Anna Thomas

Anna Thomas (born July 12, 1948) is a German-born American author, screenwriter, and film producer. She is best known as the author of the 1972 vegetarian cookbook, ''The Vegetarian Epicure'', which contributed to the rise of the vegetarian movement of the 1970s. She is currently Discipline Head of the Screenwriting department at the American Film Institute.

Education

While at the film school at UCLA Thomas wrote, produced and directed her master's thesis film, a dramatic feature titled '' The Haunting of M'', a turn of the century ghost story, shot in Scotland. It was well received by film critics and shown at festivals and art houses.

The Vegetarian Epicure

She wrote her first cookbook ''The Vegetarian Epicure'' (1972) while still a film student at UCLA. It had a strong impact on the natural foods movement within the American counterculture. As noted in ''The Roanoke Times'', "for many of the young people turning to vegetarianism in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Anna Thomas was the guru in their kitchens." Thomas later said that while she was a student at UCLA, she "wasn't eating much meat," and thus was focusing on vegetarian cooking. However, she states that there "weren't any good vegetarian cookbooks then. So I was just making things up in 1968 and '69, and somebody said, `Gee, Anna, you're such a good cook, you should write a cookbook.' And when you are 19 or 20 you say, `Yeah, OK, I think I will,' and then you do."Revisiting the `Vegetarian Epicure'
/ref> The success of the book was due to the fact that it turned away from the ascetic approach found in American vegetarian cookbooks, and its ability to introduce pleasure to American vegetarian meals.

Additional cookbooks

Thomas has also published four additional cookbooks. Her next two books were also vegetarian: ''The Vegetarian Epicure, Book Two'' (1978) and ''The New Vegetarian Epicure'' (1996). However, her final two books included a mix of vegetarian and vegan recipes: ''Love Soup,'' and the ''Vegan Vegetarian Omnivore'' (which also included meat-based dishes).

Film work

In 1973, Thomas worked with fellow film student Gregory Nava on his master's thesis film, a dramatic feature set in the Middle Ages, '' The Confessions of Amans''. It was the beginning of a writing collaboration that has spanned more than two decades.

In 1984, Thomas co-wrote and produced '' El Norte'' with Nava directing. The film was a critical success. Thomas and Nava were nominated for an Academy Award and the film collected honors at various film festivals. In 1995, it was elected to the National Film Registry for the Library of Congress.

Thomas produced ''A Time of Destiny'' for Columbia Pictures in 1988 and worked for the studio on a few writing jobs.

She returned to the independent film world in 1995 with ''My Family'', a multi-generational Mexican-American family story set in East Los Angeles which Thomas co-wrote and produced.

Today

Thomas lives in Ojai, California and Los Angeles, where she continues to write screenplays and other fiction. She is the Screenwriting Discipline head at the American Film Institute.AFI
faculty biographical information page.

Cookbooks

Vegetarian
* ''The Vegetarian Epicure'' Alfred A. Knopf, 1972, 305 pages. .
* ''The Vegetarian Epicure, Book Two'' Alfred A. Knopf, 1978, 401 pages. .
* ''The New Vegetarian Epicure'' Alfred A. Knopf, 1996, 450 pages. .
Vegetarian and Vegan
* ''Love Soup'' W. W. Norton & Company, 2009, 528 pages. .
*''Vegan Vegetarian Omnivore: Dinner for Everyone at the Table.'' W. W. Norton & Company, 2016, 496 pages. .

Screenwriting filmography

* '' The Confessions of Amans'' (1977)
* '' The Haunting of M'' (1981), also produced
* ''The End of August'' (1982)
* '' El Norte'' (1983), also produced
* ''A Time of Destiny'' (1988), also produced
* '' My Family/Mi Familia'' (1995), also produced
* ''Frida'' (2002)

Awards and nominations

Nominated

* Academy Awards: Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, for '' El Norte'' (1983).IMDB Awards and Nominations
/ref>
* Writers Guild of America: Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, for ''El Norte'' (1983).

Won

* James Beard Foundation Award: Best Healthy Focus Cookbook, for ''Love Soup'' (2010).James Beard Foundation Award
/ref>

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Anna

1948 births
20th-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American non-fiction writers
21st-century American women writers
20th-century American women writers
American cookbook writers
American film producers
American screenwriters
American vegetarianism activists
American women screenwriters
German emigrants to the United States
American women film producers
American women non-fiction writers
Living people
Vegetarian cookbook writers
Vegetarian cookbooks