Andrew Wagner

Writer/Director Andrew Wagner graduated from Brown University with degrees in Creative Writing and Psychology. He attended NYU's Graduate Film School where his short, The Hardest Hit, won the Francois de Menil Scholarship. He moved to Los Angels to write Waccabuc, a screenplay for United Artists, 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. Shaffner Fellowship for excellence in directing. Andrew adapted The Man Who Gave Up His Name -from the collection of novellas, Legends of the Fall, by Jim Harrison - which he developed at the Sundance Writer's Lab. He went on to direct the independent shorts, South Main and Counting, and write Splitting, The Halfcourt, Hunting the Vicious, and Southern Man. Andrew's first feature film, 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. Starting Out In The Evening, Andrew's second feature, 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 Times, and Roger Ebert's of the Chicago Sun-Times. It was nominated for two Spirit Awards: Best Male Lead and Best Screenplay.