The Holdovers Filming Locations: Where Exactly Was The Movie Shot
The Holdovers, the 2023 period drama centered on a curmudgeonly teacher and his students, unfolds in the crisp, autumnal landscapes of New England. While the story feels rooted in intimate classroom drama and personal healing, much of that atmosphere is provided by a series of carefully chosen real-world locations. This article details the specific sites used for principal photography, from storied academic halls to rural villages, explaining how each place contributed to the film’s authentic and immersive historical setting.
The production design and location scouting were integral to capturing the 1970 setting with precision. Director David Hemingson and production designer John Paino worked to create environments that felt lived-in and true to the era, avoiding the sterility of generic backlots. The result is a visual tapestry that seamlessly blends institutional austerity with the quiet beauty of the Massachusetts countryside, drawing the audience directly into the world of the film.
The primary filming location is the imposing and historic campus of Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. This private college preparatory school provided the physical embodiment of Barton Academy, the fictional New England boarding school at the heart of the narrative. The production leveraged the campus's classic New England architecture—its red brick buildings, tree-lined quadrangles, and ivy-covered walls—to create an immediate sense of authenticity.
Specific buildings on the Phillips Academy campus were utilized for different key scenes. The production transformed common areas and classrooms into the main hangout for the students, filling them with the clutter and artifacts of the 1970s. Production designer John Paino discussed the challenge of making these familiar spaces feel specific and grounded. "We were really trying to nail the specificity of the '70s," Paino noted, "not just the aesthetic, but the feeling of the time, the clutter, the way people dressed and interacted in those rooms."
The village of Andover itself, with its traditional Main Street and surrounding areas, was also utilized for exterior shots. Local businesses and streetscapes were temporarily dressed to represent the town surrounding the school. This integration of the campus with the neighboring community helped to blur the lines between the insular world of the academy and the wider society, even if just for the duration of the shoot.
While Phillips Academy provided the central academic stage, the production needed a location to represent the home of the school’s headmaster, Dr. Woodburn. This pivotal private residence needed to convey a sense of history, wealth, and isolation, setting it apart from the school environment. The production found a suitable stand-in in a stately home located in a neighboring area of Massachusetts.
This private residence was used for the film’s more intimate and dramatic sequences involving Dr. Woodburn. The choice of a singular, grand house allowed for controlled lighting and camera work, essential for the film’s more personal, dialogue-heavy moments. The contrast between the warm, lived-in interiors of the headmaster’s house and the often colder, institutional feel of the academy underscored the different worlds the characters inhabited.
The production did not rely solely on grand institutional buildings. To create the film’s winter scenes, particularly those involving car troubles and snowy walks, the production team looked to the rural roads and dense woods of central Massachusetts. These locations provided the necessary isolation and raw natural beauty required for the story’s more tense and atmospheric moments.
Shooting in these rural settings came with its own set of logistical and environmental challenges. The production had to coordinate with local authorities and manage the logistical difficulty of transporting equipment onto remote roads. However, the payoff was a visual authenticity that studio sets could not replicate. The crunch of snow underfoot, the muffling silence of a winter forest, and the stark beauty of the New England winter landscape are all captured largely because of these on-location shoots.
Specific rural towns in Massachusetts, though not always explicitly named in location credits, served as the backdrop for these key sequences. The production likely utilized a combination of public roads and private properties to achieve the necessary look. These locations were crucial in establishing the film’s sense of geography, showing the characters navigating a vast, often indifferent, natural world.
The choice to shoot on location in New England was not merely aesthetic; it was fundamental to the film’s truthfulness. The Holdovers is a story deeply concerned with place and the ways in which environment shapes character. The cold, clear air of an Upstate New York winter, replicated in Massachusetts, becomes a character in itself, reflecting the internal states of Paul Hunham and his students. The physical distance from the hustle and bustle of a major studio lot allowed the cast and crew to inhabit the world of the story more completely.
This commitment to location also extends to the smaller details that build the film’s world. Prop departments sourced period-specific items that would have been found in a New England prep school during the 1970s, from textbooks to furniture. The combination of authentic architecture, natural winter scenery, and meticulously detailed interiors creates a cohesive and believable universe. The locations provide the canvas, and the filmmakers paint a deeply human story upon it.
Ultimately, the success of The Holdovers' setting is a testament to the power of thoughtful location management. By utilizing the real historical and geographical specificities of Phillips Academy and the Massachusetts countryside, the filmmakers avoided the trap of creating a generic "prestige school" backdrop. Instead, they crafted a world that feels tangible and lived-in, where the landscape and the architecture actively inform the story of redemption and connection.
