When Catherine Hardwicke was seeking inspiration for her latest feature film, she simply looked out of her front window. The director of such seminal early-aughts youth movies as Thirteen, Lords of Dogtown, and, of course, Twilight has lived in Los Angeles’ Venice Beach neighborhood for nearly three decades, and has watched the famously bohemian area welcome a steady stream of newcomers seeking to make their mark in a city that runs on youthful dreams.
But the newest generation of aspiring artists has to contend with a shrinking industry, rising rents, and soaring costs of living, which forces many of them to form makeshift communities on Venice Beach’s streets. That sparked the idea for Street Smart, an Oliver Twist-esque tale that follows Ali (Isabelle Fuhrman), a fresh off the bus singer from the Midwest who falls in with a group of young, unhoused creative types and learns the tricks of their trade.
“My co-writer, Nic Sheff, used to live on the streets and always said to me, ‘I wasn’t Oliver Twist — I was the Artful Dodger,'” Hardwicke tells Gold Derby with a laugh during our conversation at the 2026 Woodstock Film Festival, where Street Smart screened to an enthusiastic audience response. “For him, that life was about found family; his friends were fun to be with and everybody had each other’s backs. It’s really an updated version of that Dickensian world, only these kids also have their own moral code, which includes stuff like, ‘You can steal phones, but not credit cards,’ ‘Only take from people that can afford it,’ and ‘Don’t do harm, and always give back.'”
Street Smart also follows Hardwicke’s longtime quest to discover and make stars out of emerging talent. Thirteen famously launched Nikki Reed’s career, while The Nativity Story was Oscar Isaac‘s first-ever feature film. And then Twilight turned Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson into global celebrities, and created one of the most successful YA romantasy franchises in recent memory. For Street Smart, Hardwicke cast new faces like Isiah Hilt — who modeled his character, Drex, after his own tumultuous childhood — and vlogger Miles McKenna alongside established actors like Marcia Gay Harden, Skeet Ulrich, and Yaya Shahidi.
“We’ve got a mix of real people and then someone like Marcia Gay Harden pops up,” Hardwicke says. “But that’s what it’s like living in Venice Beach; you can walk down the street and see a famous movie star sitting in a coffee shop, and then pass by someone with no place to live — and it all feels organic! You’ve got everything about L.A. right there.”
As the independently financed Street Smart continues its journey on the festival circuit, we spoke with Hardwicke about the paucity of female filmmakers in this year’s awards conversation, standing her ground when the studio wanted to make a very different version of Twilight, and giving Oscar Isaac his first job out of Juilliard.
From trash to treasure
Stephen King famously threw an early draft of Carrie in the garbage until his wife, Tabitha, rescued it — and America’s favorite boogeyman was born. Hardwicke imitated the author when Paramount sent her the first draft of the feature film version of Twilight, based on Stephenie Meyer’s 2005 novel that launched the immortal love story between Bella Swan (Stewart) and her vampire boyfriend, Edward Cullen (Pattinson). But the filmmaker also pulled a Tabitha by saving the project on her own terms.
“Paramount had developed a script that was more of an action movie,” she reveals. “They had Bella being chased by FBI agents on Jet Skis. I said, ‘This is not good — it goes right in the trash.’ The problem was that they wanted a four quadrant movie and horror wasn’t as big at that time, so they thought, ‘Let’s make it action,’ but that had nothing to do with the book!”
Hardwicke revamped the screenplay and took it to Summit Entertainment — now a subsidiary of Lionsgate — who agreed that turning it into an action movie wasn’t the answer. But they also didn’t necessarily see the version of the film that she saw on the page. “Romantasy wasn’t really a film genre at the time, but that’s what Stephanie did with her book — she told a dangerous love story,” the filmmaker says. “I told the Summit executives, ‘We need to make sure that the film has that sense of danger, and the giddy feeling that happens when you fall in love for the first time. That’s why girls and women are going crazy for the book.'”
“It was also a good challenge for me as a filmmaker,” Hardwicke continues. “Can I capture that sense of anticipation and passion among readers to see these two get together in the film? And, of course, Stephanie was thrilled to hear that I wanted to make a movie that was closer to her book instead of one involving FBI agents on Jet Skis.”
Hardwicke’s approach ensured that the film became every bit the phenomenon that the book was — to the tune of nearly $400 million at the global box office. But the filmmaker famously declined to continue on with the franchise through the next four Twilight installments, although she did stay in the romantasy genre she helped define with her follow-up, Red Riding Hood, starring Amanda Seyfried. Still, Hardwicke is always happy to discuss that first film, and even appeared at San Diego Comic-Con over the summer alongside the K-pop vampire group Enhypen, who take inspiration from Twilight.
Asked if she’d return to Forks, Wash., if Lionsgate decided to give the Twilight series a Hunger Games-style revival, Hardwicke indicates that she’d need to be given the freedom to put a fresh spin on the story — even if it means throwing another first draft in the trash. “It would be fun, but I would have to answer what would be the new thing to do with it,” she says. “Would it be before the first book? Would it be later? How would you add a new twist to it?” One thing’s for sure — no jet skiing vampires would be allowed.
Oscar’s origin
Hardwicke experienced her own miracle of sorts while preparing to make The Nativity Story, a biblical drama about Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph. En route to Europe to make the movie, the filmmaker stopped in New York to see a last-minute audition by a recent Juilliard graduate named Oscar Isaac.
“I walked into this dark theater, and he performed some scenes from the script,” she remembers. “By the time he was done, I was like, ‘This guy has to be Joseph.'” While she expected some pushback from New Line, they signed off on casting an unknown to appear opposite Oscar-nominated Whale Rider star Keisha Castle-Hughes as Mary. “I’m surprised they didn’t say, ‘No, Joseph has to be a movie star,'” she admits. But I told them how compelling he was in the audition — and just look at his career since.”
Set to celebrate its 20th anniversary in December, The Nativity Story tells its faith-based story with the same kind of grounded realism that Hardwicke brings to many of her films, from Lords of Dogtown to Street Smart. “For Dogtown we had a ’70s skateboard bootcamp, and for The Nativity Story we had Nazareth bootcamp,” she says. “The actors learned to milk goats, make cheese, and just live like people did when they didn’t have a phone or a television. It was a wild and beautiful experience.”
And that’s an experience that Hardwicke intends to replicate with the next film she hopes to make, American River, which takes place during the Gold Rush and focuses on a group of women trying to make their own fortune. “I’m from Texas, and I love that bad-ass Western spirit,” Hardwicke enthuses. “The thought of seeing these strong women doing that is pretty exciting.”
Wilde times
Hardwicke experienced her first trip through the awards circuit with Thirteen, which earned multiple festival prizes — including a directing award from Sundance — and two Indie Spirit nominations. She has similar ambitions for Street Smart, although she recognizes that’s a hard road to travel without studio backing.
“Thirteen was picked up by Fox Searchlight back in the day, and they put a nice amount of money into that awards campaign,” she recalls. “I’m in the Academy, so I go to FYC events all the time — all those fancy dinners and gift bags! — and I know it takes a lot of money. It’s a special thing that happens to be one out of every 25 movies that gets anointed to do that.”
This year, it hasn’t gone unnoticed that very few of the anointed class are films directed by women. Gold Derby’s own odds reveal that Olivia Wilde’s The Invite is the only film from a female director that’s in serious Oscar contention, and Hardwicke says she’s a fan of that dark comedy. “She did a great job,” the filmmaker says.
Still, the lack of other female-helmed contenders is a source of frustration for many prominent women in the industry. “That was a big deal at Venice,” Hardwicke notes of this year’s edition of the Venice Film Festival. “I was serving as a jury member in the short film competition, and there was a lot of talk about how there were very few films directed by female directors. So we still have to get in there and fight.”
