THE HOLDOVERS

A humble professor at a prestigious American school is forced to stay on campus during Christmas break to babysit the handful of students with nowhere to go. Eventually he forms an unlikely bond with one of them - a damaged, brainy troublemaker - and with the school’s head cook, who has just lost a son in Vietnam.

ALEKSANDAR PEJN / ALEXANDER PAYNE

Alexander Payne (1961) is an screenwriter, director, and producer known for satires and family dramas. He studied history and Spanish literature at Stanford University before earning his MFA in film directing at UCLA. His first feature film Citizen Ruth (1996) premiered at Sundance, and followed it up with Election (1999), which earned him Best Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America, as well as his first Academy Award nomination. About Schmidt (2002) was screened as a preview at Cannes before opening the New York Film Festival. Sideways (2004) and The Descendants (2011) each won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and were nominated in four other categories, including Best Director. His other acclaimed features include Nebraska (2013) and Downsizing (2017), which opened the 2017 Venice Film Festival.

 

Reveiws:

A charming comedy, sensitively acted and delicately written.

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

 

A film about class and race, grief and resentment, opportunity and entitlement. It’s that rare exception to the oft-heard complaint that “they don’t make ’em like they used to”.

Peter Debruge, Variety