2000s-Present
Epstein and Friedman's next feature documentary Paragraph 175 premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Grand Jury Prize for Directing, and at the Berlin Film Festival where it won the FIPRESCI (International Film Critics Association Award).
In preparing to segue into narrative feature directing, Rob Epstein was accepted into the American Film Institute directing internship program where he was placed as a directing intern on Martha Coolidge's film Rambling Rose.
Epstein and Friedman were invited to be fellows at the Sundance Film Institute Writer's Lab with their project Howl about Allen Ginsberg's seminal 1955 poem of the same name. Howl opened the 2010 Sundance Film Festival as part of the dramatic competition. Filmed in New York in 14 days, Howl stars James Franco and features Jon Hamm, David Strathairn, Jeff Daniels, Mary-Louise Parker, Treat Williams, Alessandro Nivola, and Bob Balaban. Howl received the National Board of Review Freedom of Expression Award. It was also part of the official competition at the Berlin Film Festival.
Partnered with Friedman, Epstein's upcoming film is Lovelace, a biopic about porn star Linda Lovelace, starring Amanda Seyfried (Linda Lovelace), Peter Sarsgaard (Chuck Traynor), and James Franco (Hugh Hefner).
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