Set during Christmastime in 1950s New York, Todd Haynes’ adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt centers on shy, aspiring photographer Therese Belivet (Academy Award nominee Rooney Mara), whose world changes when she meets the elegant Carol Aird (two-time Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett). As Carol struggles to maintain custody of her daughter amid a heated divorce, she and Therese develop a secret-yet-passionate romance that changes them both irrevocably.

Often identified with the New Queer Cinema movement of the early 1990s, Todd Haynes is a director, screenwriter, and producer. His early work includes the short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987), which has since become a cult classic, and his feature directorial debut, Poison (1991), which won the Sundance Film Festival's Grand Jury Prize and the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film.  The filmmaker followed this success with Safe (1995), a psychological drama about a suburban housewife, and Velvet Goldmine (1998), a tribute to the glam rock scene of the 1970s and winner of the Special Jury Prize for Best Artistic Contribution at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival.  Haynes received his first Academy Award nomination for Far from Heaven (2002) and has since directed many more widely acclaimed features, including I'm Not There (2007), Carol (2015), Wonderstruck (2017), Dark Waters (2019), and May December (2023), as well as the documentary film The Velvet Underground (2011). Haynes also directed and co-wrote Mildred Pierce, a 2011 HBO miniseries that garnered him three Primetime Emmy Award nominations.