Cold Open · Essay · nov 6, 2025

How the American New Wave Took Over Hollywood

The American New Wave — New Hollywood — gave us Scorsese, Coppola, Spielberg, and Altman. But what was this era really about, beyond the career highlights? Elliot Bloom and Tom Ooms trace how a generation of film-school graduates, shaped by the French New Wave and disillusioned by the studio system, were handed the keys at exactly the moment the studios had run out of ideas. From Easy Rider to Apocalypse Now: an episode about the conditions that produce a golden age, and why those conditions are almost impossible to recreate deliberately.

By Tom Ooms

Film Journalist · Celebrating Cinema

The American New Wave, or New Hollywood, launched the careers of some of the United States’ most iconic filmmakers, from Steven Spielberg and George Lucas to Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. But what was this era, when studios granted directors unprecedented creative freedom, really about, and what did it reveal about 1970s America?

Hosts Elliot Bloom and Tom Ooms dive into this transformative period, discussing the quintessential elements of the movement while spotlighting cult heroes like Robert Altman and John Cassavetes and overlooked filmmakers such as Barbara Loden and Elaine May. They also ask whether today’s social and political climate in the United States could spark a new wave of radical cinema.

Get tickets to ⁠New Hollywood: The Films of The American New Wave⁠ @ LAB111

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