Taylor Swift Aspires To Direct Her Own Film; 5 Times She Directed Herself

Taylor Swift aims to direct her own film, as revealed at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival. Industry leaders praise her storytelling skills, highlighting her potential in filmmaking.

By Shovan Roy

Published on Jun 03, 2024 | 09:44 PM IST | 65.1K

Taylor Swift (Credit: Getty Images)

Swift will direct her own feature film after directing several music videos and a short film. Swift’s ambitions were discussed at the 2022 Toronto Film Festival when she talked to Cameron Bailey, the TIFF CEO. The director expressed her joy of progressing with her career in direction.

Preparation for what’s next

She shows her interest in leaping in terms of her work as a director, “I’d love to keep taking baby steps forward. And I think that I’m at a place now where the next baby step is not a baby step. It would be committing to making a film,” she said. This new phase of her artistry marks the development of her passion for cinema.

Leaders in the industry have praised Taylor Swift’s talent as a storyteller. Her skills as a filmmaker have been acknowledged by presidents of Searchlight Pictures, Matthew Greenfield and David Greenbaum.

In an article published by The Guardian in 2022, Greenbaum declared that “Taylor is a once-in-a-generation artist and storyteller. It is a genuine joy and privilege to collaborate with her as she embarks on this exciting and new creative journey.”

A bright future

Searchlight Pictures has produced highly acclaimed films such as Slumdog Millionaire, Nomadland, and Black Swan among others according to Greenfield and Greenbaum. Their backing demonstrates that industry insiders believe that Swift can become successful in moviemaking. With proven storytelling ability combined with industry support, Taylor Swift appears set for major strides within the world of motion pictures.

Since she started off her career, Taylor Swift has always told stories through song lyrics but she also made attempts at visual storytelling with some music videos she directed. On the short films side, Taylor directed All Too Well: The Short Film, which was Sadie Sink and Dylan O'Brien's debut.

Taylor Swift performed as a director before

In 2010, Taylor commenced her journey as a director and co-directed a music video for her song Mine with Roman White. She had earlier worked with White on videos for her songs such as You Belong With Me and Fifteen. Nine years later, a music video for Me! was co-directed by Taylor. It was another move towards becoming a director.

Taylor has directed or co-directed ten music videos in her career. They include; Mine from Speak Now, Lover’s; Me!, and You Need to Calm Down; The Man and Lover from Lover; Cardigan from Folklore; Willow from Evermore, Anti-Hero and Bejeweled by Midnights; And All Too Well which is her short film.

She made this statement while attending the Toronto Film Festival on September 9th of 2022, where the 14-time Grammy award winner expressed her desire to become a full-time director: “I feel like I would just absolutely love for the right opportunity to arise because I just absolutely, absolutely adore telling stories this way.”

Taylor Swift (Credit: Getty Images)

Here are the top 5 music videos that Taylor Swift has directed or co-directed:

Mine (Speak Now)

Roman White co-directed the video with Taylor where Toby Hemingway appears alongside Swift in Mine from the Speak Now album. This shows how she went through childhood trauma because of the disturbed relationship between her parents but eventually found love with Hemingway’s character. Their relationship is shown throughout this video ending up in their marriage and children. It premiered on August 27, 2010, and has over three hundred twenty million views on YouTube.

Me! (Lover)

In collaboration with Dave Meyers, Tayaking's leading role in it has also given direction to its Me! clip taken from an Album known as Lover. The video contained several Easter eggs to allude to her upcoming tours, singles, and albums. It was released on 26 April 2019 and within the first 24 hours, it had managed more than sixty-five million views on YouTube which broke the previous record by Look What You Made Me Do. At the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, it won Best Visual Effects.

You Need To Calm Down (Lover)

Drew Kirsch worked with Taylor in directing You Need to Calm Down. Many LGBTQ+ icons are featured in this video. This video was highly praised for raising awareness for gay rights and many considered it as one of her most politically inclined work ever made. It got the highest number of nominations at MTV Video Music Awards 2019 where it took home Video of the Year as well as winning Video for Good. In addition, the Favorite Music Video award went to it at the American Music Awards.

Lover (Lover)

Lover is a video directed by Taylor along with Drew Kirsch that came out on August 22, 2019. Featuring Taylor and Christian Owens as a couple living inside a dollhouse in a snow globe because of her song You Are in Love, the video offers some Easter eggs and songs that relate to other works done by Swift. It received the Best Production Design honor during the MVPA Awards and a nomination for The Best Pop Video & Best Art Direction at the MTV VMA Award in 2020.

The Man (Lover)

From her album Lover, Taylor singlehandedly directed the music video for The Man. This was a pivotal point in her professional life as she had never gone solo in directing before. The video mocks male privileges with Taylor playing Tyler Swift, her male alter ego. Its focus is on social hypocrisy and how it is easy to be an overconfident man. For this video, Taylor got the Best Direction accolade at the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards beating all other women to become the first female artiste to win it alone.

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