After a minor auto accident involving one of their children, the Lovings decide to slip back into Virginia, settling in a remote portion of King and Queen County, while their case moves through the courts.

On April 6, 2009, while filming John Doyle's Main Street (2010) in Durham, North Carolina,[109][110] Colin Firth had stumbled upon the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, before being introduced to filmmaker Nancy Buirski.

[111] Buirski herself had recently read the obituary of Mildred Loving in The New York Times,[112][113][114][115] and spoke to Firth about her plans on making a documentary about the couple.

"[111] On April 29, 2011, after a successful Kickstarter campaign,[119] Buirski's The Loving Story was shown at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival,[120] before a release of February 14, 2012, on HBO,[121] to which it received universal acclaim.

"[148][149][150] On September 22, 2015, Variety officially reported that Michael Shannon had been cast to play Grey Villet, the Life Magazine photographer who shot the iconic images of the Lovings in 1965, as well as Nick Kroll in an as-of-yet unnamed role.

[151][152][153] In addition to Shannon and Kroll, on September 22, 2015, Bill Camp, Marton Csokas, and Jon Bass were cast as Frank Beazley, Sheriff Brooks, and Phil Hirschkop, respectively.

[158] On May 20, 2016, during a Q&A session at Cannes when asked of the film's focus, Nichols speaks of the topics of race and marriage inequality, wherein he states, "... the conversation about racism in the US is finally starting to get serious.

[160] On October 21, 2016, Nichols was interviewed by The Hollywood Reporter, to which he spoke of the film being an important subject matter, as well as stating it to be a "foundational part of our American history.

[196][197][198][199] He used Panavision G-Series anamorphic lenses, to which he attributes part of the effectiveness for the high shot looking down on Richard as he proposes to Mildred in a grassy field.

"[209] Benach acknowledged the difficulties in portraying time passing in a naturalistic, authentic way, though remarks the subtly shift the fashion to which he adheres to as one wouldn't wish for "... the audience to be noticing the costume changes as they happen.

"[215] Keith spoke of Adam Stone and his experiences finding existing locations that were shootable, and once found both men spent a lot of time scouting.

They just want to be together ...",[200] while stating he's learnt a great deal from both Nichols and Stone in the designing for the anamorphic frame to which he concludes, "My goal is always to do my very best to give them a 360-degree look if the money allows.

"[200] The Lovings' actual house in King and Queen County was deemed too small to film in, which resulted in Stone's discovery of a stand-alone farmhouse built in the 1920s south of Richmond.

[226][227][228] Wingo remarked that the score for Loving needed to be "elemental and simple to a certain degree while avoiding any sentimentality to capture the grace and beauty of Richard and Mildred.

"[232] Nichols spoke of influences No Country For Old Men (2007) afforded to him, such as giving him an answer to a question relating to a dolly,[200] by which cinematographer Adam Stone and key grip Rocky Ford used a great rig accompanied with a jib arm and a remote head: an approach used by Roger Deakins.

"[245] Cinematographer Adam Stone mentioned that Nichols and he referenced films they saw growing up, specifically that of '80s Steven Spielberg in which the characters are stacked into triangles in the wide and deep anamorphic frame,[200] to which Stone makes a reference to the scene where Richard has been protesting for the release of Mildred at the County courthouse: "We do a massive focus rack toward the [Sheriff's voice], and our attention now shifts to the Sheriff, watching Joel over his shoulder in the same frame.

""[68] Edgerton spoke of Nichols' aim to strike a "sense of authenticity and truth" in Loving, with the actor himself remarking his and Negga's attempt to try to look, sound, and act as close as possible to the way Richard and Mildred really were.

[259][260] The Huffington Post's Zeba Blay described the trailer as "breathtaking", while noting it to be a beautiful testimony to the concept of love verses racial divide.

[261] The New York Times's Mekado Murphy stated that the trailer "suggests the film will make a strong case for Oscar consideration a year after the Academy was the subject of blistering criticism for its all-white slate of acting nominees.

"[262] Time's Eliza Berman wrote that the trailer "offers a glimpse of a simple life violently interrupted by a sheriff with a flashlight in the middle of the night.

[309][310] Loving opened to an estimated $169,000 from four theaters for a per screen average of $42,250, the year's fifth highest PTA debut, after Moonlight (2016) ($100,519), Don't Think Twice (2016) ($92,835), the re-release of Howards End (1992) ($52,568), and The Lobster (2015) ($47,563),[311][312] making it No.

1 at the platform box office in its weekend, with its average beating Doctor Strange (2016), Arrival (2016), Hacksaw Ridge (2016), Moonlight (2016), and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016).

[331] In its fifth weekend, Nichols' Loving was toppled, in limited release box office, by Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester By the Sea (2016), with the film subsequently falling by 41% to the No.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Loving takes an understated approach to telling a painful—and still relevant—real-life tale, with sensitive performances breathing additional life into a superlative historical drama.

[351][352] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post heralded the film and its director, Jeff Nichols, by stating: "Rather than deliver a rote—if rousing—rehearsal of the facts of the Lovings' case, [Nichols] makes the counterintuitive decision to allow them to live in front of the camera", with Hornaday continuing by praising him as "too astute a filmmaker to be unaware of the analogies "Loving" invites regarding marriage equality, but he wisely leaves agendas and polemics behind.

"[353] Stephanie Zacharek of Time called it "beautifully restrained" and wrote, "Nichols ... tells the Lovings' story in a way that feels immediate and modern, and not just like a history lesson.

"[355] Peter Debruge of Variety praised Edgerton and Negga's performances as "powerful" and "uplifts [Nichols'] sensitive portrait of a mixed-race marriage forbidden in 1958 Virginia".

"[360] In her review for The New York Times, Manohla Dargis wrote, "[Nichols'] most distinct aesthetic choice is the movie's quietness and the hush that envelops its first scene and that eventually defines the Lovings as much as their accents, gestures, manners and battles.

"[363] Geoffrey Macnab of The Independent called Loving "a quiet film but a powerful and uplifting one – an intimate domestic drama in which the protagonists themselves hardly seem to notice their own historical role".

[371] When the SAG-AFTRA announced the nominations honoring the best achievements in film on December 14, many media, including The Hollywood Reporter,[372] Variety,[373] Entertainment Weekly,[374] USA Today,[375] TheWrap,[376] and Indiewire,[377] criticized Loving's omission.