Writer/Director Jane Schoenbrun on Their Stunning New Film “I Saw the TV Glow”

While a student at Boston University, writer/director Jane Schoenbrun enjoyed “many formative movie experiences” at the nearby  Coolidge Corner Theater. “A fond memory is of a zombie movie and me and all my friends dressing in zombie makeup,” says Schoenbrun. “It was one of the happiest memories of my college experience, and it probably says something about me.”

So it’s a fitting, full circle moment for Schoenbrun when they returned to the historic Boston theater on May 11 as the 2024 recipient of the Coolidge Breakthrough Artist Award.

First Trailer for “I Saw The TV Glow” Reveals Sundance’s Most Arresting Movie

The first trailer for Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow reveals the Sundance hit that defied easy categorization and yet mesmerized critics.

Schoenbrunn’s film follows two teenagers caught in that nightmarish unreality known colloquially as the suburbs. It’s the 1990s, and Owen (Justice Smith) is the type of kid who feels world-weary already, alienated by his shyness and sense that he’s not entirely himself. 

Yet Owen’s life changes when he meets a cool older girl named Maddy (Bridgett Lundy-Paine),