie' helped them find themself". Input. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
  8. ^ "Authors - Jane Schoebrun". Filmmaker. The Gotham. Retrieved 21 January 2024.
  9. ^ Macaulay, Scott (March 13, 2016). "SXSW: Producer Dan Schoenbrun and Five Directors on their Dreamy Anthology Film, collective:unconscious". Filmmaker. Retrieved June 4, 2024.
  10. ^ Schoenbrun, Jane (June 19, 2018). "Why I Spent Months Making An Archival Documentary about The Slenderman". Filmmaker. Retrieved October 12, 2023.
  11. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (April 26, 2022). "We're All Going to the World's Fair review – exhilarating gaming-horror mashup". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved November 4, 2023.
  12. ^ "JANE SCHOENBRUN". Sight & Sound. 32 (5): 82. June 2022.
  13. ^ Kroll, Justin (October 7, 2021). "A24 And Emma Stone's Fruit Tree Banner Reunite On Jane Schoenbrun's 'I Saw The TV Glow'". Deadline. Retrieved November 4, 2023.
  14. ^ Fear, David (May 2, 2024). "'I Saw the TV Glow' Is About to Become Gen-Z's Favorite Cult Movie". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
  15. ^ Cardenas, Cat (January 27, 2024). "Jane Schoenbrun Made Sundance's Hottest Horror Movie About Their Trans Experience". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
  16. ^ "I Saw the TV Glow". Berlinale. Retrieved March 24, 2024.
  17. ^ "I Saw The TV Glow". SXSW 2024 Schedule. Retrieved March 24, 2024 – via South by Southwest Festival.
  18. ^ Pulliam-Moore, Charles (May 2, 2024). "I Saw the TV Glow is a tribute to the transformative power of fandom". The Verge. Retrieved May 3, 2024.
  19. ^ Malin, Sean L. (January 18, 2023). "Jane Schoenbrun to Direct Adaptation of Imogen Binnie's Nevada". The Film Stage. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  20. ^ Squires, John (June 5, 2024). "Jane Schoenbrun Sets Debut Novel 'Public Access Afterworld'". Bloody Disgusting. Retrieved June 13, 2024.
  21. ^ Pulliam-Moore, Charles (2024-05-21). "For the director of I Saw the TV Glow, Buffy the Vampire Slayer was just the start". The Verge. Retrieved 2024-06-16.
  22. ^ Zilko, Christian (June 5, 2024). "Jane Schoenbrun Sets Debut Novel 'Public Access Afterworld' at Hogarth Books". IndieWire. Retrieved June 13, 2024.
  23. ^ a b c d e Jacobs, Matthew (May 1, 2024). "You've Never Seen a Movie Like 'I Saw the TV Glow'". Vanity Fair. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
  24. ^ a b Raup, Jordan (May 1, 2024). "Jane Schoenbrun on I Saw the TV Glow, Trans Girl Time, Olivier Assayas, and Emma Stone's Support". The Film Stage. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
  25. ^ Adams, Sam (May 7, 2024). "I Saw the TV Glow Is a Movie About How Fandom Could Save Your Life—or Ruin It". Slate. ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
  26. ^ Earl, William (January 19, 2024). "'I Saw the TV Glow' Is Director Jane Schoenbrun's Honest, Surreal Exploration of Trans Identity — And A24's Boldest Horror Movie Yet". Variety. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
  27. ^ a b Barquin, Juan (May 9, 2024). "Jane Schoenbrun". Reverse Shot. Museum of the Moving Image. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
  28. ^ Shatto, Rachel (April 22, 2022). "'We're All Going To The World's Fair' Is A Hypnotic Trans Horror Film". The Advocate. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
  29. ^ Lisner, Ari (May 13, 2024). "Jane Schoenbrun's Energy: Hello Fellow Trans Kids". Bright Wall/Dark Room. Retrieved June 8, 2024.
  30. ^ Paul, Larisha (March 8, 2023). "Lucy Dacus Revisits 'Night Shift' Heartbreak Five Years Later in Official Music Video". Rolling Stone. Retrieved May 2, 2024.
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