Before Midnight

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title: "Before Midnight" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["2013-films", "2013-romantic-drama-films", "2010s-english-language-films", "american-sequel-films", "american-independent-films", "american-romantic-drama-films", "films-directed-by-richard-linklater", "films-set-in-greece", "films-shot-in-greece", "castle-rock-entertainment-films", "films-about-conversations", "films-about-vacationing", "films-with-screenplays-by-ethan-hawke", "sony-pictures-classics-films", "2013-independent-films", "before-trilogy", "2013-american-films", "semi-autobiographical-films", "english-language-romantic-drama-films"] description: "2013 American romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_Midnight" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary 2013 American romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox film"]

Field	Value
name	Before Midnight
image	Before Midnight poster.jpg
caption	Theatrical release poster
director	Richard Linklater
producer	Richard Linklater
Christos V. Konstantakopoulos
Sara Woodhatch
writer	Richard Linklater
Ethan Hawke
Julie Delpy
based_on
starring	Ethan Hawke
Julie Delpy
music	Graham Reynolds
cinematography	Christos Voudouris
editing	Sandra Adair
studio	Castle Rock Entertainment
Faliro House Productions
Venture Forth
Detour Filmproduction
distributor	Sony Pictures Classics
released
runtime	109 minutes
country	United States
Greece
language	English
budget	$3 million
gross	$23.3 million
::

::callout[type=note] the 2013 American romantic drama film ::

| name = Before Midnight | image = Before Midnight poster.jpg | alt = | caption = Theatrical release poster | director = Richard Linklater | producer = Richard Linklater Christos V. Konstantakopoulos Sara Woodhatch |writer = Richard Linklater Ethan Hawke Julie Delpy | based_on = | starring = Ethan Hawke Julie Delpy | music = Graham Reynolds | cinematography = Christos Voudouris | editing = Sandra Adair | studio = Castle Rock Entertainment Faliro House Productions Venture Forth Detour Filmproduction | distributor = Sony Pictures Classics | released = | runtime = 109 minutes | country = United States Greece | language = English | budget = $3 million | gross = $23.3 million Before Midnight is a 2013 romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. The sequel to Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004), it is the third and final installment in the Before trilogy. The film follows Jesse (Hawke) and Céline (Delpy), now a couple, as they spend a summer vacation in Greece with their children.

Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy began developing a third film in 2011, wishing to replicate the nine-year gap between the first two installments. Principal photography began in August 2012, and took place entirely on the Peloponnese coast in Southern Greece, including the Kardamyli home once owned by author Patrick Leigh Fermor. Like its predecessors, Before Midnight has a minimal plot, with considerable screentime devoted to extended conversations between the characters.

Before Midnight premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2013. It began a domestic limited release on May 24, 2013, and went on general release on June 14, 2013. It grossed $23 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film in the trilogy. It received widespread critical acclaim, particularly for its exploration of romance and age, its screenplay, Linklater's direction, and acting performances. The film garnered many accolades and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical for Delpy.

Plot

Nine years since rekindling their relationship, Jesse and Céline are parents to twin girls. Jesse reflects on his inability to maintain his relationship with his son Hank, now a teenager. After vacationing with the couple and the girls on the Greek Peloponnese peninsula, Hank flies home to Chicago where he lives with his mother, Jesse's ex-wife.

Jesse is a successful novelist. However, Céline is at a career crossroads. After her NGO's wind farm gets rejected at the last minute, frustrated, she is considering a job with the French government, although it would mean again working for someone she dislikes intensely.

As they drive, the couple discusses their 'bad parenting'. Not only do they not stop to see a ruin one of the girls wanted to see, but Jesse sneakily finishes off an apple they had been eating while she sleeps. Discussing Hank, he laments missing his formative years, and Céline confesses he had confided in her about having his first kiss on this vacation.

Céline announces that the disagreement over Hank marks the beginning of the end, but Jesse vehemently disagrees. Later, they reflect on love and life over dinner with the friends who had invited them there. A lot of what they discuss is the inherent difference between the sexes' perspectives.

As their friends pay for a hotel room for the couple, Jesse and Céline chat on their walk there. They reflect on their views from when they were young and now. Then, about their initial meetings, and wonder if they would have become a couple if they met as they are now.

Jesse reveals his dad just contacted him to join their family in Texas, as his close to centenarian grandmother passed. The ashes of his grandfather who died a year ago will be mixed with hers, as they had been together over 70 years.

Upon reaching the hotel, one of the receptionists asks them to autograph copies of Jesse's first two books. Finally, as they begin to get intimate, they are interrupted by a phone call from Hank, who seems to have bonded with Céline more than Jesse. Céline blames his ex for taking her anger towards them out on the boy.

They eventually have a fierce argument, expressing fears about the strength of their relationship. Jesse wants them to consider moving to Chicago so he can be closer to Hank, which Céline is opposed to unless they can share custody, and thinks will cost her any chance of a career outside her family. During the argument, Céline leaves and returns twice. Then she tells Jesse she thinks she no longer loves him.

Céline leaves their room the third time and sits alone in the hotel's outdoor restaurant. Jesse joins her and pretends that he is a time traveler (referencing their first meeting), bringing her a letter from her 82-year-old self, describing this night as one of the best of their lives.

Initially unamused, Céline says their fantasies will never match the imperfect reality. Jesse says while their love may be imperfect, it is real. After a moment, Céline joins in Jesse's role play, and they reconcile.

Cast

• Ethan Hawke as Jesse
• Julie Delpy as Céline
• Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick as Hank
• Jennifer Prior as Ella
• Charlotte Prior as Nina
• Xenia Kalogeropoulou as Natalia
• Walter Lassally as Patrick
• Ariane Labed as Anna
• Yiannis Papadopoulos as Achilleas
• Athina Rachel Tsangari as Ariadni
• Panos Koronis as Stefanos

Production

Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, and Julie Delpy had all discussed doing a sequel to Before Sunset (or the third in a trilogy). In November 2011, Hawke said that he, Delpy and Linklater ::quote "have been talking a lot in the last six months. All three of us have been having similar feelings, that we're kind of ready to revisit those characters. There's nine years between the first two movies and, if we made the film next summer, it would be nine years again, so we started thinking that would be a good thing to do. So we're going to try and write it this year." ::

In June 2012, Hawke confirmed that the sequel to Before Sunset would be filmed that summer. Soon after, Delpy denied filming would take place that year. By that August, numerous reports emerged from Messenia, Greece, that the film was being shot there. The completion of the sequel, Before Midnight, was announced on September 5, 2012. Linklater said that, after ten weeks of writing and rehearsing, the film was made in 15 days for less than $3 million. He announced plans to premiere the film at a festival in early 2013.

Release

Before Midnight premiered on January 20, 2013, at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. It had its international premiere out of competition at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival.

The film opened to general audiences on May 24, 2013, at five theaters in New York, Los Angeles, and Austin, Texas. It was released wide in 897 theaters on June 14, 2013.

Box office

The film grossed $8,110,621 domestically and $15,141,309 internationally, for a worldwide gross of $23,251,930.

Critical reception

Like the previous entry of the trilogy, Before Midnight received widespread critical acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 98% based on 202 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "Building on the first two installments in Richard Linklater's well-crafted Before trilogy, Before Midnight offers intelligent, powerfully acted perspectives on love, marriage, and long-term commitment." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 94 out of 100, based on 41 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". It was listed as the third-best film of the year after 12 Years a Slave and Gravity. It was the second-best reviewed film of 2013 according to Rotten Tomatoes, after Alfonso Cuarón's Gravity.

According to *Total Film*s Philip Kemp, "As with its two predecessors — and with the films of French New Wave director Éric Rohmer, presiding deity of this kind of cinema—''Midnight'''s essentially a film about people talking. But when the talk's this good, this absorbing and revealing and witty and true, who's going to complain?... [It's a] more-than-worthy, expectation-exceeding chapter in one of modern cinema's finest love stories. As honest, convincing, funny, intimate and natural as its predecessors."

Perry Seibert of AllMovie also praised the film, writing: "The screenwriting trio fill the movie with long, discursive conversations (there are only two scenes in the first 20 minutes) that feel utterly improvised when they are performed, but are far too deftly structured to be anything other than the work of consummate artists." Eric Kohn, from Indiewire, gave the film a rave review, adding it to his list of Top 10 Films of 2013. He wrote that "With Before Midnight, Richard Linklater has completed one of the finest movie trilogies of all time." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian called the film "intimate and intelligent".

Accolades

::data[format=table]

Award / Film Festival	Date	Category	Recipients	Result	Academy Awards	AARP Annual Movies for Grownups Awards	Austin Film Critics Association Awards	Bodil Awards	Boston Online Film Critics Association	Chicago Film Critics Association Awards	Critics' Choice Awards	Denver Film Critics Society	Detroit Film Critics Society	Golden Globe Awards	Gotham Awards	Hollywood Film Festival	Houston Film Critics Society Awards	Indiana Film Critics Association	Independent Spirit Awards	Los Angeles Film Critics Association	National Society of Film Critics	New York Film Critics Online	Online Film Critics Society Awards	San Diego Film Critics Society	San Francisco Film Critics Circle	Satellite Awards	St. Louis Film Critics Association Awards	Toronto Film Critics Association	Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards	Women Film Critics Circle	Writers Guild of America Award
March 2, 2014	Best Adapted Screenplay	Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
January 6, 2014	Best Screenwriter	Richard Linklater (with Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke)
December 17, 2013	Best Film	Before Midnight
Best Austin Film	Richard Linklater
February 1, 2014	Best US Feature	Richard Linklater
December 8, 2013	Ten Best Films of the Year	Before Midnight
Best Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
December 16, 2013	Best Screenplay: Adapted	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
January 16, 2014	Best Adapted Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
Louis XIII Genius Award	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
January 13, 2014	Best Adapted Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
December 13, 2013	Best Film	Before Midnight
Best Actress	Julie Delpy
Best Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
January 12, 2014	Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy	Julie Delpy
December 2, 2013	Best Film	Before Midnight
October 17, 2013	Screenwriter(s) of the Year	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
December 15, 2013	Best Picture	Before Midnight
Best Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
December 16, 2013	Best Film	Before Midnight
Best Adapted Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
March 1, 2014	Best Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
Best Female Lead	Julie Delpy
December 8, 2013	Best Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
January 4, 2014	Best Actress	Julie Delpy
Best Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
December 8, 2013	Best Picture	Before Midnight
Best Films of 2013	Before Midnight
December 16, 2013	Best Film	Before Midnight
Best Actress	Julie Delpy
Best Adapted Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
December 11, 2013	Best Adapted Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
December 13, 2013	Best Adapted Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
February 23, 2014	Best Adapted Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
December 16, 2013	Best Adapted Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
Best Art-House or Festival Film	Before Midnight
December 16, 2013	Best Adapted Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
Best Actress	Julie Delpy
December 9, 2013	Best Adapted Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
December 16, 2013	Screenwriting Award	Julie Delpy
Best Equality of Sexes	Before Midnight
Best Screen Couple	Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke
February 1, 2014	Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay	Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
::

Each date is linked to the article about the awards held that year.

Top ten lists

According to Metacritic, the film appeared on the following critics' top 10 lists of 2013.

• 1st – James Berardinelli, ReelViews
• 1st – The A.V. Club
• 1st – Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly
• 1st – Stephen Holden, The New York Times
• 1st – Justin Chang, Variety
• 2nd – A.A. Dowd, The A.V. Club
• 2nd – Nick Schager, The A.V. Club
• 2nd – ''Total Film'''s 50 Best Movies of 2013
• 2nd – E!
• 3rd – Lisa Schwarzbaum, BBC
• 3rd – 3 News
• 3rd – Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
• 3rd – Eric Kohn, Indiewire
• 3rd – ''Film Comment'''s 50 Best Films of 2013
• 4th – Christopher Rosen & Mike Ryan, The Huffington Post
• 4th – Peter Travers, Rolling Stone
• 4th – Kristopher Tapleys, HitFix
• 5th – Robert Gifford, The Diamondback
• 6th – Sam Adams, The A.V. Club
• 6th – Marlow Stern, The Daily Beast
• 6th - Lukas Krycek, Comedian/Film Critic
• 7th – Stephanie Zacharek, The Village Voice
• 7th – Digital Spy
• 8th – Empire
• 8th – Scott MacDonald, The A.V. Club
• 8th – Chris Vognar, The Dallas Morning News
• 11th – Ben Kenigsberg, The A.V. Club
• 12th – Glenn Kenny's 30 Top Films of 2013
• 14th – Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, The A.V. Club
• In alphabetical order – Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
• In alphabetical order – Dana Stevens, Slate
• Best films of 2013 – Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
• Best movies of the year – David Denby, The New Yorker
• Best movies of 2013 – The Week The A.V. Club film critics named "The fight" scene the Scene of the Year.

Notes

References

References

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