Biography

Panos Cosmatos is known for Mandy (2018), Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010) and Tombstone (1993).

High film grain

"Panaflares", the process of aiming small LED lights into the barrel of the lens to "soften" and make the frame look "milky".

Campfire scene

Characters speaking slowly and strangely

Characters using LSD

Son of director George P. Cosmatos.

He funded Beyond the Black Rainbow (2010) primarily by royalties from his father's film Tombstone (1993).

Out of all the films directed by his father, Panos' favorite is Of Unknown Origin (1983).

When we moved to Victoria it was the first time I'd been in a video store. I loved going in but my parents wouldn't let me watch the R-rated movies. So I'd just read the back of the box and imagine what it was like. It was at that point I really fell in love with the idea of the imagined movie - a movie that only exists in my head.

[on 'Beyond the Black Rainbow'] The whole thing was put together in a stream-of-consciousness way. I was dealing with the grief and regret of losing my parents in some strange, abstracted way. I was also looking at the '80s and what happened to the baby-boomer generation, and its connection to to the '60s, because there is a connection there.

I'm too neurotic to ever feel good. If I ever felt good, I think something horrible would happen.