Kim Novak’s Vertigo (2025)

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Kim Novak Documentary Biopic ‘Kim Novak’s Vertigo’ Acquired by Dogwoof

Dogwoof has acquired world sales rights for Kim Novak documentary biopic “Kim Novak’s Vertigo,” directed and written by Alexandre O. Philippe.

“Kim Novak’s Vertigo,” which is a working title, is in post-production, and is due for delivery this fall. It marks Dogwoof’s fourth collaboration with Philippe, following “78/52,” “Memory: The Origins of Alien” and “Lynch/Oz.”

The film is an intimate portrait of the fiercely independent star, who left Hollywood behind to live life on her own terms, “revealing a haunting, resilient journey of art, identity and authenticity in the shadow of one of cinema’s most iconic roles,” according to Dogwoof.

The film will blend rare archival footage with personal reflections from Novak and glimpses into her reclusive life along Oregon’s wild Rogue River, and traces her path from mid-century cinema icon to fiercely private artist.

Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” remains her most iconic role, and the film explores how that performance — and the duality it captured — mirrors the ongoing tension between image and identity that shaped her life.

There has been a resurgence of media interest in Novak recently, following the announcement of Colman Domingo’s directorial debut, “Scandalous!,” starring Sydney Sweeney in the role of Novak and David Jonsson as Sammy Davis Jr.

Doc’s production company is Gull House Films. The producers are Terri Piñon and Philippe, and the executive producer is Sue Cameron. The director of photography is Robert Muratore. The second camera operator is Jeff Pointer. The editor is David Lawrence. The composer is Jon Hegel. Sound design and sound mixing is by Phillip Lloyd Hegel.

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The documentary will have its world premiere on Sept. 1st at VIFF

Novak, 92, most famous for her role in “Vertigo,” Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 masterwork, will be awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement on Sept. 1 at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, running Wednesday to Sept. 6. A documentary about her life, “Kim Novak’s Vertigo,” will have its world premiere at the festival that same day.

“Vertigo” was not a major hit when it was first released. Over time, it has come to be regarded, by some measurements, as the greatest film of all time.

For Alexandre O. Philippe, the director of “Kim Novak’s Vertigo,” his lifelong obsession with “Vertigo” originally prompted him to make a movie about the final scene in the tower. Instead, he shifted to documenting Novak’s life, but with an emphasis on her most high-profile role.

“I think that there’s a vulnerability that is inherent to Kim that played out in ‘Vertigo’ absolutely perfectly, and the movie gods put her on that path,” he said in a recent video interview. “She also talks very openly in my film about how vulnerable she is. Greta Garbo, who was also extremely vulnerable, was her idol. I think there are real parallel lives there.”

Despite living quite an isolated life, Novak agreed to start shooting the day after meeting him. Philippe had caught her at a moment when she was ready and able to look at her past “from a different perspective.”

“With this documentary, I was able to let out a lot of feelings, and there were things that needed to get out and needed to be said,” Novak explained. “I felt it was an opportunity to document my life, and I was expressing a lot of ghosts in my past.”

After Venice, the film will go on to play the Deauville American Film Festival in France in early September, which she will also attend to receive another lifetime achievement award.

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92-year-old Kim Novak received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival, where the documentary also premiered today.

She was welcomed with a warm protracted ovation before Guillermo del Toro took the stage to deliver a glowing tribute.

Novak, 92, became the world’s top box office draw during the late ‘50s and early ‘60s thanks to films now considered classics such as Joshua Logan’s “Picnic” (1955), Otto Preminger’s “The Man with the Golden Arm” (1955), George Sidney’s Pal Joey (1957) and, of course, Alfred Hitchock’s “Vertigo” (1958), in which she plays dual characters in the role of her lifetime.

As part of the tribute, Venice premiered the documentary biopic “Kim Novak’s Vertigo,” directed and written by Alexandre O. Philippe. The doc blends rare archival footage with personal reflections from Novak and glimpses into her reclusive life along Oregon’s wild Rogue River, tracing “her path from mid-century cinema icon to fiercely private artist,” as the doc’s synopsis puts it.

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