transamerica ( film )
more information about transamerica can be found at imdb as can a short trailer .
duncan tucker took the screenwriting prize for his transamerica starring felicity huffman as ...
4 has picked up all international rights to duncan tucker’s road movie transamerica ...
transamerica took a second golden globe nomination and broadcast film critics nomination for best original song, dolly parton’s ‘travelin’ thru. ’ the film was also nominated for an independent spirit award for best first feature and best first screenplay .
transamerica emerges in 2005 awards season locking up seventeen key nominations and wins – amc networks inc .
“you make the film for its own sake really. you don’t make the film for this reason. it’s just a great bonus. ”
bree and toby do finally end up in los angeles but the film resists a completely ‘happy ever after’ ending. while transamerica tells its story with humour, it does not trivialise any of the big issues at the core of the film .
looking for movie tickets? enter your location to see which movie theaters are playing transamerica near you .
new recruitment film for medical students. written and directed by dr kamran ahmed .
it was an independent film made on a budget of $ 6. 5 million; it was bankrolled by bob yari, another real estate developer turned film producer
the film bowed at the 2005 tribeca film festival and was acquired shortly after the close of the festival by the weinstein company. the film is co - distributed by the weinstein company and ifc films and was released in theaters on december 2, 2005 premiering at the ifc center in new york. huffman won an acting award at tribeca and the film was also honored at the berlin film festival with a reader jury award .
transamerica posits a journey of a family to find itself, a journey across america as in homer’s odyssey or huckleberry finn .
contentfilm plc announced a raft of sales for its newest acquisition, transamerica, whose star, felicity huffman, received ...
“transamerica” is nearly ten years old but it is a film that was so far ahead of its time in the treatment of transgender characters that the film world still hasn’t caught up. it truly stands out as the finest u. s. film honoring what it means to transition as an adult. the domestic film business is generally not interested in any portrayal of trans characters and especially not accurate portrayals of trans people. sometimes those of us in underrepresented communities view a film and give it a weight that it might not deserve simply because we’re thrilled to be seeing a version of ourselves reflected back. transamerica is a film that, in my opinion, deserves a second look for everything it did right at a time when transgender issues were not nearly as talked about as they are now .
anyway, transsmerica was a really great, atmospheric and really underrated film. it was sad, touching, somehow strange in some ways and a bit disturbing film. definitely recommended !
huffman' s performance in transamerica, as a pre - op male - to - female transsexual coping with the sudden emergence of a long - lost son, is much better than the movie it' s in; indeed, she singlehandedly takes transamerica to a higher plane .
i. f. c films will partner with the weinstein company to distribute duncan tucker’s hot - button road movie transamerica... .
huffman' s performance redeems parts of the movie but, until the final 30 minutes, transamerica too often feels like a journey to nowhere .
vernon towne theatre - 2910 30th ave. , vernon, bc - home of the vernon film society
sideways turns inside out in transamerica. laugh - out - loud funny, tartly off - color and ultimately touching, this road movie ...
[ … ] this review highlights some of the problems with the film that we discussed. [ … ]
san francisco — it’s throwback thursday and today i’m looking at transamerica, a film made in 2005 that earned 30 awards including a golden globe for actress felicity huffman and was nominated for 19 others including a best actress oscar for her performance in the film. yet this movie received a great deal of criticism and outrage in the transgender community despite its generally positive portrayal of the lead character, bree .
reviewed at toronto film festival (special presentation), sept. 11, 2016. running time: 96 min .
the fifth best director nominee was bennett miller (with his first nomination) for his first narrative feature film capote .
transamerica does not use it' s transgender protaganist to take up gender questions or politics, but rather use it to make a road movie with both humor and emotions .
transamerica sounds like an innocuous title for a movie, right? it certainly did to dolly parton, who was asked to write a song for the independently produced picture .
sign up: stay on top of the latest breaking film and tv news! sign up for our email newsletters here .
ultimately, transamerica is a movie about relationships, revelations, loss, and healing. the lives of the characters are unusual, but their humanity is universal. transamerica ’s most important message to the larger world about the trans community is that trans folks are human too. transamerica transcends superficial gender lines and reaches deep into the human heart. an audience expecting an educational piece of filmmaking will find itself misinformed. but as a movie with gut - wrenching lessons on the diversity of humanity, this movie succeeds with flying rainbow colors .
the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans. it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .
one of the more enjoyable and well - acted movies of the year ,
transamerica
works on many levels mainly due to the performance of felicity huffman. full movie review »
almost everything seen in the movies, print media, or on tv regarding transsexual people is in some way derogatory, sensationalistic, or negatively stereotyped. the movie transamerica is no exception .
minds on film is a monthly blog that explores psychiatric conditions and mental health issues as portrayed in a selection of readily available films .
for anyone wanting to gain a greater empathic understanding of the enormously complex issues facing people who seek to realign their biological sex to match their gender identity, transamerica is a perfect starting point .
jeff hanna of the dirt band first heard about transamerica when the film’s producers were working on musical cues. they sought two of the band’s songs, and hanna — a movie buff — helped smooth some publishing wrinkles. tucker also happened to mention that his first concert was a dirt band show in kansas city in the 1970s .
felicity huffman’s performance is outstanding and won her numerous awards, including the golden globe (2006) for best performance by an actress in a motion picture drama, two international gay and lesbian film festival awards for best feature film (2005) as well as an oscar nomination .
hurt was a bit of surprise since he only appears for a few minutes at the end of the film in scene - stealing role .
the best virtual reality from the 2015 sundance film festival: we saw some incredible films during this year’s sundance film festival, but equally important was the explosion of virtual reality experiences. from soaring over san francisco to exploring the streets of syria, vr took us everywhere .
the breakout star of sundance 2015: technology .
he was right [ david greenbaum, fox searchlight ]. at the festival’s most coveted events, from nicole kidman’s private premiere party to hbo’s documentary film dinner, i consistently heard senior film industry professionals and celebrities discuss birdly - - another virtual reality installation at new frontier - - as often and with the same level of enthusiasm as when referencing any film that premiered .
transsexual people talking about the movie will overwhelmingly say they liked transamerica and that it’s good for the trans community. if you press them, however, they will also note parts they didn’t like. three main critical themes arise—the film’s inaccuracies about the process of transition, its unrealistic stereotyping, and the fact that a transsexual woman did not play the lead role .
2017 queer films challenge week one: a film in which an actor / actress was nominated for or won an oscar for portraying a queer character .
who would expect transamerica - a film about a person who gets stymied just before undergoing sexual - reassignment surgery - to be a comedy? but it has to be. when dour, methodical stanley / bree is hit with the news that he has a son he never met, it amounts to a hilarious, life - changing
oops !
this kind of material might customarily be given over to doomy gender politics like the preachy and weepy boys don' t cry. luckily, transamerica defies p. c. sanctimony. as s / b thinks back on his one - time heterosexual liaison, he laments ,
the whole thing was so pathetically lesbian .
from that pseudo - tragic, self - deprecating admission, transamerica becomes the most original american movie comedy this year .
new york, ny (december 14, 2005) – with felicity huffman’s golden globe nomination, ifc films and the weinstein company’s transamerica has emerged as a major participant in the 2005 awards season. the film, directed by duncan tucker, focuses on the poignant journey of a pre - operative male - to - female transsexual, and has garnered seventeen nominations / awards .
the ballad of narayama
is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice, telling a story of startling cruelty. what a space it opens…
several films and television programs featuring transgender issues have come to the screen in the last few years. we are adding our firsthand experiences through consultations and our own productions. since soldier’s girl, we’ve also consulted and appeared in the film transamerica, starring felicity huffman, in hbo’s documentary middle sexes, and in the logo network’s documentary beautiful daughters, about our v - day la event .
transamerica is a film about performance and the search for authenticity. we watch, in some detail, the struggle of bree as she tries to pass as a woman. at the same time, we are drawn to the work of the actress, felicity huffman, who must offer us a credible performance as a biological male before she can perform as a transitioning transsexual woman. the film encourages us to reflect upon the performance of gender stereotypical roles that we all learn at an early age and to consider how hard it might be to change those performances .
“i saw a synopsis of it, and i wasn’t sure how those songs were going to fit that subject, ” he says. “when they asked, i didn’t know much about it at all. i just knew somebody wanted to use it. they started telling me who the folks were that had other songs in the film, and i said, ’great! ’ … then i read a synopsis online of the film, and i thought, ’this is cool. this is an interesting film.' ”
there are some movie business realities that also played a part in the selection of felicity huffman. the producer and probably a major funder of the film was william h. macy, her husband. this was a relatively inexpensive film to make, but it still cost a few million dollars. at the time the film was made, desperate housewives, huffman’s tv series, was riding the crest of a wave of popularity. she had some star power to draw an audience, and they do make movies for profit .
soy infeliz written by ventura romero performed by lola beltrán used by permission of peer international corp. (bmi) courtesy of bmg mexico under license from bmg film & tv music
all film permits must be obtained by the tv crew themselves working directly with the san francisco film commission. the only tv crews that do not require film permits are news crews covering actual news (such as a press conference, breaking news like a fire, natural disaster, etc .). the film commission is sympathetic to the promotional value of other tv crews but has definite guidelines by which they must work. the standard fee is $ 300 per day for unlimited locations, plus the crew must show proof of insurance (this is fairly standard procedure). there may be extra fees depending on what / where / when they want to shot. if they plan carefully, many crews can shoot all they need in one day. the san francisco film commission handles permits for within the city only, not sausalito, marin, berkeley, napa, tahoe, etc .
transamerica was released in 2006 and was written and directed by duncan tucker. it is a road movie whose central character, bree, played by felicity huffman, is a pre - operative male - to - female transsexual, awaiting final gender realignment surgery, who discovers that she has an unknown son called toby. his story forms an important part of the film too, portraying his search to find his father and his roots .
did you see this movie trailer on urltoken the film stars felicity huffman and kevin zegers, and it' s available in itunes. watch it and tell me what you think .
everything about transamerica is fraught and complicated, yet writer / director duncan tucker somehow creates from these intractable materials a very easy and even happy comedy. and he is helped by felicity huffman, giving one of the funniest, subtlest performances to be seen this year .
i do not recommend this film. if you feel you must consume it in some capacity, may i suggest distilling the essential elements of the experience? call up the most transmisogynistic person you know and have them talk to you about what they think bottom surgery signifies. while they talk, look at pictures of kevin zegers looking wounded and hot, and listen to “travellin’ thru” in one headphone. all of the transamerica with none of the hassle !
fish song written by jimmie fadden performed by the nitty gritty dirt band published by emi unart catalog inc. (bmi) courtesy of capitol records under license from emi film & television music
transamerica tells the story of bree (felicity huffman), a conservative transsexual woman who takes an unexpected journey when she learns that when she was a he, she fathered a son (kevin zegers), now a teenage runaway hustling on the streets of new york .
that
transamerica ,
written and directed by duncan tucker, works as a film is because bree is so persistently and patiently herself. if she had been wilder, stranger, more extroverted, the movie might fly off the rails. it is precisely because she is so conventionally sincere that the movie gathers power in deep places while maintaining a relative surface calm. how does she respond to the undeniable interest of calvin two goats? reader, she blushes .
david crary, “’brokeback’ praise elates gay - rights advocates: some conservatives hope groundbreaking film fails at box office, ” the desert sun, 19 february 2006, p. b - 13 .
i don’t even remember much but i became soooo angry watching this film, and i still am: it is so offensive. trans women are literally the punch line, but it’s worse than ace ventura for example, bcs apparently the film - makers and critics thought this movie portrayed trans ppl as positive (?? ?! !! ! ¿¿¡¡). what the actual fuck .
i really loved this film... ... great performances and as many have said... . this should have been an oscar for the lead... ...
[ … ] it must be acknowledged that the conversation is being held, which is huge. eleven years ago, a film called transamerica came out and was nominated for a two oscars, including best actress to felicity huffman for playing pre - op mtf transgendered person, bree. now, and please, please, send me links if you have information otherwise, but i can’t seem to find any real condemnation of this casting until 2012, on bitchflicks. [ … ]
the best picture winner was a major upset sleeper film - crash (with 6 nominations and three wins, also for best film editing and director paul haggis' best original screenplay) - it was an ensemble film about racism involving whites, blacks, latinos, koreans, and iranians that was centered around a killing in los angeles which might have been racially motivated. its tagline was :
moving at the speed of life, we are bound to collide with each other .
for two consecutive years, therefore, the best picture winner was set in los angeles (the previous year' s winner was million dollar baby (2004) ). [ note: some noted its aggressive studio campaign that sent pre - release dvds of the film to nearly every person involved in the motion picture industry - - possibly a new trend in future marketing campaigns. reportedly, lions gate films spent $ 4 million promoting a film that cost only about $ 6. 5 million to make. ]
tags: adventure, cissexist, comedy, drama, felicity huffman, guest writers, lgbtqi week, mainstream misogyny, stephen ira, theme month, transamerica, transgender, transphobia bookmark the permalink. follow comments with the rss feed for this post. both comments and trackbacks are closed .
philip seymour hoffman, the best - actor favorite for his remarkable embodiment of capote, joined ledger in the best - actor category. hoffman has triumphed at earlier film honors, including the golden globes .
the best - actress race presumably will shape up as a two - woman contest between huffman in a gender - bending role as a man about to undergo sex - change surgery in “transamerica” and witherspoon as singer june carter, cash’s musical companion and future wife, in “walk the line. ”
the adaptation of best - seller j. k. rowling' s harry potter and the goblet of fire (with only 1 nomination, best art direction) - the fourth harry potter film in five years
the golden globe best actress nomination follows huffman’s national board of review win for best actress, a nomination for an independent spirit award for female lead, the broadcast film critics nomination for best actress and hollywood life magazine’s “breakthrough of the year award. ” the emmy award winning actress was also honored at a number of local and international film festivals including tribeca, berlin, frameline, woodstock, mill valley and fort lauderdale .
in a year that saw mainstream audiences embrace queer - themed films such as capote, transamerica, and of course, brokeback mountain, one might wonder if lgbt (lesbian, gay, bi -, and transgender) film festivals are still relevant. our response is a resounding yes! we boldly assert that outfest is more relevant than ever. a queer film revolution is blossoming from the seeds outfest has been planting for decades. we have provided a platform for queer filmmakers to tell their stories for 24 years. the fact that mainstream audiences are finally discovering that we have remarkable, particular and surprisingly universal tales to tell produces a ray of hope and stiffins our determination to keep on telling our brave, transformative stories. (25 )
i find jesus written by james ibbotson performed by the nitty gritty dirt band published by unami music, administered by bug music, inc. (ascap) courtesy of capitol records under license from emi film & television music
typical with the marketing of newly released movies, clips from positive film reviews were used in the print media for brokeback mountain, of which the following are a sample. these ads ran in the new york times :
yet in spite of enforcing stereotypes and utilizing disinformation, transamerica is a movie that does more good than harm, because it is well - written, well - acted, and humanizes the rarefied main characters. good fiction is driven by believable characters who experience real - life conflicts, things that everyone can identify with .
with key prizes at earlier hollywood honors, “brokeback mountain” heads into the march 5 awards as the best - picture front - runner, potentially the first film with explicit homosexual themes to claim the grand prize at the oscars .
this gimmick mystifies me–what’s it trying to say? that at the beginning of the movie bree looks one way, but at the end she transforms from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan? because she doesn’t. at the film’s end, she looks more or less the same, which in itself contradicts the rest of the film’s logic. according to the cis concept of how surgery works, one is not a real woman before and is a real woman afterward. transamerica supports this narrative in which a trans woman goes under the knife and comes out a different person–bree’s whole raison d’être is obtaining surgery, and at one point she actually says, and i quote, “jesus made me this way so i could suffer and be reborn the way he wanted me. ”
you know julia serano’s seminal trans feminist text, whipping girl? you know those machines from cartoons where they’d put the good guy in and the evil version of him would come out? transamerica is what you get when you put whipping girl into one of those machines. in her book, serano talks about the scenes in media featuring trans women where the trans women put on makeup, clothes, breast forms, and how those scenes exist to remind cis people that trans women are not “real. ” well, transamerica fulfills its trans woman putting on lipstick quota within the first twenty minutes, so you know this is a quality production .
transsexuals aren' t really a group of people that i can say i understand, but transamerica did a pretty good job of helping me get what a trans person might go through. felicity huffman plays bree, a pre - op transsexual woman who finds out she has a son that she fathered a long time ago. what ensues is a kind of road movie that shows how the relationship between that son and her develops. what really makes this film stand out is the excellent lead performance by felicity huffman who, despite being a woman, did a great job of portraying a pre - op transsexual. maybe they could have gone with an actual trans person, but felicity huffman did just fine. i also thought the supporting cast did great as well. what didn' t always work for me was some of the humor and situations that bree and her son were put into. due to being a road movie, the film also felt a bit episodic at times. and, when they arrive at bree' s parents' home the film got a little too melodramatic for my tastes. my favorite part of the film came before this part when bree meets a kind native american man in a bar after having her car stolen. he was able to see past bree' s exterior to what she was on the inside: a nice person deserving of respect just like everyone else. and i suppose if the film has a message that it wants to convey, it' s that trans people are just as human as the rest of us and deserve the same respect afforded to everyone else who is
normal .
overall, i did enjoy the film although it goes some places dramatically that it didn' t necessarily have to go. i don' t really see this film having too wide of an audience, but this indie gem is well worth seeing nevertheless .
in addition to huffman, the cast includes kevin zegers, fionnula flanagan, elizabeth pena and graham green. william h. macy exec produced the film with linda moran, rene bastian and sebastian dungan producing through the belladonna label .
since there are so few films that have featured transgender characters, the academic writing on the topic is limited. it is worth noting that almost all representation in narrative feature film focuses on transgender women. cis men often play trans women on film but in transamerica felicity huffman was cast in the role of bree, who is a trans woman. this was an excellent casting choice that offered a legitimacy to the film and gave filmgoers the opportunity to see a woman embody the role as opposed to what so often happens, a male actor in bad drag who doesn’t capture what trans really is or means. transamerica brings up several topics related to transition itself that i think are very much worth discussing because they directly relate to why trans representation of mtf transgender people is often problematic in a way that is different than ftms. when someone “successfully” transitions from male to female they are considered to “pass” (which means to be read as female by the public) and sometimes choose to live “stealth” (which means to be private about their status as a trans person). i don’t want to go too far into the wide spectrum of gender and gender identity being embraced by younger people transitioning, and i am not claiming to speak for all trans people, but generally a successful transition consists of being read as the gender you are transitioning to. the terminology is a sensitive topic and many people do not like the term “passing” as it feels deceitful to them, but in my opinion “passing” does truly convey the feeling of being read correctly in public. bree mentions being stealth in the film but what does that mean exactly for a trans woman ?
the best director winner was veteran director ang lee for brokeback mountain (he was previously nominated for directing and producing the foreign - language film crouching tiger, hidden dragon (2000) - the best foreign language film winner !). he was notable for being the first asian (or non - white) filmmaker to win the top film - making honor. the only other nominated veteran director was six - time best director - nominated and two - time best director winner steven spielberg, for munich - - (previously winning three oscars: best director for best picture - winning schindler' s list (1993) and best director for saving private ryan (1998) ). spielberg was also nominated for producing munich .
another topic that the film didn’t shy away from is the juxtaposition of becoming who you feel you are after having effectively lied about it up until you transition. to a certain degree, trans people are forced to keep everyone at a distance because the fear of the true identity being discovered and the intense self - hatred one feels for being so different is overwhelming. it’s easier to remain closed off, not being forced to deal with the truth, and keeping everyone at an arm’s length because they can’t know the real person you are. the beauty of transamerica is that this is shown visually as opposed to the audience being told. truthfully, this isn’t something that can be conveyed easily with words and it was very smart of the filmmaker to show it visually as opposed to scripting it for the therapy sessions in the film .
transamerica
stars felicity huffman as a man who feels compelled to become a woman. the surgery is only a week away when sabrina (bree, for short) learns that 17 years ago she fathered a son. margaret, her therapist, was under the impression that as a man named stanley, her client was a virgin .
there
production: (canada) a saban films release (u. s .) of an sbs films presentation of a lone wolf film production. (international sales: the solution entertainment group, hollywood .) produced by said ben said, michel merkt .
a trans woman finds much that’s wrong with the felicity huffman film that’s now available on dvd: its science is inaccurate, its wardrobe outdated, and its stereotyping frequent. but for all that, there’s still something about the movie that touches the heart .
there are various themes. brilliant marketing pitched the movie as a love story and a western, two genres well ingrained in middle american tastes. women dragged nervous husbands and boyfriends to see a film where the women could enjoy…heath ledger and jake gyllenhaal, and the men could admire the scenery. blue state liberals felt it some kind of social duty to see the film. gays and lesbians flocked. the media hyped the ‘gay cowboy’ movie and it generated more and more publicity, and thereby curiosity and thereby tickets .
… i’m flying a few hundred feet above the transamerica building in san francisco, just a few blocks north of my office. as i tilt my wings down, the wind rushes my face and i feel that unmistakable drop in my stomach. i glance to my right, catching a glimpse of my brown feathers, as i can feel my arms tire. no, i haven’t sprouted wings, and i’m not really in san francisco. but there are moments during “birdly” — a virtual - reality flight simulator at the sundance film festival’s new frontier exhibition in park city, utah — when my mind actually feels tricked .
transamerica focuses on bree (felicity huffman), a born - again christian and a pre - operative male - to - female transsexual, who flies to new york after she discovers she has a son from an unlikely encounter. greeting the boy in the guise of a christian missionary, bree attempts to deliver him to his stepfather while on their way back to los angeles .
gary demos received the honorary gordon e. sawyer award for his pioneering cgi work in such films as tron (1982) and the last starfighter (1984). he had won three technical awards in 1984, 1994 and 1995 for his revolutionary work in film .
this was my favorite film of the tribeca festival. felicity huffman' s performance is incredible and grabs you from the first scene. it was a smart, poignant and funny film. some of the characters are too thinly drawn, some of the humor too inappropriately broad but those were minor issues for me. though rooted in some ways in standard plot devices, the transgender protagonist makes all the difference in the world. which, in a way, is kind of the point - - how we view people' s differences (with acceptance or disdain) says a lot about who we are. of course, it played well here in new york city. but what about the rest of bush' s america? by the way, i was told that lions gate picked up the film for distribution .
also, it' s a road trip movie. and there' s something kind of magical about those that always manages to captivate me. there are limited road trip hijinks, though, and the film really just focuses on huffman' s bree connecting with toby, the…
one of the biggest complaints that trans people often have about their representation in film is that their narrative is one of tragedy. trans people often portray sex workers, murder victims, or murderers. silence of the lambs is often called out as a prime example of an offensive portrayal as the character buffalo bill thinks they are trans. this is disputed in the film itself. whichever way you cut it, it’s an incredibly unflattering portrayal. pedro almodovar is fond of depicting trans women as sex workers though, to be fair, he also gives them quality roles as well. of course, the story of brandon teena, while true, is still the classic “trans as victim” story. the depiction of a normal person who happens to be trans is woefully underrepresented. perhaps this is why transamerica stands out so much. in an interview with robert newton on moviefone, duncan tucker, the screenwriter and director, states, “so many people think the movie is going to be one of two things: something campy and silly or a dark cross - country trek in which the main character gets beat up. it’s just so not either one of those. hopefully you’ll laugh more than cry, because it really is joyous – or at least i hope it is – and not grueling and dark. ” i completely agree with tucker’s assessment of his film and would go one step further and suggest that it is the only american film that has told a truly honorable story about what it is to be trans .
another excellent portion of the film consists of bree returning to her hometown of phoenix. often for trans people, coming out to family members, especially parents, is the most difficult part of coming out. the lgbtq community’s members are known for making their own family, some out of necessity and some out of the desire to be fully understood and accepted for who they are. bree claimed that her family was dead earlier in the film and once we are introduced to her family, we see why. as peter caster and allison andrew have put it :
“i thought it was about a couple traveling across america in an rv, ” parton says. “i thought, ’ transamerica. … oh yeah, traveling across. ’ but then when i found out what it was, i had to really think, ’well, now this is serious. i’ve got to take this serious. i’ve got to figure out how i’m going to make this work.' ”
with trans issues recently having entered mainstream discourse, certainly not every fictive treatment need be as nuanced as oscar - nominated “transamerica” or emmy - winning “transparent. ” still, nobody — not even viewers willing to settle for good, unclean b - movie fun — is done any favors by something as crude as “ (re) assignment, ” which gracelessly mashes together hardboiled crime - melodrama cliches and [ … ]
although movie characters who are transgender have been rewarded with oscar nominations, including jared leto in “dallas buyers club, ” hilary swank in “boys don’t cry” and felicity huffman in “transamerica, ” all the actors behind these performances are cisgender. “this is the time for it, ” duplass says of the academy nominating a transgender actor for playing a transgender part. “we’re in the middle of a civil rights movement. ”
for the first time in the short history of the best animated feature film category, none of the three nominees were cgi films, although that could be accounted for since pixar (winner of last year' s award for the incredibles (2004) ) took the year off. all three were only moderately successful, scarcely making $ 100 million in total. the winner was: aardman animation' s second feature - length' claymation' and first feature - length wallace and gromit film from co - directors nick park and steve box (with this being his third oscar win) - wallace & gromit in the curse of the were - rabbit, about eccentric, cheese - loving inventor wallace (voice of peter sallis) and his faithful mute dog assistant gromit. this was the first stop - motion /' claymation' film to win the best animated feature award .
the film stars ledger and gyllenhaal as western roughnecks who share a summer of love while tending sheep together in the 1960s, then carry on a lifelong romance they conceal from their families. williams co - stars as ledger’s wife, who overlooks her husband’s affair to try to hold her family together .
cissexist ideas are built into the structure of transamerica. i’ve criticized the trope of the “journey” before in cis narratives of trans lives–cis people love to tell us about our trans “journey. ” they love asking how it’s going, telling us how much they support us in it, that whole party line. now, this movie is literally about a woman going on a cross country road trip so that she can get bottom surgery–and thus, within the film’s cissexist logic, become a “real woman. ” she has to do this because she’s got a kid from an affair back when she was still presenting as male, and in order to satisfy her therapist that she’s ready to get surgery, she needs to deposit this kid on the west coast .
the bouncy, uplifting anthem accompanies the film’s closing credits and prompted parton’s second oscar nomination — 1980’s “9 to 5” was the first — for best original song. in addition to countless promotional appearances lately, she’ll also perform the song on the sunday (march 5) on the 78th annual academy awards show .
another major complaint was that a transgender actress didn’t play the part of bree, though two transgender women did consult and make cameo appearances, andrea james and calpernia addams. it would have been nice if the lead was a trans woman, but the critical reception of the film testifies to the quality of huffman’s performance. the transition she made in the film was greater than her gender identity; it changed who she was. she became confident; she took actions to correct mistakes made in her previous existence. she emerged a better person in many ways. it was without doubt a positive portrayal of a transgender woman .
“anyone who would complain vr isn’t interactive enough should first try birdly. it’s a thrilling simulation of a flight over san francisco... with your arms spread wide, an oculus on your face, and headphones on your ears, you find yourself soaring over the city’s downtown, flapping your wings to gain altitude. it’s a calming, meditative experience — at least until you find yourself crashing into the transamerica pyramid. immersive and exciting, birdly
“felicity huffman’s tour de force performance as bree is blindingly brilliant and is sure to be one of the most admired screen performances this year, ” commented ifc entertainment president jonathan sehring. “we are thrilled to be working with the weinstein company on this thoughtful film and delighted for this truly gifted actress and visionary director. ”
this is all new for her, too. what felicity huffman brings to bree is the newness of a jane austen heroine. she has been waiting a long time to be an ingenue, and what an irony that she must begin as a mother. but she is a good person to the bottom of her socks, and at the end of
transamerica ,
you realize it was not about sex at all. it was about family values .
following its spectacular reception at the 2005 tribeca film festival, this extraordinary road - trip - comedy tells the story of bree (felicity huffman), a prim, prudish and persnickety male - to - female transsexual, who, after years of saving money, is only a week away from her final sexual - reassignment surgery .
it had the lowest best picture theatrical gross total ($ 53. 4 million) since best picture - winning the last emperor (1987) (at $ 44 million), while favored nominee brokeback mountain had over twice the box - office results at $ 120 million worldwide (the highest grossing film of the five nominees )
a story full of reality, that never becames fantastic or far from what could really happen to a man who is finding the happiness by changing his gender. a psychological flow tha takes us, with sabrina
bree
, the protagonist of the story, to the rediscovery of parental sense. what is really amazing in
transamerica
is that, initially, the same parental sense was almost hated and seen as an obstacol for the final happiness, but then, after the travel ,
bree
( and us) discovers that the real happiness in exactly in that boy, toby. phenomenal actors, a good photography and a story with no mistakes! a film that should also be seen for discredit the stereotypes attributed to the transgenders and to understand the difficulties and weakness of the same .
before huffman can look plausibly trans, she has to be uglified, and that uglification interests me. the trouble with casting an actual trans person is that we don’t necessarily look like what tucker has decided he needs a transsexual to look like, but a cis person–tucker can make her look as hideous as he likes, all in the name of realism! when transamerica came out in 2005, you may remember how much of the press revolved around the character’s ugliness. felicity huffman laughed about how deprecating it was to have to wear all that ugly makeup in interview after interview. in character, she’s caked with goop designed to make her look “trans, ” a word which here means, “a little bit manly and a lot aesthetically unpleasant. ” in the best example of the film’s “come see our movie about a hideous transsexual” school of publicity, the us dvd cover is holographic: tilt it one way, and you have huffman looking red carpet ready, but tilt it the other and you have her as she appears in the film, frumpy and square - jawed. (memo for your edification: trans women are frumpy. duncan tucker told me. )
adds eamonn bowles, the president of magnolia pictures, which acquired “tangerine” out of sundance in january: “the trans aspect will undoubtedly garner the film attention, but frankly the best strategy is to get as many voters to see it as possible, ” he says. “it stands alone among the contenders in its tone, aspirations and achievement. ”
with trans issues recently having entered mainstream discourse, certainly not every fictive treatment need be as nuanced as oscar - nominated “transamerica” or emmy - winning “transparent. ” still, nobody — not even viewers willing to settle for good, unclean b - movie fun — is done any favors by something as crude as “ (re) assignment, ” which gracelessly mashes together hardboiled crime - melodrama cliches and an unintentionally funny “oh no! i’m a chick now! ! ” gender - change narrative hook .
hand - drawn honors and for the first time since the animated feature film category was added in 2001 that no nominees were made using computer - generated imagery. the nominees: the hand - drawn “howl’s moving castle, ” and the stop - motion films “tim burton’s corpse bride” and “wallace & gromit in the curse of the were - rabbit. ”
the first film by duncan tucker, transamerica stars felicity huffman as a pre - operative transsexual named bree (whose given name was stanley). one week before going under the knife, bree learns that she fathered a boy who is now 17 and is in trouble with the law. bree would like to ignore this information, but is forced to meet the young man, toby (played by kevin zegers), by her analyst margaret (elizabeth peña), who will not allow the surgery to happen unless bree meets him and confronts this aspect of her past. upon meeting, the son believes that bree is simply a do - gooder. she buys a car and the two road - trip back to her home in los angeles, bree all the while attempting to keep from toby the truth of the situation. ~ perry seibert, rovi
there are no rvs in transamerica. however, the two main characters do take a cross - country trip from new york city to los angeles. bree is a socially awkward, middle - aged pre - operative man - to - woman transsexual, and toby is a very attractive 17 - year - old street hustler whose goals are to work in gay porn and to meet his real father. but toby doesn’t realize bree is his father. toby was conceived while bree was living as a man .
not sure how the movie would be received by the viewing public, and concern about whether - or - not there would be a backlash against the homosexual content of the movie, distributors were uncertain at first as how to release the film. initially the idea was to limit its release to markets in los angeles, new york city and san francisco. but with the immediate strong critical acclaim and an apparent audience motivated to see the film, brokeback mountain soon spread to suburban outlets and larger cities across the country. one such test market, the suburban community of pleasant hill outside of san francisco, was selected where it was reported that on the first day of screening, “there was a line at the box office, and the film started 15 minutes late so everyone could be seated. even more striking was the crowd – largely seniors and middle - aged women. ” so not only was the movie selling out in the heart of suburbia, the audience appeared to be more diverse than expected, including “being older, straighter and more conservative. ” further, the movie appeared to be “not only an art - house favorite or a cultural statement or a milestone in filmmaking, (but) a bonafide hit making money in places, and with audiences, that make an east bay movie house look like the cannes film festival. ” (9) according to jack foley, president of distribution for focus features which handled the overall release of the film, the movie was “a cultural landmark like the graduate or pulp fiction, movies that everyone uses as a reference to a specific time period. ” foley also attributed a key crowd as being the senior matinee audience who “go to a lot of movies, and they like good movies. ” (10 )
transamerica wins you round by declining to grandstand on sexual or political issues, by not banging any drum in bree' s cause, by not demanding victim status for bree or making authentication of her new sexual identity a condition of finding her attractive or sympathetic. (incidentally, an agnostic attitude on these issues is traditionally signalled by the journalist sticking to the transsexual' s name and finding ingenious and supercilious ways of not using the male or female pronoun. i can' t be bothered with it. )
however, she woke up one morning in detroit and the song flowed out of her. she called tucker, who also happened to be in detroit screening an early cut of the film. after singing him the song on her bus, she recorded a demo on the spot. a longtime country fan, tucker also happily accepted the invitation to attend the nashville recording session .
no permits are required to shoot on private property so it is often helpful to look for a private location to shoot
public
areas. for example, pier 39, which is private property, provides very good footage of both the golden gate and bay bridges, the bay, alcatraz, sea lions, boats, etc. they are also very receptive to working with film crews.
transamerica is a 2005 american comedy-drama film written and directed by duncan tucker , and starring felicity huffman and kevin zegers . produced by ifc films and the weinstein company , the film premiered at the berlin international film festival on february 14 , 2005 and was released theatrically in the united states on december 2 , 2005 . the screenplay , inspired in part by conversations between tucker and his then roommate katherine connella , tells the story of bree , a transgender woman ( huffman ) , who goes on a road trip with her long-lost son toby ( zegers ) . one of the major themes is the personal journey toward self-discovery , according to interviews with the director and actors . the film is marked by an academy award – nominated and golden globe – winning performance by huffman , who is also known for her performance in desperate housewives . 
transamerica is a 2005 american comedy-drama film written and directed by duncan tucker, and starring felicity huffman and kevin zegers. produced by ifc films and the weinstein company, the film premiered at the berlin international film festival on february 14, 2005 and was released theatrically in the united states on december 2, 2005. the screenplay, inspired in part by conversations between tucker and his then roommate katherine connella, tells the story of bree, a transgender woman (huffman), who goes on a road trip with her long-lost son toby (zegers). one of the major themes is the personal journey toward self-discovery, according to interviews with the director and actors. the film is marked by an academy award – nominated and golden globe – winning performance by huffman, who is also known for her performance in desperate housewives.
transamerica is a 2005 american comedy-drama film written and directed by duncan tucker, and starring felicity huffman and kevin zegers. produced by ifc films and the weinstein company, the film premiered at the berlin international film festival on february 14, 2005 and was released theatrically in the united states on december 2, 2005. the screenplay, inspired in part by conversations between tucker and his then roommate katherine connella, tells the story of bree, a transgender woman (huffman), who goes on a road trip with her long-lost son toby (zegers). one of the major themes is the personal journey toward self-discovery, according to interviews with the director and actors. the film is marked by an academy award – nominated and golden globe – winning performance by huffman, who is also known for her performance in desperate housewives.