Todd Field Bio
William Todd Field, professionally known as Todd Field, is an American filmmaker and actor whose body of work is small but carefully built. Born on February 24, 1964, in Pomona, California, and raised in Oregon, he trained at the American Film Institute Conservatory before establishing himself in front of the camera in the late 1980s. After working with directors such as Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick, Victor Nuñez, and Carl Franklin, Field turned his attention to writing and directing, earning a reputation for patient, character-driven dramas. His three feature films, In the Bedroom, Little Children, and Tár, have together drawn widespread critical acclaim and a remarkable number of Academy Award nominations. Beyond film, he is also remembered as the co-creator of the shredded bubble gum concept Big League Chew.
Early Life and Background
William Todd Field was born on February 24, 1964, in Pomona, California, where his family ran a poultry farm. When he was two years old, the family relocated to Portland, Oregon, where his father worked as a salesman and his mother became a school librarian. Field grew up on Portland’s east side and graduated with his class from Centennial High School.
As a child in Portland, Field developed a strong interest in performing, beginning with sleight-of-hand magic and later turning to music. He served as a batboy for the Portland Mavericks, an independent single-A minor league baseball team owned by Hollywood actor Bing Russell. It was in this baseball environment that Field, alongside Mavericks pitching coach Rob Nelson, first created the shredded gum concept that would later be sold to the Wrigley Company in 1980 as Big League Chew.
At sixteen, Field joined the Lab Band at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon, playing trombone alongside a young trumpeter who would later become a Grammy Award winner, Chris Botti. He also worked as a non-union projectionist at a second-run movie theater. After high school, Field briefly attended Southern Oregon State College, now Southern Oregon University, on a music scholarship before leaving to study acting in New York with Robert X. Modica at his Carnegie Hall Studio. He soon began performing with the Ark Theatre Company as both an actor and a musician.
Path to Filmmaking
Field’s earliest screen work came when Woody Allen cast him in a small role in Radio Days in 1987, and he went on to work with directors including Victor Nuñez, Carl Franklin, and Stanley Kubrick. His performances in Nuñez’s Ruby in Paradise and Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut drew particular attention, with critics noting his deceptive, all-American looks and his ability to suggest complex emotions beneath a regular-guy surface. These early acting experiences gave Field a close-up view of master filmmakers at work.
Encouraged by AFI alumni Nuñez and Franklin, Field enrolled as a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute Conservatory in 1992. His thesis film, Nonnie & Alex, received a Jury Prize at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, and other short films he made outside of school were exhibited at venues overseas and at the Museum of Modern Art. After years of preparation, Field completed the Master of Fine Arts degree that would serve as the foundation for his future directing career.
Todd Field Career
Early Career (1985–2000)
Field began his professional career in 1985, working as both an actor and a musician while continuing his training in New York. His first notable film role arrived with Radio Days in 1987, followed by appearances in Ruby in Paradise, Walking and Talking, and Eyes Wide Shut, the last of which placed him on screen with Stanley Kubrick. He also wrote and directed several short films during this period, including his AFI Conservatory thesis project.
His short film Nonnie & Alex earned a Jury Prize at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival, an early signal of his filmmaking voice. While building his directing résumé, Field continued taking acting roles in independent features and small-scale productions. The success of his student and short film work positioned him to make his feature debut in the early 2000s.
Breakthrough (2001–2022)
Field’s feature directorial debut, In the Bedroom, premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and became the first film ever to premiere there and go on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. Based on Andre Dubus’s short story Killings, the film earned five Academy Award nominations overall, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Tom Wilkinson, Best Actress for Sissy Spacek, Best Supporting Actress for Marisa Tomei, and Best Adapted Screenplay for Field and Robert Festinger. Field was named Director of the Year by the National Board of Review, and In the Bedroom was named Best Picture by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, with the New York Film Critics Circle honoring him with a Best First Film award. The American Film Institute recognized his achievement with the Franklin Schaffner Alumni Medal.
After In the Bedroom, Field spent several years researching a biopic of nineteenth-century stage actor Edwin Booth before returning with Little Children in 2006. Adapted from Tom Perrotta’s novel and premiered at the New York Film Festival, the film earned three Academy Award nominations, including acting nominations for Kate Winslet and Jackie Earle Haley. Critics praised its intelligence and unconventional structure, with some reviewers comparing Field’s technique to that of Sergei Eisenstein and D. W. Griffith.
Following Little Children, Field went fifteen years before releasing his third feature, Tár, which premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival in 2022. Starring Cate Blanchett as the fictional conductor Lydia Tár, the film earned six Academy Award nominations at the 95th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Actress for Blanchett. Tár also earned five British Academy Film Award nominations and additional recognition from the Directors Guild of America, the Producers Guild of America, and the Writers Guild of America. Field was named Best Director by the London Film Critics’ Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the National Society of Film Critics, with critics’ groups including The Atlantic, Entertainment Weekly, The Guardian, and Variety listing Tár as the best film of 2022.
Notable Works and Milestones
Across just three feature films, In the Bedroom, Little Children, and Tár, Field has been associated with a combined fourteen Academy Award nominations, and he has personally received six Academy Award nominations: two for Best Picture, two for Best Adapted Screenplay, one for Best Director, and one for Best Original Screenplay. Tár is the fourth film in history to be named Best of the Year by the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the London Film Critics’ Circle, and the National Society of Film Critics.
Todd Field Award Nominations
Todd Field has accumulated a remarkable number of Academy Award nominations across his career, considering his limited filmography. For In the Bedroom, he received Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay nominations alongside nominations for his lead and supporting actors. For Little Children, the film received acting nominations for Kate Winslet and Jackie Earle Haley. For Tár, Field personally received Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Picture nominations, with Cate Blanchett also nominated for Best Actress. Beyond the Academy Awards, his work has drawn nominations from the Directors Guild of America, the Producers Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and the Golden Globe Awards.
Todd Field Awards Won
While Field’s filmography is short, it is decorated with major critics’ prizes and industry honors. For In the Bedroom, he was named Director of the Year by the National Board of Review, won Best Original Screenplay from the same organization, and received Best First Film from the New York Film Critics Circle, along with the American Film Institute’s Franklin Schaffner Alumni Medal. For Tár, he was named Best Director by the London Film Critics’ Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the National Society of Film Critics, and IndieWire’s annual critics’ poll of 165 critics worldwide, while also winning Best Original Screenplay from several of these organizations.
| Award | Wins | Year |
|---|---|---|
| National Board of Review — Best Director (In the Bedroom) | 1 | 2001 |
| National Board of Review — Best Original Screenplay (In the Bedroom) | 1 | 2001 |
| New York Film Critics Circle — Best First Film (In the Bedroom) | 1 | 2001 |
| American Film Institute — Franklin Schaffner Alumni Medal | 1 | 2001 |
| London Film Critics’ Circle — Best Director (Tár) | 1 | 2022 |
| Los Angeles Film Critics Association — Best Director (Tár) | 1 | 2022 |
| National Society of Film Critics — Best Director (Tár) | 1 | 2022 |
Todd Field Family
Todd Field has been married to Serena Rathbun since 1986. Rathbun has been a longtime creative collaborator, contributing set design work on In the Bedroom and serving as a sounding board for key creative decisions on later projects, including Little Children. In a 2006 interview, Field credited her with encouraging him to leave acting behind and pursue his own filmmaking, quoting her advice, Do what you want to do. Don’t get distracted. The couple resides in Rockland, Maine, where Field shot In the Bedroom and where their home was used as the setting for one sequence in the film.
Personal Life
Field and his wife, Serena Rathbun, have four children. The family has long been based in Rockland, Maine. Beyond his work in feature film, Field has also directed advertising campaigns for major brands, including Xbox, Captain Morgan, Corona, BMW, NASCAR, and GE, work he has described as a way of staying active as a director during the long gaps between his feature projects.