Noah Baumbach | |
|---|---|
 Baumbach at the 2025New York Film Festival | |
| Born | (1969-09-03)September 3, 1969 (age 56) New York City, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Vassar College(AB) |
| Occupation |
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| Years active | 1995–present |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 3 |
| Father | Jonathan Baumbach |
| Signature | |
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Noah Baumbach (born September 3, 1969) is an American filmmaker. He is known for making light comedies set inNew York City and his works are inspired by filmmakers such asWoody Allen andWhit Stillman. His frequent collaborators includeWes Anderson,Adam Driver, and his wife,Greta Gerwig. He has receivedaward nominations for fourAcademy Awards, twoBAFTA Awards and twoGolden Globe Awards.
Baumbach first gained attention for his early filmsKicking and Screaming (1995), andMr. Jealousy (1997). His breakthrough filmThe Squid and the Whale (2005) earned him a nomination for theAcademy Award for Best Original Screenplay. He first collaborated with Gerwig onGreenberg (2010) and their collaborations continued withFrances Ha (2013),Mistress America (2015),White Noise (2022), andBarbie (2023).
His other films includeMargot at the Wedding (2007),While We're Young (2014),The Meyerowitz Stories (2017), andJay Kelly (2025).Marriage Story (2019) earned anAcademy Award for Best Picture nomination and Baumbach's secondBest Original Screenplay nomination. ForBarbie, which he co-wrote with Gerwig, he received his third screenplay nomination forAcademy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also known for co-writing with Anderson onThe Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) andFantastic Mr. Fox (2009).
In 2025, he was awarded theTelluride Film Festival Silver Medallion.
Baumbach was born on September 3, 1969,[1] inBrooklyn,New York City.[2] His father,Jonathan Baumbach, was an author ofexperimental fiction and the co-founder of the publishing houseFiction Collective, taught atStanford University andBrooklyn College, and was a film critic forPartisan Review.[2][3] His mother, Georgia Brown, was a film critic forThe Village Voice who also wrote fiction.[4][5] His parents divorced during his adolescence, which served as inspiration for his 2005 filmThe Squid and the Whale.[2] Baumbach has three siblings, two of whom are from his father's previous marriage.[3]
Baumbach grew up inPark Slope, Brooklyn, and from a young age he was determined to become a professional filmmaker.[2][6] Films that influenced Baumbach includeThe Jerk,Animal House,Heaven Can Wait,The World According to Garp,E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, andInvasion of the Body Snatchers.[7]
He graduated from Brooklyn'sMidwood High School in 1987[citation needed] and received his A.B. in English fromVassar College in 1991.[2][8] While at Vassar, he and fellow future filmmaker,Jason Blum, were roommates (Blum later produced Baumbach's first film,Kicking and Screaming in 1995).[9][10] Soon after, he briefly worked as a messenger atThe New Yorker.[2]
Baumbach made his writing and directing debut in 1995 withKicking and Screaming, a comedy about four young men who graduate from college and refuse to move on with their lives. The film starredJosh Hamilton,Chris Eigeman, andCarlos Jacott and premiered in 1995 at theNew York Film Festival. In an interview withThe A.V. Club, Baumbach said of his influences on the film, "I really responded to the kind of ensemble feeling ofMetropolitan, I was also thinking a lot aboutDiner, which was another great ensemble "friends" comedy."[11] Baumbach was chosen as one ofNewsweek's "Ten New Faces of 1996".Roger Ebert praised the film's "good eye and a terrific ear; the dialogue by writer-director Noah Baumbach is not simply accurate... but a distillation of reality – elevating aimless brainy small-talk into a statement."[12] Reviews often mentioned the thin and meandering plot, but most noted this as a facet of the characters' life stage.Janet Maslin ofThe New York Times stated, "Kicking and Screaming occupies its postage-stamp size terrain with confident comic style."[13]
In 1997, he wrote and directedMr. Jealousy, a film about a young writer so jealous about his girlfriend that he sneaks into the group therapy sessions of her ex-boyfriend to discover what kind of relationship they had. He then co-wrote (under the name Jesse Carter) and directed (under the name Ernie Fusco) the New York-set comedy of mannersHighball. Baumbach disowned the film according to a 2005 interview inThe A.V. Club, the director stated,
The truth is, I never "owned"Highball. It really was an experiment, and kind of a foolish experiment, because I didn't think about what the ramifications would be if it didn't work. But it was made with all the best intentions, which was to try and make a movie in six days, and use all the same people fromMr. Jealousy, with all their goodwill, and bring in some more people. And it was a funny script. But it was just too ambitious. We didn't have enough time, we didn't finish it, it didn't look good, it was just a whole... mess. [Laughs.] We couldn't get it done, and I had a falling out with the producer. He abandoned it, and I had no money to finish it, to go back and maybe get two more days or something. Then later, it was put out on DVD without my approval.[11]
In 2004, Baumbach collaborated with screenwriter and directorWes Anderson, co-writing with Anderson,The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). The following year, he released his fourth feature film,The Squid and the Whale (2005) which was a semi-autobiographical comedy-drama about his childhood inBrooklyn and the effect of his parents' divorce on the family in the mid-1980s.[14] The film starsJeff Daniels andLaura Linney in the parent roles. In an interview with authorJonathan Lethem inBOMB Magazine, Baumbach said of the film, "Sometimes when I think about the whole experience of this, it starts to become a joke within a joke within a joke. The film is not only inspired by my childhood and my parents’ divorce, but it was also the first script I didn't show to my parents while I was working on it. It's not that I wanted to protect them from anything. I just wanted to keep it my own experience."[15]The Squid and the Whale was a sleeper hit and a critical success, earning Baumbach two awards at the 2005Sundance Film Festival as well as anAcademy Award nomination forBest Original Screenplay. It also received sixIndependent Spirit Award nominations, threeGolden Globe nominations and theNew York Film Critics Circle,Los Angeles Film Critics Association and theNational Board of Review all voted it the year's best screenplay.
Baumbach wrote and directed the 2007 dramedyMargot at the Wedding, starring his then wife,Jennifer Jason Leigh,Nicole Kidman,Jack Black, andJohn Turturro. In the film, Kidman plays a woman named Margot who spends several days visiting her sister Pauline (Leigh) on the eve of Pauline's wedding to Black's character. It was shot in April and May 2006 inHampton Bays andCity Island, Bronx. The film was released in the United States byParamount Vantage on November 16, 2007. Baumbach helped to write and direct the short filmsClearing the Air andNew York Underground which aired onSaturday Night Live. The films were co-written and co-produced by cast-membersFred Armisen andBill Hader.New York Underground featured Hader as a British rock journalist doing a piece on quirky underground musician Joshua Rainhorne (Armisen has performed as Joshua at numerous live events).Clearing the Air featured Hader, Armisen, andPaul Rudd (who was the guest host for that week) trying to clear the air over a girl they all slept with. Both pieces aired onSNL in the fall of 2008.[16]
Baumbach co-wrote the screenplay for the 2009film version ofRoald Dahl'sFantastic Mr Fox withWes Anderson, who directed it usingstop-motion technology. The film was a critical success appearing on many critics top 10 lists of the year. The film also received theAcademy Award,British Academy Film Award, andGolden Globe Award nomination for Best Animated Film, losing toPixar'sUp. Despite the critical praise the film was not a financial success.[17]
His filmGreenberg was released March 2010. It starredBen Stiller,Greta Gerwig andRhys Ifans. The story was conceived by Baumbach andJennifer Jason Leigh. The film nominated for theGolden Bear at the60th Berlin International Film Festival.[18] In 2012, Baumbach directed the comedic dramaFrances Ha, which he cowrote withGreta Gerwig, who also starred. The film played at theToronto International Film Festival.[19][20] Baumbach filmedFrances Ha with his cinematographer Sam Levy digitally and inblack-and-white, the latter to emulate in part collaborations byWoody Allen and his cinematographerGordon Willis, in films likeManhattan (1979).[21]CBS News comparedFrances Ha's style to the works ofWoody Allen,Jim Jarmusch andFrançois Truffaut.[22] Gerwig received aGolden Globe Award nomination for her performance.
Baumbach has "shown an affinity for writing about the East Coast elite." Baumbach has written an adaptation ofCurtis Sittenfeld's novelPrep.[23] He also co-wrote a screenplay for the animated filmMadagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted.[24] He worked onHBO's adaptation of theJonathan Franzen novelThe Corrections,[25][26][27] but the pilot was never completed and HBO passed on the project.[28][29] Baumbach wrote and directed the 2014 comedy-dramaWhile We're Young, starringBen Stiller,Naomi Watts,Adam Driver andAmanda Seyfried.A24 Films released the film on March 27, 2015, and the film went on to gross more than all of Baumbach's previous films in the United States box office.[30] He also directed and cowrote the 2015 comedyMistress America, starring Greta Gerwig andLola Kirke. The film, which premiered at theSundance Film Festival, was released to general audiences on August 14. That same year he presentedDe Palma, a documentary about filmmakerBrian De Palma that he co-directed withJake Paltrow. It premiered at the 2015Venice Film Festival.
In 2017,The Meyerowitz Stories was released on October 13 onNetflix.[31] Before its streaming debut, the film was selected to compete for thePalme d'Or in the main competition at the2017 Cannes Film Festival.[32][33] The film focuses on a fractured and dysfunctional family, and starredDustin Hoffman, Ben Stiller,Adam Sandler andEmma Thompson.[34] On the review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 92% based on 181 reviews, and an average rating of 7.66/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The Meyerowitz Stories (New and Selected) observes the family dynamic through writer-director Noah Baumbach's bittersweet lens and the impressive efforts of a remarkable cast."[35] OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[36]
In 2019, Baumbach wrote, produced and directedMarriage Story. The film follows a showbusiness couple and their marriage breaking up followed by an emotional divorce preceding. The film starred Adam Driver andScarlett Johansson as the family couple.Alan Alda,Ray Liotta andLaura Dern also portray the lawyers involved about the divorce. The film also featured performances byMerritt Wever,Julie Hagerty andWallace Shawn. It premiered to great acclaim at theVenice Film Festival, before it was released onNetflix on November 6, 2019,[37] with many ranking it among Baumbach's best work.[38]Mark Kermode, film critic atThe Guardian, wrote, "this often hilarious heartbreaker is simply Baumbach’s best film to date – insightful, sympathetic and rather beautifully bewildered." Kermode also compared the film toAnnie Hall (1977),Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) andLa Grande Illusion (1937).[39] The film went on to receive sixAcademy Award nominations, including forBest Picture, andBest Original Screenplay. Driver and Johansson also received nominations in leading roles.Laura Dern won theOscar for a supporting role.[40] With the release ofMarriage Story, it also made Baumbach one of the few screenwriters to ever sweep "The Big Four" critics awards:Los Angeles Film Critics Association,National Board of Review,New York Film Critics Circle, andNational Society of Film Critics.
Baumbach's feature filmWhite Noise was adapted from the1985 novel of the same name byDon DeLillo. The film reunited him withGreta Gerwig and Adam Driver, and was released byNetflix on December 30, 2022.[41] The film premiered at the79th Venice International Film Festival where it competed for theGolden Lion. The film received mixed reviews. In 2023, Baumbach again collaborated with Gerwig, co-writing the screenplay for her filmBarbie starringMargot Robbie,Ryan Gosling, andAmerica Ferrera. The film released on July 21, 2023 to critical acclaim and grossed $1.4 billion worldwide. Baumbach and Gerwig received nominations for theAcademy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay andBAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay, andGolden Globe Award for Best Screenplay. Baumbach's unpublished memoir was acquired byKnopf in 2023.[42]
His most recent filmJay Kelly, which is his fourth from Netflix, is described as a "coming-of-age story about adults".[43] Baumbach castGeorge Clooney andAdam Sandler. He co-wrote the film with actressEmily Mortimer and the film will be produced byDavid Heyman andAmy Pascal.[44] Netflix boss Scott Stuber said: "Noah Baumbach's got an excellent kind of Jerry Maguire-esque, for lack of a better analogy, but a really great life-affirming movie with two big movie stars that's starting to come together, so that'll be exciting."[45]
Baumbach noted that comedian and filmmakerWoody Allen was "an obvious influence", stating, "He was the single biggest pop culture influence on me".[46] He has cited the filmsManhattan,Zelig, andBroadway Danny Rose as influences on his work.[47]
He has also citedErnst Lubitsch,Max Ophüls,Jean Renoir,Robert Altman,Peter Bogdanovich,Spike Lee,Whit Stillman,Steven Spielberg, as well as thescrewball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s, and the films of theFrench New Wave as influences.[48][49][50] His favorite film of all time isE.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.[51]
Baumbach is a fan of the "beautiful" music ofelectronic actsNew Order andOMD, and sought to "do something that evoked" those bands on the soundtrack ofMistress America (2015).[52][53] He has also citedDavid Bowie andPaul McCartney, and thefilm scores ofTangerine Dream andGeorges Delerue, as important to him.[52]
Baumbach met actressJennifer Jason Leigh in 2001 while she was starring on Broadway inProof. The couple married on September 2, 2005. They have a son, Rohmer, who was named after French directorÉric Rohmer.[54] Leigh filed for divorce from Baumbach on November 15, 2010, in Los Angeles, citing irreconcilable differences. The divorce was finalized in September 2013.[55]
Baumbach's romantic and creative collaboration with actress, writer and directorGreta Gerwig began late in 2011, after they met during the production ofGreenberg.[56][57] They have two sons, born March 2019 and February 2023.[58][59][60] Twelve years into their relationship, Baumbach and Gerwig married atNew York City Hall in December 2023.[61]
Baumbach's brother Nico is a film theorist and associate professor atColumbia University's Center for Comparative Media.[62][63]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Kicking and Screaming | Yes | Yes | No | Story co-written with Oliver Berkman |
| 1997 | Mr. Jealousy | Yes | Yes | No | |
| 2000 | Conrad & Butler Take a Vacation | Yes | Yes | No | Short film |
| 2002 | Highball | Yes | Yes | No | Shot in 1997; releasedpseudonymously |
| 2004 | The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou | No | Yes | No | Co-written withWes Anderson |
| 2005 | The Squid and the Whale | Yes | Yes | No | |
| 2007 | Margot at the Wedding | Yes | Yes | No | |
| 2009 | Alexander the Last | No | No | Yes | |
| Fantastic Mr. Fox | No | Yes | No | Co-written with Wes Anderson | |
| 2010 | Greenberg | Yes | Yes | No | Story co-written withJennifer Jason Leigh |
| 2012 | Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted | No | Yes | No | Co-written withEric Darnell |
| Frances Ha | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-written withGreta Gerwig | |
| 2014 | While We're Young | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2014 | She's Funny that Way | No | No | Executive | |
| 2015 | Mistress America | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-written with Greta Gerwig |
| De Palma | Co-director[a] | N/a | Yes | Documentary film | |
| 2017 | The Meyerowitz Stories | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2019 | Marriage Story | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2022 | White Noise | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2023 | Barbie | No | Yes | Executive | Co-written with Greta Gerwig[64] |
| 2025 | Jay Kelly | Yes | Yes | Yes | Co-written withEmily Mortimer |
Acting roles
| Year | Title | Role |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Kicking and Screaming | Danny |
| 1997 | Highball | Philip |
| Mr. Jealousy | Arliss | |
| 2004 | The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou | Phillip |
| 2025 | Jay Kelly | Director (cameo) |
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Thirty | No | Yes | Made-for-television film |
| 2012 | The Corrections | Yes | Yes | TV pilot[65] |
Baumbach has been nominated for fourAcademy Awards for the filmsThe Squid and the Whale (2005),Marriage Story (2019), andBarbie (2023).[66]
He has also received nominations from theGolden Globe Awards,British Academy Film Awards,Critics Choice Movie Awards,Cannes Film Festival,Venice Film Festival andWriters Guild of America Awards. He has been nominated for fiveIndependent Spirit Film Awards and received two wins.[citation needed]
| Year | Title | Academy Awards | BAFTA Awards | Golden Globe Awards | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | Nominations | Wins | ||
| 2005 | The Squid and the Whale | 1 | 3 | ||||
| 2012 | Frances Ha | 1 | |||||
| 2019 | Marriage Story | 6 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 1 |
| 2022 | White Noise | 1 | |||||
| 2025 | Jay Kelly | 2 | |||||
| Total | 7 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 13 | 1 | |
 |
