Top 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsMost Popular Video GamesMost Popular Music VideosMost Popular Podcasts
    Release CalendarBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersSundance Film FestivalIndependent Spirit AwardsBlack History MonthSXSWSTARmeter AwardsAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
Sign In
New Customer? Create account
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)
  • Biography
  • Awards
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Allison Anders

  • Director
  • Writer
  • Producer
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
Allison Anders in Grace of My Heart (1996)
Laemmle Theaters, the beloved art house cinema chain in Los Angeles has an astonishing legacy, with ties to the origins of Hollywood. This is a story about a 3rd generation family business and their determination to survive.
Play trailer2:44
Only in Theaters (2022)
6 Videos
9 Photos
Anders weathered a rough childhood and young adult life which not only encouraged an escapist penchant for making up characters but also an insider's sympathy for the strong but put-upon women who people her films. Growing up in rural Kentucky, Anders would always remember hanging onto her father's leg at age five as he abandoned her family. Traveling frequently with her mother and sisters, Anders would later be raped at age 12, endure abuse from a stepfather who once threatened her with a gun, and suffer a mental breakdown at age 15. Venturing back to Kentucky from Los Angeles at 17, she would soon move to London to live with the man who would father her first child. Upon her return to the US, Anders finally began to pick up the pieces of her life. She enrolled in junior college and later the UCLA film school and managed when a second daughter came along. Enchanted with _Wim Wenders_' films, she so deluged the filmmaker with correspondence that he gave her a job as a production assistant on his film Paris, Texas (1984). After graduating from UCLA, Anders made her feature writing and directing debut, Border Radio (1987), a study of the LA punk scene, in collaboration with two former classmates. Her first solo effort, Gas Food Lodging (1992), telling of a single mother and her two teenage daughters, and her followup, Mi vida loca (1993), looking at girl gangs in the Echo Park neighborhood of LA where Anders settled, have shown her to be a deeply personal filmmaker who has used her own experience to make grittily realistic, well-observed, gently ambling studies of women coming of age amid tough, sterile social conditions.
BornNovember 16, 1954
  • More at IMDbPro
    • Contact info
    • Agent info
    • Resume
BornNovember 16, 1954
IMDbProStarmeter
See rank
  • View contact info at IMDbPro
  • Nominated for 1 Primetime Emmy

Photos9

Allison Anders and Kurt Voss in Sugar Town (1999)
Allison Anders
Directing "Grace Of My Heart"
Martin Scorsese, Illeana Douglas, and Allison Anders in Grace of My Heart (1996)
Illeana Douglas and Allison Anders
Allison Anders, Kim Dickens, and Gabriel Mann at an event for Things Behind the Sun (2001)
Allison Anders and Kim Dickens at an event for Things Behind the Sun (2001)
Edgeplay premiere ArcLight Theater / Los Angeles, Ca.  L - R: Allison Anders, Michael Des Barres, Producer/Director: Victory Tischler-Blue, Executive Producer: P. Arden Brotman, ChiChi LaRue

Known for

Fairuza Balk and Ione Skye in Gas Food Lodging (1992)
Gas Food Lodging
6.6
  • Director
  • 1992
Sugar Town (1999)
Sugar Town
6.1
  • Director
  • 1999
Antonio Banderas, Madonna, Valeria Golino, Tim Roth, Marisa Tomei, and Jennifer Beals in Four Rooms (1995)
Four Rooms
6.7
  • Director(segment The Missing Ingredient)
  • 1995
Things Behind the Sun (2001)
Things Behind the Sun
7.0
  • Director
  • 2001

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Director

  • Paul Is Dead
    • Pre-production
  • JD Pardo in Mayans M.C. (2018)
    Mayans M.C.
  • Maura Tierney and Dominic West in The Affair (2014)
    The Affair
  • Elizabeth Olsen in Sorry for Your Loss (2018)
    Sorry for Your Loss
  • Nick Nolte in Graves (2016)
    Graves
  • Cole Sprouse, Lili Reinhart, Camila Mendes, K.J. Apa, and Madelaine Petsch in Riverdale (2017)
    Riverdale
    • (directed by)
  • Freddie Stroma and Josh Bowman in Time After Time (2017)
    Time After Time
  • Nia Long and Idina Menzel in Beaches (2017)
    Beaches
    • (directed by)
  • Taye Diggs and Kathleen Robertson in Murder in the First (2014)
    Murder in the First
  • Jennifer Beals in Proof (2015)
    Proof
  • Jamie Bell in TURN: Washington's Spies (2014)
    TURN: Washington's Spies
  • Nia Long, Damon Gupton, Paul Schneider, and Marin Ireland in The Divide (2014)
    The Divide
  • Ramón Rodríguez in Gang Related (2014)
    Gang Related
  • Kate Mulgrew, Natasha Lyonne, Selenis Leyva, Laura Prepon, Taylor Schilling, Uzo Aduba, Dascha Polanco, and Danielle Brooks in Orange Is the New Black (2013)
    Orange Is the New Black
  • Ring of Fire (2013)
    Ring of Fire
    • (directed by)
  • Simon Baker in The Mentalist (2008)
    The Mentalist

Writer

  • Paul Is Dead
    • Pre-production
  • Strutter (2012)
    Strutter
  • In the Echo
  • Things Behind the Sun (2001)
    Things Behind the Sun
  • Sugar Town (1999)
    Sugar Town
  • Matt Dillon, Eric Stoltz, Illeana Douglas, and John Turturro in Grace of My Heart (1996)
    Grace of My Heart
  • Antonio Banderas, Madonna, Valeria Golino, Tim Roth, Marisa Tomei, and Jennifer Beals in Four Rooms (1995)
    Four Rooms
    • (segment The Missing Ingredient)
  • Mi vida loca (1993)
    Mi vida loca
  • Fairuza Balk and Ione Skye in Gas Food Lodging (1992)
    Gas Food Lodging
  • Border Radio (1987)
    Border Radio

Producer

  • Paul Is Dead
    • Pre-production
  • I Believe in Unicorns (2014)
    I Believe in Unicorns
  • Rock N Roll Mamas (2013)
    Rock N Roll Mamas
  • Fireflies
  • Strutter (2012)
    Strutter
  • Until the Very Last Moment
  • The Pacific and Eddy (2007)
    The Pacific and Eddy
  • In the Echo
  • Lover Girl (1997)
    Lover Girl

Videos6

American Grindhouse
Clip 3:26
American Grindhouse
Official Trailer
Trailer 2:44
Official Trailer
American Grindhouse
Trailer 2:03
American Grindhouse
Tales From The Script
Trailer 2:24
Tales From The Script
Tales from the Script
Trailer 2:23
Tales from the Script
Hal - Official Trailer
Trailer 2:40
Hal - Official Trailer

Personal details

Edit
    • November 16, 1954
    • Ashland, Kentucky, USA
  • Postproduction Diary, "Cut to the 'Grace'," Published in "Premiere," October, 1996, Vol. 10, No. 2, Pages 49-50, 52-53, 55.
  • Publicity listings
    • 3 Interviews
    • 2 Articles
    • 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Did not become seriously interested in film until she was in her early 20s.
  • Quotes
    "Theory is important. It breaks down the language of cinema and shows us how to create meaning." (commenting on the benefits of film school).

Related news

Contribute to this page

Suggest an edit or add missing content
  • Learn more about contributing
Edit page

More to explore

Recently viewed

Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
Get the IMDb App
  • Get the IMDb App
  • Help
  • Site Index
  • IMDbPro
  • Box Office Mojo
  • IMDb Developer
  • Press Room
  • Advertising
  • Jobs
  • Conditions of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Your Ads Privacy Choices
IMDb, an Amazon company

© 1990-2023 by IMDb.com, Inc.