Whit Stillman

John Whitney Stillman, popularly known as Whit Stillman, is an esteemed American writer-director and actor. Born on January 25, 1952, he gained fame through his 1990 film Metropolitan which earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Randing from Barcelona (1994), The Last Days of Disco (1998), Damsels in Distress (2011) to Love & Friendship, his most recent film released in 2016, Stillman's cinematic portfolio is impressive. The New York-born director commenced his career in 1973 and carved a niche in the film industry with his deft storytelling. After graduating from Harvard, he began as an editorial assistant at Doubleday in New York City, and later was a junior editor at The American Spectator. His filmmaking style deeply reflects his experiences with a unique blend of comedy and drama. From Metropolitan, the storyline of which is loosely based on Stillman's Manhattan days with his divorced mother during the week of Christmas break 1969, to Barcelona which mirrors his experiences in Spain, Stillman's films are partly autobiographical. Stillman's effectiveness at the box-office has been mixed and he filmed Metropolitan for about $250,000, with a box-office return of about $3 million. His 2016 film Love & Friendship, a comedy based on a Jane Austen story, was a box-office success, grossing more than $20 million worldwide against a production budget of $3 million.