Rebecca Miller - IFTA Masterclass

IFTA is delighted to present a Masterclass in Writing & Directing with Rebecca Miller, award-winning director of films including The Ballad of Jack & Rose, Maggie’s Plan and She Came To Me.

This masterclass will be moderated by Darren Thornton, director and co-writer of award-winning films Four Mothers and A Date for Mad Mary. This masterclass takes place on Wednesday 21st May at 6pm at the Light House Cinema, Dublin.

Rebecca Miller is best known for writing and directing acclaimed films including The Ballad of Jack & Rose starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Catherine Keener and Paul Dano; Maggie’s Plan starring Ethan Hawke and Greta Gerwig; The Private Lives of Pippa Lee starring Robin Wright, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder and Julianne Moore; and She Came To Me starring Peter Dinklage, Anne Hathaway and Marisa Tomei. She also co-wrote the script for John Madden’s Proof starring Anthony Hopkins, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Gyllenhaal.

In 2017, she directed Emmy-nominated documentary Arthur Miller: Writer about her father Arthur Miller, the renowned playwright of The Crucible and Death of a Salesman.

She won the Filmmakers Trophy at Sundance Film Festival for Angela in 1995, followed by the Grand Jury Prize at the same festival in 2002 for Personal Velocity: Three Portraits, which also received the Independent Spirit Awards’ prestigious John Cassavetes Award.

Miller has also worked extensively as an actress, working with directors including Mike Nichols, Alan J. Pakula, Paul Mazursky, Alan Rudolph and Noah Baumbach; and has appeared in films alongside Jack Lemmon, Katherine Hepburn, Harrison Ford, Annette Bening, Kevin Kline, Warren Beatty, Pierce Brosnan, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller and Dustin Hoffman, among others.

Also a prolific author, she has published the novels The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and Jacob's Folly and short story collections Personal Velocity and Total.

At this special Academy Masterclass, Miller will discuss her work as a writer/director of independent films, bringing a script from page to screen, working with actors to craft memorable performances, how her work as an highly-respected actor and novelist has informed her filmmaking, and much more.

Moderator

Darren Thornton directed and co-wrote Four Mothers and A Date for Mad Mary with his brother, Colin Thornton. Four Mothers starring James McArdle and Fionnula Flanagan won the London Film Festival Audience Award last autumn and was released in Irish cinemas this month. His previous film A Date for Mad Mary won Best Film at the IFTA Awards 2017.