New Bedford and Fairhaven Made Movie ‘The Holdovers’ Premieres Friday

Ladies and gentlemen, The Holdovers movie is finally coming to the big screen.  SouthCoast audiences will finally get a chance to see a movie which was partially filmed in our backyard.  I feel like we've been awaiting the release of this movie for years.  In reality, we found out that the Paul Giametti movie was coming to Fairhaven High School and the Wamsutta Club at the end of January of 2022.

Since then, we've watched the crew and the huge production trucks roll through town, shoot their shot and leave.  We were pumped when we finally got a look at the trailers and tried to pick out the local spots we recognized.  We read the incredible reviews that have come out of the film festivals.  The Holdovers was called "an instant classic" holiday movie and the best film of the year. The New York Times compared the film to "Dead Poets Society," and said it had layers upon layers of emotion.

I, for one, have been looking forward to watching this movie since the first day I heard it was going to happen.  I'm not sure why it will be so fun to point at the screen and say, "Look, there's the Wamsutta Club," during the dinner scene, but it will be for me.  In this still of Paul Giamatti's character, he is walking up the stairs inside Fairhaven High School.  Alums will recognize the stained glass behind him.

Interestingly enough, the movie's production designer, Ryan Smith said in an interview with Focus Features that the fictitious Barton Academy was actually shot at 5 different schools at the request of the movie's director Alexander Payne.

"Alexander wanted real environments. We knew we were never going to find everything we needed in one school. We ended up shooting at five different schools and piecing those elements together in order to create Barton Academy. For each, I would go in to figure out what I would need to build to cover up any of the stuff that was too modern. Because of Covid, we could not shoot while class was in session, so we had to do all of our shooting over the holiday break." --Ryan Smith

If you need additional reasons to get excited about the made in Fairhaven movie, there is an exciting contest surrounding The Holdovers.  Imagine, winning an all expense paid trip to New England's biggest city, Boston, MA!  The grand prize winner will have travel and accommodations completely covered!  I wonder if you could fly New Bedford Airport to Logan?  You'll also get a nice dinner, an autographed movie poster, and a night of bowling at the same alley used for the film.