‘The Artist’s Wife’ comes to VOD this September from Strand Releasing
Bruce Dern and Lena Olin in THE ARTIST’S WIFE (photo: Richard Claire)
In The Artist’s Wife, Claire (Lena Olin, Academy Award nominee for The Unbearable Lightness of Being) lives a quiet domestic life in the Hamptons as the wife of celebrated artist Richard Smythson (Bruce Dern, Academy Award nominee for Nebraska). Once a promising painter herself, Claire now lives in the shadow of her husband’s illustrious career. While preparing work for his final show, Richard’s moods become increasingly erratic and he is diagnosed with dementia, straining the bonds of their decades-long romance.
As his memory and behavior deteriorate, she shields his condition from the art community while trying to reconnect him with his estranged daughter and grandson from a previous marriage. Challenged by the loss of her world as she knew it, Claire must now decide whether to stand with Richard on the sidelines or step into the artistic spotlight herself.
The Artist’s Wife premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival, and went on to play the Mill Valley Film Festival and the Palm Springs International Film Festival, among others. It received the SIFF 2.0 Virtual Film Festival’s BEST U.S. INDEPENDENT FEATURE Award at the 2020 Sonoma International Film Festival.
Tom Dolby directs The Artist’s Wife, which is produced by Dolby, Mike S. Ryan, Susanne Filkins and Abdi Nazemian. It is written by Dolby, Nicole Brending and Nazemian and co-stars Juliet Rylance, Avan Jogia and Stefanie Powers. It will be available VOD September 25 from Strand Releasing.
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- ‘Jay Kelly,’ ‘Hamnet,’ ‘Pluribus,’ ‘Task’ and More on AFI’s Top 10 Films and Television of 2025 Lists - December 4, 2025
- ‘Frankenstein’ to Receive Visionary Honor from Palm Springs International Film Awards - December 4, 2025
- Robert Yeoman to be Honored with American Society of Cinematographers’ Lifetime Achievement Award - December 3, 2025
‘Jay Kelly,’ ‘Hamnet,’ ‘Pluribus,’ ‘Task’ and More on AFI’s Top 10 Films and Television of 2025 Lists 
‘Frankenstein’ to Receive Visionary Honor from Palm Springs International Film Awards 
Robert Yeoman to be Honored with American Society of Cinematographers’ Lifetime Achievement Award 
National Board of Review: ‘One Battle After Another’ Tops in Film, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor; Netflix Lands Four in Top 10