Elijah Bynum
Elijah Bynum (birthname: Elijah Jordan Bynum) has received acclaim and notable festival launches (including South by Southwest and Sundance festivals) for his independent feature films as director/writer, beginning with the crime drama, Hot Summer Nights (2017), starring Timothée Chalamet, Maika Monroe, William Fichtner and Thomas Jane, and premiering at the South by Southwest Film Festival before a limited released by A24.
Bynum was director/writer of the intense psychological drama about an emotionally disturbed bodybuilder, Magazine Dreams (2023), starring Jonathan Majors, with Haley Bennett and Taylor Paige, and released wide in 2025 by Briarcliff Entertainment after premiering in competition in the 2023 edition of the Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Creative Vision award from the U.S. Dramatic Narrative jury (and after Searchlight had secured distribution rights in a Sundance bidding war only to drop it in the fallout of publicized accusations of abuse against Majors).
Bynum has also been a produced screenwriter—apart from his directorial projects—with Netflix’s horror movie (with credited co-writer David Coggeshall), The Deliverance (2024), starring Andra Day, Glenn Close, Aujanue Ellis-Taylor and Mo’Nique under producer Lee Daniels’ direction, and the sci-fi drama directed by Justin Chon, Capsule, produced and released by 20th Century Studios.
Personal life
Elijah Bynum was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, and raised in Pelham and Amherst, Massachusetts, by parents Alyse and Edward Bynum. Bynum has one brother Ezra. Bynum attended schools in Amherst (including Amherst Regional High School) and attended and graduated from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2009 with a B.A. degree in marketing and economics while playing on the defensive squad for the UMass football team. Bynum’s height is 5’ 11”.
Known For
Elijah Bynum Movies
Writer
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Magazine Dreams
An amateur bodybuilder battles both the limits of his physical body and his own inner demons to gain recognition.
Facts About Elijah Bynum
Casting Idea: Elijah Bynum spotted a movie poster on a bus while driving in Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley displaying a large image of actor Jonathan Majors—and immediately conceived of the actor portraying his troubled bodybuilder main character in his script for Magazine Dreams.
