Robert Byington (born April 29, 1971) is an American

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

and

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

living in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. He is most noted for his films ''RSO (Registered Sex Offender)'' (2008), ''Harmony and Me'' (2009), '' Somebody Up There Likes Me'' (2012), winner of The Special Jury Prize at the 2012

Locarno Film Festival The Locarno International Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narr ...

, ''

7 Chinese Brothers ''7 Chinese Brothers'' is a 2015 American comedy film written and directed by Bob Byington and starring Jason Schwartzman, Stephen Root, Olympia Dukakis, Jonathan Togo, and Alex Karpovsky. The film was released on August 28, 2015, in a limit ...

'' (2015) starring

Jason Schwartzman Jason Schwartzman (born June 26, 1980) is an American actor, musician, and member of the Coppola family. Schwartzman made his film debut in Wes Anderson's 1998 film '' Rushmore'', and has since appeared in six other Anderson films: '' The Darjee ...

Olympia Dukakis Olympia Dukakis (June 20, 1931 – May 1, 2021) was an American actress. She performed in more than 130 stage productions, in some 60 films, and in approximately 50 television series. Best known as a screen actress, she started her career in the ...

and Tunde Adebimpe, ''

Infinity Baby ''Infinity Baby'' is an American science fiction comedy film directed by Bob Byington from a screenplay by Onur Tukel. The film stars Kieran Culkin, Trieste Kelly Dunn, Nick Offerman, Martin Starr, Kevin Corrigan, Megan Mullally, Noël We ...

'' (2017) starring

Kieran Culkin Kieran Kyle Culkin (born September 30, 1982) is an American actor. Known for portraying distasteful yet sympathetic characters across stage and screen, List of awards and nominations received by Kieran Culkin, his accolades include an Academy A ...

Nick Offerman Nicholas David Offerman (born June 26, 1970) is an American actor. He became widely known for his role as Ron Swanson in the NBC sitcom '' Parks and Recreation'' (2009–2015), for which he received the Television Critics Association Award fo ...

, and Martin Starr, and '' Lousy Carter'' (2023) starring David Krumholtz,

Olivia Thirlby Olivia Jo Thirlby (born October 6, 1986) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Leah in the comedy-drama film '' Juno'' (2007),Louie, Rebecca (June 28, 2008).Olivia Thirlby is smoking in 'The Wackness'". '' Daily News''. Retr ...

, and Starr.

Career

Robert "Bob" Byington grew up in

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The city covers and had a population of 291,082 as of the 2020 census. It is the state's List of cities in Nebraska, second-most populous city a ...

. He studied at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

and received a masters in American Studies at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

. Byington directed his first film ''Shameless'' in 1996, and followed up with ''Olympia'' in 1998, which played on opening night of the

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

Film Festival. He then entered a decade long "God-imposed" hiatus before directing his next three films ''RSO (Registered Sex Offender)'' (2008), ''Harmony and Me'' (2009) (the only USA-made film selected for Museum of Modern Art's 2009 New Directors/New Films Festival) and ''Somebody Up There Likes Me'' (2012). His film, ''Frances Ferguson'', premiered at

in March 2019. His most recent film, '' Lousy Carter'', premiered at the 76th Locarno Film Festival and was released in the United States on March 29, 2024.

Style and content

Byington's work has been called literate, bawdy, sardonic and quirky. The

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

described his film ''Harmony and Me'' as a "collision of joyous whimsy and bittersweet melancholy." His work is occasionally lumped in with the larger

mumblecore Mumblecore is a subgenre of independent film characterized by naturalistic acting and (sometimes improvised) dialogue, low budgets, an emphasis on dialogue over plot, and a focus on the personal relationships of young adults. Filmmakers associ ...

movement in part because of his appearance in

Andrew Bujalski Andrew Bujalski (; born April 29, 1977) is an American film director, screenwriter and actor, who has been called the "godfather of mumblecore." Life and career Bujalski, born in Boston in 1977, is the son of artist-turned-businesswoman Sheil ...

's film

Beeswax Bee hive wax complex Beeswax (also known as cera alba) is a natural wax produced by honey bees of the genus ''Apis''. The wax is formed into scales by eight wax-producing glands in the abdominal segments of worker bees, which discard it in o ...

and his use of actors, such as Bujalski, Justin Rice, and Alex Karpovsky, who appeared in movies carrying the mumblecore label. Byington considers his films thematically different from mumblecore and has resisted the label. '' Variety'' agreed in its review of ''Harmony and Me'' describing Byington's work as "mumblecore without the mumble." Unlike the extreme naturalistic dialogue of many mumblecore films, Byington's work leans towards exact dialogue and, according to Roger Ebert, "perfect timing" which is "unreasonably funny".

Filmmaker Magazine ''Filmmaker'' is a quarterly publication magazine covering issues relating to independent film. The magazine was founded in 1992 by Karol Martesko-Fenster, Scott Macaulay and Holly Willis. The magazine is now published by the IFP (Independent Fil ...

likened his rich humor to the

New Hollywood The New Hollywood, Hollywood Renaissance, American New Wave, or New American Cinema (not to be confused with the New American Cinema of the 1960s that was part of Experimental film, avant-garde underground film, underground cinema), was a movemen ...

comedies of the 1970s. Concerning the process for his body of difficult-to-characterize films that nevertheless get made and seen, Byington says, "I tend to write screenplays I can imagine directing, which may explain why my films are so unambitious" (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0125887/quotes/?ref_=nm_dyk_qu). Notable actors Byington has cast in two or more of his films include

, Stephen Root, Kristen Tucker, Martin Starr, Megan Mullally, Keith Poulson, Kevin Corrigan, David Krumholtz and

Suzy Nakamura Suzy Nakamura (born December 2, 1968) is an American actress and Improvisational theatre, improv comedian. She is known for her many guest appearances on sitcoms such as ''According to Jim'', ''Half & Half (TV series), Half and Half'', ''8 Simpl ...

. Offerman starred in Byington's film, ''Somebody Up There Likes Me'', which premiered at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas. Offerman is also the narrator of Byington's ''Frances Ferguson'', a film with a discomforting subject matter, which star Kaley Wheless calls an "offbeat comedy, not for everybody
(https://thewest.com.au/entertainment/movies/revelation-perth-international-film-festival-kaley-wheless-is-one-of-cinemas-more-endearing-sex-predators-in-frances-ferguson-ng-b881604528z
.

Awards

* ''Harmony and Me'' **People's Choice Award for Best Narrative,

Denver Film Festival The Denver Film Festival is held in November, primarily at the Denver Film Center/Colfax, in Denver, Colorado, now the Anna and John J. Sie FilmCenter (Sie FilmCenter). Premiere events are held in the Buell Theatre and Ellie Caulkins Opera House ...

*''Somebody Up There Likes Me'' **Special Jury Prize,

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno International Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narr ...

*''7 Chinese Brothers'' **Founders Prize Special Award,

Traverse City Film Festival The Traverse City Film Festival was an annual film festival held at the end of July in Traverse City, Michigan. The festival was created as an annual event in 2005 to help “save one of America's few indigenous art forms—the cinema". The event ...

*''Infinity Baby'' **Best Narrative Feature, Woodstock Film Festival *''Frances Ferguson'' **Best Narrative Feature, Sidewalk Film Festival **Jury Award Winner, Indianapolis International Film Festival

Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and author. Moore's work frequently addresses various Social issue, social, political, and economic topics. He first became publicly known for his award-winning debut ...

awarded Byington the Stanley Kubrick Award for "bold and innovative filmmaking" in 2009.

Filmography (as writer and director)

*''Shameless'' (1996) *''Olympia'' (1998) *''RSO egistered Sex Offender' (2008) *''Harmony and Me'' (2009) *'' Slacker 2011'' (2011) (segment) *'' Somebody Up There Likes Me'' (2012) *''

'' (2015) *''

'' (2017) *''Frances Ferguson'' (2020) *'' Lousy Carter'' (2023)

References

External links

*
LA Times Review for "Somebody Up There Likes Me"

Austin Chronicle Review for "Somebody Up There Likes Me"

Austin Chronicle Review for "7 Chinese Brothers"

Hollywood Reporter Review for "7 Chinese Brothers"

The AFI Interview: Bob Byington

Bedford + Bowery Review for "Infinity Baby"

Now Streaming in Austin: "Frances Ferguson"

SXSW Review for "Frances Ferguson"

Filmmaker Magazine for "Somebody Up There Likes Me"

AFS Presents: 7 CHINESE BROTHERS Q&A with Bob Byington and Jason Schwartzman
* https://www.moma.org/artists/46858 {{DEFAULTSORT:Byington, Bob Film directors from Texas Living people 1971 births