Jeff Baena
Directing
Biography
Jeff Baena (June 29, 1977 – January 3, 2025) was an American screenwriter and film director known for Life After Beth (2014), Joshy (2016), The Little Hours (2017), Horse Girl (2020), Spin Me Round (2022), and for co-writing I Heart Huckabees (2004). He was known for his frequent collaborations with actresses Alison Brie and his wife Aubrey Plaza. After graduating NYU Film School, Baena moved to Los Angeles to start building his career. He became a production assistant for Robert Zemeckis, working on a number of films. After working with Zemeckis, Baena took a job as an assistant editor for writer-director David O. Russell. After a year-and-a-half of working together, a minor car accident injured one of Baena's eyes. Partially to keep his spirits up and pass the time during his recovery from that, Russell began discussing story ideas with Baena. The two ended up collaborating on four scripts together. One of those four scripts was I Heart Huckabees, which Russell directed in 2004. At the same time, Baena began to focus his career on writing and wrote the zombie comedy Life After Beth, which would wind up being his debut feature as a director. Baena had planned for Joshy to be his directorial debut, but actor and collaborator Adam Pally had to pull out for personal reasons. Baena then decided to work on Life After Beth, which he had begun writing in 2003. The next film for Baena was The Little Hours, which was released in 2017. The film features actors Alison Brie, Dave Franco, Kate Micucci, Aubrey Plaza, John C. Reilly and Molly Shannon along with multiple cameos. Baena's film Horse Girl, which he wrote with Alison Brie, who stars in the film, had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2020.
Known For
Re-edited and re-scored footage from public domain films, overdubbed with performances of contemporary actors to tell new, wholly original stories.
Cinema Toast
Garfagnana, Italy, 1347. The handsome servant Masseto, fleeing from his vindictive master, takes shelter in a nunnery where three young nuns, Sister Alessandra, Sister Ginevra and Sister Fernanda, try unsuccessfully to find out what their purpose in life is, a conundrum that each of them faces in different ways.
The Little Hours
Desperate for income, Emily takes a shady gig buying goods with stolen credit cards supplied by a charismatic middleman named Youcef. Seduced by the quick cash and illicit thrills, they hatch a plan to take their business to the next level.
Emily the Criminal
Zach is devastated by the unexpected death of his girlfriend, Beth. When she mysteriously returns, he gets a second chance at love. Soon his whole world turns upside down...
Life After Beth
After his engagement ends badly, Josh decides to take advantage of his bachelor-party plans in Ojai, California, with the few friends still willing to join him. Focused on drugs and their own hangups, his self-absorbed friends refuse to confront the elephant in the room and ask Josh how he’s feeling. As welcome and unwelcome guests stop by, Josh will attempt to find some closure over this weekend with the guys.
Joshy
A husband-and-wife team play detective, but not in the traditional sense. Instead, the happy duo helps others solve their existential issues, the kind that keep you up at night, wondering what it all means.
I ♥ Huckabees
A socially awkward woman with a fondness for arts and crafts, horses, and supernatural crime shows finds her increasingly lucid dreams trickling into her waking life.
Horse Girl
'90s indie-rock band Pavement reunites for their sold-out 2022 tour. But as preparations get underway, surreal tributes emerge: an off-Broadway musical adaptation of their songs, a museum devoted entirely to the band’s legacy, and a shamelessly awards-baiting Hollywood biopic.
Pavements
When the manager of an Italian restaurant chain wins the opportunity to attend the franchise’s educational immersion program in Italy, what she thought would be a romantic getaway devolves into chaos and catastrophe.
Spin Me Round
Dissatisfied with the dishonesty they see in dating, strangers Naima and Sergio make a pact to spend 24 straight hours together in an attempt to fast forward their relationship.
Duck Butter
Mark is a struggling actor stuck between the life he once knew and the one waiting for him. When the mother of his two-year-old son suddenly passes away, Mark is forced to confront his shortcomings. Their fates, now intertwined, hang in the balance as Mark grapples with his ability to grow up. When he meets Lydia, a young mother, he is no longer able to live in the comfort of denial.
The End of Love
Tim and Lee are married with a young child. The chance to stay at a fancy home in the Hollywood Hills is complicated by Tim's discovery of a bone and a rusty old gun in the yard. Tim is excited by the idea of a mystery, but Lee doesn't want him to dig any further, preferring that he focus on the family taxes, which he promised to do weeks ago. This disagreement sends them on separate and unexpected adventures over the course of a weekend, as Tim and his friends seek clues to the mystery while Lee searches for answers to the bigger questions of marriage and parenthood.
Digging for Fire
Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women's lives.