Sian heder

With his second work, “CODA, the sounds of silence”, he has won the Oscar for best film, and two other first category (best actor for Troy Kotsur and best screenplay). It is clear that Sian Heder has come to movie theaters to stay.

Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on June 23, 1977, Sian Heder is the daughter of British sculptor Mags Harries and Hungarian architect Lajos Heder. She graduated from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Pursuing her dream of becoming an actress, she moved to Los Angeles, where she managed to survive with a job as a babysitter, at an agency that sent her to four-star hotels, to take care of guests’ children.

Her experience in this job inspired her to shoot  Mother , a short film for which she would receive a scholarship from the American Film Institute. After a season writing episodes of the Orange is the New Black series , Sian HederShe made her feature film debut with Talullah, where  Elliot Page , formerly Ellen, plays a drifter bent on rescuing a baby from its neglectful mother.

She herself insisted on bringing forward the English version of the Franco-Belgian film The Bélier Family . After years of searching for financing, and reaching a distribution agreement with AppleTV+,  Sian HederHe was able to get down to business, but filming ended in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. “When we went to Sundance, I didn’t know very well if the edition was going to be virtual, and if someone would see my film online,” recalls the director. “I had spent other people’s money and felt an enormous responsibility. However, the film had a huge impact.

The film achieved three Oscar nominations, in the sections of film, lead actor ( Troy Kotsur ) and screenwriter (  Sian Heder herself ). “The best thing about awards season is that suddenly I was talking to Steven Spielberg, who was telling me that he loved my movie. There is nothing as emotional as that, ”acknowledges the director, who in the end saw how her work fulfilled the categories to which she opted.

Married to the actor and producer David Newsom, with whom she has two children,  Sian Heder  is preparing her new project after her establishment, in the field of romantic comedy. She is preparing Impossible, an adaptation of a novel by Sarah Lotz, where a ghost writer falls in love with a woman afraid of commitment.