Back to Films

The Queen of Versailles

Synopsis

With the epic dimensions of a Shakespearean tragedy, THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES follows billionaires Jackie and David's rags-to-riches story to uncover the innate virtues and flaws of the American dream. We open on the triumphant construction of the biggest house in America, a sprawling, 90,000-square-foot mansion inspired by Versailles. Since a booming time-share business built on the real-estate bubble is financing it, the economic crisis brings progress to a halt and seals the fate of its owners. We witness the impact of this turn of fortune over the next two years in a riveting film fraught with delusion, denial, and self-effacing humor.

Connect

Learn more about THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES and connect with the film: 

See the Film

The Filmmakers

Lauren Greenfield Director

Named by The New York Times as “America’s foremost visual chronicler of the plutocracy,” Emmy Award–winning filmmaker/photographer Lauren Greenfield has produced groundbreaking work on consumerism, youth culture, and gender for the last 25 years.  Her films GENERATION WEALTH, THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES, and THIN, and photography books Generation Wealth, Fast Forward, and Girl Culture have provoked international dialogue about some of the most important issues of our time. THE QUEEN OF VERSAILLES was the opening night film of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Best Documentary Director Award and was named by Vogue as one of the top documentaries of all time.  Her record-breaking Super Bowl ad #LikeAGirl (250+ million views) earned her 14 Cannes Lions and the Most Awarded Director by Ad Age, making her the first woman to top this list. 

GENERATION WEALTH (Amazon Studios) opened the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, screened at Berlinale, and received a Writers Guild nomination. The companion exhibition received The Paris Photography prize, has travelled around the world, and opened summer 2019 at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Copenhagen). In 2019, Greenfield launched Girl Culture Films, to address the lack of diversity of directors in the advertising industry.

In late August 2019, Greenfield released her latest documentary film, THE KINGMAKER, which is centered around the indominable and notorious Imelda Marcos (the former first Lady of the Philippines) and her quest to restore her family name and honor back to the greatness that it once enjoyed. The film debuted simultaneously at the Venice and Telluride Film Festivals and was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and the BFI/London Film Festival, making it the first documentary film to ever open at these four major festivals in the same year. Showtime has secured worldwide rights and the film will be theatrically released in the US in October 2019.
 

Festivals & Awards

Sundance Film Festival

2012

Winner - Directing Prize: U.S. Documentary Competition

Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

2012

Official Selection

Hot Docs International Film Festival

2012

Official Selection

Silverdocs

2012

Official Selection

True/False Film Fest

2012

Official Selection

IDA Awards

2012

Nominee - Best Documentary

Critics' Choice Awards

2012

Nominee - Best Documentart Feature

Directors Guild Awards

2013

Nominee - Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary

IDA Documentary Awards

2012

Nominee - Best Feature

Reviews

A brilliant metaphor for everything screwed up about the U.S. economy and the culture that shaped it.”

-New York Magazine

HILARIOUS AND UPSETTING. It's often laugh-out-loud funny, but also has elements of profound tragedy and allegory.”

-Salon

A sprawling, richly detailed study of ambition, desire and the wild swings of fortune. A gaudy guilty pleasure that is also a piece of trenchant social criticism. If this film is a portrait, it is also a mirror.”

-A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Masterful. A wickedly funny allegory about the American dream...”

-The Huffington Post

GRADE A! SUCCULENTLY ENTERTAINING. The next big documentary-as-cultural touchstone.”

-Entertainment Weekly