Wes Anderson Biography

Wes Anderson (Wesley Wales Anderson) is an American filmmaker who’s films are known for their distinctive visual and narrative styles. He is regarded as a modern day example of the auteur.

Anderson has received consistent praise from critics for his work, and three of his films; The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom, and The Grand Budapest Hotel. It appeared in BBC’s 2016 poll of the greatest films since 2000.

In 2001, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums in 2001, Moonrise Kingdom in 2012 and The Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014. In 2009 he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Fantastic Mr. Fox.

In 2014, he received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Director and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for The Grand Budapest Hotel. In 2015, he received the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay.

He currently runs production company American Empirical Pictures, which he founded in 1998. He won the Silver Bear for Best Director for the stop motion animated film Isle of Dogs in 2018.

Wes Anderson Age

Wes was born on May 1, 1969 in Houston, Texas, United States. He is 53 years old as of 2022.

Wes Anderson Height

Anderson stands at a height of about 6 feet 1 inch tall.

Wes Anderson Family

Wes is the son of Texas Ann (Burroughs), a realtor and archaeologist, and Melver Leonard Anderson, who worked in advertising and public relations. His parents divorced when he was eight.

As a child, Wes made silent films on his father’s Super 8 camera, starring his brothers and friends, although his first ambition was to be a writer.

Wes Anderson Brother

Wes is the second of three boys. His older brother, Mel, is a physician, and his younger brother, Eric Chase Anderson, is a writer and artist whose paintings and designs have appeared in several of Anderson’s films, such as The Royal Tenenbaums.

Eric Chase Anderson has illustrated the Criterion Collection releases of Anderson’s films (except for Moonrise Kingdom) and provided the voice of Kristofferson Silverfox in Fantastic Mr. Fox.

Wes Anderson Wife

The director is in a relationship with Lebanese writer, costume designer and voice actress Juman Malouf. She then gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Freya, in 2016. She is named after a character from the film The Mortal Storm. He lives in Paris but has spent the majority of his adult life in New York.

Wes Anderson Net Worth

The American film director, screenwriter and producer has a net worth of $30 million dollars.

Wes Anderson Salary

Anderson earns an estimated amount of about $50000 to $100000 annually.

Wes Anderson Education

In 1987, Wes graduated from St. John’s School in Houston, which he later used as a prominent location throughout Rushmore. He attended college while working part-time as a cinema projectionist. Later in 1990, Wes graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in philosophy, where he met future frequent collaborator Owen Wilson.

Wes Anderson Movies

In 1996, he wrote and directed Bottle Rocket. In 1998, Wes wrote, produced and directed “Rushmore.” In 2001, he wrote, produced and directed The “Royal Tenenbaums.” In 2004, he wrote, produced and directed “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.” In 2005, he produced “The Squid and the Whale.” In 2007, he wrote, produced and directed “The Darjeeling Limited.”

In 2009, he wrote, produced and directed “Fatastic Mr Fox.” In 2012, he wrote, produced and directed “Moonrise Kingdom.” In 2014, he wrote, produced and directed “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” In the same year he produced “She’s Funny that Way.” In 2017, he Executive Produced “Escapes.” In 2018, he wrote, produced and directed “Isle of Dogs.” In 2020, he will write, produce and direct “The French Dispatch.”

Wes Anderson Upcoming Movie | Wes Anderson New Movie

• 2020: The French Dispatch

Wes Anderson Moonrise Kingdom

The film Moonrise Kingdom is a 2012 American coming-of-age film directed and written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola. The film features newcomers Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward leading a cast including Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman and Bob Balaban. Being about a young orphan (Gilman) who escapes from a scouting camp on an island to unite with his pen pal, a girl (Hayward) with aggressive tendencies.

The two lovers retreat to an isolated beach they call Moonrise Kingdom, while the scouts, police and family members launch a search party to retrieve them after they felt shunned by everyone around them for their disturbed behaviors. They drew on personal experiences and memories of childhood fantasies in crafting their screenplay, which also took inspiration from earlier films like Melody (1971) and The 400 Blows (1959).

They invented maps for the fictional island setting. The two also took eight months auditioning child actors before selecting Hayward and Gilman. Filming took place in Rhode Island in 2011. Moonrise Kingdom’s colorful style was noted by critics and the use of symmetry in its photography, combined with a soundtrack making use of the music of Benjamin Britten with original compositions by Alexandre Desplat.

The film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and received critical acclaim. Scholars observed themes of young love, child sexuality, juvenile mental health and family break-up, with allusions to the Genesis flood narrative. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the Golden Globe for Best Musical or Comedy. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) included the film in its list of the 100 Greatest Films of the 21st Century in 2016.

Wes Anderson Career/ Movies

1996–2012
His first film was Bottle Rocket (1996), based on a short film that he made with Luke and Owen Wilson. A crime caper about a group of young Texans aspiring to achieve major heists. It was well reviewed but performed poorly at the box office. The next film was Rushmore (1998), a quirky comedy about a high school student’s crush on an elementary school teacher starring Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman.

It was a critical success. He has since appeared in every Anderson film to date. Filmmaker Martin Scorsese praised Bottle Rocket and Rushmore in 2000.

The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) was Anderson’s next comedy-drama film, about a successful artistic New York City family and its ostracized patriarch. Representing his greatest success until Moonrise Kingdom in 2012, earning more than $50 million in domestic box office receipts. Royal Tenenbaums was nominated for an Academy Award and ranked by an Empire poll as the 159th greatest film ever made.

2012–present
Following the critical success of Fantastic Mr. Fox, he made Moonrise Kingdom which opened at the Cannes Film Festival 2012. It was emblematic of Anderson’s style, was a financial success, and earned Anderson another Academy Award nomination for his screenplay. His next film, The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), starred Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, F. Murray Abraham, and Saoirse Ronan, along with several of his regular collaborators including Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Jason Schwartzman.

Having been set in the 1930s and follows the adventures of M. Gustave, the hotel’s concierge, making “a marvelous mockery of history, turning its horrors into a series of graceful jokes and mischievous gestures”, according to The New York Times. The film represented one of Anderson’s greatest critical and commercial successes, grossing nearly $175 million worldwide and earning dozens of award nominations, including nine Oscar nominations with four wins.

These nominations also included his first for Best Director. He returned to stop motion animation with Isle of Dogs. Production on the film started in the United Kingdom in October 2016, and it was released in select theaters on March 23, 2018, and wide on April 6, 2018. It was reported that Anderson was working on his next film, set in post-war France, and was set to begin filming at Angoulême, beginning in November 2018 in August 2018.

Anderson has also created several notable short films. In addition to the original Bottle Rocket short, he made the Paris-set Hotel Chevalier (2007), which was created as a prologue to The Darjeeling Limited and starred Jason Schwartzman alongside Natalie Portman, and the Italy-set Castello Cavalcanti (2013), which was produced by Prada and starred Jason Schwartzman as an unsuccessful race-car driver.

Additionally, he has directed a number of television commercials for companies such as Stella Artois and Prada, including an elaborate American Express ad, in which he starred as himself. Anderson’s cinematic influences include François Truffaut, Louis Malle, Pedro Almodóvar, Satyajit Ray, John Huston, Mike Nichols, Hal Ashby, Stanley Kubrick, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Orson Welles, and Roman Polanski.

Wes Anderson Books

• Seitz, Matt Zoller (2013). The Wes Anderson Collection. New York, New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0810997417.
• Browning, Mark (2011). Wes Anderson: why his movies matter. Santa Barbara, Calif: Praeger. ISBN 978-1-5988-4352-1.
• “Special Issue: Wes Anderson & Co”. New Review of Film and Television Studies. 10. 2012. ISSN 1740-0309.
• MacDowell, James (2010). “Notes on Quirky” (PDF). Movie: A Journal of Film Criticism. Warwick University.
• Kunze, Peter C., ed. (2014). The films of Wes Anderson: Critical essays on an Indiewood icon. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1349486922.

Wes Anderson Awards

Academy Awards

In 2001, he was nominated for The Royal Tenenbaums as Best Original Screenplay. In 2009, he was nominated for Fantastic Mr. Fox as Best Animated Feature. In 2012, he was nominated for Moonrise Kingdom as Best Original Screenplay. In 2014, he was nominated for The Grand Budapest Hotel as Best Picture, the best Director and the best Original Screenplay. In 2018, he was nominated for Isle of Dogs as Best Animated Feature.

BAFTA Awards

In 2001, he was nominated for The Royal Tenenbaums as Best Original Screenplay. In 2009, he was nominated for Fantastic Mr. Fox as Best Animated Film. In 2014, he was nominated for The Grand Budapest Hotel as Best Direction and won in the same for Best Original Screenplay. In 2018, he was nominated for Isle of Dogs as Best Animated Film.

Golden Globe Awards

In 2005, he was nominated for The Squid and the Whale as Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. In 2009, he was nominated for Fantastic Mr. Fox as Best Animated Feature. In 2012, he was nominated for Moonrise Kingdom as Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. In 2014 he won the Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for The Grand Budapest Hotel, he was nominated for Best Director and he was nominated for Best Screenplay in the same. In 2018, he was nominated for Isle of Dogs as Best Animated Feature Film.

Wes Anderson Isle of Dogs

The movie Isle of Dogs took them two and a half years to create and film, he has a large crew beside him setting the scenes and others solely focusing on making puppets. Anderson says that the movie was took him 26 months to cfreate which is the longest time he has taken for a single project.

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is an American adventure comedy-drama film that was written by Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach and directed by Anderson in 2004.