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Thank god for Alexander Payne. The filmmaker is, and always have been, a true humanist. A writer/director more interested in human beings, something that has always been the special effect of his movies. A two-time Oscar winning writer, his latest film, The Holdovers, which had its World Premiere Thursday at the Telluride Film Festival, is one of the rare movies in which he doesn’t also have a writing credit. David Hemingson did the screenplay, but the idea, an inspired one, came from Payne, a real film buff who was always intrigued by Marcel Pagnol’s 1935 French film Merlusse about a group of boarding school students stuck over the holidays with a much-despised teacher. The director thought it had the bones for a new story and developed with Hemingson. Still, set in 1970, it is Payne’s first period film after a celebrated career for movies like Sideways, The Descendants, and many others. He has made some contemporary classics, no doubt, but the warm humanity of a trio of people left alone at Christmas in a snowy boarding school, ranks right up there with his very best. It is funny, sad, witty, poignant, filled with snark and heart and great acting. It also manages to be a film set at the holidays that offers something truly new for the genre, and also delightfully not only evokes the period in which it is set, it also purposely looks like a movie made then.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic We’ve all seen our share of stories about inspirational teachers. “The Holdovers” is dedicated to the opposite sort: a hard-ass named Paul Hunham whom everyone hates. The feeling is mutual, as Mr.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Alexander Payne’s comedy “The Holdovers” is landing in theaters in time for Thanksgiving. Focus Features will begin rolling out the film on Nov. 10 in select markets before expanding nationwide on Wednesday, Nov. 22, ahead of Turkey Day. It’ll play in theaters alongside Disney’s animated adventure “Wish,” which debuts on the same day, as well as “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” and Universal’s “Trolls 3,” which open the week prior. “The Holdovers” reunites Payne with Paul Giamatti for the first time since their 2004 Oscar-winning film “Sideways.” In the upcoming movie, Giamatti plays a curmudgeonly instructor at an elite New England prep school who is forced to remain on campus during Christmas break to babysit the students with nowhere to go. He eventually forms an unlikely bond with a damaged, brainy troublemaker (played by newcomer Dominic Sessa) and the head cook (portrayed by Da’Vine Joy Randolph).

Angelique Jackson The hottest sales title at the Toronto Film Festival is officially off the market, with Focus Features landing worldwide distribution rights to Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers,” in a deal worth roughly $30 million. Paul Giamatti stars in the Christmas-themed film that reunites the actor and director for the first time since their Oscar-winning 2004 hit “Sideways.” It will hit theaters in Christmas 2023. In “The Holdovers,” Giamatti portrays Paul Hunham, a universally disliked professor at a prep school called Deerfield Academy. With no family and nowhere to go around the holidays in 1970, he stays on campus to supervise students who couldn’t go home. After a few days, only one person is left: a troublemaking 15-year old named Angus, a good student whose bad behavior always threatens to get him expelled. Along with the school’s head cook Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), whose own son was recently lost in Vietnam, the three form an unlikely bond as they spend Christmas together during two very snowy weeks in New England. The cast also includes Carrie Preston, Gillian Vigman and Tate Donovan. David Hemingson wrote the film’s script script.

EXCLUSIVE: The biggest deal ever made at Toronto will be on a film that is not in the Toronto Film Festival roster. I’m hearing that Focus Features is tying up a $30 million worldwide rights deal with Miramax’s Bill Block and CAA Media Finance for The Holdovers, after a discreet screening here for buyers held Sunday. Focus will give the film a theatrical release, and Middle East is the only turf not covered in the deal. The film marks the reteam between director Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti, who teamed memorably in the 2004 wine-tasting road trip comedy Sideways, a film that won Payne and Jim Taylor Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay. David Hemingson wrote The Holdovers script.

EXCLUSIVE: Emmy winner Carrie Preston (The Good Fight) has signed on to star alongside Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph in the Miramax film The Holdovers, from two-time Oscar winner and seven-time nominee Alexander Payne (Nebraska, The Descendants).

EXCLUSIVE: Da’Vine Joy Randolph is set to join Paul Giamatti in Alexander Payne’s next feature film, The Holdovers. Miramax landed worldwide rights to the film last summer with Payne on board to direct. David Hemingson is writing and producing with Mark Johnson and Bill Block also producing. Production is set to start today in New England.

EXCLUSIVE: Miramax has acquired worldwide rights to The Holdovers, the Alexander Payne-directed film that reteams him with Sideways star Paul Giamatti. David Hemingson wrote the script, Mark Johnson is producing, and the film is now greenlighted for a January start date in New England.

Following several canceled features across 2019 and 2020, Deadline reports that Alexander Payne has set Paul Giamatti to star in “The Holdovers,” a David Hemingson-scripted film produced by Mark Johnson. Production on the film will begin early next year in New England.

EXCLUSIVE: Alexander Payne has set Paul Giamatti to star in The Holdovers, a David Hemingson-scripted film that Mark Johnson is producing. FilmNation will rep international rights and CAA Media Finance will handle domestic as the film is shopped next week in the Cannes Virtual Market. Production will begin early next year in New England.