SIDEWAYS

In honor of the release of their new film, THE HOLDOVERS, we’re thrilled to welcome longtime collaborators Alexander Payne & Kevin Tent, ACE, to discuss their collaboration on 2004’s SIDEWAYS. An acerbic road-trip dramedy that marked Payne and Tent’s first collaboration with Paul Giamatti, SIDEWAYS follows a wine connoisseur and his best friend as they travel through California wine country. As with Payne’s other work, SIDEWAYS is a bittersweet gem about the life’s disappointments and finding a way forward that provides a rare showcase for Paul Giamatti in the lead (Thomas Haden Church, Sandra Oh, and Virginia Madsen round out the ensemble). Sharply and elegantly cut by Kevin Tent and written and directed with insight and intelligence by Alexander Payne who won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay alongside co-writer Jim Taylor, SIDEWAYS is the kind of adult-aimed film rarely made anymore which makes it something worth savoring, like a good glass of wine. 

Alexander Payne is a filmmaker best known for SIDEWAYS, ELECTION, THE DESCENDANTS, NEBRASKA, and THE HOLDOVERS, among many others. For SIDEWAYS and THE DESCENDANTS, he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for his direction of those two films as well as the screenplay for ELECTION.

Kevin Tent, ACE, is an editor best known for his longtime collaboration with Alexander Payne on all of his feature films including SIDEWAYS, ELECTION, THE DESCENDANTS (Oscar nom), NEBRASKA, and THE HOLDOVERS. He is president of the board of American Cinema Editors (ACE) and has received five ACE Eddie nominations.