---
name: "Kent Jones"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/kent-jones"
fi1m_id: "kent-jones"
imdb_id: "nm2095742"
tmdb_id: 1041420
roles: ["Director"]
born: "12 June 1964"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "director"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-17T22:29:05.183239+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Kent Jones

## Identity

Kent Jones

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/kent-jones
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** kent-jones
- **IMDb ID:** nm2095742
- **TMDB ID:** 1041420
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2095742/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1041420

Director. Born 12 June 1964 in Missouri, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 12 June 1964, Missouri, USA
- **Elsewhere:** https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2095742/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1041420

## Fi1m on Kent Jones

> Kent Jones is good at showing why people need attention, even when they know better than to seek it. We value his patience with actors; his sympathy is less useful when it stops him asking harder questions.

In *Late Fame* (2026), Willem Dafoe plays the rediscovered poet Ed Saxberger with a composure that makes his need for attention all the more touching. Kent Jones gives that need time and takes it seriously. We rate him as a patient director of actors, alert to feelings that might seem too small to build a film around. His weakness is apparent in the same film: he is reluctant to press its pretentious young writers much beyond their affectations.

Before fiction, Jones made documentaries about filmmakers, including *A Letter to Elia* (2010), co-directed with Martin Scorsese. In *Hitchcock/Truffaut* (2015), he brought recordings of the 1962 interviews together with commentary from contemporary directors. For his first narrative feature, *Diane* (2018), he worked with Mary Kay Place on a drama of family obligation and small-town life. With *Late Fame*, he moved from family obligation to the need for artistic recognition.

Greta Lee’s Gloria, an actress in *Late Fame*, is more theatrical than Dafoe’s Ed, and Jones lets the contrast be funny. We felt for Gloria, because Lee makes the work of keeping herself memorable look tiring. Jones allows her to be tiresome and still deserve our concern. With screenwriter Samy Burch, he finds a recognisable reason for her self-presentation: calling oneself an artist can offer a place among other people. The comedy works because there is something at stake for her beyond looking ridiculous.

Burch is less successful at distinguishing the younger writers from one another, and Jones’s sympathetic direction does not solve that problem. Their wish to be artists too often supplies the whole character. We understand Ed’s need for the group far better than we understand its need for him. We wanted Burch and Jones to be more specific about that, without making the younger writers any less deserving of sympathy. Start with *Late Fame* for Dafoe and Lee, and allow for a director who sometimes gives his characters an easier time than they need.

## Biography

Kent Jones is an American film critic, programmer and director. He served as artistic director of the New York Film Festival from 2013 to 2019 and has written extensively on cinema.

Jones has collaborated with Martin Scorsese on documentaries including *A Letter to Elia* (2010) and contributed to *My Voyage to Italy* (1999). He directed the documentary *Hitchcock/Truffaut* (2015) and co-wrote Arnaud Desplechin’s *Jimmy P.* (2013). His narrative features are *Diane* (2018) and *Late Fame* (2025), the latter an adaptation of an Arthur Schnitzler novella written by Samy Burch and starring Willem Dafoe.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, variety.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Late Fame* (2026), Fi1m 78, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/late-fame.md)

## Complete filmography (17)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Late Fame* (2026), Director — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/late-fame.md)
- *Filmlovers!* (2025), as The American Friend
- *Adios* (2025), Actor
- *Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints* (2024), series, Writer
- *The Souvenir: Reality / Fiction / Confusion / Inspiration* (2022), as off screen interviewer
- *Diane* (2019), Director, Writer
- *Hitchcock/Truffaut* (2015), Director, Writer
- *Clouds of Sils Maria* (2014), Thanks
- *Jimmy P.* (2013), Co-Writer
- *Revolutions Per Second* (2012), Narrator, Director, Writer
- *A Letter to Elia* (2010), Director
- *Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows* (2007), Director, Writer
- *Lady by the Sea: The Statue of Liberty* (2004), Director, Screenplay
- *The Concert for New York City* (2001), Writer
- *The Neighborhood* (2001), Writer
- *My Voyage to Italy* (1999), Screenplay
- *A Life of Jesus*, Writer

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/kent-jones