Killer Films

Killer Films
Industry
  • Film
  • Television
Founded1995
Founder
Headquarters
New York City, New York
,
United States
WebsiteKiller Films

Killer Films is a New York City-based independent film production company founded in 1995 by film producers Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler. The company has produced many acclaimed independent films over the past two decades including Far From Heaven (nominated for four Academy Awards), Boys Don't Cry (Academy Award winner), One Hour Photo, Kids, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Happiness, Velvet Goldmine, Safe, I Shot Andy Warhol, Swoon, I'm Not There (Academy Award nominated), Kill Your Darlings, Still Alice (Academy Award winner) and Carol (nominated for six Academy Awards). Killer Films also executive produced Todd Haynes' five episode HBO miniseries Mildred Pierce, which went on to win five Emmys, a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

In 2014, Killer Films merged with Glass Elevator Media to form Killer Content, Inc.[1] Their logo consists of a rabbit with a dartboard for a body.

Awards and recognition

[edit]

Killer Films productions have received multiple awards and nominations from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Emmy Awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Independent Spirit Awards. On the occasion of Killer's 10th anniversary in 2005, the company was feted with a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art.[2]

Christine Vachon's first feature production, Poison, directed by Todd Haynes, won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival. Poison was one of the defining films of the emerging New Queer Cinema.[3][4][5] For her work on Far From Heaven, another Todd Haynes collaboration, Vachon was honored by the New York Film Critics Circle, and received the Producer of the Year Award from the National Board of Review.[6]

Vachon produced the Showtime television adaptation of the public broadcasting radio program, This American Life, for which she won an Emmy. In 2011, Christine was invited to give the State of Cinema Address at the San Francisco Film Society's 54th San Francisco International Film Festival.

Vachon has also written two books on her life and career, Shooting to Kill (1998),[7] and A Killer Life (2006).[8]

One of Killer's most recent films, Kill Your Darlings, directed by John Krokidas, and starred Daniel Radcliffe and Dane DeHaan, was selected for the Sundance Film Festival and went on to be nominated for the Grand Jury Prize.[9] After producing Magic Magic, which debuted at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival to wide acclaim, Killer re-teamed with writer-director Sebastián Silva on his new feature, Nasty Baby.[10]

In 2015, Julianne Moore won the Best Performance by an Actress Oscar for her part in the 2014 Killer film Still Alice, directed by Wash Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer, based on the novel of the same name, written by Lisa Genova.[11] That same year, Killer re-teamed with director Todd Haynes on Carol, based on the 1952 romance novel, The Price of Salt, written by Patricia Highsmith. The film stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.[12]

In 2017, the company produced Janicza Bravo's Lemon starring Brett Gelman and Judy Greer;[13] Beatriz at Dinner starring Salma Hayek and Chloë Sevigny;[14] and Dina directed by Dan Sickles & Antonio Santini, the latter of three winning the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.[15][16]

In May 2017, the company signed a two-year first look deal with Amazon Studios.[17]

Filmography

[edit]

Film

[edit]
Year Title Worldwide box office Notes
1991 Poison $787,280[18]
1992 Swoon —
1994 Go Fish $2.4 million[19]
Postcards from America —
1995 Safe $512,245[20]
Kids $7.4 million[21]
Stonewall $692,400[22]
1996 Plain Pleasures —
I Shot Andy Warhol $1.9 million[23]
1997 Bad Bosses Go to Hell — Short film
Office Killer $76,054[24]
1998 Happiness $2.8 million[25]
Velvet Goldmine $1.1 million[26]
I'm Losing You $13,996[27]
Dark Harbor —
1999 Boys Don't Cry $11.5 million[28] Won one Academy Award
2000 Crime + Punishment in Suburbia $26,394[29]
2001 Series 7: The Contenders $195,065[30]
Women in Film —
The Safety of Objects $319,299[31]
Storytelling $2 million[32]
Hedwig and the Angry Inch $3.6 million[33]
The Grey Zone $517,872[34]
Chelsea Walls $60,902[35]
2002 One Hour Photo $52 million[36]
Far From Heaven $29 million[37] Nominated for four Academy Awards
2003 Party Monster $742,898[38]
Camp $2.6 million[39]
The Company $6.4 million[40]
2004 A Home at the End of the World $1.5 million[41]
A Dirty Shame $1.9 million[42]
2005 The Notorious Bettie Page $1.8 million[43]
2006 Infamous $2.6 million[44]
2007 An American Crime $1.3 million[45]
Savage Grace $1.4 million[46]
I'm Not There $11.7 million[47] Nominated for one Academy Award
Then She Found Me $8.4 million[48]
2008 Gigantic $165,888[49]
2009 Motherhood $726,354[50]
Cracks $29,683[51]
Cairo Time $2 million[52]
2010 Lulu at the Ace Hotel — Short film
Loop Planes — Short film
Virginia $12,728[53]
Dirty Girl $55,125[54]
2011 Dragonslayer —
2012 Shut Up and Play the Hits $629,107[55]
At Any Price $380,594[56]
2013 Magic Magic —
Kill Your Darlings $2.1 million[57]
Dealin' with Idiots $17,909[58]
Deep Powder —
The Last of Robin Hood $288,545[59]
WildLike —
Bluebird —
2014 Young Bodies Heal Quickly —
Electric Slide —
Still Alice $44 million[60] Won one Academy Award
Mala Mala $10,761[61]
2015 Nasty Baby $80,828[62]
Carol $40.3 million[63] Nominated for nine British Academy Film Awards
Nominated for six Academy Awards
Nominated for five Golden Globe Awards
Big Sky —
2016 Woman in Deep — Short film
Goat $23,020[64]
Wiener-Dog $716,633[65][66]
White Girl $200,242[67]
Frank & Lola $9,188[68]
A Kind of Murder $89,899[69]
London Town $1,126[70]
2017 Dina $96,524[71]
Lemon $29,528[72]
Where Is Kyra? $59,717[73]
Beatriz at Dinner $7.4 million[74]
Wonderstruck $3.3 million[75]
My Days of Mercy $18,766[76]
First Reformed $3.9 million[77] Nominated for one Academy Award
2018 Colette $13.8 million[78]
Vox Lux $1.4 million[79]
2019 American Woman $245,416[80]
Inside the Rain $8,140[81]
Dark Waters $23.1 million[82]
2020 Zola $4.5-5 million[83]
Shirley $305,805[84][85]
The World to Come $204,797[86]
Brothers by Blood $104,744[87]
2021 The Velvet Underground —
2022 Under the Influence —
Anything's Possible —
2023 Past Lives $42.5 million[88] Nominated for two Academy Awards
She Came to Me $1.2 million[89]
Bleeding Love $7,042[90]
A Good Person $3.1 million[91]
May December $5.3 million[92] Nominated for one Academy Award
2024 A Different Man TBA
On Swift Horses TBA
TBA Materialists TBA

Television

[edit]
Year Title Notes
2005 Mrs. Harris TV movie
Nominated for twelve Emmy Awards[93]
2007–2009 This American Life TV series
Won three Emmy Awards[94]
2010 The Neistat Brothers TV series
2011 Mildred Pierce TV miniseries
Won five Emmy Awards[95]
2015–2017 Z: The Beginning of Everything TV series
2018–2019 This Close TV series
2021 Halston TV miniseries
2021 Pride TV miniseries

See also

[edit]

Further reading

[edit]
  • Vachon, Christine. Shooting to Kill: How an Independent Producer Blasts Through the Barriers to Make Movies that Matter, Avon Books, 335 p., 1st ed., 1998, ISBN 0380798549.
  • Vachon, Christine. A Killer Life: How an Independent Film Producer Survives Deals and Disasters in Hollywood and Beyond, Simon & Schuster, 279 p., 1st ed., 2006, ISBN 0743256301.

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "Killer Films Merges With Glass Elevator Media to Form Killer Content". The Hollywood Reporter. May 27, 2014. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  2. ^ "Swoon: Ten Years of Killer Films". MoMA. Retrieved March 29, 2023.
  3. ^ "Killer Films' Co-Founders Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler on Lesbian Romance 'Carol' and Indie Resilience". The Hollywood Reporter. September 25, 2015. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  4. ^ Levy, Emanuel (June 27, 2015). "Gay Pride 2015: Celebrating Todd Haynes' Poison". EmmanuelLevy. Archived from the original on July 13, 2015. Retrieved July 11, 2015.
  5. ^ Dillard, Clayton (April 3, 2013). "Hearth of Darkness: Rob White's Todd Haynes". Slant Magazine. Retrieved July 11, 2015.
  6. ^ "Christine Vachon Bio". HBO. Retrieved September 27, 2015.
  7. ^ "Shooting to Kill". HarperCollins. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  8. ^ "Christine Vachon's 'A Killer Life'". NPR. December 21, 2006. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  9. ^ "'Kill Your Darlings' slays Venice". Cornell Chronicle. September 9, 2013. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  10. ^ Sneider, Jeff (August 14, 2013). "Kristen Wiig in Talks for Indie 'Nasty Baby' With TV on the Radio Singer Tunde Adebimpe (Exclusive)". The Wrap. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  11. ^ Dove, Steve (February 26, 2015). "Julianne Moore Wins Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role". The Oscars. Retrieved September 22, 2016.
  12. ^ McGovern, Joe (July 30, 2015). "Todd Haynes' Carol changes its release date". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
  13. ^ Hipes, Patrick (August 17, 2016). "Brett Gelman-Starring Indie 'Lemon' Wraps; Janicza Bravo's Feature Directorial Debut". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
  14. ^ Jafaar, Ali (August 1, 2016). "Chloe Sevigny, Salma Hayek & Jay Duplass Join 'Beatriz At Dinner'". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
  15. ^ Patten, Dominic (December 5, 2016). "Sundance 2017: Robert Redford, New Rashida Jones Netflix Series, 'Rebel In The Rye' & More On Premiere, Docu, Midnight & Kids Slates". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  16. ^ Billington, Alex (January 29, 2017). "Sundance 2017 Awards: 'Dina' & 'Chasing Coral' Are Big Doc Winners". FirstShowing.net. Retrieved February 2, 2017.
  17. ^ Lang, Brent (May 2, 2017). "Amazon Signs First Look Deals with Bona Fide Productions, Killer Films, and Le Grisbi Productions (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved May 2, 2017.
  18. ^ Poison at Box Office Mojo
  19. ^ Go Fish at Box Office Mojo
  20. ^ Safe at Box Office Mojo
  21. ^ Kids at Box Office Mojo
  22. ^ Stonewall at Box Office Mojo
  23. ^ I Shot Andy Warhol at Box Office Mojo
  24. ^ Office Killer at Box Office Mojo
  25. ^ Happiness at Box Office Mojo
  26. ^ Velvet Goldmine at Box Office Mojo
  27. ^ I'm Losing You at Box Office Mojo
  28. ^ Boys Don't Cry at Box Office Mojo
  29. ^ "Crime and Punishment in Suburbia (2000)". The Numbers.
  30. ^ Series 7: The Contenders at Box Office Mojo
  31. ^ The Safety of Objects at Box Office Mojo
  32. ^ "Storytelling (2002)". The Numbers.
  33. ^ Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Box Office Mojo
  34. ^ The Grey Zone at Box Office Mojo
  35. ^ Chelsea Walls at Box Office Mojo
  36. ^ One Hour Photo at Box Office Mojo
  37. ^ Far From Heaven at Box Office Mojo
  38. ^ Party Monster at Box Office Mojo
  39. ^ Camp at Box Office Mojo
  40. ^ The Company at Box Office Mojo
  41. ^ A Home at the End of the World at Box Office Mojo
  42. ^ A Dirty Shame at Box Office Mojo
  43. ^ The Notorious Bettie Page at Box Office Mojo
  44. ^ Infamous at Box Office Mojo
  45. ^ An American Crime at Box Office Mojo
  46. ^ Savage Grace at Box Office Mojo
  47. ^ I'm Not There at Box Office Mojo
  48. ^ Then She Found Me at Box Office Mojo
  49. ^ Gigantic at Box Office Mojo
  50. ^ Motherhood at Box Office Mojo
  51. ^ Cracks at Box Office Mojo
  52. ^ Cairo Time at Box Office Mojo
  53. ^ Virginia at Box Office Mojo
  54. ^ Dirty Girl at Box Office Mojo
  55. ^ "Shut Up and Play the Hits (2012)". The Numbers.
  56. ^ At Any Price at Box Office Mojo
  57. ^ "Kill Your Darlings (2013)". The Numbers.
  58. ^ Dealin' With Idiots at Box Office Mojo
  59. ^ The Last of Robin Hood at Box Office Mojo
  60. ^ Still Alice at Box Office Mojo
  61. ^ Mala Mala at Box Office Mojo
  62. ^ "Nasty Baby (2015)". The Numbers.
  63. ^ Carol at Box Office Mojo
  64. ^ Goat at Box Office Mojo
  65. ^ "Wiener-Dog (2016)". The Numbers.
  66. ^ "Wiener-Dog". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
  67. ^ White Girl at Box Office Mojo
  68. ^ Frank and Lola at Box Office Mojo
  69. ^ A Kind of Murder at Box Office Mojo
  70. ^ London Town at Box Office Mojo
  71. ^ Dina at Box Office Mojo
  72. ^ Lemon at Box Office Mojo
  73. ^ Where is Kyra? at Box Office Mojo
  74. ^ Beatriz at Dinner at Box Office Mojo
  75. ^ Wonderstruck at Box Office Mojo
  76. ^ My Days of Mercy at Box Office Mojo
  77. ^ First Reformed at Box Office Mojo
  78. ^ Colette at Box Office Mojo
  79. ^ Vox Lux at Box Office Mojo
  80. ^ American Woman at Box Office Mojo
  81. ^ "Inside the Rain (2019)". The Numbers.
  82. ^ "Dark Waters". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  83. ^ "Zola (2021)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
  84. ^ "Shirley". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  85. ^ "Shirley". The Numbers. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  86. ^ "The World to Come (2020)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
  87. ^ "Brothers by Blood (2021)". The Numbers.
  88. ^ "Past Lives (2023)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
  89. ^ "She Came to Me (2023)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
  90. ^ "Bleeding Love (2023)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved April 30, 2024.
  91. ^ "A Good Person (2023)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  92. ^ "May December (2023)". The Numbers. Nash Information Services, LLC. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
  93. ^ "Mrs. Harris". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
  94. ^ "This American Life". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
  95. ^ "Mildred Pierce". Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.
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