Wes Anderson
Wesley Wales Anderson is an American filmmaker. His films are known for themes of grief, loss of innocence, and dysfunctional families. Due to his films' eccentricity, distinctive visual and narrative styles, and frequent use of ensemble casts, critics have described Anderson as an auteur. Three of his films appeared in BBC Culture's 2016 poll of the greatest films since 2000.
Anderson gained acclaim for his early films Bottle Rocket and Rushmore. He often collaborated with the brothers Luke Wilson and Owen Wilson during that time and founded his production company American Empirical Pictures. He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums. His next films included The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, and his first stop-motion film, Fantastic Mr. Fox, for which he received a Best Animated Feature nomination, and then Moonrise Kingdom, earning his second Best Original Screenplay nomination.
For his film The Grand Budapest Hotel, he received his first Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Picture, and also his third Best Original Screenplay nomination, and won the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay. Later works include his second stop-motion film, Isle of Dogs, earning him the Silver Bear for Best Director and another Best Animated Feature nomination, followed by The French Dispatch, Asteroid City and The Phoenician Scheme. Anderson won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film for The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.
Early life and education
Wesley Wales Anderson was born on May 1, 1969, in Houston, Texas, to Melver Leonard Anderson, who worked in advertising and public relations, and Texas Anne Anderson, a realtor and archaeologist. His parents divorced when he was eight. He is the second of three boys; his older brother, Mel, is a physician, and his younger brother, Eric Chase Anderson, is a writer and artist whose paintings and designs have appeared in several of Anderson's films, including The Royal Tenenbaums. Anderson is of English, Swedish, and Norwegian ancestry.He graduated from St. John's School in Houston in 1987, which he later used as a prominent location in Rushmore. As a child, Anderson made silent films on his father's Super 8 camera, which starred his brothers and friends, although his first ambition was to be a writer. Anderson worked part-time as a cinema projectionist at Hogg Memorial Auditorium while attending the University of Texas at Austin, where he met his roommate and future collaborator Owen Wilson in 1989. In 1991, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts with a major in philosophy. He describes being intrigued by The ''Meaning of Meaning'' by C. K. Ogden and I. A. Richards.
Career
1990s
Anderson's first film was Bottle Rocket, based on a short film of the same name that he made with Luke and Owen Wilson. It is a crime caper about a group of young Texans aspiring to achieve major heists. It was well reviewed but performed poorly at the box office.His next film was Rushmore, a quirky comedy about a high school student's crush on an elementary school teacher, starring Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, and Olivia Williams. It was a critical and financial success. The film launched Murray's second act as a respected actor in independent cinema. Murray appeared in many of Anderson's subsequent films. At the 1999 Independent Spirit Awards, Anderson won the Best Director award and Murray won Best Supporting Male. Murray also earned a nomination for Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture. In 2000, filmmaker Martin Scorsese praised Bottle Rocket and Rushmore. Since its release, Rushmore has gained cult status, and in 2016, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress.
2000s
Anderson's next comedy-drama, The Royal Tenenbaums, was released in 2001. The film focuses on a successful, artistic New York City family and its ostracized patriarch, played by Gene Hackman. It also stars Anjelica Huston as the ex-wife and Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, and Gwyneth Paltrow as the children. The film was a box-office and critical success. It was Anderson's greatest financial success until Moonrise Kingdom, earning more than $50 million in domestic box-office receipts. The Royal Tenenbaums was nominated for an Academy Award and ranked by an Empire poll as the 159th greatest film ever made.Anderson's next feature was The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, about a Jacques Cousteau-esque documentary filmmaker played by Bill Murray. The film also stars Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Anjelica Huston, and Michael Gambon. The film's critical reception and box office success was less favorable than The Royal Tenenbaums.
The Darjeeling Limited was about three emotionally distant brothers traveling together on a train in India. It reflects the more dramatic tone of The Royal Tenenbaums but faced criticism similar to that of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Anderson has acknowledged that he went to India to film the movie partly as a tribute to Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, whose "films have also inspired all my other movies in different ways". The film stars Anderson staples Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson in addition to Adrien Brody, and the script is by Anderson, Schwartzman, and Roman Coppola.
Anderson has also made several notable short films. In addition to the original Bottle Rocket short, he made Hotel Chevalier, which is set in Paris. It is a prologue to The Darjeeling Limited, and stars Schwartzman alongside Natalie Portman. He wrote a script for Brian Grazer for an English-language remake of Patrice Leconte's My Best Friend. In 2010 he said that he did not plan to direct the film, tentatively called The Rosenthaler Suite. In 2009, Anderson's stop-motion-animated film adaptation based on the Roald Dahl book Fantastic Mr Fox was released. Its voice actors include Murray, Dafoe, Schwartzman, Brody, Gambon, Owen Wilson, George Clooney, and Meryl Streep. Critics praised it highly and it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, although it barely made back its production budget.
2010s
In 2012, Anderson's film Moonrise Kingdom was released, debuting at the Cannes Film Festival, where it competed for the Palme d'Or. The film is a coming-of-age comedy set in a fictional New England town. It includes ensemble performances by Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand, and Tilda Swinton. The film is emblematic of Anderson's style and earned him another Academy Award nomination for his screenplay. The film was also a financial success, earning $68.3 million at the box office against a budget of only $16 million.In 2014, Anderson's next film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, was released. It stars Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, Saoirse Ronan, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, F. Murray Abraham, and several of Anderson's regular collaborators, including Murray, Owen Wilson, Swinton and Schwartzman. It is mostly set in the 1930s and follows the adventures of M. Gustave, the hotel's concierge, making "a marvelous mockery of history, turning its horrors into a series of graceful jokes and mischievous gestures", according to The New York Times. The film is one of Anderson's greatest critical and commercial successes, grossing nearly $175 million worldwide and earning dozens of award nominations, including nine Oscar nominations with four wins for Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, and Best Original Score. These nominations also included his first for Best Director.
Anderson returned to stop-motion animation with Isle of Dogs. Production on the film started in the United Kingdom in October 2016, and it was released in March–April 2018. The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score.
2020s
Anderson's film The French Dispatch is set in post-war France and stars Benicio Del Toro, Jeffrey Wright, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Owen Wilson, Willem Dafoe, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton and Timothée Chalamet. Its release was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, finally premiering at the Cannes Film Festival on July 12, 2021, with a general release in the United States on October 22, 2021. In the meantime, Searchlight Pictures released in September 2021 an animated music video of Christophe's "Aline" covered by Jarvis Cocker, directed by Anderson with animations by Javi Aznarez.In November 2021, Anderson finished filming Asteroid City, but few details were revealed to the press. Much of the film was shot in the Spanish city of Chinchón, where a huge diorama set reproducing Monument Valley was constructed. The film stars Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Jeff Goldblum, Hope Davis, and Jeffrey Wright, among others. It premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. It had its United States theatrical release on June 16, 2023. The film received generally positive reviews.
Anderson then directed an adaptation of Roald Dahl's short story collection The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More for Netflix. The 41-minute short film titled The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar premiered at the 2023 Venice Film Festival. It received critical acclaim. It was followed by a limited U.S. theatrical release on September 20, and a Netflix premiere on September 27, 2023. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Dev Patel, Ralph Fiennes, and Ben Kingsley. Anderson had three other short films based on Roald Dahl's work also premiere on Netflix in September 2023. The other shorts, all of which are 16 minutes long, were The Swan, The Rat Catcher, and Poison. They were released on September 28, September 29 and September 30, respectively. At the 96th Academy Awards, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar was nominated for Best Live Action Short Film and won, earning Wes Anderson's first Oscar win; however, he did not appear in-person to accept the Oscar due to his filming schedule. The same month the four short films were combined into one anthology film titled The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More which released March 15, 2024 on Netflix.
Anderson's most recent film, titled The Phoenician Scheme, released in the United States on May 30, 2025, premiering in the 2025 Cannes Film Festival earlier that month. The film stars Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Michael Cera, Bryan Cranston, and Mathieu Amalric, with a release date of June 29, 2025 planned for Germany, where it was shot. The film received generally positive reviews and a nomination for a Palme d'Or.