A Big Year for WFF Founding Advisory Board Member Peter Saraf's Big Beach
Awkwafina in THE FAREWELL. source: IMDb
Congratulations to prolific producer and Woodstock Film Festival founding member of our advisory board, Peter Saraf, whose company Big Beach’s current films, Lulu Wang’s family drama THE FAREWELL starring Awkwafina, and Marielle Heller’s A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD, starring Tom Hanks as children’s TV icon Fred Rogers, are now up for Golden Globes.
“Peter Saraf is in part responsible to the creation of the Woodstock Film Festival”, said the festival’s co-founder & executive director, Meira Blaustein. “Before there was the Woodstock Film Festival, it was to be the New Paltz Film Festival. At the time I asked Peter to join our advisory board and he said no, but if we did the Woodstock Film Festival instead, he would.”
With a careful eye for unconventional stories that emotionally resonate with audiences, Big Beach has built a reputation for picking projects that are sometimes considered too daring or offbeat by Hollywood gatekeepers. Their diverse portfolio ranges from feature lengths like LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE and LOVING to theatre productions like BURN THIS, starring Adam Driver and Keri Russell.
“We have established different outlets, but we also can go anywhere“ said Saraf in an interview for IndieWire. “We’re not beholden to anyone, no network, no deals. We say to artists we work with: ‘We’re going to take your story and do its best version where it makes the most sense.'”
Before finding success at the box office and with critics, both THE FAREWELL and A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD had to overcome numerous production roadblocks. After hearing director Lulu Wang’s story about visiting China to see her ailing grandmother on an episode of This American Life, Saraf reached out to Wang to adapt it into a movie, fighting against numerous pushes by executives to include more English-speaking characters. In the case of A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD, it took six years of negotiation with Fred Roger’s estate to earn their trust and green-light the film.
THE FAREWELL is currently available to stream on Amazon and Google Play. A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD is now in theaters. The 77th annual Golden Globes ceremony will take place this Sunday, January 5th on NBC.