THE HOLDOVERS, the much lauded film from Academy Award winning director, Alexander Payne, opens in cinemas nationwide this Friday, 9 February 2024.
The film has won 2 Golden Globe Awards for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (Paul Giamatti) and Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role in any Motion Picture (Da’Vine Joy Randolph) plus a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
It has been nominated for 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor (Paul Giamatti), Best Supporting Actress (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing, as well as 7 BAFTA nominations including Best Film, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress.
The film reunites SIDEWAYS director, Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti in a holiday story of three lonely, shipwrecked people at a New England boarding school over winter break in 1970.
Giamatti stars as Paul Hunham, an adjunct professor of ancient history – universally disliked by students and faculty – who gets stuck holding over at Barton Academy with the kids who can’t go home for the holidays. It’s his punishment and penance for failing a high-profile student whose father recently endowed the school’s gymnasium. Thanks to a holiday miracle – in the form of one father’s change of heart – the motley crew of boys under Hunham’s care is soon whittled down to just one: Angus Tully, played by Dominic Sessa in his film debut. Angus is a smart but damaged junior who is trying his best to navigate a host of complicated family dynamics. Also holding over is Mary Lamb, portrayed by Da’Vine Joy Randolph, the head cook of the school whose only child Curtis, a recent graduate of Barton, was killed in Vietnam. Still deep in grief, Mary chooses to stay at Barton because it was the last place she was with her son. Left to their own devices in the empty school, this unlikely trio finds adventure, calamity, and finally, some semblance of family.
