---
name: "Todd Solondz"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/todd-solondz"
fi1m_id: "todd-solondz"
imdb_id: "nm0001754"
tmdb_id: 66605
wikidata_id: "Q504656"
roles: ["Director","Writer"]
born: "14 March 1959"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 4
average_fi1m_score: 80
average_as: "director"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-09-30T21:25:17.649128+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."
---

# Todd Solondz

## Identity

Todd Solondz

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/todd-solondz
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** todd-solondz
- **IMDb ID:** nm0001754
- **TMDB ID:** 66605
- **Wikidata ID:** Q504656
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Solondz, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q504656, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001754/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/66605

Director and writer. Born 14 March 1959 in Newark, New Jersey, USA.

## Details

- **Work:** Director, Writer
- **Born:** 14 March 1959, Newark, New Jersey, USA
- **Active:** 1996–1998
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 4: 1 acting, 2 directing, 1 other
- **Golden Globes:** 1 Golden Globe nomination
- **Average Fi1m score:** 80, as director, over 2 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1990s 79 (3), 2020s 85 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Solondz, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q504656, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001754/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/66605

## Streaming the US now

- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Welcome to the Dollhouse*](https://film.one/film/welcome-to-the-dollhouse.md) (82)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Todd Solondz

> Todd Solondz makes suburban humiliation funny without making the people enduring it agreeable. We rate him highly for taking difficult people seriously, though he sometimes arranges their misery too neatly.

Dawn Wiener is unhappy, badly treated and often exasperating, and Todd Solondz lets all three facts remain on screen together. In *Welcome to the Dollhouse* (1996), he keeps returning to the everyday humiliations of suburban adolescence without promising that they will build character. We laughed uneasily at Heather Matarazzo's Dawn because she makes the girl's hurt apparent without softening her less agreeable behaviour. It is a perceptive, funny film, and a strong place to begin with a director whose care for people is easy to mistake for dislike.

The important turn comes after *Fear, Anxiety & Depression* (1989), his first feature, and several years away from filmmaking. The return with *Welcome to the Dollhouse* establishes his reputation for unsentimental accounts of suburban adolescence. In *Happiness* (1998), that attention extends to an ensemble and more disturbing sexual behaviour. His deadpan style gives little encouragement to relax when a scene becomes funny; the people remain unhappy, and laughter does not necessarily make them any easier to understand.

Later films change the way he organises these unhappy lives. *Storytelling* (2001) divides its material into two parts; *Palindromes* (2005) casts several actresses as one character. *Wiener-Dog* (2016) follows a dog through a succession of dysfunctional lives and returns to Dawn Wiener. He keeps his attention on people who struggle to belong.

With Matarazzo, the writing has an actor who can keep Dawn convincing when the indignities begin to look arranged. Solondz gives her no obligation to be generous simply because she has suffered, and this is where the film earns our concern. The trouble comes when he keeps providing another humiliation after the point has been made. We start to notice how little opportunity Dawn has for a day in which nothing especially awful happens. Begin with *Welcome to the Dollhouse*, preferably with company prepared to find the same girl funny, irritating and worth caring about.

## Biography

Todd Solondz is an American filmmaker and playwright. He directed, wrote and produced the film *Welcome to the Dollhouse* (1996). His other directed and written features include *Happiness* (1998), *Storytelling* (2001), *Palindromes* (2005), *Life During Wartime* (2010), *Dark Horse* (2012) and *Wiener-Dog* (2016).

Solondz studied English at Yale University and attended New York University’s Master of Fine Arts programme in film and television. Earlier in his career he taught English as a second language to Russian immigrants in New York City. *Welcome to the Dollhouse* won the Grand Jury Prize at the 1996 Sundance Film Festival. He is a professor at New York University.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, theguardian.com.*

## On Fi1m (4)

### Performed in (1)

- *As Good as It Gets* (1997), Fi1m 77, as Man on Bus — [page](https://film.one/film/as-good-as-it-gets.md)

### Directed (2) — the average rests on these

- *Happiness* (1998), Fi1m 78, as Doorman (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/happiness.md)
- *Welcome to the Dollhouse* (1996), Fi1m 82, Director, Producer, Screenplay — [page](https://film.one/film/welcome-to-the-dollhouse.md)

### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited

- *Aftersun* (2022), Fi1m 85, Thanks — [page](https://film.one/film/aftersun.md)

## Complete filmography (22)

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

- *Bust* (2024), Thanks
- *Aftersun* (2022), Thanks — Fi1m 85, [page](https://film.one/film/aftersun.md)
- *Wiener-Dog* (2016), Director, Writer
- *Venice 70: Future Reloaded* (2013), Director, Writer
- *Keep the Lights On* (2012), Thanks
- *Dark Horse* (2012), Screenplay, Director
- *Life During Wartime* (2010), Writer, Director
- *Cinema16: American Short Films* (2006), Director
- *Palindromes* (2005), Director, Writer
- *Storytelling* (2001), Director, Screenplay
- *Happiness* (1998), as Doorman (uncredited) · Director, Screenplay — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/happiness.md)
- *As Good as It Gets* (1997), as Man on Bus — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/film/as-good-as-it-gets.md)
- *Welcome to the Dollhouse* (1996), Director, Screenplay, Producer — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/welcome-to-the-dollhouse.md)
- *Fear, Anxiety and Depression* (1989), as Ira · Director, Writer
- *Married to the Mob* (1988), as The Zany Reporter
- *In Transit* (1986), as Musician
- *Schatt's Last Shot* (1985), as Ezra Schatt · Writer, Director
- *Feelings* (1985), as Sensitive Young Man · Director, Writer
- *Babysitter* (1984), Director, Writer, Editor
- *Love Child*, Director, Writer
- *The Quarters: Jerusalem*, Director
- *I Miss My Mom & Dream of Our New Home*, Thanks

## Gallery

- ![66ème Festival du Cinéma de Venise (Mostra), 2ème jour (03/09/2009) Tapis Rouge avec Charlotte Rampling, Shirley Henderson et Todd Solondz le réalisateur pour l](https://film.one/media/person/86503/gallery-5781268dcaac.jpg) 66ème Festival du Cinéma de Venise (Mostra), 2ème jour (03/09/2009) Tapis Rouge avec Charlotte Rampling, Shirley Henderson et Todd Solondz le réalisateur pour l — nicolas genin from Paris, France, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c0/Charlotte_Rampling%2C_Shirley_Henderson%2C_Todd_Solondz_66%C3%A8me_Festival_de_Venise_%28Mostra%29.jpg/1280px-Charlotte_Rampling%2C_Shirley_Henderson%2C_Todd_Solondz_66%C3%A8me_Festival_de_Venise_%28Mostra%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![66ème Festival du Cinéma de Venise (Mostra), 2ème jour (03/09/2009) Ed Lachman (directeur de la photographie), Todd Solondz et Shirley Henderson lors du Photoca](https://film.one/media/person/86503/gallery-ffec93f4bfc8.jpg) 66ème Festival du Cinéma de Venise (Mostra), 2ème jour (03/09/2009) Ed Lachman (directeur de la photographie), Todd Solondz et Shirley Henderson lors du Photoca — nicolas genin, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Ed_Lachman%2C_Todd_Solondz_and_Shirley_Henderson.jpg/1280px-Ed_Lachman%2C_Todd_Solondz_and_Shirley_Henderson.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Director Todd Solondz and guest at the Closing Ceremony for the 2009 Venice Film Festival.](https://film.one/media/person/86503/gallery-21523586e109.jpg) Director Todd Solondz and guest at the Closing Ceremony for the 2009 Venice Film Festival. — nicolas genin from Paris, France, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Todd_Solondz_-_nicogenin_-_66%C3%A8me_Festival_de_Venise_%28Mostra%29.jpg/1280px-Todd_Solondz_-_nicogenin_-_66%C3%A8me_Festival_de_Venise_%28Mostra%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![20/03/09 el guinista Todd Solondz en su participacion en el Talent Campus (2009)](https://film.one/media/person/86503/gallery-d230fc70db29.jpg) 20/03/09 el guinista Todd Solondz en su participacion en el Talent Campus (2009) — Festival Internacional de Cine en Guadalajara, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ee/Toddsolondz.jpg/1280px-Toddsolondz.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Todd Solondz](https://film.one/media/person/86503/gallery-63701918a591.jpg) Todd Solondz — Image via TMDB

## Awards

### Golden Globes — 0 won, 1 nominated

- 1998: Best Screenplay (nominated), for *Happiness*

### Other awards — 1 won, 3 nominated

- Independent Spirit Awards 2011: Best Screenplay (nominated), for *Life During Wartime*
- Independent Spirit Awards 1999: Best Director (nominated), for *Happiness*
- Independent Spirit Awards 1997: Best Director (nominated), for *Welcome to the Dollhouse*
- Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award 1996: Sundance Film Festival U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize Award (won), for *Welcome to the Dollhouse*

*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/todd-solondz