20 Years of Focus Features: From ‘Eternal Sunshine to ‘Brokeback,’ Look Back at 20 of Their Best Films

“Far From Heaven” (2002)

Todd Haynes reteamed with “Safe” star Julianne Moore for this 1950s Connecticut-set homage to Douglas Sirk social melodramas, with Moore starring as a troubled housewife dealing with her husband’s (Dennis Quaid) closeted homosexuality and her friendship with Raymond (Dennis Haysbert), the Black son of her late gardener. The film earned four Academy Award nominations, including Best Actress for Julianne Moore.

“Lost in Translation” (2003)

Sofia Coppola channeled the despair and wanderlust sparked by her own divorce from Spike Jonze into this melancholy two-hander set in Tokyo. Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson cut an iconic figure as has-been comic actor Bob and lost philosophy graduate Charlotte, who find themselves having a “Brief Encounter.” The film earned Focus Features more than $118 million worldwide, as well as an Academy Award win for Coppola’s Best Original Screenplay. Hard to imagine such a low-key offering about two loners walking and talking striking the box-office zeitgeist so resonantly today.

“21 Grams” (2003)

Alejandro González Iñárritu’s English-language debut “21 Grams” explores the fallout of a tragic accident and its effects on a grief-addled mother (Naomi Watts), the born-again Christian ex-convict responsible (Benicio del Toro), and a gravely ill mathematician who fits into the puzzle in unexpected ways. And the movie is just that: a puzzle teased out in non-linear design that proves trickier to follow than some of the two-time Oscar-winning director’s more accessible work. Still, this bruising film resonated with audiences, earning $60 million at the box office as well as Oscar nominations for Watts and Del Toro.

“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” (2004)

Filmmakers have been telling love stories for as long as cameras have existed, but few movies have captured the utterly irrational nature of love better than “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey star as Clementine and Joel, a couple who learn that they previously hired a memory erasing service to make them forget about each other. The film could have easily devolved into a confusing science fiction mess, but Charlie Kaufman’s Oscar-winning script keeps the focus on the connection between the two characters, and Winslet and Carrey sell it with career-best performances. The result is a stunning film about how, no matter how hard we try to logically plan our lives and relationships, the universe often has other plans. The springtime release grossed nearly $75 million on a $20 million budget, the kind of mid-budget blockbuster that filmmakers and cinephiles dream of seeing return. 

“The Motorcycle Diaries” (2004)

Walter Salles’ gentle roadtrip movie about the young Ernesto “Che” Guevara (Gael Garcia Bernal), then just a doctor in training, and his friend Alberto Grenado (Rodrigo de la Serna), is a quiet portrait of the would-be revolutionary as he forms his political consciousness. A northward journey across the whole of South America, it’s a beautiful inventory of landscapes that even inspired some tourism around sites featured in the movie. With $16 million at the domestic box office (and $57 million for a worldwide total) it’s still one of the Top 20 highest grossing non-English-language movies ever in the U.S. And it won the Oscar for Best Original Song for “Al otro lado del rio.” —CB

“Shaun of the Dead” (2004)

Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg kicked off their “Three Flavours Cornetto” trilogy with zombie comedy “Shaun of the Dead” in 2004. Co-written by Wright and Pegg, with Wright also directing, “Shaun of the Dead” follows deadbeat Shaun (Pegg) who gets a new shot of life ironically when those around him start dying — or rather, turning into the undead. Alongside best friend Ed (Nick Frost), Shaun embarks on his own twisted coming-of-age story in a George Romero horror spoof. The film grossed $30 million worldwide against a budget of $6.1 million. The British Academy Film Awards also recognized the comedy with three nominations for Best British Independent Film, Best Screenplay, and Most Promising Newcomer for Frost. The film won Best Screenplay at the BAFTAs, and spurred two semi-sequels, “Hot Fuzz” in 2007 and 2013’s “The World’s End.” —SB

“Brokeback Mountain” (2005)

Nearly two decades later, and we still don’t know how to quit “Brokeback Mountain.” Ang Lee’s sweeping and anguished adaptation of the Annie Proulx short story. The movie, which may be responsible for introducing mainstream audiences to gay male romance for the first time, was a box office bonanza ($178 million) after a word-of-mouth platform release thrust it at the front of the conversation back in December 2005.   

“Brick” (2005)

USC graduate Rian Johnson made a splash in 2005 with this neo noir that first earned notices at the Sundance Film Festival, winning a special jury prize and gaining acquisition from Focus. This scrappy indie, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a teen misfit trying to solve the murder of his ex-girlfriend in a sleepy Southern California suburb, was made for a cool $450,000, and ended up making nine times that at the box office. It remains a cult classic and also a launching point for one of the biggest directors working in studio films today.

“Eastern Promises” (2007)

Viggo Mortensen sported a chest full of fake tattoos to play a former Russian mobster turned undercover in David Cronenberg’s thriller. The tattoos were so realistic that he told the New York Daily News the patrons of a Russian restaurant in London, where the film was shot, grew silent when they saw him. The film itself might provoke squeals of fright because it features one of the grisliest fights ever to take place in a Turkish bath. For his fearless commitment to the role, Mortensen earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. —CB

“Atonement” (2007)

Joe Wright’s war romance “Atonement” proved to be a breakout film for Saoirse Ronan, whose portrayal of a diabolical girl jealous of her sister (Keira Knightley) winning the affections of their housekeeper’s son (James McAvoy) landed her an Oscar nomination. One lie changes the lives of all three against the backdrop of World War II and the battle at Dunkirk in the sweeping period piece that spans decades. Based on Ian McEwan’s novel, “Atonement” opened the 2007 Venice Film Festival, making Wright, at 35, the youngest director to ever premiere opening night at the festival. The film went on to become a box office success with a worldwide gross of approximately $131 million against a $30 million budget.

Wright previously told IndieWire that the iconic swooping long shot of McAvoy’s character Robbie on the battlefield at Dunkirk “freaks” him out still to this day. “I had one day with 1,000 extras,” Wright explained of the practical shot. “I wanted to gather that group of men together to honor that collective experience, and to honor their fathers and their grandfathers and to say, ‘You are worth something.’ I was so young and stupid.”

“In Bruges” (2008)

“Harry! It’s an inanimate fucking object.” “You’re an inanimate fucking object!” Either that dialogue works for you, or it doesn’t. Such is the cinema of Martin McDonagh. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson play hitmen holed up in the picturesque Belgian town while they wait for the fallout from their last job to die down. Ralph Fiennes is electrifying and hilarious as the mob boss they work for, ultimately out for their blood. Not exactly a box-office smash upon release, “In Bruges” has become a cult classic — and it earned an Oscar nod for Best Original Screenplay.

“Milk” (2008)

Sean Penn disappears into the role of gay activist Harvey Milk in Gus Van Sant’s 2008 Oscar winner, a full-force performance that ranks among his best and breathes deep, important respect into Milk’s complicated and remarkable life. While the film inevitably builds to Milk’s tragic assassination by Dan White (Josh Brolin), the stories and people that take us there play out with rich rewards. Milk’s big, wild life is given the vignette treatment, but Penn’s steady performance and a slew of strong supporting turns push it way above other biopic territory. James Franco is particularly moving as Harvey’s lover, while Diego Luna’s heartbreaking Jack Lira steals the screen in every scene. What’s most moving — and, admittedly, wrenching — is how timely the story of “Milk,” set mostly in the ’70s, still feels today. It’s an urgent call for action, both personal and political, and the message sticks long after the credits roll. —KE

“A Serious Man” (2009)

Is this the Coen Brothers’ best film? Well, it’s certainly the one that most perfectly captures their view of life: the people who should inspire us let us down, the people you love find endless ways to betray you, the things that should make us happy are unsatisfying, and then sometimes a tornado shows up and ends it all. Michael Stuhlbarg is Job for midcentury Minnesota. But if he never gets validation, “A Serious Man” actually did: The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Picture, and is widely regarded as on the new century’s best comedies. —CB

“Sin Nombre” (2009)

Before he was the director of “No Time to Die” and Netflix’s flagship in-house movie “Beasts of No Nation,” Tisch graduate Cary Fukunaga shot the visceral immigration drama “Sin Nombre” in Mexico City. Fukunaga and executive producers Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Luna (who previously teamed for “Y Tu Mama Tambien”) took the film to Sundance, where it won Fukunaga the directing prize and DP Adriano Goldman the cinematography award.

“Pariah” (2011)

Dee Rees’ first feature is a gracefully rendered coming-of-age story that draws inspiration from her own. Humming with the electricity of repressed sexuality finally unbridled, “Pariah” follows teenage Alike (Adepero Oduye) on a journey towards queerness and masculine gender expression. We witness Alike quietly change out of her baseball hat and t-shirt on the train home to Brooklyn, donning a girly sweater in order to calm her parents’ suspicions (Kim Wayans and Charles Parnell). We melt alongside her as she lights up with the first tingles of love, seeing herself as desirable for the first time through the sparkling eyes of Bina (Aasha Davis). Cinematographer Bradford Young (“Arrival”) films Alike’s first nights out at the club in rich, saturated colors. The movie pulses with the rhythm of first love and the cost of self-discovery. “Pariah” was slightly ahead of its time, but as Rees’ star continues to rise, it has finally gotten its due. —JD

“Moonrise Kingdom” (2012)

Wes Anderson’s 2012 quiet coming-of-age dramedy has all the makings of a typical Wes Anderson film: stellar ensemble cast including mainstays Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, and Bob Balaban; lush production design; and intricate cinematography. Yet what made “Moonrise Kingdom” stand out from writer-director Anderson’s previous works is that adolescent newcomers Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward were at the heart of the story about an orphan (Gilman) who escapes his scouting camp to meet up with his love interest and pen pal (Hayward). Bruce Willis stars as a police captain who organizes a search party to find the missing tween. “Moonrise Kingdom” was nominated for the Academy Awrad for Best Original Screenplay by co-writers Anderson and Roman Coppola, after landing $68.3 million at the box office. —SB

“The Place Beyond the Pines” (2013)

Derek Cianfrance followed up “Blue Valentine” with this sprawling, three-pronged crime tale: There’s Ryan Gosling as a motorcycle stunt driver leading a life of crime; Bradley Cooper as a cop forced to confront his own department’s corruption; and Emory Cohen and Dane DeHaan as troubled teens reckoning with the others’ legacies. Focus scooped up the film out of the 2012 Toronto Film Festival, and turned it into a sleeper arthouse hit the following March.

“Phantom Thread” (2017)

The defining “people, can’t live with ’em, can’t live without ’em” statement of 21st-century cinema, “Phantom Thread” is an almost perfect cinematic object. Finding the ideal middle path between entertainment value and obscurity, Paul Thomas Anderson’s fashion world dramedy is a heart-pang for the act of artistic creation and the toll that it exerts on artists’ lives. If it is to be the last film from Daniel Day-Lewis, this depiction of creative obsession giving way to the urge to completely let it go and rest (even if you need poisoned mushrooms as your excuse), is the perfect denouement.—CB

“BlacKkKlansman” (2018)

Spike Lee’s “BlacKkKlansman” dared to tell the true story of Ron Stallworth, a Black Colorado Springs police officer who went undercover to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan in the 1970s. John David Washington stars as Stallworth, with Adam Driver as partner Detective Philip “Flip” Zimmerman. “BlacKkKlansman” premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Grand Prix. Lee earned his first Best Director nod at the 91st Academy Awards for the film, which was also nominated for Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Driver’s performance, among three other categories. Lee won Best Adapted Screenplay based on Stallworth’s 2014 memoir, marking his first competitive Oscar win. —SB

“Promising Young Woman”

Emerald Fennell writes and directs “Promising Young Woman,” which turns the rape revenge trope on its own dark comedy head. Carey Mulligan stars as Cassie, a medical school dropout who moonlights as a vigilante to curb date-rape in her Ohio town. Cassie’s mission stems from her best friend’s university rape and subsequent suicide, and Cassie embarks on one last revenge mission targeting those who silenced her friend’s assault. Laverne Cox, Bo Burnham, Alfred Molina, Alison Brie, Molly Shannon, Max Greenfield, and Jennifer Coolidge round out the ensemble cast, proving that even “nice guys” can turn out to be monsters in the end. The film premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival before winning Best Original Screenplay at the 93rd Academy Awards. “Promising Young Woman” was also Oscar nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Film Editing, with Mulligan up for Best Actress. —SB