Two-time Oscar-winner Alexander Payne is making his documentary debut with a film about the ‘finest film professor in the world’, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
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Payne, known for directing the recent The Holdovers as well as films like Sideways (2004) and Nebraska (2013), is shooting a doc on American film scholar and historian Jeanine Basinger.
Basinger, 88, teaches at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, US. She has authored several books on film and is celebrated for her long-running film studies program.
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Per The Hollywood Reporter, Payne’s documentary traces Basinger’s story from “her days as a movie theater usher in Brookings, South Dakota, to Connecticut’s Wesleyan University.”
The documentary is aiming a 2025 release.
Payne’s 70s set comedy-drama The Holdovers starring Paul Giamatti was nominated for five Oscars at the 96th Academy Awards, winning one for Best Supporting Actress (Da’Vine Joy Randolph).