The Oscar-winning drama Boyhood will be getting a 12 year anniversary re-release in cinemas this July.
Richard Linklater’s film was released in 2014 and followed a young boy (Ellar Coltrane) from the ages of six to 18. The reason the 12th anniversary is significant is because the movie was filmed filmed sporadically over 12 years, reflecting the real-life aging of its stars.
The film is remembered as one of the best of the 2010s, and with Patricia Arquette winning an Oscar for her role.
Speaking to Variety about the celebration, Linklater said he got the idea when he was approached about the film’s 10th anniversary in 2024. “I wasn’t in the mood, and I think I was busy,” he said.
“I just kicked the can, but the idea was, hey, let’s do a 12 year. Everyone does 10 and 20 and 25, you know? If you do anniversaries, they fall on the zeros and the fives. We’re the only one who kind of qualifies to do a 12-year anniversary that isn’t entirely arbitrary. But it was really just a delay tactic.”
Reflecting on the unusual process of making the film, he said: “We started filming this 24 years ago. The way life chugs along, you look up and it’s been 12 years since the movie came out and it’s kind of crazy. But the whole project was untraditional. We’d get together for a few weeks every year and film, so it ended up taking up a big chunk of our lives.”
The director is currently in the process of a similar project, an adaptation of the musical Merrily We Roll Along starring Paul Mescal, which is set to film every two years or so between 2019 and 2040. Speaking about the project to NME in 2023, Linklater said: “It’s probably the last one for me. Since I’ll be really old when I’m done!”