--- name: "Mike Mills" canonical: "https://film.one/person/mike-mills" fi1m_id: "mike-mills" imdb_id: "nm0590122" tmdb_id: 17439 wikidata_id: "Q724098" roles: ["Director","Writer"] born: "20 March 1966" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_as: "director" average_over: 1 updated: "2026-10-02T00:01:16.075484+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." --- # Mike Mills ## Identity Mike Mills - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/mike-mills - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** mike-mills - **IMDb ID:** nm0590122 - **TMDB ID:** 17439 - **Wikidata ID:** Q724098 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Mills_(director), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q724098, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0590122/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/17439 Director and writer. Born 20 March 1966 in Berkeley, California, USA. ## Details - **Work:** Director, Writer - **Born:** 20 March 1966, Berkeley, California, USA - **Active:** 2011–present - **Also known as:** Michael Chadbourne Mills - **Titles on Fi1m:** 2: 1 directing, 1 other - **Academy Awards:** 1 Oscar nomination - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 79 (1), 2020s 79 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Mills_(director), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q724098, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0590122/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/17439 ## Streaming the US now - **Netflix:** [*Beginners*](https://film.one/film/beginners.md) (79) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Mike Mills > Mike Mills gives awkward people time to accept affection, and we value his patience and humour. That patience is moving in *Beginners*, though the same care sometimes leaves its romance stalled for too long. In *Beginners* (2011), an awkward pause is something Mike Mills is prepared to wait through. He lets unhappiness make people difficult company without treating it as a permanent excuse. We were moved by the halting attempts to accept affection, because Mills lets grief interfere without removing the possibility of laughter. The humour matters: these people can be sad without requiring everyone around them to be solemn. Mills is good at making that distinction, even when we wish he would get the conversation moving. He came to features through graphic design, music videos, shorts and documentaries, making his debut with *Thumbsucker* (2005), adapted from Walter Kirn's novel. *Beginners* draws on family experience, and the interest in parents, children and generational differences continues through *20th Century Women* (2016) and *C'mon C'mon* (2021). He wrote and directed all three, keeping the difficulty of understanding another generation close to the centre of his work. His collaborators have included cinematographers Robbie Ryan and Kasper Tuxen, but his films also make room for pictures that do not belong to the immediate scene. Archival footage, illustrations and historical montages place private troubles alongside the times in which people live. In *20th Century Women*, period music and cultural references help explain the differences between generations. *C'mon C'mon* interweaves its black-and-white fictional story with real children's interviews. We value the effort to give these characters lives beyond the family conversation, though small moments do not always need so much attention. Our reservation is the time Mills sometimes takes to move a relationship forward. In *Beginners*, the central romance stalls often enough for its hesitancy to become trying, and not every pause adds something we have not already understood. Christopher Plummer gives us a firm reason to recommend it despite that hesitation. We would welcome a little less protection for the characters and a little more pressure on them to act. Start with *Beginners*, provided a romance that takes its time is what the evening calls for. ## Biography Mike Mills is an American film director, writer and graphic designer. Born Michael Chadbourne Mills on 20 March 1966 in Berkeley, California, he graduated from Cooper Union in New York City. He began his career in graphic design and music videos before making his feature directorial debut with *Thumbsucker* (2005). Mills is best known for his subsequent independent films *Beginners* (2010), for which he served as director and writer, *20th Century Women* (2016) and *C'mon C'mon* (2021). For *20th Century Women* he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. His work often draws on personal and autobiographical elements. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) ### Directed (1) — the average rests on these - *Beginners* (2011), Fi1m 79, Director, Writer — [page](https://film.one/film/beginners.md) ### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited - *Sentimental Value* (2025), Fi1m 79, Thanks — [page](https://film.one/film/sentimental-value.md) ## Complete filmography (27) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Sentimental Value* (2025), Thanks — Fi1m 79, [page](https://film.one/film/sentimental-value.md) - *C'mon C'mon* (2021), Writer, Director - *I Am Easy to Find* (2019), Writer, Director - *20th Century Women* (2016), Director, Writer - *A Mind Forever Voyaging Through Strange Seas of Thought Alone* (2014), Director - *Beginners* (2011), Director, Writer — Fi1m 79, [page](https://film.one/film/beginners.md) - *Fight for Your Right Revisited* (2011), as Sir Stewart Wallace - *A Short Film About Making Beginners* (2011), Actor - *Where the Wild Things Are* (2009), Thanks — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/where-the-wild-things-are.md) - *Family Portrait* (2009), Actor - *The Boy and the Creature, 1981* (2009), Director - *Does Your Soul Have a Cold?* (2007), Director, Producer - *Creative Life Store* (2007), Actor - *Cinema16: American Short Films* (2006), Director - *Thumbsucker* (2005), Director, Screenplay - *R.E.M.: In View 1988-2003 (The Best of R.E.M.)* (2003), Actor - *Pulp Hits* (2002), Director - *Paperboys* (2001), Director - *Deformer* (2000), Director - *Not How, Or When, Or Why, But Yes* (2000), Director - *Air: Eating, Sleeping, Waiting and Playing* (1999), Director - *The Architecture of Reassurance* (1999), Director, Writer - *Richard June's Backyard* (1998), Director - *Hair Shoes Love and Honesty* (1998), Director - *Skating with Dave and Jared* (1995), Director - *An Introduction to Harmolodics* (1995), Director - *Untitled Mike Mills Film*, Director, Writer ## Gallery - ![Mike Mills](https://film.one/media/person/305543/gallery-5ac0dead19cc.jpg) Mike Mills — Image via TMDB - ![Mike Mills](https://film.one/media/person/305543/gallery-d56553d88057.jpg) Mike Mills — Image via TMDB - ![Mike Mills](https://film.one/media/person/305543/gallery-a79d76372707.jpg) Mike Mills — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Academy Awards — 0 won, 1 nominated - 2017: Best Writing, Original Screenplay (nominated), for *20th Century Women* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © 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/mike-mills