Woody Allen announces retirement

The renowned director told Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia that his next film will be his last.

Legendary American director Woody Allen has announced he will retire after his next film is completed.

In an interview with Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia on Saturday, Allen, 86, said his next movie will be his 50th, and the “idea, in principle, is not to make more movies and focus on writing.” He added that he would like to write a novel.

The filmmaker went on to hint that the book would not necessarily be light-hearted reading, but rather “serious.”

In late June, he revealed to the press that he would shoot his next film in Paris with a local cast.

Throughout his career, which spans more than five decades, Allen has not only directed movies and written screenplays, but also starred in some of his own films. He has won four Academy Awards – one for best director, and three for best original screenplay – and has been nominated more than a dozen times. He has also received nine British Academy Film Awards and the BAFTA Fellowship by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Among Allen’s most famous works are ‘The Purple Rose of Cairo’ (1985), ‘Crimes and Misdemeanors’ (1989), ‘Match Point’ (2005), and ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’ (2008).

In the early 1990s, Allen’s daughter, Dylan Farrow, accused him of sexually abusing her when she was a child. The director vehemently denied the allegations and no charges were brought against him after an investigation.

The claims resurfaced with the rise of the #MeToo movement, turning Allen into something of a Hollywood pariah.

In 2020, his publisher, Hachette Book Group, decided not to publish his autobiography, though the director eventually found one willing to.

Image credit: Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0