David Hemingson, “The Holdovers” (Oscar Nominee, Best Original Screenplay).
Hemingson has done three decades of TV work as a creator, writer and producer. But The Holdovers marks his first feature credit.
Set in the winter of 1970-71, the Alexander Payne directed film stars Paul Giamatti as strict classics teacher at a New England boarding school who is forced to chaperone a handful of students with nowhere to go on Christmas break.
Scene stealers Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa play the school cafeteria manager and one of the students who stays on campus.
The Holdovers premiered at the 50th Telluride Film Fest on August 31, 2023, and was released by Focus Features on October 27, 2023, earning thus far more than $45 million at the box-office.
The film was named one of the top 10 films of 2023 by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute, and has received other accolades, including wins at the British Academy Film Awards.
Randolph won the Best Supporting Actress award at the CCA and SAG ceremonies.
The Holdovers has also received 5 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
Telling the story of two boarding school employees assigned to babysit a student over the winter holiday break, Hemingson drew from his relationship with his own parents a pivotal scene in which Mary Lamb (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), a mother grieving the loss of her Vietnam veteran son, prepares to watch her sister give birth for the first time.
“Mary’s very much grounded in my feelings toward my mom and how she sacrificed so much for me,” he says. “I did this thought experiment because I lost her quite tragically some years ago and I thought, what if the opposite had been true and what if she’d lost me?”
Hemingson, who is white, struggled to find an expression of Mary’s grief, since the character in his story was a Black pink-collar worker. “This isn’t my lived experience,” he acknowledges. It eventually took a month for him to figure out that the scene needed to unfold wordlessly. “I just felt like I needed to clear everything out and just have it be a pure expression of her grief and her transcendence.”
“You’ve got these three very different, very broken people who learn how to connect and heal over this season of miracles,” he says. “And that scene commemorates this idea of finding a way to reach out and use your brokenness.”
