Winter's Bone
Is Alaska the only place in the United States that can chill you to the bone? The answer depends on what sort of chill we’re after. The Ozarks, for example, can be much colder – not so much the weather, but the people can be downright chilling. That, at least, is the human climate of Debra Granik’s film: teenage girl Ree looks for her missing father in a threatening environment, where a cousin’s welcome is a cup of piping hot coffee thrown in the face, uncles are hopped up on amphetamines and neighbors can be downright homicidal. Ree sets out on her quest in an attempt to save the family home and keep her family intact. Her lone odyssey serves as the backdrop against which Granik paints the picture of a United States very far removed from the American Dream. Winter’s Bone is a stark portrayal of a grim place that fails to douse the spirits of a young girl determined to hold her estranged father to account.
awards
- AFF 2010 – Audience Award
- Sundance FF 2010 – best film, screenplay
- Berlin IFF 2010 – C.I.C.A.E. award
- Independent FF of Boston 2010 –special jury award, audience award
- San Francisco IFF 2010 – audience award
- Palm Beach IFF 2010 – best feature film
- Seattle IFF 2010 – best director, actress
- Deauville American FF 2010 – jury prize
Debra Granik
Director, screenwriter and cinematographer Debra Granik was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1963. In 1985, she graduated in political science from Brandeis University, before taking up film studies at New York University, where she made her short feature debut, Snake Feed. She made her directorial feature-length debut in 2004 with Down to the Bone, for which she received best direction honors at Sundance, while her second full-length feature, Winter’s Bone, was named best film, again at Sundance. It also won the fiction feature category at the 1st AFF.
Selected filmography
1997 Snake Feed (kr. m. / short)
2004 Aż do kości / Down to the Bone
2010 Do szpiku kości / Winter’s Bone
2014 Przybłęda / Stray Dog
2018 Zatrzyj ślady / Leave No Trace
Cast & Crew
