Director Joseph Kosinski ’96 recounts path to cinema at ‘F1’ FLiCKS screening

Students escaped chilly weather on Sunday by attending the most recent FLiCKS showing — a free film screening tradition at Stanford that began in 1939 and was revived in 2024. The latest installment was a screening of “F1: The Movie” (2025), which tells the story of Sonny Hayes (Brad Pitt), a veteran American racing driver getting behind the wheel again after a career-ending crash.

The screening was followed by Q&A with director Joseph Kosinski ’96, an 11-time Oscar nominee best known for directing “Top Gun: Maverick,” (2022), “Tron: Legacy” (2011), “Oblivion,” (2013), “Only the Brave” (2017) and “Spiderhead” (2022). “F1” has been nominated for four Academy Awards this year, including Best Picture.

Chatter and anticipation filled Cemex Auditorium as attendees filed in. FLiCKS co-director Daniel Rashes ’26 kicked off the night, joining Kosinski in welcoming the audience.

Kosinski shared that he was once a FLiCKS attendee: “I saw ‘True Romance’ here with a girl from my dorm who would soon be my wife,” he said. The Stanford meet-cute story won cheers and applause from the audience.

Once the lights dimmed, the movie played to a packed theater. The night realized student organizers’ efforts to ensure Kosinski would experience a hall full of students watching his Oscar-nominated film at his alma mater.

“Being in an audience full of hundreds of your peers and hearing people laugh or gasp or the seats creak as everyone leans forwards in intense moments — that’s what makes FLiCKS, and that’s what makes it so satisfying as its organizer,” Rashes said. 

After running for decades, the FliCKS tradition became defunct in 2012 due to the effects of streaming services. With the help of Sophia Danielpour ’24, then-president of the ASSU, Rashes and then-ASSU social chair Annie Reller ’24 brought the program back in spring 2024 with showings of “Saltburn” and other films, continuing with a showing of “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery” last year.

Hanna Carlsson ’27, another FLiCKS co-director, described “constantly battling Stanford flake culture” to guarantee audience turnout. 

According to Carlsson, FliCKS has become increasingly creative with its publicity, from serving free Street Meat catering at screenings to offering merch matching the evening’s movie, including red Stanford underwear for a 2024 screening of the “The Social Network” (2010). For this year’s screening, inspired by SharkNinja sponsoring Sonny Hayes’ racing team in “F1,” the FLiCKS team raffled off some SharkNinja merchandise to eight lucky attendees and the two dorms with the highest attendance. 

“We’ve had to get creative, but it seems to be paying off,” Carlsson said. 

During the Q&A, Kosinski recalled a circuitous path to filmmaking. He originally hoped to major in aerospace, but took the mechanical engineering course ME 103: “Product Realization: Design and Making,” which motivated his pivot to film. During the course, the professor suggested that Kosinski, with his keen eye for design, should look beyond the world of engineering to do something creative.

It was “what I needed to hear at that point in my life,” Kosinski said. 

Despite being immersed in the world of filmmaking, his engineering background served him well working on films like “Tron: Legacy,” which prominently featured built structures and practical effects. For Kosinski, though, a film “always starts with story and character.” Visual effects and scenes with fast cars are secondary. “If the audience isn’t invested in the story and characters, none of that means anything,” he said.

After graduating from Stanford, Kosinski attended Columbia University to study architecture. One of his films showcasing his architectural work was accepted into a local festival, the first time he saw his work on the big screen. His career only accelerated from there. 

Kosinski later landed a job directing a Nike commercial. Through that project, he met director David Fincher, whose connections led Kosinski to “F1.” Directing didn’t come without its challenges. Not only did the 2023 Hollywood strikes delay the movie’s production, but long before “F1,” Kosinski often faced rejections, submitting 26 commercials with no luck. He was unemployed for 18 months. 

To succeed in the entertainment industry, “You have to be obsessive,” Kosinski said. He recalled childhood memories of taking months or even years to assemble model planes. That same obsessiveness permeates his work ethic now, he said. 

“It takes an iron stomach to do this job … you have to love it, and I love it,” Kosinski said.

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