“It was an honor to be nominated for the first time. I didn’t expect to win and was shocked when I did. To be recognized by your colleagues, by fellow directors and directors much more experienced and senior that I am, people I’ve respected forever, is simply incredible,” said Lisa Cholodenko of the DGA Award she earned last month on the basis of the HBO miniseries Olive Kitteridge.
Based on Elizabeth Strout’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name with a teleplay by Emmy winner Jane Anderson, Olive Kitteridge tells the sweet, funny, emotionally wrenching story of a seemingly tranquil New England town stricken with illicit affairs, crime and tragedy as related through the eyes of Olive (portrayed by Frances McDormand) whose sharp wit and harsh demeanor mask a warm yet troubled heart and staunch moral core. Spanning 25 years, the story focuses on Olive’s relationships with her husband Henry, their son Christopher and other members of the community.
Cholodenko’s DGA win carries additional weight in terms of industry relevance. During a year when questions of diversity–or more accurately the lack thereof–came to the fore, underscored most notably by the absence of DGA and Best Director Oscar nominations for Ava DuVernay based on Selma, female directors nonetheless made a major mark in other Directors Guild categories. In addition to Cholodenko, three other women earned high-profile DGA Awards in 2015: Lesli Linka Glatter who won for Dramatic Series on the strength of the “From A to B and Back Again” episode of Homeland; Jill Soloway in TV Comedy for the “Best New Girl” episode of Transparent; and Laura Poitras for the documentary Citizenfour.
Cholodenko said of Poitras, “Citizenfour was bold and ballsy. I like that. I was never one to fight for this idea of the woman’s movie. I never wanted to divide the sexes that way. It’s not about divisions. It’s about women being able to direct many varied projects. Let’s mix up and hear different points of view.”
Cholodenko said she was gratified to have been one of the four female directors to win major DGA Awards this year. “Why there’s inequality, why there aren’t more opportunities for women filmmakers is a complicated question. It’s hard to respond because so many factors come into play.” But at least the DGA Awards this year showcased that women directors can do the very best winning work worthy of peer recognition.
Cholodenko herself is no stranger to the awards show circuit. She made her first major industry splash with the theatrical motion picture High Art, which she wrote and directed. High Art received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best First Feature in 1999, won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, and was also in the running for Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize.
Cholodenko later directed and wrote Laurel Canyon, for which Frances McDormand earned a Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress while Alessandro Nivola became a Best Supporting Actor nominee in 2004. And the Cholodenko-directed The Kids Are All Right garnered four Oscar nominations in 2011: Best Picture; Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role (Annette Bening); Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Mark Ruffalo); and Best Original Screenplay (Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg). Furthermore Cholodenko and Blumberg won the Independent Spirit Award for their The Kids Are All Right screenplay.
Connecting with Kitteridge
McDormand was the initial catalyst in a chain of events which ultimately brought Cholodenko into the fold for Olive Kitteridge. The two had worked together on Laurel Canyon. “We’ve known each other for a long time and after I made The Kids Are Alright, she called me as a friend to congratulate me and said that she had just optioned this book called ‘Olive Kitteridge.’ She had brought it to HBO and wanted to make a series out of it. She asked me to read the book and to consider directing and writing it. I read it, loved the book but wasn’t sure I could translate it properly to TV as a writer. It felt more like a limited series to me.”
So Cholodenko went on to other projects while periodically checking in on the status of Olive Kitteridge. “I then forgot about it for about a year while I was in the process of developing a feature that looked like it was ready to go. And right during that little window I got a call from my agent saying that Olive Kitteridge was happening as a miniseries. Well, that’s a dilemma. Dying of curiosity, I read the new script. I was wowed by the adaptation. I decided to shift gears. I just couldn’t say no to this kind of material, I would regret it if I didn’t do Olive Kitteridge. The story had a great tone. It was deep, funny, tragic.”
Asked if directing Olive Kitteridge based on a script she hadn’t written represented a major transition for her, Cholodenko acknowledged, “I’m perhaps best known for directing these three features I’ve written [High Art, Laurel Canyon, The Kids Are All Right] so this [Olive Kitteridge] was a bit of a departure. It’s kind of risky in a way. It’s easier to direct something you’ve written because you spent the time and understand the story from the inside out. This [Olive Kitteridge] was an experience. I had to learn and assimilate it.”
Cholodenko noted that Olive Kitteridge was approached more like a feature film than a TV show over some 60 days of shooting. “All along we were proud to be making this beautiful film for television…And winning the DGA Award felt like winning the Oscar.”
As for what’s next, Cholodenko isn’t sure. “I’m flirting with a few projects. I would love to do a proper theatrical feature next but it’s too early to tell.”
