Background:

“When I write, I see a movie playing in my head. The role of the screenwriter is to step back and let the directors have their head during the process. Sometimes they're amazing -- often they make wonderful additions, as do the actors -- and sometimes the films are different in a way that you wish they weren't. I think at some point or another, every screenwriter feels like they would like to fall on their own sword, and try to get it to come out the way that they saw it.” Naomi Foner

Naomi Foner, sometimes also credited as Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal, is an American screenwriter who is best known for her work on “Running on Empty” (1988), directed by Sidney Lumet. She picked up a Golden Globe Award and an Oscar nomination for her script. Naomi also wrote the scripts of “Violets Are Blue...” (1986), “A Dangerous Woman” (1993), “Losing Isaiah” (1995) and “Bee Season” (2005).

Naomi's fans should look forward for her work on the upcoming film “Very Good Girl” (2013), which will also mark her directorial debut.

Naomi has been divorced from her husband of 32 years and the father of her children (Jake and Maggi), Stephen Gyllenhaal. She was previously married to Eric Foner.
 

Achs

Childhood and Family:

Naomi Achs was born March 15, 1946, in New York City, New York, to doctors Ruth (née Silbowitz) and Samuel Achs. She was raised in Brooklyn. Naomi graduated with a B.A. in English from Barnard College in 1966 and later received an MA in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University.

Naomi has been married and divorced twice. Her first marriage to historian and Columbia professor Eric Foner did not produce a child. She married film director and poet Stephen Gyllenhaal on July 4, 1977, but they later divorced on December 24, 2009. The couple have two children, actors Maggie Gyllenhaal (born November 16, 1977) and Jake Gyllenhaal (born December 19, 1980). She is the grandmother of two, Ramona (born 2006) and Gloria (born 2012), Maggie's children with husband Peter Sarsgaard.

I'm very proud of them (Jake Gyllenhaal and Maggie Gyllenhaal). I think their choices are very thoughtful and they will affect a lot of people, and they have a lot of courage, and they will cause people to think and change their minds. I am delighted to see that they're the kinds of people that they are. I'm very unhappy that we live in a culture that is so closed-minded about a range of ideas and thoughts, and I'm even more unhappy that fear is often used as a way to manipulate that. Certainly as a parent I worry for them, every parent worries for their child, but I'm enormously proud of them.” Naomi Foner


Very Good Girl

Career:

Naomi Foner was a producer on the educational American children's television series  “The Electric Company” during its first two seasons from 1971 to 1973. She was mentioned in the “Love of Chair” segment of the show.  

In 1977, Naomi created the television miniseries “The Best of Families,” a drama set in late 19th-century America, following the lives of three families - one affluent, one middle-class, and a family of poor Irish immigrants. In the following year, she wrote an episode of the Emmy Award winning drama series “Vision” (PBS, 1976-1980) called “Blackout.” She wrote the teleplay of “Reunion of Strangers,” an unaired episode of the short lived soap “Secrets of Midland Heights“ (CBS, 1980-1981).   

Eventually, Naomi made her screenwriting debut with “Violets Are Blue...,” a romance/drama film directed by Jack Fisk and starring Sissy Spacek, Kevin Kline and Bonnie Bedelia. The film premiered at the Cleveland International Film Festival on April 4, 1986.

Naomi, however, did not score a huge success until she wrote the screenplay for Sidney Lumet's “Running on Empty” (1988). Starring River Phoenix, Christine Lahti and Judd Hirsch, the crime/drama  received good reviews from critics and it won many awards and nominations. For Naomi herself, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen and won a Golden Globe in the category of Best Screenplay - Motion Picture and a Literary Award for Screenplay from the PEN Center USA West Literary Awards. She also served as an executive producer for the film.  

In 1993, Naomi scripted and co-produced (with Kathleen Kennedy) “A Dangerous Woman,” a film adaptation of the Mary McGarry Morris award winning novel of the same name, directed by her then husband Stephen Gyllenhaal. Her children Maggie and Jack also appeared in the films playing Patsy Bell and Edward, respectively.   

Two years later, Naomi worked with her husband again in the big screen version of Seth Margolis' novel “Losing Isaiah” (1995), starring Jessica Lange and Halle Berry. The drama grossed about $7.6 million on a budget of $17 million. In 1998, Naomi executive produced the comedy film “Homegrown,” directed by Stephen Gyllenhaal.

Following many years hiatus from the cinematic industry, Naomi resumed her film career by writing the screenplay for the drama film adaptation of the Myla Goldberg 2000 novel, “Bee Season” (2005), which was directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel and starring Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche. The film was not a commercial success.

In 2011, Naomi appeared in two episodes of the HBO comedy/drama series “Enlightened,” including the pilot.

Naomi is set to make her directorial debut with the upcoming British drama film “Very Good Girl,” which she also wrote. The film, which is slated for a 2013 release, will star Dakota Fanning, Demi Moore and Elizabeth Olsen.


Awards:

High Falls Film Festival: Susan B. Anthony 'Failure is Impossible' Award, 2005
Golden Globe: Best Screenplay - Motion Picture, “Running on Empty,” 1989
PEN Center USA West Literary: Literary Award, Screenplay, “Running on Empty,” 1989
Show Less