On the forty- fourth episode of All the Film Things, I had the pleasure of interviewing award- winning screenwriter/ novelist/ film director Steven Bernstein!
Steven Bernstein has been working in the industry for nearly 40 years behind the camera, often as a cinematographer, under the direction of acclaimed filmmakers from Noah Baumbach to Patty Jenkins before directing his own feature films. He earned a Golden Lion at the Cannes Film Festival early in his career for working as a cinematographer on commercials in the UK. Steven has been the director of photography on nearly 50 films, some of which include critically acclaimed films Like Water for Chocolate (1993) and Monster (2003), and beloved comedies such as The Waterboy (1998) and White Chicks (2004). Alongside Emmanual Lubezki, Steven earned the Best Artistic Contribution Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival for his work on the 1993 film Like Water for Chocolate. Steven’s directorial feature film debut, Decoding Annie Parker (2013), earned him The Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the 2013 Hamptons International Film Festival and his sophomore directorial feature, Last Call (2017) was hailed as “Oscar- worthy” and earned lead actor Rhys Ifans the Best Actor award at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. Steven also co-hosts, alongside Vince Grimes, the terrific and insightful weekly podcast “Filmmaker and Fan’s” which you should all check out on the same platform you listen to ATFT on but here's the link to listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0cepNNzk8evxnNEAPUPXPX?si=33b9632bbe4a49e9
Steven’s debut novel, a thriller titled GRQ: Get Rich Quick, was published on June 3 and has been continuously earning rave reviews so definitely buy yourself a copy now wherever books are sold, including Barnes & Noble through this link: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/grq-steven-bernstein/1147259290! This novella, which is set over the course of one day in a seemingly doomed Los Angeles that regularly faces natural disasters, follows Marlon who, unbeknownst to his wife, quickly tries to come up with the money needed to save the house from being repossessed leading him to make a dicey investment in cryptocurrency. GRQ, which is the first of a series in the works, ends with a surprising twist that provokes a lot of questions by considering what is important in life. GRQ: The Movie, which Steven directed based on his book, will be having a worldwide theatrical release later this year so I’ll keep you all updated here on the ATFT Instagram on its release!
This is Steven’s first time on ATFT! We got connected on Instagram over a year ago through the comments under a post he made about the film 20th Century Women! This episode was recorded on May 29, 2025.
In this episode, Steven talks about the films and filmmaker who made him fall in love with cinema, the film industry currently being in crises, and the technical, underlying ways to bring out a great performance as both a cinematographer and filmmaker. Steven also discusses the unique, visceral experience of cinema, working closely with Charlize Theron on the film that earned her an Oscar, what he hopes people take away from his films, and much more on the latest episode of All the Film Things!
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