Following the release of his latest film, All of Us Strangers, Andrew Haigh found himself presented with options like never before. The British director, previously best known for gay cult faves like his breakout feature Weekend and HBO’s Looking, met widespread critical acclaim for the wrenching queer drama starring Andrew Scott, leading to his first BAFTA nominations for best screenplay and directing. It became his highest-grossing movie ever at the box office, pushing past $20 million globally. The opportunity to scale up, beyond the intimate character studies with which he’d made his name, couldn’t be ignored.
“When you have a thing that breaks through a little bit, you have to take advantage of it. It does make you take a lot more meetings afterwards, with lots of people sending you things — which is both good and then slightly exhausting,” Haigh says. “Part of me was like, ‘Should I go bigger? I could now go and do this thing over here that’s big and shiny and might get me more visibility.’ But I don’t necessarily need lots of visibility. The slightly more success you get, the harder it becomes to make those choices.”
And so Haigh looked inward. He did not go bigger. Instead, he turned toward the project he’d been trying to make for nearly 20 years — as tender, nuanced and subtle as anything in his oeuvre. A Long Winter feels, first and foremost, like an Andrew Haigh film.
