# Miranda July
**Miranda July** (born 1974) is an American artist, filmmaker, writer, performer, and actor whose work spans feature films, short fiction, performance art, public art, digital projects, and a smartphone app, and whose recurring subject is how people attempt to connect with one another.[1](https://art21.org/artist/miranda-july/) • [2](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/20/miranda-july-profile) She broke into independent cinema in 2005 with her first feature, *Me and You and Everyone We Know*, and has since become one of the most cross-disciplinary figures in contemporary American art, described by her own publisher as working across film, fiction, performance, public art, commerce, and app design.[3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-miranda-july) • [4](https://mirandajuly.com/miranda-july/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1974, Barre, Vermont; lives and works in Los Angeles, California[1](https://art21.org/artist/miranda-july/) |
| Original name | Grew up in Berkeley, California, as Miranda Grossinger; took the surname July from a character in a magazine she made in high school[5](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/30/miranda-july-chic-or-indulgence) |
| Feature films | *Me and You and Everyone We Know* (2005), *The Future* (2011), *Kajillionaire* (2020)[6](https://time.com/5893476/kajillionaire-review-miranda-july/) |
| Breakout honors | Sundance Special Jury Prize, Cannes Caméra d'Or, and Cannes Critics' Week grand prize, all for her 2005 debut[3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-miranda-july) |
| Books | Story collection *No One Belongs Here More Than You* (2007); novels *The First Bad Man* (2015) and *All Fours* (2024)[8](https://landmarks.utexas.edu/video-art/amateurist) • [2](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/20/miranda-july-profile) |
| Participatory projects | Joanie 4 Jackie (1995–2005), a chain-letter network of women filmmakers; *Learning to Love You More* (2002–2009) with Harrell Fletcher, drawing over 8,000 submissions[1](https://art21.org/artist/miranda-july/) |
| Museum recognition | *Miranda July: New Society*, her first solo museum exhibition, Fondazione Prada, Milan, March 7 to October 14, 2024[9](https://mirandajuly.com/) |
## Early life and name
July was born in 1974 in Barre, Vermont.[1](https://art21.org/artist/miranda-july/) She grew up in [Berkeley, California](https://www.edgepedia.org/berkeley-california), as Miranda Grossinger, the daughter of two writers.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/30/miranda-july-chic-or-indulgence) The surname July came later: she adopted it from a character in a magazine she made at high school.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/30/miranda-july-chic-or-indulgence) As a child she was already recording her own voice and half of a conversation, and her father read her [Norman Mailer](https://www.edgepedia.org/norman-mailer)'s *The Executioner's Song* at bedtime, an early encounter with the subject of incarceration that stayed with her.[2](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/20/miranda-july-profile)
## Portland and the 1990s
July studied at the [University of California, Santa Cruz](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-california-santa-cruz), before leaving to pursue filmmaking.[1](https://art21.org/artist/miranda-july/) In a [Criterion](https://www.edgepedia.org/criterion) interview she described the film program as a boy's club that did not connect with what she wanted, and said she dropped out at twenty-one.[7](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4372-building-a-new-world-a-conversation-with-miranda-july) A key early influence was [Jane Campion](https://www.edgepedia.org/jane-campion)'s 1983 short student film *Passionless Moments*, which she rented at a Berkeley video store and which showed her that, as a woman, she could use film in an intimate, personal way.[7](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4372-building-a-new-world-a-conversation-with-miranda-july) She moved to Portland to work as a performance artist in a local art community that encouraged cross-pollination among video, film, performance, sound, writing, and music.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/30/miranda-july-chic-or-indulgence) • [10](https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/faculty/arts/centre-european-studies/sorbonne%20--%2026%20mai%202015%20-%20spreads.pdf)
**Joanie 4 Jackie.** In 1995 she began Joanie 4 Jackie (also styled Joanie4Jackie), an "all-girl video chain letter": she made a pamphlet inviting girls and women to send her their short films, which she compiled onto tapes of ten movies each and sent back out with a fanzine.[7](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4372-building-a-new-world-a-conversation-with-miranda-july) The project ran from 1995 to 2005, when her first feature premiered, and over ten years it created a network of women filmmakers and an archive of films by more than 200 women.[11](https://art21.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Friends-Strangers_Educators-Guide.pdf) • [1](https://art21.org/artist/miranda-july/) Cultivating a community of DIY female filmmakers has remained a career-long commitment, later extended through reported collaborations with filmmakers Amber Sealey and Josephine Decker.[7](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4372-building-a-new-world-a-conversation-with-miranda-july)
## Films
*Me and You and Everyone We Know* (2005) was her debut feature as director, writer, and lead actor, made from notes she says she filled in a single feverish train ride.[2](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/20/miranda-july-profile) It is an ensemble film about Los Angeles characters trapped in isolated bubbles, in which July plays Christine, a performance artist pursuing a divorced shoe salesperson played by John Hawkes.[3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-miranda-july) The Independent described it as an ensemble piece in the style of *Nashville* and *Magnolia*, about people in the age of communication who struggle to communicate.[12](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/miranda-july-mission-impossible-5347856.html) Roger Ebert's review called it "a film that with quiet confidence creates a fragile magic."
[13](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/me-and-you-and-everyone-we-know-2005) The film won the Special Jury Prize at Sundance and, at Cannes, the Caméra d'Or and the Critics' Week grand prize.[3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-miranda-july) One of its inventions entered pop culture: the emoticon "))<>((", which translates in the film to "pooping back and forth, forever."[14](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/kajillionaire-review-miranda-july-director-cast-evan-rachel-wood-b880770.html)
Her second feature, *The Future* (2011), stars July and [Hamish Linklater](https://www.edgepedia.org/hamish-linklater) as a couple in their thirties who agree to look after an injured, narrating cat named Paw-Paw, voiced by July, and confront the existential weight of caring for another being.[3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-miranda-july) • [5](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/30/miranda-july-chic-or-indulgence) Critics were divided: the film was a hit of the American art-house circuit and drew praise from the *Washington Post* and *Dallas Morning News*, but it proved too much for some viewers, and July's idiosyncratic style has attracted sustained criticism as well as acclaim.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/30/miranda-july-chic-or-indulgence) • [3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-miranda-july) A Guardian piece asked whether she was "doyenne of art-house chic or epitome of trendy indulgence," citing detractors extreme enough to include a blog titled "I Hate Miranda July."[5](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/30/miranda-july-chic-or-indulgence)
*Kajillionaire* (2020), her third feature and first in nine years, follows Old Dolio ([Evan Rachel Wood](https://www.edgepedia.org/evan-rachel-wood)), the daughter of two petty con artists ([Debra Winger](https://www.edgepedia.org/debra-winger) and [Richard Jenkins](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-jenkins)), whose world opens when a stranger, Melanie (Gina Rodriguez), joins the family.[15](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/kajillionaire-sundance-review/5146511.article) July does not act in it, as she had in her previous two films.[6](https://time.com/5893476/kajillionaire-review-miranda-july/) Reviews were strong: Time called it the best of her three features, and the *Independent* called it "beautiful, deeply empathetic."[6](https://time.com/5893476/kajillionaire-review-miranda-july/) • [14](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/kajillionaire-review-miranda-july-director-cast-evan-rachel-wood-b880770.html)
July's feature filmography is small, but she treats short films, performance projects, and even narrative Instagram filmmaking as part of the same body of work; the short *Jopie* (2020) was crowdsourced from scenes filmed by her Instagram followers.[3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-miranda-july) • [1](https://art21.org/artist/miranda-july/)
## Participatory and performance art
**Digital and public projects.** With the artist Harrell Fletcher she ran *Learning to Love You More* (2002–2009), a website that issued seventy weekly prompts, from "feel the news" to "braid someone's hair," and collected more than 8,000 public submissions.[1](https://art21.org/artist/miranda-july/) • [2](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/20/miranda-july-profile) For *Eleven Heavy Things* (2009) she installed eleven photosets at the 53rd [Venice Biennale](https://www.edgepedia.org/venice-biennale), completing the work when tourists photographed themselves posed with them.[1](https://art21.org/artist/miranda-july/) Her early short *The Amateurist* (1998) already examined the gendering of technology, showing one woman monitoring another through video surveillance, both played by July.[3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-miranda-july) She has also opened an interfaith charity shop in a London department store, created an app that lets strangers deliver intimate messages, and narrated the inner monologues of models at an Hermès fashion show.[2](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/20/miranda-july-profile)
Her visual-art work received institutional recognition in 2024, when Fondazione Prada presented *Miranda July: New Society*, her first solo museum exhibition, spanning three decades from the early 1990s onward and accompanied by a retrospective of her films.[9](https://mirandajuly.com/)
## Writing
July began publishing short stories in the early 2000s, with "Birthmark" and "Making Love in 2003" appearing in the *Paris Review*.[16](https://www.encyclopedia.com/journals/culture-magazines/miranda-july) Her collection *No One Belongs Here More Than You* (2007) won the 2007 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award.[8](https://landmarks.utexas.edu/video-art/amateurist) Her first novel, *The First Bad Man* (2015), follows Cheryl Glickman, a reclusive employee of a women's self-defense nonprofit.[7](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4372-building-a-new-world-a-conversation-with-miranda-july) • [2](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/20/miranda-july-profile)
Her second novel, *All Fours* (2024, Riverhead), broke with her earlier pattern of outsider protagonists: its narrator is an unnamed forty-five-year-old Los Angeles artist and writer much like July herself, who abandons a road trip to New York, installs herself in a renovated hotel room, and pursues a quest for a new kind of freedom.[2](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/20/miranda-july-profile) • [9](https://mirandajuly.com/) • [17](https://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2025/06/01/a-quatre-pattes-miranda-july-sur-la-route-d-un-desir-impossible_6609895_3260.html) The novel was widely read, and *The Atlantic* noted that "virtually every other woman I know" had recently read it.[18](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2024/06/last-summer-all-fours-midlife-women/678849/) [Le Monde](https://www.edgepedia.org/le-monde) reported that it is being adapted as a television series.[17](https://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2025/06/01/a-quatre-pattes-miranda-july-sur-la-route-d-un-desir-impossible_6609895_3260.html)
## Themes and critical standing
Critics most often locate July's subject in the longing for connection: Time's review states that all her films "address variations on a theme: human beings' longing for connection," and Art21 similarly describes her practice as examining different modes of connecting, from close friends and family to total strangers.[6](https://time.com/5893476/kajillionaire-review-miranda-july/) • [1](https://art21.org/artist/miranda-july/) The digital world appears consistently, from chat rooms in her debut to smart-home technology later, and BFI notes that July has always seen the utopian potential in it.[3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-miranda-july)
Her reception is divided in a characteristic way. Admirers treat her self-conscious awkwardness and deadpan style as a singular voice; a BFI feature argues that labels like "whimsical" or "quirky" are inaccurate descriptors given to a female filmmaker, and that her films are closer to shared dreams, anxiety-inducing and deeply unsettling.[3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-miranda-july) Critics outside that camp have called the work indulgent and overly focused on the problems of a literary, white middle class.[5](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/30/miranda-july-chic-or-indulgence) July herself has resisted classification, dismissing critics' comparisons of her to [Todd Solondz](https://www.edgepedia.org/todd-solondz) as "a bizarre comparison."
[12](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/miranda-july-mission-impossible-5347856.html) • [19](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/me-and-you-and-everyone-we-know-blu-ray-review-miranda-july/) In academic film studies, Kathleen A. McHugh's chapter "Miranda July and the New Twenty-first-century Indie" (2017) uses her as an exemplar to challenge the masculinist rhetoric that has defined American independent cinema around figures such as [Steven Soderbergh](https://www.edgepedia.org/steven-soderbergh) and [Quentin Tarantino](https://www.edgepedia.org/quentin-tarantino).[20](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/indie-reframed/miranda-july-and-the-new-twentyfirstcentury-indie/E7B3F95B442068526D6CF7E7340FF798)
## References
1. [Miranda July, Art21 artist page](https://art21.org/artist/miranda-july/)
2. [Alexandra Schwartz, "Miranda July Turns the Lights On," The New Yorker, May 2024](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/05/20/miranda-july-profile)
3. [Katie Goh, "Where to begin with Miranda July," BFI, 5 October 2020](https://www.bfi.org.uk/features/where-begin-with-miranda-july)
4. [Monograph – Miranda July, mirandajuly.com](https://mirandajuly.com/miranda-july/)
5. [Paul Harris, "Miranda July – doyenne of art-house chic or epitome of trendy indulgence?," The Guardian, 29 October 2011](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/oct/30/miranda-july-chic-or-indulgence)
6. [Stephanie Zacharek, "Kajillionaire review," Time, 25 September 2020](https://time.com/5893476/kajillionaire-review-miranda-july/)
7. [Andrew Chan, "Building a New World: A Conversation with Miranda July," The Criterion Collection, 2 January 2017](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4372-building-a-new-world-a-conversation-with-miranda-july)
8. [Miranda July – The Amateurist, LANDMARKS, University of Texas at Austin](https://landmarks.utexas.edu/video-art/amateurist)
9. [Miranda July – Home, mirandajuly.com](https://mirandajuly.com/)
10. ["Miranda July, DIY Grrrl," Dalhousie University / Sorbonne conference paper, 2015](https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/faculty/arts/centre-european-studies/sorbonne%20--%2026%20mai%202015%20-%20spreads.pdf)
11. [Art21 Educators' Guide: Miranda July (2023)](https://art21.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Friends-Strangers_Educators-Guide.pdf)
12. ["Miranda July: Mission impossible?," The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/miranda-july-mission-impossible-5347856.html)
13. [Roger Ebert, "Me and You and Everyone We Know," 23 June 2005](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/me-and-you-and-everyone-we-know-2005)
14. ["Kajillionaire review: This beautiful, deeply empathetic film is Miranda July's best yet," The Independent, 2020](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/kajillionaire-review-miranda-july-director-cast-evan-rachel-wood-b880770.html)
15. [Charles Gant, "'Kajillionaire': Sundance Review," Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/kajillionaire-sundance-review/5146511.article)
16. ["Miranda July," Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/journals/culture-magazines/miranda-july)
17. ["« A quatre pattes » : Miranda July sur la route d'un désir impossible," Le Monde, 1 June 2025](https://www.lemonde.fr/livres/article/2025/06/01/a-quatre-pattes-miranda-july-sur-la-route-d-un-desir-impossible_6609895_3260.html)
18. ["The Awful Ferocity of Midlife Desire," The Atlantic, June 2024](https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2024/06/last-summer-all-fours-midlife-women/678849/)
19. ["Review: Me and You and Everyone We Know on Criterion Blu-ray," Slant Magazine](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/me-and-you-and-everyone-we-know-blu-ray-review-miranda-july/)
20. [Kathleen A. McHugh, "Miranda July and the New Twenty-first-century Indie," in *Indie Reframed*, Edinburgh University Press, 2017](https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/indie-reframed/miranda-july-and-the-new-twentyfirstcentury-indie/E7B3F95B442068526D6CF7E7340FF798)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Film people and crafts › Directors, producers, and screenwriters*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 12, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license