Welcome to NYWIFT Talks, a weekly series to bring updated news and vital information about the impact of COVID-19 and current events on the media and entertainment industry. Industry professionals will be in conversation discussing what you need to know about theatrical releases, digital advances, virtual tools, festival opportunities, production updates and more.
NYWIFT Talks are free for all to attend.
On this week’s NYWIFT Talks, we sit down and chat with Director Maggie Gyllenhaal about her latest film, The Lost Daughter.
Alone on a seaside vacation, Leda (Olivia Colman) becomes consumed with a young mother and daughter as she watches them on the beach. Unnerved by their compelling relationship, (and their raucous and menacing extended family), Leda is overwhelmed by her own memories of the terror, confusion and intensity of early motherhood. An impulsive act shocks Leda into the strange and ominous world of her own mind, where she is forced to face the unconventional choices she made as a young mother and their consequences. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter is a stunning directorial debut.
The film will be available in theaters December 17, and on Netflix December 31.
Date: Thursday, December 9, 2021
Time: 4PM ET
Cost: Free
Panelists
Maggie Gyllenhaal, whose award-winning career as an actress is full of groundbreaking and thought-provoking performances, is making her directorial debut with her screen adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel The Lost Daughter. Gyllenhaal won acclaim in 2002 for Secretary, starring opposite James Spader, for which she won a National Board of Review award and both Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations. She followed with Laurie Collyer’s Sherrybaby. In 2009, she starred opposite Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart. Other notable film performances include Donnie Darko, Mona Lisa Smile, Stranger Than Fiction, The Dark Knight, Nanny Mcphee Returns, Frank, and The Kindergarten Teacher among many others. Gyllenhaal moved into television with BBC/Sundance’s The Honorable Woman. And in 2019, Gyllenhaal concluded her three-season run as the sex worker Candy who becomes a film director in the HBO drama The Deuce, which she also produced. She’s equally at home on stage. She played Priscilla in Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul in both Los Angeles and at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music). She also starred as Yelena in Uncle Vanya and Masha in The Three Sisters. She debuted on Broadway in Sam Gold’s revival of Tom Stoppard’s The Real Thing opposite Ewan McGregor in 2014. Her readings of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar can be heard on Audible. She also collaborated with artist Matthew Barney on the experimental film River of Fundament in 2014. Gyllenhaal graduated from Columbia University and lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two daughters.
Cynthia López (Moderator) is an award-winning media strategist, and former Commissioner of the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, where she implemented strategies to support film and TV production throughout the five boroughs. López is the recipient of many coveted industry awards including: 11 News and Documentary Emmy Awards, a Special Emmy Award for Excellence in Documentary Filmmaking, three Peabody Awards, and two duPont-Columbia Awards. In addition, she received the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP) Award for Commitment to Corporate Diversity. Prior to working as Commissioner, López was Executive Vice President and co-Executive Producer of the award-winning PBS documentary series American Documentary | POV, and was involved in the organization’s strategic growth and creative development for 14 years. Her ability to forge strategic partnerships among corporate and public interest media has been a signature of her work. Notable partnerships include: New York Times, Reuters, Al-Jazeera Network, Discovery Communications, The Moth, Story Corps, Harpo Studios and ABC News, NIGHTLINE with Ted Koppel. López is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP), and is proud to have spent her career collaborating with independent filmmakers across all portions of the film and television industry. She served on the Board of Trustees for the Paley Center, NYC & Company, Museum of the Moving Image and the Tribeca Film Institute Latin America Fund Advisory Board. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Latino Public Broadcasting, Manhattan Neighborhood Network and Hunter College IMA Program.
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NYWIFT programs, screenings and events are supported, in part, by grants from New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature.
