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The Descendants
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2011 film directed by Alexander Payne
OverviewAI-generated
The Descendants is a 2011 American comedy drama film directed by Alexander Payne. The screenplay was written by Nat Faxon, Jim Rash, and Payne, while George Clooney, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller, and Beau Bridges appear in the cast. Craig Armstrong composed the music, and Phedon Papamichael served as director of photography. The film was produced by Searchlight Pictures and filmed in Hawaii, which also serves as its narrative location.
With a runtime of 115 minutes, the movie was distributed by Searchlight Pictures, Netflix, and Disney+. It received several awards, including the Academy Award for Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay, the National Board of Review: Top Ten Films, and the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Film. The film was also nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Film Editing.
Synthesized by Vinony from 40 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, IMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
6.8With his wife Elizabeth on life support after a boating accident, Hawaiian land baron Matt King takes his daughters on a trip from Oahu to Kauai to confront a young real estate broker, who was having an affair with Elizabeth before her misfortune.
Cast
- George Clooney as Matt King
- Shailene Woodley as Alexandra King
- Amara Miller as Scottie King
- Nick Krause as Sid
- Patricia Hastie as Elizabeth King
- Grace A. Cruz as Scottie's Teacher
Themes
- daughter
- infidelity
- hawaii
- father-in-law
- beach house
- boating accident
- estate
- dying mother
- teenage daughter
- trustee
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Key facts
- Directed by
- Alexander Payne
- Screenplay by
- Alexander Payne Nat Faxon Jim Rash
- Based on
- The Descendants , by Kaui Hart Hemmings
- Produced by
- Jim Burke Alexander Payne Jim Taylor
- Starring
- George Clooney Shailene Woodley Beau Bridges Judy Greer
- Cinematography
- Phedon Papamichael
- Edited by
- Kevin Tent
- Production company
- Ad Hominem Enterprises
- Distributed by
- Fox Searchlight Pictures
- Release dates
- September 10, 2011 ( 2011-09-10 ) ( TIFF ) November 18, 2011 ( 2011-11-18 ) (United States )
- Running time
- 115 minutes
- Country
- United States
- Language
- English
- Budget
- $20 million
- Box office
- $177.2 million
via Wikipedia infobox
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Descendants is a 2011 American tragicomedy film directed by Alexander Payne. The screenplay by Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash is based on the 2007 novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings. The film stars George Clooney in the main role, Shailene Woodley, Amara Miller in her film debut, Beau Bridges, Judy Greer, Michael Ontkean, Matthew Lillard, and Robert Forster, and was released by Fox Searchlight Pictures in the United States on November 18, 2011, after premiering at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2011.
Tracing the journey of attorney and land baron Matt King, who struggles with unexpected occurrences in his monotonous life, The Descendants was a critical and financial success, grossing $177 million against a $20 million budget and receiving acclaim for the performances of Clooney and Woodley, Payne's direction and writing, and Kevin Tent's editing. The film was nominated for five Oscars at the 84th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for Payne, and Best Actor for Clooney, winning one for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film also won two Golden Globe Awards; Best Picture – Drama and Best Actor – Drama for Clooney.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The Descendants” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.