Director: Alexander Payne
Synopsis[]
A cranky history teacher (Paul Giamatti) at a remote prep school is forced to remain on campus over the holidays with a troubled student (Dominic Sessa) who has no place to go.
Male Deaths[]
- Unknown Actor [Mary Lamb's Son]
Female Deaths[]
- None
Gallery[]
.png "Mary Lamb's Son (The Holdovers).png (947 KB)")
Unknown Actor
Trivia[]
- The entire film was shot in real, practical locations. No sets or soundstages were used.
- Even though the movie features a heavy film look reminiscent of the 1970s, the movie was entirely shot digitally on the ARRI Alexa Mini. All the hallmarks of celluloid film, like the film grain, halation, dirt, and gate weave, were added in post-production.
- Many of the scenes were filmed at Fairhaven High School in Fairhaven, Massachusetts in February 2022 during the schools February break. At this time, the area received a snow storm to the delight of the film crew since many of the scenes took place during a snowstorm. They took full advantage of the weather and the snow you see in the film was from an actual snow storm.
- Focus Features bought worldwide rights for the film for $30 million after screening for buyers at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022. It is the biggest sale to ever happen at the festival, despite it not being on the roster that year.
- Dominic Sessa's on-screen debut. Sessa had only acted on stage in plays at his alma mater, Deerfield Academy in Deerfield, Massachusetts, before acting in this movie.
- Dominic Sessa said that the hardest scene for him to shoot was the ice skating scene. He found it difficult to fall on command since he had formerly been a hockey player.
- The liquor store clerk who says, "Here you go, killer," when he hands the package to Paul Giamatti's character was played by Joe Howell, an actual employee of the liquor store where the scene was filmed.
- Both Paul Giamatti and Da'Vine Joy Randolph are graduates of the prestigious Yale School of Drama (now known as the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University). Giamatti received his MFA there in 1994 and Randolph in 2011. Also, Giamatti's father is Bart Giamatti, president of Yale University from 1978 to 1986.
- David Hemingson's feature film screenwriting debut. Hemingson has written and produced many television show episodes and made-for-TV movies, but this is his first screenplay that has been made into a film that premiered in theaters.
- On the day of shooting the scene Angus calls home, Dominic Sessa flubbed a take because he didn't know how to dial, and had to be shown how. It hadn't occurred to anyone that he had never used a rotary phone before.