Alexander Payne is a two-time Oscar winning filmmaker whose films have helped define modern day American cinema. He is best known for such films as Election (1999), Sideways (2004), The Descendants (2011), About Schmidt (2002), Nebraska (2013) and The Holdovers (2023). In total, his films have earned 19 Academy Award nominations, including three times each for Best Picture and Best Director (Sideways, The Descendants, Nebraska). He won an Oscar twice for Best Adapted Screenplay for Sideways and The Descendants, and two of his films have won the Golden Globe for Best Picture. Five of his feature films were filmed at least partially in Nebraska, where he continues to live, dividing his time between Omaha and Los Angeles.

In 2023, Payne was honored with the Harold Lloyd Award for Filmmaking at the Advanced Imaging Society’s Lumiere Awards. Alexander’s most recent feature film, The Holdovers, was nominated for five Oscars including Best Picture with Da’vine Joy Randolph winning Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Mary Lamb. The film was named one of the top ten films of 2023 by the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review.

A Nebraska native, Payne studied History and Spanish Literature at Stanford before earning an MFA in Film at UCLA.