
Directing
Born January 2, 1961 · Los Angeles, California, USA
Todd Haynes (/heɪnz/; born January 2, 1961; Los Angeles) is an American filmmaker. His films span four decades with themes examining the personalities of well-known musicians, dysfunctional and dystopian societies, and blurred gender roles. Haynes first gained public attention with his controversial short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987), which chronicles singer Karen Carpenter's life and death, using Barbie dolls as actors. Superstar became a cult classic. Haynes's feature directorial debut, Poison (1991), a provocative exploration of AIDS-era queer perceptions and subversions, established him as a figure of a new transgressive cinema. Poison won the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize and is regarded as a seminal work of New Queer Cinema. Haynes received further acclaim for his second feature film, Safe (1995), a symbolic portrait of a housewife who develops multiple chemical sensitivity. Safe was later voted the best film of the 1990s by The Village Voice Film Poll. His next feature, Velvet Goldmine (1998), is a tribute to the 1970s glam rock era. The film received the Special Jury Prize for Best Artistic Contribution at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. Haynes gained acclaim and a measure of mainstream success with Far from Heaven (2002) earning his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. He continued to direct critically lauded films such as I'm Not There (2007), Carol (2015), Wonderstruck (2017) and Dark Waters (2019). He directed his first feature-length documentary, The Velvet Underground (2021). Haynes directed and co-wrote the HBO mini-series Mildred Pierce (2011) for which he was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards.

May December
2023

Image Book
2023

The Velvet Underground
2021

Dark Waters
2019

Wonderstruck
2017

Carol
2015

Six by Sondheim
2013

I'm Not There
2007

Far from Heaven
2002

Velvet Goldmine
1998

Safe
1995

Dottie Gets Spanked
1993

Goo
1991

Poison
1991

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
1987

Assassins: A Film Concerning Rimbaud
1985

The Suicide
1978
De Noche

Art-House America: Austin Film Society
2023

Douglas Sirk – Hope as in Despair
2022
Dark Waters: The Cost of Being a Hero
2019

At the Video Store
2019

Xavier Dolan: Bound to Impossible
2016

Great Directors
2009
Notes on the Death of Kodachrome
2007

Infinite Pleasure: Todd Haynes on Max Ophuls' Le Plaisir
2006
Maternal Overdrive
2006

Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema
2006

Eine Zärtlichkeit wie bei Sirk - Todd Haynes über Fassbinder und das Melodram
2006

At Sundance
1995

Swoon
1992
He Was Once
1989

Natural History
1989

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
1987

Assassins: A Film Concerning Rimbaud
1985