Andrew Ahn: Last News

Film Independent today unveiled the three short films directed by fellows selected to participate in its Global Media Makers Spring 2022 LA Residency. (Watch them here.)

Clayton Davis Sophie Hyde’s “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande” had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January, receiving critical acclaim — particularly for its star Emma Thompson — with many calling her a potential Oscars best actress contender. But the British sex comedy, which was acquired by Searchlight Pictures and later released on Hulu June 17, became ineligible when the Academy reverted to its pre-pandemic requirements that a film must have a theatrical release of seven days before debuting on a streaming platform.However, Variety has now confirmed that Searchlight Pictures formally submitted an appeal to deem the film eligible, and the Academy has approved it for awards consideration.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorDoing press for “Fire Island” has been quite an emotional experience for James Scully, who plays Bowen Yang’s love interest in director Andrew Ahn’s new queer rom-com written by and starring Joel Kim Booster.“I have had these out of body moments where I’m like, remember when you thought you were going to have to pretend to be straight your whole life?” Scully tells me. “Remember when you thought that you were just going to have to find a really patient woman and marry her and just do the best that you could to make it work?”“Fire Island” is an LGBTQ take on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.” The all-queer cast also includes Matt Rogers, Margaret Cho, Conrad Ricamora, Tomás Matos, Torian Miller, Nick Adams and Zane Phillips.

Pride Month, is another addition to the growing slate of LGBTQ-themedromantic comedies. The upcoming film stars Keiynan Lonsdale, Dylan Sprouse and Sarah Hyland – and only ET has an exclusive sneak peek of the crazy things people do for love. Written by Luke Albright, Joe Wanjai Ross and Greg Boaldin and helmed by director Rose Troche, the movie follows Andrew (Lonsdale), who is trying to find a way to get over his toxic ex-boyfriend when meddling friends Jake (Sprouse) and Kelly (Hyland) get involved.

Andrew Ahn has the fall of Quibi to thank for being the director of “Fire Island.”

Bowen Yang perform a cover of Britney Spears’ “Sometimes” in the Hulu film . In true romcom fashion, the actor gets to bear all his emotions during a pivotal musical moment.While speaking to ET, writer and star Joel Kim Booster and director Andrew Ahn break down the epic moment. “It’s my favorite scene in the movie, for sure,” Booster says.As Howie, Yang takes the stage three quarters of the way through Booster’s queer, modern adaptation of to sing an unexpected version of the 1999 hit song while his friends, Luke (Matt Rogers) and Keegan (Tomás Matos), provide backup and add a little choreography to the scene. The scene comes near the end of their trip to the gay mecca as the limits of Howie and Noah’s (Booster) friendship have been tested by their unexpected and complicated romantic feelings for Charlie (James Scully) and Will (Conrad Ricamora), respectively.  When it comes to the song selection, “it was Bowen’s choice,” Booster says, explaining that the scene itself “was always written into this script [and] that Bowen would sing karaoke in that moment.” He adds, “I asked Bowen for a list of songs he’d be comfortable singing and ‘Sometimes’ was sort of the top choice.

, a queer, modern adaptation of, was first announced, it marked the first time a major film was being written and directed by as well as starring openly gay Asian people. In this case, that’s director Andrew Ahn, writer and star Joel Kim Booster and Bowen Yang. Later, the Hulu movie made news again when it revealed that it had filled out all the supporting roles with LGBTQ actors, including Margaret Cho, Matt Rogers and Conrad Ricamora. “Joel and I felt very committed to casting queer actors for this,” Ahn tells ET.

Michael Appler On Wednesday evening in New York City — about 60 miles and a ferry ride away from its subject— “Fire Island,” Joel Kim Booster’s romantic comedy about a weekend spent in New York’s chosen queer haven, held its premiere at the SVA Theatre.On 23rd Street in Chelsea, guests including Alok Viad-Menon, Jackie Cox, Peppermint and John Cameron Mitchell, as well as stars Bowen Yang, Matt Rogers, Conrad Ricamora and James Scully assembled to celebrate the film as part of New York’s NewFest Pride. You could have lifted the premiere’s guest list from any summer weekend spent at the Pines, something to be celebrated for a new film distributed by a gatekeeper studio like Searchlight Pictures.

A year into the COVID pandemic, out director Andrew Ahn received the script for Joel Kim Booster’s “Fire Island” and knew almost immediately he needed to make it.

While we’ve already hit some massive blockbuster tent poles for the summer season with superhero releases such as “Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness” and the Memorial Day showstopper “Top Gun: Maverick,” summer starts to hit its stride with June’s lineup of eclectic releases. Right off the bat, we’ve got heavy hitters such as the latest from Andrew Ahn and the buzzed-about David Cronenberg film, “Crimes of the Future” which just premiered at Cannes.

How do you write a queer romantic comedy? That is, not one where you merely gender flip a lead (“rom-com, but make it gay!”) but actually create a story that interrogates the very foundational tropes of the genre? If you’re Joel Kim Booster, you do so by adapting one of the most beloved Jane Austen novels of all time, the one whose recent big-screen adaptations have earned the likes of Keira Knightley and Renée Zellweger Oscar nominations.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticIt’s a gross oversimplification of Jane Austen’s gift to suggest that her novels reduce to heteronormative matchmaking exercises, though all six end with their heroines getting hitched. (Austen herself never wed.

NewFest, the New York film and media organizations has announced the full lineup for its second annual NewFest Pride event – a summer film series returning this year from June 2-6 in a hybrid format featuring a mix of exclusive in-person premieres/panels and virtual screenings. The announcement was made today by NewFest’s Executive Director David Hatkoff and Director of Programming Nick McCarthy.

Holiday getaways aren’t always easy.

Netflix announced today that Joel Kim Booster’s stand-up special Joel Kim Booster: Psychosexual will debut on the streamer on June 21st.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorSearchlight Pictures’ queer romantic comedy “Fire Island” will have its world premiere on June 2 during NewFest’s NewFest Pride series.“We are thrilled to kick off our annual Pride month event with the world premiere of Andrew Ahn’s ‘Fire Island,’” NewFest executive director David Hatkoff said in statement on Thursday morning. “This joyful film captures the sexy, romantic, celebratory energy of the iconic NY gay enclave, and we can’t wait to celebrate with the film’s cast and creative team with a blow-out, prideful event in the heart of NYC.”Set in Fire Island, New York’s popular gay getaway Pines neighborhood and inspired by Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” the film stars Joel Kim Booster and Bowen Yang as best friends who are determined to have the ultimate summer adventure.

The first trailer for Fire Island has just debuted online!

Wilson Chapman editorHulu has released the first trailer for the new queer rom-com “Fire Island,” starring Joel Kim Booster and “Saturday Night Live” star Bowen Yang.A modern take on the classic Jane Austen novel “Pride and Prejudice,” “Fire Island” focuses on two gay best friends, Noah (Booster) and Howie (Yang), who take a trip to the Pines, a hamlet on New York’s Fire Island that’s a hotspot for queer culture. Over the course of their vacation, they party with friends and develop flirtations with two other, significantly wealthier vacationers, Will (Conrad Ricamora) and Charlie (James Scully).

If you live on the East Coast and are remotely queer-friendly or gay-savvy, you know that Fire Island outside of New York is a destination for gay culture in the summers. And that vacation setting is exactly the environment for “Fire Island,” a new Searchlight Pictures rom-com arriving on Hulu this summer.

Sasha Urban editorWith a little more than two months to go until the release of “Fire Island,” a rom-com that Joel Kim Booster wrote as a gay adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” prospective fans are asking, “Where’s the trailer?” Although Booster says he’s asking the same question, he hinted at what audiences can expect from the film, trailer notwithstanding.Speaking to Variety at the premiere of “The Lost City” at the Regency Village Theatre on March 21, where Booster accompanied his friend and “Fire Island” co-star Bowen Yang onto the carpet, Booster said he expects people to see Yang as a “legitimate powerhouse actor” after watching the film.“I’m really excited for people to see Bowen, specifically, because I think everybody’s used to seeing Bowen do things like [‘The Lost City’] or ‘SNL,’” Booster said. “But Bowen really goes to some difficult places in the movie.” Directed by Andrew Ahn, the film stars Booster and Yang as two best friends on a weeklong summer vacation on Fire Island, the mecca of gay summer getaways.

Searchlight Pictures on Friday dated three movies that will stream exclusively this summer as Hulu Originals: Andrew Ahn’s rom-com Fire Island, the Emma Thompson-starring Sundance pic Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, and Quinn Shephard’s Not Okay starring Zoey Deutch. All three had already been targeted to bow on the streamer.