''Finding Neighbors'' is a 2013 American

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

comedy drama film Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

directed by

Ron Judkins Ron Judkins (born 1953) is an American production sound mixer and writer-director. He has won two Academy Awards for Best Sound and has been nominated for another three in the same category. He is also the winner of the BAFTA Award for Best S ...

. This adult comedic drama is the story of a formerly acclaimed graphic novelist who goes looking for a true connection outside of his marriage – and just over his fence. Six months late on a book delivery, Sam (

Michael O'Keefe Michael O'Keefe (born Raymond Peter O'Keefe Jr.; April 24, 1955) is an American actor known for his roles as Danny Noonan in '' Caddyshack''; Ben Meechum in '' The Great Santini,'' for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Bes ...

) has succumbed to a full-on midlife and creative crisis. Sherrie ( Julie Mond), the provocative girl-next-door, offers him an easy and willing distraction. But it is Sam’s budding friendship with another neighbor (

Blake Bashoff Blake Warren Bashoff (born May 30, 1981) is an American television and motion picture actor, known for his role as Moritz Stiefel in ''Spring Awakening (musical), Spring Awakening''. He has also appeared in a number of guest roles on television ...

), a gay man, that ultimately helps him reconnect with his creativity. Sam, however, reveals nothing of this to his wife ( Catherine Dent), and as he begins to change, she becomes increasingly suspicious about what’s going on in the neighborhood.

Cast

* Michael O'Keefe as Sam * Catherine Dent as Mary * Blake Bashoff as Jeff * Julie Mond as Sherrie * Sean Patrick Thomas as Paul * Mike Genovese as Mike

Release

''Finding Neighbors'' world premiered at the 2013

Austin Film Festival Austin Film Festival (AFF), founded in 1994, is an organization in Austin, Texas, that focuses on writers' creative contributions to film. Initially, AFF was called the Austin Heart of Film Screenwriters Conference and functioned to launch the c ...

, and subsequently screened within such festivals as St. Louis International Film Festival,

Florida Film Festival The Florida Film Festival, produced by Enzian Theater in Maitland, Florida, is an annual international film festival. Overview The Festival includes narrative and documentary features and shorts, animation, midnight movies, and educational fo ...

Newport Beach International Film Festival The Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) is an annual film festival in Newport Beach, California, typically held in late April. In 2022, it was announced that the festival had permanently changed its date to be held in October, as the festival bega ...

, Omaha Film Festival, and Boston LGBT Film Festival.

Production Notes

Writer/Director Ron Judkins is best known as

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

's go-to production sound mixer, having won two

Academy Awards The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...

for Best Sound (

Jurassic Park ''Jurassic Park'', later referred to as ''Jurassic World'', is an American science fiction media franchise created by Michael Crichton, centered on a disastrous attempt to create a theme park of De-extinction#Cloning, cloned dinosaurs. It bega ...

Saving Private Ryan ''Saving Private Ryan'' is a 1998 American epic war film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. Set in 1944 in Normandy, France, during World War II, it follows a group of soldiers, led by Captain John Miller ( Tom Hanks) ...

) and has been nominated for another three in the same category. ""Finding Neighbors"" is his first film since 1999's

The Hi-Line ''The Hi-Line'' is a 1999 drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with addi ...

which premiered at

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

, and won the Austin Film Festival Audience Award. The film was shot primarily in Atwater Village in Los Angeles, CA.

References

External links

* * American independent films 2013 films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films American comedy-drama films {{2010s-US-film-stub