Maggie Gyllenhaal

The fact that Maggie Gyllenhaal would be one of the key players of the 2022 awards season became obvious after the world premiere of The Lost Daughter at the 78th Venice Film Festival, where Gyllenhaal won the Golden Osella Award for Best Screenplay for the psychological drama which she both wrote and directed. Her feature directorial debut also brought Gyllenhaal, who is already a Golden Globe-winning actress, her first Golden Globe nomination for Best Director, along with numerous other accolades for Best Directing and Best Adapted Screenplay.

With her fifth nomination for a Golden Globe (she won Best Performance by an Actress in A Mini-series or Motion Picture Made for Television in 2015 for The Honourable Woman), actress Maggie Gyllenhaal makes her debut as a director with the film The Lost Daughter for which she also wrote the screenplay based on the Italian novel by Neapolitan writer Elena Ferrante La figlia oscura. In the film, which premiered at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, Olivia Colman is Leda, a middle-aged English teacher divorcee who decides to spend a vacation alone in a Greek sea resort.

When Elena Ferrante gave Maggie Gyllenhaal the rights to adapt her 2006 novel The Lost Daughter, she had one stipulation in the contract. If the Golden Globe-winning actress didn’t direct, then the agreement would be null and void.