Ron Howard's Avedon Documentary Looks Set for Netflix on November 11 After Its Cannes Premiere

Photo: Gabriel Hutchinson, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Avedon, Ron Howard's documentary about the photographer Richard Avedon, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was then acquired by Netflix. A trailer has dropped, and several listings give the streaming date as November 11. Netflix's own page only says later this year, so treat the exact date as listed rather than officially confirmed.

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It is a film about a man rather than a cast of actors, so the interest is in the archive. Avedon is the sort of subject who gives a director almost too much to use, with decades of portraits, fashion work and the stark white backdrop that became his signature. The film is produced by Imagine Documentaries and Fifth Season in association with the Richard Avedon Foundation, which should mean wide access to the pictures.

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The Hollywood Reporter described it as headed for an awards push, and the documentary category has been generous to portraits of artists. Howard has made music and food documentaries before, and a visual art subject is a natural next step. I will be looking for how much the film says about the photographs and how much about the man.

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I know Avedon mostly through the famous images, and a documentary is the right format to fill in what is not in the frame. It will also be interesting to see how a streaming platform presents a story about stillness and craft.

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Do you have a favourite Avedon portrait? Mine changes every time I look through a book of his work.