Anecdotes

Everytime he was nominated for the Best Director Oscar, Martin Scorsese was nominated in the same category alongside him: first in 2005 when Payne was nominated for À la dérive (2004) and Scorsese for L'aviateur (2004), then in 2012 when Payne was nominated for Les descendants (2011) and Scorsese for Hugo (2011) and finally in 2014 when Payne was nominated for Nebraska (2013) and Scorsese for Le loup de Wall Street (2013).

Is on the short list of directors who has final cut rights to his films.

Directed 9 actors in Oscar nominated performances: Jack Nicholson, Kathy Bates, Thomas Haden Church, Virginia Madsen, George Clooney, Bruce Dern, June Squibb, and Paul Giamatti, and Da'Vine Joy Randolph. Randolph won for her performance in The Holdovers.

His father is of Greek and German ancestry, and his mother is of Greek descent. His paternal grandfather, a Greek immigrant, changed the family surname from "Papadopoulos" to "Payne".

A serious film buff and scholar, Payne paid to have the silent 1917 Chaplin/"Little Tramp" film short The Adventurer (1917) restored and shown at the Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna, Italy in 2013, where he also introduced it, in Italian and English. He had also shown the film over 40 years before on his own 8mm projector to his friends back in Omaha, Nebraska when he was growing up.

Among his favorite filmmakers: Akira Kurosawa, Luis Buñuel, Hal Ashby, Martin Scorsese and Sergio Leone.

Studied at the University of Salamanca (Spain).

Did an uncredited polishing-up of the final draft of La belle-famille (2000).

One of his motivations to move the title character of Monsieur Schmidt (2002) from New York City in the novel to Payne's hometown of Omaha, Nebraska was as a tribute to the great history of "creative" people that hail from that small Midwestern city. Other famous people who are originally from Omaha include Henry Fonda, Marlon Brando, Fred Astaire, Montgomery Clift, Dorothy McGuire, Nick Nolte, and Gabrielle Union.

Graduated film school at the age of 29.

Directed his first feature length film at the age of 35.

Worked with both Laura Dern and her mother Diane Ladd in Un sujet capital (1996), and then years later with her father Bruce Dern in Nebraska (2013).

During an interview to french site Télérama, he stated his desire to work with Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Marion Cotillard, Bérénice Bejo and Jennifer Lawrence. [April 2014].

Graduated in 1990 from UCLA Filmschool with a MFA in Theater Arts.

Member of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Directors Branch) [2005-]

President of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 54th Thessaloniki International Film Festival in 2013.

All of his full-length feature films (thus not counting his segment on Paris, je t'aime (2006)) since Monsieur Schmidt (2002) have earned one of their male leads an Academy Award nomination: Jack Nicholson for Monsieur Schmidt (2002), Thomas Haden Church for À la dérive (2004); George Clooney for Les descendants (2011), and Bruce Dern for Nebraska (2013).

Owns the Winnebago driven by Warren Schmidt (Jack Nicholson) in Monsieur Schmidt (2002).

Director Chris Columbus said Payne's À la dérive (2004) was "a 70s movie in contemporary times".

He grew up down the street from billionaire Warren Buffett.

Graduated from Creighton Prep High School of Omaha Nebraska in 1979.

Graduate of Stanford University.

Studied Spanish and History at Stanford.

Is a friend of David O. Russell.

President of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 66th San Sebastian International Film Festival in 2018.

Father of daughter, named Despina Evangeline (b. 2017). Mother is Maria Kontou (b. 1988).

No relation to Alexandria Payne.

He has directed four films that have been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: À la dérive (2004), Les descendants (2011), Nebraska (2013) and Ceux qui restent (2023).

Several of his films involved characters taking pain pills: Sideways, About Schmidt and Downsizing.