ANNA GUTTO's feature debut PARADISE HIGHWAY, starring Academy Award-winning actors Juliette Binoche and Morgan Freeman, as well as Cameron Monaghan, Frank Grillo and breakout star Hala Finley, premiered at Locarno Film Festival 2022 to a sold-out 8000 seat Piazza Grande. Hailed by Variety as “a singularly promising debut for a first-time feature filmmaker,” the film is distributed by Lionsgate in the US and Netflix in select international territories (incl. Scandinavia), where it went straight to no. 1. 

Anna comes from a career in the theater, first in Europe, then in New York, garnering critical acclaim from, among others, The New York Times, which described the work as “…universally excellent.” During her years in the Big Apple, Anna also produced several concerts at Carnegie Hall and was a consultant for the HBO series BOARDWALK EMPIRE. 

Ms Gutto directed on the first season of the Netflix success series HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, and her short films have won multiple festival awards, among them Best Director and Best Ensemble Cast. Her short comedy MOMMY HEIST was broadcast by France Televisions' channel FR3 and A LUCKY MAN is an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Award recipient and is in the screening catalogue of the Museum of the Moving Image in New York. 

Working in a variety of genres, for Anna, storytelling is about connection – characters connecting with each other, and stories connecting with an audience. And it needs to be entertaining! Anna is a dual US and Norway/EU citizen.

Also a screenwriter, Anna Gutto is a generous partner when joining a project at an early stage of development, but is also a utility player and can efficiently join close to production – each challenge demanding appropriate approaches, all enjoyable in different ways.

Agent: Elin Sandström Lundh

SELECTED WORKS

Flykten från Bolivia – drama series (lead director) – in post production
Munch – live-action/animation hybrid – in development
Blomster til fangene – feature film – in development
Idun and the Golden Apples – feature film – in development
Paradise Highway – feature film (screenwriter & director) – 2022
Home for Christmas/Hjem til jul - First Season – Netflix series (co-director) - 2019
A Lucky Man - short (screenwriter & director) – 2017
Mommy Heist - short (screenwriter & director) – 2016
A Light Above - short (screenwriter & director) – 2012
Miss Them When I’m on the Road - short (director) – 2012
The Kangaroo  - short (screenwriter & director) – 2011

AWARDS & NOMINATIONS (SELECTION)

Paradise Highway – Zaki Gordon Memorial Award for Excellence in Screenwriting 2016

A Lucky Man – Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Production Award 2014

Travel stipend – Fond for Utøvende kunstnere, Cambodia 2010
In Security – Production Grant, Fond for lyd og bilde, 2008

Cultural Award (Outstanding Emerging Artist), American Scandinavian Society, 2007  

Production Grant, Norsk Kulturråd 2007                                                           

Production Grant, The Royal Norwegian Consulate General, Fosse NY 2004-2006, 2008, 2009       

Working Stipend for Young Artists, Norsk kulturråd 2004-2005                    

“[A]solid and satisfying thriller, a shrewdly constructed melodrama…A singularly promising debut for a first-time feature filmmaker.”

Variety on PARADISE HIGHWAY