“American Fiction” is currently vying for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Jeffrey Wright) and Best Supporting Actor (Sterling K. Brown), and now you can watch a conversation with writer/director Cord Jefferson and last year’s Oscar nominee Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”) below.
Östlund starts off asking Jefferson if he is enjoying awards season, to which Jefferson replies, “I enjoy some of it. The best part of it for me is talking to people like you who are idols and icons of mine. Being able to talk about the work with other people who have made work that I admire is the best part.” Östlund asks if he would make a satire about awards season, which Jefferson said he would, but he doesn’t know if anybody would watch it.
The lively 30-minute conversation gamely traverses the making and response of “American Fiction,” in a way that only Östlund could orchestrate. And it really illuminates the process and makes you appreciate both filmmakers even more.
“American Fiction,” if you haven’t watched yet, is a barbed satire about a college professor (Wright), who toils away on novels that nobody reads. But when he decides to make a stereotypical “Black” novel as a joke, he finds unexpected success. The movie also stars Tracee Ellis Ross, John Ortiz, Erika Alexander, Leslie Uggams, Adam Brody, Keith David and Issa Rae.
“American Fiction” is in theaters and available to buy or rent on digital right now.
