Director, Writer, Producer and Actor Heather Graham shared insights on the red carpet about her latest film, “Chosen Family” (2024) before being honored with the King Vidor Award for Excellence in filmmaking on Saturday, April 27, 2024, at the 30th Anniversary SLO Film Festival in San Luis Obisbo, California. As a female filmmaker, Graham opened up about why she’s so passionate about her latest film and female-driven stories.
Best-known for her movie roles in “Boogie Nights”, “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me”, “Bowfinger” and “The Hangover”, along with being in many TV shows, including “Twin Peaks”, “Californication” and “Law and Order True Crime”, this film project had a more personal message and mission.
Graham explained the story-behind-the-story of her new film, “I am the writer, director, producer and actor in the movie ‘Chosen Family’. And it actually is fun to play all those roles, even though it’s a lot of work, because I told a story that I really cared about.
I just wanted to tell this journey I went on,…to free myself from codependency….free myself from being a people-pleasing, caretaking, overly controlling person that wasn’t really taking good enough care of myself.
And I wanted to make that journey into a story and a movie that could be funny, but also have depth and poignancy.”
Reflecting on her career and the importance of female filmmakers, Graham added, “Growing up as a woman in this business, I feel like from the inside out, I saw how so many stories are told from a male point of view, and usually the man is the lead character and the woman is the supporting character. And you really get into the man’s story, and it doesn’t really teach us as women to make our own story important or to make ourselves the star of our own life or to make our own needs important.”
After the red carpet, SLO Film Festival Executive Director Skye McLennan presented Heather Graham with the King Vidor Award, followed by an in-depth interview by Chris Gardner from The Hollywood Reporter about her career.
When Gardner asked what it’s like to watch her life on screen in a 6-minute sizzle reel, Graham confessed, “It’s really weird because when it’s you, you’re remembering those moments and you’re looking at yourself thinking of the passage of time, but then also feeling so grateful that the work you did, people still watch it and care about it. That feels pretty awesome.”
Later in the day, there was a special screening of “Chosen Family” at the historic Fremont Theater. Graham introduced this comedy / drama / romance film that is filled with chaos and empowering moments.
As a yoga teacher with a miserable dating life, Ann (Heather Graham) finds internal strength to put her own needs first, say no, and let go of toxic relationships. Her sister Clio (Julia Stiles) has different challenges that get amplified by demanding parents Alfred (Michael Gross) and Dorothy (Julia Halston) who expect Ann to solve all of the family problems.
When Ann searches for a “Chosen Family”, she falls for hunky Steve (John Brotherton), whose daughter Lily (Ella Grace Helton) has other ideas. For her own sanity check, Ann asks her friends Roz (Andrea Savage), Max (Thomas Lennon) and Frances (Odessa Rae) for guidance navigating it all.
The relationship dynamics in “Chosen Family” are so relatable and create pure comedic magic, making this a must-see film.
When asked what’s next for this project, Heather explained, “It’s making a film festival circuit. We went to Santa Barbara. We went to Denver’s Women in Film Festival. We went to Miami. We’ve come here, which is amazing, and…on May 15th, we have a screening in San Diego, and then we’re going to get distribution. We’re deciding what distributor to go with, and hopefully it’ll be out later this year. Hopefully. We don’t have a release date yet.”
And as far as what’s next for Heather Graham, she has many other creative film and TV projects in the works. Her dream is to have a production company like Reese Witherspoon and Lauren Neustadter (Hello Sunshine), and many other female filmmakers. Congratulations to Heather Graham on your award and new film. And cheers to all the female directors, writers and producers bringing female-driven stories to the big screen.
