PARIS • Netflix said on Tuesday that it challenged some of the world's hottest directors to make a short film when they were cooped up at home during the coronavirus lockdown.
The results, made with whatever equipment and family members who were close at hand, will be streamed next week.
Hollywood stars Kristen Stewart and Maggie Gyllenhaal were among 17 of those who rose to the challenge, with Stewart shooting hers in Los Angeles, while Gyllenhaal sheltered in Vermont, United States.
Stewart made her directorial debut with the short film Come Swim (2017). The Twilight (2008) and Charlie's Angels (2019) star is working on her feature-film directorial debut, an adaptation of American writer Lidia Yuknavitch's 2011 memoir The Chronology Of Water.
For Gyllenhaal, who is the elder sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal, the short film will be her directorial debut before her feature-length directorial debut of The Lost Daughter.
The adaptation of Italian author Elena Ferrante's novel of the same name will star Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman, Maggie Gyllenhaal's husband - actor Peter Saarsgard, Judy (2019) actress Jessie Buckley and Fifty Shades Of Grey (2015) star Dakota Johnson.
Jackie (2016) director Pablo Larrain made his film at home in Santiago, Chile - which had been battered by months of civil unrest before the virus struck - while French-Malian film-maker Ladj Ly shot around the tough Paris suburb where his Oscar-nominated movie Les Miserables (2019) is set.
Scottish director David Mackenzie of Hell Or High Water (2016) fame got to grips with his hometown Glasgow, while Lebanese director Nadine Labaki used the backdrop of Beirut, which also featured in her 2018 hit, Capernaum.
Larrain said it was "an extraordinary chance to keep working... in days (that were) so confusing and unique".
Other directors include Paolo Sorrentino from Rome, Italy; Naomi Kawase from Nara, Japan; and Chinese Canadian Johnny Ma filming from San Sebastian del Oeste, Mexico.
The Homemade short film series will be streamed on Netflix from next Tuesday, with the US streaming giant saying a donation is being made to its hardship fund for the cast and crew who have lost their jobs in the crisis.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
