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 The Northwest Film Center and the Oregon Arts Commission announced filmmakers Kurtis Hough and Alain LeTourneau as the winners of the 2014 Oregon Media Arts Fellowship.  The public announcement was made on the occasion of the February 6th screening of the work of 2011 Fellow, Elijah Hasan at the Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium.

The Media Arts Fellowship supports Oregon filmmakers who have demonstrated an ongoing commitment to the media arts. Jurors Enie Vaisburd, an independent filmmaker as well as Media Arts Instructor at Pacific University in Forest Grove and Matt Schulte, indie filmmaker and Digital Strategist with the Metropolitan Group, reviewed 19 submissions from applicants throughout the state, weighing artistic merit, the potential of the proposed activity to advance a given artistʹs work, and the feasibility of the projects proposed. The two 2014 winners will split a $5000 Fellowship which is funded solely by the Oregon Arts Commission. The Film Center continues to seek additional funders for the 2015 Fellowship. In previous years, the Fellowship has awarded as much as $15,000 to Oregon-based makers.

LeTourneau, a photographer and filmmaker is the co-founder of 40frames.org, a 16mm conservation initiative. His work has been exhibited internationally, including showings at Anthology Film Archives, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, Film Studies Center at University of Chicago, Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center, International House Philadelphia, Images Festival (Toronto), Los Angeles Filmforum, Portland Art Museum, San Francisco Cinematheque, Unknown Pleasures (Berlin) and Vancouver International Film Centre.

LeTourneau’s Fellowship project, titled REAL ESTATE, “is a feature-length experimental documentary that explores how current trends in home financing and development have dictated the level of commitment to energy conservation, limited the visual character of urban Portland, and restricted affordable housing. The formal approach of REAL ESTATE employs long takes accompanied by select voice-over excerpts from recorded interviews,” states LeTourneau.

Kurtis Hough has, in the past ten years, completed 20 short films with more than 75 screenings locally and internationally in film festivals, art galleries, television and over a million viewers online. Hough’s Fellowship project, titled TO SEE MORE LIGHT, is a fifteen-minute film capturing live action footage of lava combined with computer-generated imagery. “My goal is to explore the movements and forms that flowing lava produce, and creatively illustrate how that structure relates to the flow of life on earth,” Hough explains. “This project is the next step in my experiments with varying visual techniques, including 3D computer animation and aerial video photography. I am always looking for fresh, new ways to create compelling cinematic experiences and the creation of this film will build on all the skills I’ve learned from each film I’ve made and shape the possibilities of future works.”

Jurors Schulte and Vaisburd were astonished by the field of applicants and wished they could help fund many more of the projects presented. 

“Oregon filmmakers are percolating some ambitious ideas out there in both form and content. I was struck by how many applicants were tying their filmmaking to the very real world the films are created in, whether that be through a lens of social justice, contemplative space, or our historical roots.”—Matt Schulte

“It was inspiring to see so many worthwhile projects by Oregon media makers. There is breadth and depth both formally and in subject matter. I hope all applicants will keep working toward getting their projects realized. It was great to see so much thoughtfulness, creativity and vision!”—Enie Vaisburd

The application deadline for the 2015 Oregon Media Arts Fellowships is October 1, 2014. Application information is available from the Northwest Film Center, www.nwfilm.org; or by contacting Thomas Phillipson, thomas@nwfilm.org, or the Oregon Arts Commission, www.oregonartscommission.org.

The Northwest Film Center is a regional media arts organization offering a variety of exhibition, education programs, and artist services throughout the region.  The Center presents a program of foreign, classic, experimental, and independent works year-round at the Whitsell Auditorium, located in the Portland Art Museum.  For more information, visit www.nwfilm.org.

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The Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the appointment of Lesli Klainberg as Executive Director and Eugene Hernandez as Deputy Director, a newly created post at the organization. Klainberg has been in place as the Film Society’s Interim Executive Director since December, and will now officially take the helm. Both will also assume the role of Co-Publisher for Film Comment magazine.

Ann Tenenbaum, the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Board Chairman said, “It is especially gratifying to us to select the Film Society’s new leadership team from within our own ranks. Lesli has a deep appreciation of our mission and we are confident that, together with Eugene, she will build on the success we have realized in recent years.”

Lesli Klainberg was Managing Director of the Film Society for almost two years and produced the last three New York Film Festivals, prior to her appointment as Interim Executive Director in December. Before joining the Film Society, Lesli was the Executive Director of NewFest, New York’s LGBT Film Festival, and also worked as a Consulting Producer for the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program and as the Producer of IFP’s Independent Film Week Forum. In 2009, she was named Co-Leader of IFP’s weeklong Documentary Finishing Lab, and held this post for three years. Klainberg is a Founding National Board member of GLAAD and a former Board member of both Outfest and NewFest.

Klainberg is also an award-winning producer and director of independent documentaries through her production company, Orchard Films. Her film credits include the acclaimed Paul Monette: The Brink of Summer’s End, Miss America, In the Company of Women, Indie Sex, and the 2013 PGA Award–nominatedA Place at the Table, as well as other documentaries for IFC, AMC, PBS, and A&E. 

In his new role as Deputy Director, Eugene Hernandez will oversee all strategy and operations for the organization, including partner relations, community and industry initiatives, educational outreach, and overall administrative duties for year-round programs and theater operations. He will also work closely with the Film Comment team on expanding their digital platforms and content offerings.   

Hernandez joined the organization in 2010 as the Director of Digital Strategy, where he oversaw numerous new initiatives, including the re-launch of the organization’s website, FilmLinc.com; the creation of the digital publication FilmLinc Daily; the management and growth of all social media platforms; and the introduction of integrating streaming video content for the organization. He also worked closely with Associate Director of Operations and Programmer for Convergence, Matt Bolish, on a year-round Convergence program, launched at the New York Film Festival, the new home for immersive media and transmedia in New York.

Prior to joining the Film Society, Hernandez co-founded Indiewire in 1996. In his 12 years as Editor in Chief, he built the company into the leading online community and editorial publication for independent and international film. Winner of two Webby Awards for Best Film Website, Indiewire was lauded as a “must read” by Variety, branded the “online heartbeat of the world’s independent film community” by Forbes, and dubbed the “best indie crossroads” by Roger Ebert. SnagFilms acquired the company in 2008.

Michael Gibbons, Manager of Digital Strategy, has been promoted and will step into the role of Director of Digital Platforms, to oversee the Film Society’s Web and mobile initiatives, with the continued mission to support the organizations programming, and to reach a broad and diverse audience. He will continue to evolve and enhance the experience on multiple screens and platforms, providing seamless access to content and programming through FilmLinc.com and FilmComment.com, and to develop long-term strategy for the future on existing and emerging digital platforms.

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San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) and Kenneth Rainin Foundation (KRF) have selected 15 finalists for the latest round of SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grants; more than $300,000 will be awarded to one or more narrative feature film projects at any stage of production. SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grants are awarded twice annually to narrative films that will have significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community. More than $2 million has been awarded since the launch of the Film Society’s flagship grant program in 2009. Winners of the spring 2014 SFFS / KRF Grants will be announced in late April. 

Past SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grant winners include Kat Candler’s Hellion and Ira Sachs’ Love is Strange, both of which premiered to strong reviews at Sundance 2014; Short Term 12, Destin Cretton’s sophomore feature which won both the Narrative Grand Jury Award and Audience Award at South by Southwest 2013; Ryan Coogler’s debut feature Fruitvale Station, which won the 2014 Film Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature, the Un Certain Regard Avenir Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, and both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the narrative category at Sundance 2013; and Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin’s debut phenomenon which won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize and Cannes’ Camera d’Or in 2012 and earned four Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture).

“This is always an exciting time of year, when we get an early look at so many impressive projects at every stage of production,” said Michele Turnure-Salleo, director of Filmmaker360. “The talent on display here is inspiring, and it’s great to see so many new faces in the mix among the filmmakers we’ve worked with before. I’m particularly struck by the breadth of range in the subjects of these finalist projects, and it is immensely satisfying to see the increasingly international reach of our flagship grant program.”

SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grants are made possible by the vision and generosity of the Kenneth Rainin Foundation. In addition to the cash grant, recipients will receive various benefits through Filmmaker360, the San Francisco Film Society’s comprehensive and dynamic filmmaker services program. These benefits, customized to every individual production, can include one-on-one project consultations and project feedback, additional fundraising assistance, resource and service recommendations, and networking opportunities, among many others. For more information visit sffs.org/Filmmaker360/Grants.

SPRING 2014 SFFS / KRF FILMMAKING GRANT FINALISTS

Ad Inexplorata
Mark Elijah Rosenberg, director; Josh Penn, producer — postproduction
Captain Stanaforth is a NASA pilot alone on a one-way mission toward the unknown. 

Afronauts
Frances Bodomo, writer/director — screenwriting
In March 1965, the U.S. and the USSR rush to get the first man on the moon. Thousands of miles away, the Zambia Space Academy hopes to enter the race with their “spacegirl” Matha Mwamba. Based on true events. For more information visit afronautsfilm.com.

Betamax
Terrie Samundra, writer/director; Xandra Castleton, producer — packaging
With the release of the first home video camcorder, a teenage Sikh boy and a squatter punk girl become unlikely friends and filmmaking collaborators. It’s complicated, but so is London, which is at the brink of race riots and a punk youth uprising in the summer of 1976. For more information visit terriesamundra.com.

Black Metal
Kat Candler, writer/director — screenwriting
After a career spent mining his music from the shadows, the lead singer of a metal band and his family experience a chain reaction of turmoil following the murderous actions of a teenage fan. For more information visit candlerproductions.com.

Chickenshit
Jessica dela Merced, writer/director — screenwriting
In struggling Detroit, a lonely middle-school girl befriends a daring group of boys who adventure through the ruins of the once majestic city. With their help, she devises a plan to track down and capture the arsonists responsible for a recent string of fires, including the one that claimed the life of her father. For more information visit jessdelamerced.com.

Clash
Mohamed Diab, writer/director — screenwriting
In the wake of the recent Egyptian military coup, Hayman — a jaded, claustrophobic revolutionary — is stuck in an overcrowded truck with clashing brotherhood and military supporters. Engulfed in hatred and violence, he must learn to reconcile his love for Egypt in order to survive.

Five Nights in Maine
Maris Curran, writer/director/producer; Carly Hugo, producer — production
A young African American man, reeling from the tragic loss of his wife, travels to rural Maine to seek answers from his estranged mother-in-law, who is herself confronting guilt and grief over her daughter’s death.

The Fixer
Ian Olds, cowriter/director; Paul Felten, cowriter; Caroline von Kuhn and Lily Whitsitt, producers — preproduction
An Afghan journalist is exiled from his war-torn country to a small bohemian community in Northern California. When he attempts to turn his menial job on the local police blotter into “Afghan-style” coverage of local crime, he gets drawn into the underworld of this small town — a shadow Northern California where sex is casual, true friendship is hard to come by, and an unfamiliar form of violence burbles up all around him. For more information visit fixerthefilm.com.

IO
Clay Jeter, writer/director; Jason Berman, producer — production
One of the last survivors on a post-cataclysmic Earth, the idealistic daughter of a famous scientist races to find a cure for her poisoned world before the final Exodus shuttle abandons the planet forever. 

Mobile Homes
Vladimir de Fontenay, cowriter/director; Danielle Lessovitz, cowriter — screenwriting
A young runaway must decide between defending the life she knows with the man she loves and protecting her young son from them both. For more information visit vladimirdefontenay.com.

Oscillate Wildly
Travis Matthews, cowriter/director; Keith Wilson, cowriter/producer — packaging
When his disability check arrives much reduced, a hot-headed young gay man with cerebral palsy is forced to confront the disability he has let define his whole being. For more information visit travisdmathews.com.

The Other Kids
Chris Brown, director/producer — postproduction
The Other Kids takes a raw, intimate look into the struggles of six small-town teenagers as they push through their final days of high school. 

Our Lady of the Snow
Tom Gilroy, writer/director — Screenwriting
When the Bishop decides to sell a gothic convent isolated in the snowy woods, the elderly nuns living there begin to have ecstatic visions, which he dismisses as faked. But as the visions spread to the convent’s teenaged atheist cook, inexplicable supernatural events follow, with no one sure of their cause. 

Patti Cake$
Geremy Jasper, writer/director/composer; Dan Janvey, producer — packaging 
Patricia Baccio, aka Patti Cake$, is a big girl with a big mouth and big dreams of rap superstardom. Stuck in Lodi, New Jersey, Patti battles an army of haters as she strives to break the mold and take over the rap game. For more information visit welcometolegs.com.

Snow the Jones
Alistair Banks Griffin, writer/director/producer — production
When teenage vagabond Lexi joins a traveling door-to-door sales crew, she discovers a world much darker than the one from which she was trying to escape. For more information visit twogatesofsleep.com.

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Noah Cowan has been appointed Executive Director of the San Francisco Film Society (SFFS), effective March 3. Cowan joins SFFS after five years as Artistic Director of TIFF Bell Lightbox, the landmark cinema museum space in Toronto and home of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).

“The board and staff of the San Francisco Film Society are thrilled to have Noah Cowan join us to lead this organization into the future,” said David Winton, SFFS board president. “His intimate knowledge of the international film scene and his many achievements in Toronto make him the perfect person to continue building on the Film Society’s mission of showcasing the best in world cinema, promoting media literacy in our schools and supporting exceptional independent filmmakers.”

“I am grateful to the Board of Directors of the Film Society for providing this remarkable opportunity,” said Cowan. “The Bay Area has a storied relationship to cinema’s century-plus history and is currently home to the technology companies that will decisively influence the medium’s future. SFFS is uniquely positioned to work with filmmakers, educators and enthusiastic local audiences to embrace the dynamic and exciting changes taking place within the industry and continue to ensure that great cinema is made, seen and appreciated.”

 

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The San Francisco Film Society announced the 11 finalists for the 2014 SFFS Documentary Film Fund awards totaling more than $75,000, which support feature-length documentaries in postproduction. Winners will be announced in late March.  Previous winners include Zachary Heinzerling’s CUTIE AND THE BOXER, which won Sundance’s Directing Award for documentary, was distributed theatrically by RADiUS-TWC and has been nominated for the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature; Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s AMERICAN PROMISE, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and won the festival’s Special Jury Prize in the documentary category; and Shaul Schwarz’s NARCO CULTURA, which premiered to strong reviews at Sundance the same year.

2014 DOCUMENTARY FILM FUND FINALISTS

Anatomy of an American Dream — John Ryan Johnson, director
Antoine Hood is a charismatic 28-year-old former college basketball star and captain in the U.S. Air Force. He is a regional sales manager for Michelin and lives in a beautiful suburban house with his wife and son. For most, this is the American dream, but not for Hood, who could lose all of the above trying to play in the NBA … and he just might. For more information visit anatomyofanamericandream.com.

The Bolivian Case — Violeta Ayala, director
Trying to fly out of Bolivia, three Norwegian teenage girls are arrested with 22 kilograms of cocaine in their luggage, triggering a media storm that would change their lives forever. For more information visit unitednotionsfilm.com. 

The Dreamcatchers — Kim Longinotto, director, Teddy Leifer and Lisa Stevens, producers
The Dreamcatchers, Brenda Myers-Powell and Stephanie Daniels-Wilson, are two former prostitutes who use their inside knowledge to help women who are selling sex on the streets of Chicago, and to prevent very young girls from doing the same. This film reveals the true devastation of sexual exploitation: how it affects the women, their families and the communities where they live. For more information visit risefilms.com. 

Gennadiy — Steve Hoover, director and Danny Yourd, producer
Gennadiy Mohkenko is an ex-firefighter who, since the fall of the Soviet Union, has been rescuing drug-addicted kids from the streets of Mariupol, Ukraine. Today, there aren’t many kids left, and the war has moved from the streets into homes, but he continues throwing his seemingly endless energy into it. Will he and his family have to pay a price for his devotion? For more information visit gennadiyfilm.com.

In Country — Mike Attie and Meghan O’Hara, codirectors
War is hell. Why would anyone want to spend their weekends there? In Country takes you deep into the world of Vietnam War reenacting. Fantasy and reality collide as combat veterans from Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan try to relive a war that most people want to forget. For more information visit incountryfilm.com.

The Joneses — Moby Longinotto, director and Aviva Wishnow, producer
The Joneses is a portrait of Jheri, a 73-year-old transgender trailer park matriarch, who lives in bible belt Mississippi. Reconciled with her family after years of estrangement, and now living with two of her sons, Jheri embarks on a new path to reveal her true self to her grandchildren. Will their family bonds survive?  

Mythical Creatures — David Charles, director
Sundance New Frontier Lab project Mythical Creatures is the story of internationally acclaimed artist Gary Baseman. Baseman’s work uncovers the deepest and darkest secrets of his parents’ holocaust experiences in the Ukraine, reimagining them through his art and dream reality. His hybrid approach uses animation, stop motion, performance art and installation to bring the holocaust story to a diverse and new generation. For more information visit garybasemandoc.com.

Rodents of Unusual Size — Quinn Costello, Chris Metzler and Jeff Springer, codirectors
Rodents of Unusual Size is an offbeat environmental documentary about giant swamp rats invading coastal Louisiana and the defiant people on the edge of the world who are defending their communities, culture and livelihoods from the onslaught of this curious and unexpected invasive species. For more information visit tilapiafilm.com.

Romeo Is Bleeding — Jason Zeldes, director and Michael Klein, producer
Donte Clark’s poetic voice was honed on the violent street corners of a struggling city. Yet rather than succumb to the pressures of Richmond, CA, Clark uses his artistic perspective to save his city from itself. For more information visit RomeoIsBleedingFilm.com.

Street Fighting Man — Andrew James, director and Sara Archambault, producer
In a new America where the promise of education, safety and shelter are in jeopardy, three Detroit men fight to build something lasting for themselves and future generations. For more information visit streetfightingmanthemovie.com. 

Western — Bill Ross and Turner Ross, codirectors
Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, Mexico are border towns and the vision of the modern frontier. Cowboys and lawmen share the country while international business and multicultural bonds flourish. But when darkness descends, two men in Eagle Pass face a new reality that threatens their way of life. For more information visit rossbros.net. 

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Sundance Institute, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, launched the Sundance Institute Short Film Challenge that “will harness the power of independent film to create a global conversation about extreme hunger and poverty.”  Five new films made with production grants to launch the project premiered at a private screening co-hosted with the Gates Foundation at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. 

The Institute is working with Tongal.com to manage the online call for entries. Winning films will receive a $10,000 grant and premiere at a private event at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. Users can submit through July 1, 2014. There is no fee to apply. More information can be found at tongal.com/sundance.

The first five films for the Sundance Institute Short Film Challenge are:

AFTER MY GARDEN GROWS

AFTER MY GARDEN GROWS

Director: Megan Mylan
India / Documentary

A young girl in rural India tills a small plot of land to feed her family and plant seeds of independence and financial freedom in her male dominated community.

Director Megan Mylan directed and produced the Oscar-winning film Smile Pinki, which broadcast on HBO and the Sundance Channel. Her film, Lost Boys of Sudan, had a 70-city theatrical release and a national television broadcast on PBS’s POV.

AM I GOING TOO FAST?

AM I GOING TOO FAST?

Directors: Hank Willis Thomas, Christopher Myers
Kenya / Experimental Doc

Am I Going Too Fast? is a digital tapestry of the intersecting worlds and interactions of craftspeople, shopkeepers, and ordinary folks whose lives have been transformed by new technologies, cell phone banking, and micro-finance; threads that weave together to form a web of connection and possibility in contemporary Nairobi.

Hank Willis Thomas is the creator of Question Bridge: Black Male, a non-fiction new media project and recipient of a New Media Fellowship, New Media Fund grant from the Tribeca Film Institute and Aperture West Book Prize.

Co-Director Christopher Myers is an artist and writer best known for his books for young people, which have garnered Caldecott Honors and been shortlisted for the National Book Award.

KOMBIT

KOMBIT

Directors: Jeff Reichert, Farihah Zaman
Haiti / Documentary

Haiti’s internally displaced people start a micro-garden movement to combat post-earthquake hunger and despair.

Jeff Reichert and Farihah Zaman produced and directed the feature documentary Remote Area Medical, which premiered at the 2013 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival and was supported by the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program.

THE MASTERCHEF

THE MASTERCHEF

Director: Ritesh Batra
India / Narrative

Akhil, a young shoeshine boy, dreams of becoming a gourmet chef when he has a chance encounter with India’s most popular TV cuisiner.

Director Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox will screen at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. It won the Grand Rail d’Or at Cannes 2013 and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics for North America. Batra also won the Best Director prize at the Odessa International Film Festival.

VEZO

VEZO

Director: Tod Lending
Africa, Madagascar / Documentary

A 9-year-old girl tells a tale about how her family and village came back from near starvation after their fishing village adopted sustainable fishing practices.

Director Tod Lending is an Academy Award-nominated and national Emmy-winning producer, director, and cinematographer whose work has aired nationally on ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, HBO, Al Jazeera.

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Mark Rosenberg

Mark Rosenberg, director of the upcoming film, AD INEXPLORATA, has been selected as the winner of the 2014 Sundance Institute/NHK Award. Created in 1996 to celebrate 100 years of cinema, the annual award recognizes and supports a visionary filmmaker on his or her next film. Films previously supported by this award include BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, by Benh Zeitlin, and MAY IN THE SUMMER, by Cherien Dabis, which had its world premiere at last year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Rosenberg is a filmmaker and the Founder and Artistic Director of Rooftop Films, a New York-based non-profit organization. He has produced and directed numerous short films and recently co-produced and co-directed Orbit(Film), an omnibus movie about our solar system. He is also developing a screenplay about a man who suddenly realizes he has the power of telekinesis. He has participated in the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program June Screenwriters Lab and Creative Producing Lab and is the recipient of the Institute’s Creative Producing and Indian Paintbrush grants.

AD INEXPLORATA is a multi-media fictional story about Captain William D. Stanaforth, an astronaut alone on a one-way mission toward the unknown. Mark Strong is attached to star in the lead role.

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12 projects have been selected for the Sundance Institute’s 2014 January Screenwriters Lab, a five-day writers’ workshop at the Sundance Resort in Utah from January 10 to 15, 2014. Participating independent screenwriters will have the opportunity to work intensely on their feature film scripts with the support of established writers.  Sundance Institute Feature Film Program fellows who have recently been recognized with awards for their work include: Ryan Coogler with FRUITVALE STATION, Haifaa Al Mansour with WADJDA, Andrew Dosunmu with MOTHER OF GEORGE, David Lowery with AIN’T THEM BODIES SAINTS and Ritesh Batra with THE LUNCHBOX.

The projects and Fellows selected for the 2014 January Screenwriters Lab are:

The Buried Life (U.S.A.)
Joan Stein Schimke and Averie Storck (co-writers/co-directors)
An archaeologist risks her reputation for the dig of her career, but when her rock ‘n’ roll sister and overbearing father follow her to the excavation, she discovers her biggest challenge is facing what’s above ground. Recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, given to a project that explores science and technology themes and characters.

Joan Stein Schimke was nominated for an Academy Award® for her short film One Day Crossing, which won several other awards including the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Best Woman Student Filmmaker, Best Director, National Board of Review and the Student Academy Award® Gold Medal. Other directing credits include Law and Order and the short film Solidarity, which screened at over a dozen festivals including the New York Film Festival. Stein Schimke is an MFA graduate of Columbia University’s Film Program and is currently an Associate Professor at Adelphi University in New York. 

Averie Storck is an MFA graduate of Columbia University’s Film Program. Her award-winning short films include Live at Five , which won the New Line Cinema Development Award and screened at more than 30 international film festivals. Prior to filmmaking, Storck worked for People and Vogue magazines, was a writer for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and studied improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in NYC. She currently teaches and directs at the Savannah College of Art and Design.

The Father’s Shadow (Brazil)
Gabriela Amaral Almeida (writer/director)
A nine year-old girl with strange powers and an obsession with horror films attempts to bring her mother back from the dead as a means of connecting with her sick father.

Gabriela Amaral Almeida is a Brazilian screenwriter and director. She is the writer/director of six short films, including The Comforting Hand and A Springtime. Almeida holds an M.A. in literature and horror cinema and majored in screenwriting at EICTV, Cuba. She has written for the directors Walter Salles and Cao Hamburger.

Lynch (U.S.A.)
Nicole Riegel (writer)
Following her rescue as an American P.O.W. in the Iraq war, Jessica Lynch embarks on a quest to uncover the truth of her captivity; in her fight to reclaim her personal narrative, she discovers a deeper identity.

Nicole Riegel is originally from Ohio and is now based in Los Angeles. Prior to writing, she served as a soldier in the United States Army. Last year she adapted Robert Boswell’s short story Smoke for James Franco’s company, Rabbit Bandini. She is a 2013 graduate of the UCLA MFA Graduate Film Program.

Manchild (U.S.A.)
Ryan Koo (writer/director)
A talented basketball player gets nationally ranked and must choose between schools, coaches, and belief systems—all at the age of 13. Recipient of the A3 Foundation Fellowship, given to a filmmaker or project that furthers the Asian American voice in independent film.

Ryan Koo’s latest short film Amateur can be viewed free online at manchildfilm.com.Amateur is the prequel to the forthcoming feature Manchild, which has been supported by the Tribeca Film Institute, IFP, and the Film Society of Lincoln Center. For his “urban western” web series The West Side, Koo and co-director Zack Lieberman won the Webby Award for Best Drama Series and were named two of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Film. Koo is also the founder of the website No Film School, which won Total Film’s Best Creative Blog award.

Night Comes On (U.S.A.)
Jordana Spiro (co-writer/director) and Angelica Nwandu (co-writer)
Angel is released from juvenile hall on her 18th birthday with a single focus: shoot the man who killed her mother. As her rebellious past and empty future confront her at every turn, her plans derail and Angel becomes what she wanted and feared.

Jordana Spiro is a writer, director, and actress currently finishing her MFA in Film at Columbia University. Her short film Skin won the Women in Film Grant at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, an Honorable Mention Award at SXSW, and was shown at Telluride, Palm Springs, and AFI among others. As an actress, she has starred in numerous films and television shows. 

Originally from Nigeria, Angelica Nwandu has traveled around the world as an advocate for foster youth after her own 12 years experience living in foster care. A recent graduate of Loyola Marymount University, she developed a passion for writing with the hope of being a clear voice for children in the system. She currently tours nationwide to perform her Spoken Word Poetry.

Park (Greece)
Sofia Exarchou (writer/director)
Nine years have passed, and the Olympic Village in Athens, Greece is in decay. Among the abandoned athletic facilities and new-money tourist resorts nearby, 16-year-old Dimitris and his friends traverse Greece’s “glorious” past with the decadence of today, creating a portrait of a society unprepared for the brutal fall.

Sofia Exarchou is the writer-director of the short films Mesecina and Distance. She pursued post-graduate studies in Toulouse and at the Stella Adler Studio in New York. Exarchou is based in Athens, where she received degrees in Electrical Engineering and Film Studies.Park, whichhas been developed with the support of the Centre Nationale de la Cinematographie (CNC, France) & the Eurimages Council of Europe, is her first feature film.

Patti Cake$ (U.S.A.)
Geremy Jasper (writer/director)
Patricia Baccio, aka Patti Cake$, is a big girl with a big mouth and big dreams of rap superstardom. Stuck in Lodi, New Jersey, Patti battles an army of haters as she strives to break the mold and take over the game. 

Geremy Jasper is a music video and commercial director, composer, and co-founder of the progressive New York production studio LEGS. With his wife and creative partner Georgie Greville, he has directed VMA nominated videos for Florence + The Machine, Selena Gomez and others, and his direction for the “Target Kaleidoscopic Fashion Spectacular” won a Cannes Gold Lion, TED Prize and was inducted into the MOMA’s permanent collection. A New Jersey native, he was a recording artist for Kemado/Hollywood records. Patti Cake$ is his first feature film. 

Stranger with a Camera (U.S.A./Northern Ireland)
Oorlagh George (writer/director)
In this dramatic thriller, an American girl is stranded in a remote village in Northern Ireland after her father is arrested on a 20-year-old murder charge tied to the IRA. Compelled by her father’s secrecy, she sets out to uncover the mysterious family history that he has kept hidden from her

Oorlagh George is an award-winning filmmaker and artist from Northern Ireland. In 2012, she won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short for producing The Shore, which won over 40 awards in festivals and was released in cinemas worldwide. George worked as a creative executive and in production on films such as Beginners and Hotel Rwanda. Her new video installation, OFF SIDES, opens at The Golden Thread Gallery in February. 

Swiss Army Man (U.S.A.)
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (co-writers/co-directors)
In this absurdist comedy, a hopeless man stranded in the wilderness befriends a dead body and together they go on a journey to get home.

To some Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert are better known as DANIELS, a directing duo who have made uniquely strange, occasionally award winning music videos over the past four years for bands like Foster the People, The Shins, and Battles. They’ve also dabbled in television work for Adult Swim, directing commercials, and a slew of internet friendly short films about sweating to death, skateboarding on dogs, and the dangers of having pockets on your clothes and stuff. They both currently live and work in Los Angeles. But to be honest, Daniel does most of the work.

Ten Thousand Happiness (U.S.A./China)
Johnny Ma (writer/director)
The sudden divorce of their 80-year-old grandfather causes three generations of a Chinese family to each re-evaluate their relationships in love, life and happiness in modern Beijing.

Johnny Ma was born in Shanghai China and immigrated to Toronto at age 10, where he learned his first English sentence “Can I play?” He is a DGA and National Board of Review student-award winning director and a recent graduate from the Columbia University MFA program. His most recent short film A Grand Canal screened at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. Other than filmmaking, Ma enjoys teaching cats how to play fetch like dogs.

We the Animals (U.S.A.)
Jeremiah Zagar (co-writer/director) and Dan Kitrosser (co-writer)
Based on the bestselling novel by Justin Torres, We the Animals is about the brutal love of a multi-racial working class family, seen through the eyes of the youngest son, as he discovers his heritage, his sexuality and his madness.

Jeremiah Zagar is the co-founder of Public Record, a production company in Brooklyn. His documentary, In A Dream, screened theatrically across the US and was broadcast on HBO. His newest film CAPTIVATED: The Trials of Pamela Smart, will premiere in competition at the Sundance Film Festival and air on HBO in 2014.

Dan Kitrosser is an award-winning writer and storyteller living in Manhattan. His plays include The Mumblings (published on IndieTheaterNow.com), Tar Baby, which will go on a national tour in 2014, and the upcoming Dead Special Crabs.

Weather Talk (Chile)
Marcella Said (writer/director)
Weather Talk tells the story of a 40-year-old married woman who realizes the extreme violence surrounding her once she befriends her horse riding teacher, a former army colonel who was involved in human rights violations in Chile.

Marcela Said was born in Santiago, Chile. She graduated from the Catholic University of Santiago with a degree in Aesthetics, and received her master’s degree in Media & Language at La Sorbonne University. After four documentary films, including El Mocito, which screened at the Berlinale Forum in 2011, she directed her first fiction feature The Summer of Flying Fish, which premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013.

 

 

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Past SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grant Winners: Short Term 12, Fruitvale Station, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Nine films have been selected to receive Fall 2013 funding in the latest round of San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) / Kenneth Rainin Foundation (KRF) Filmmaking Grants. The SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grants are awarded twice annually to filmmakers for narrative feature films that will have significant economic or professional impact on the San Francisco Bay Area filmmaking community. Previous grant winners include SHORT TERM 12, Destin Cretton’s sophomore feature which won both the Narrative Grand Jury Award and Audience Award at South by Southwest 2013; Ryan Coogler’s debut feature FRUITVALE STATION, which won both the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award in the narrative category at Sundance 2013 and is an Oscar hopeful in multiple categories; and BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD, Benh Zeitlin’s debut phenomenon which won Sundance’s Grand Jury Prize and Cannes’ Camera d’Or in 2012 and earned four Academy Award nominations (including Best Picture).

SFFS / KRF FILMMAKING GRANT WINNERS
DOCTOR — Musa Syeed, director/producer/writer; Nicholas Bruckman, coproducer
$35,000 for screenwriting
Salim, a disgraced young doctor from India, will do anything to rebuild his former life. But when he starts practicing medicine illegally in New York, he’s drawn into a medical underworld where he risks losing everything.

ESCAPE FROM MORGANTOWN — Peter Nicks, writer/director
$25,000 for screenwriting
A young addict arrives at a federal prison camp with a plan to turn his life around, but is drawn into the intoxicating world of a crew of seasoned inmates.

THE FIXER– Ian Olds, writer/director; Caroline von Kuhn, producer
$25,000 for packaging
An Afghan journalist is exiled from his war-torn country to a small bohemian community in Northern California. When he attempts to turn his menial job on the local police blotter into “Afghan-style” coverage of local crime he gets drawn into the backwoods of this small town — a shadow Northern California where sex is casual, true friendship is hard to come by, and an unfamiliar form of violence burbles up all around him.

HELLION — Kat Candler, writer/director; Jonathan Duffy and Kelly Williams, producers
$70,000 for postproduction
When his delinquent behavior forces his little brother to be taken away, a motocross-obsessed teenager and his emotionally absent father must take responsibility for their destructive behavior to bring him home.

LITTLE ACCIDENTS — Sara Colangelo writer/director; Jason Michael Berman, Anne Carey, Thomas B. Fore and Summer Shelton, producers
$50,000 for postproduction
In a small American coal town, the disappearance of a boy draws a young miner, the lonely wife of a mine executive and a local 14-year-old together in a web of secrets.

LOS VALIENTES / THE BRAVE ONES — Aurora Guerrero, writer/director; Chad Burris, producer
$25,000 for packaging
Felix Lopez is gay, undocumented and living in San Francisco until his family obligations move him across the country to a small Pennsylvania mining town to join his undocumented sister. Once there, alienated by local and family politics, Felix finds unexpected solace in the company of one person: his sister’s husband.

LOVE IS STRANGE — Ira Sachs, writer/director; Lucas Joaquin, Jay Van Hoy and Lars Knudsen, producers
$70,000 for postproduction
A multi-generational story of love and marriage, Love is Strange depicts the delicate nature of any two people trying to build a long life together, and the possibility of love to grow deeper, and richer, with time.

LOVE LAND– Joshua Tate, writer/director/producer; Andrew Richey, producer
$35,000 for postproduction
Love Land follows Ivy, a young woman with a severe traumatic brain injury, as she faces her refusal to be identified as a person with an intellectual disability. When she is placed in an institution for being a danger to herself and others, Ivy will stop at nothing to prove to the world — and to herself — that she is “normal” enough to transcend the label of “special.”

MANOS SUCIAS — Josef Wladyka, writer/director; Elena Greenlee and Márcia Nunes, producers
$90,000 for postproduction
A desperate fisherman and a naive young man embark on a dangerous journey trafficking drugs up the Pacific coast of Colombia. Hidden beneath the waves, they tow a narco-torpedo filled with millions of dollars worth of cocaine. Together they must brave the war-torn region while navigating the growing tension between them.

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Four individual writers and one writing team have been selected as winners of the 2013 Academy Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting competition.  Each winner will receive a $35,000 prize, the first installment of which will be distributed at an awards presentation on Thursday, November 7, at 7:30 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.  For the first time, the event will also feature a live read of selected scenes from the fellows’ winning scripts.

This year’s winners are (listed alphabetically by author):
Frank DeJohn & David Alton Hedges, Santa Ynez, CA, “Legion”
Patty Jones, Vancouver, BC, Canada, “Joe Banks”
Alan Roth, Suffern, NY, “Jersey City Story”
Stephanie Shannon, Los Angeles, CA, “Queen of Hearts”
Barbara Stepansky, Burbank, CA, “Sugar in My Veins”

The winners were selected from a record 7,251 scripts submitted for this year’s competition. 

Fellowships are awarded with the understanding that the recipients will each complete a feature-length screenplay during their fellowship year.  The Academy acquires no rights to the works of Nicholl fellows and does not involve itself commercially in any way with their completed scripts.

Directed by Rodrigo Garcia (“Albert Nobbs,” “Mother and Child,” “Nine Lives”) and produced by Julie Lynn ( “Albert Nobbs,” “Mother and Child,” “The Jane Austen Book Club”), the awards presentation and live read, which is supported by Lexus, will include members from the Academy’s Actors Branch performing scenes from the five winning scripts.  Casting for the live read will be announced.  Tickets to the event are available to the public at www.oscars.org.

Lexus will engineer a new and innovative extension of the fellowship for the first time. One of the top five winners will be presented with a grant which will allow them to write and produce a short film that will appear on certain Lexus creative platforms such as LStudio.com. 

The Academy Nicholl Fellowships Committee, chaired by producer Gale Anne Hurd, is composed of writers Naomi Foner, Daniel Petrie Jr., Tom Rickman, Eric Roth, Dana Stevens and Robin Swicord; actor Eva Marie Saint; cinematographer John Bailey; costume designer Vicki Sanchez; producers Peter Samuelson and Robert W. Shapiro; marketing executive Buffy Shutt; and agent Ronald R. Mardigian.

Since 1986, 133 fellowships have been awarded, including one to 2010 winner Destin Daniel Cretton who recently wrote and directed “Short Term 12” from his Nicholl Fellowship-winning script.  Creighton Rothenberger co-wrote “Olympus Has Fallen,” which opened in theaters this past March.  Rebecca Sonnenshine is a writer and executive story editor on “The Vampire Diaries.”  Andrew Marlowe is a writer and executive producer, and Terri Edda Miller is a writer and consulting producer on “Castle.”

 via press release

Pictured: Academy Executive Director Bruce Davis. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented its Nicholl Fellowships in Screenwriting awards dinner on November 4, 2010 in Beverly Hills.  via: Facebook

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THE DEBT – Ritesh Batra

12 projects have been selected to participated in the first workshop of the second edition of Biennale di Venezia’s Biennale College – Cinema (2013 – 2014) held in Venice from the 5th to the 14th of October 2013.  The first edition of the Biennale College – Cinema 2012/13 closed with the screening of three feature films at the 70th Edition of the Venice Film Festival in 2012: MARY IS HAPPY, MARY IS HAPPY – Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (director, Thailand) , MEMPHIS – Tim Sutton (director, USA) and YURI ESPOSITO – Alessio Fava (director, Italy) .

The 12 selected projects with a brief synopsis.

BLOOD CELLS – Joseph Bull (director, the UK), Luke Seomore (director, the UK), Samm Haillay (producer, the UK): a decade after a catastrophe destroyed his family and their farm, an eruption from the past compels an exiled young man to embark upon an odyssey through the broken and beautiful margins of contemporary Britain.

H. – RANIA ATTIEH (director, Lebanon), Daniel Garcia (director, USA), Shruti Rya Ganguly (producer, India): a tale of two women, both named Helen, whose lives and relationships begin to unravel in the wake of a meteor explosion over their town of Troy, NY. It is a modern and lyrical re-imagining of a classic Greek tragedy.

IMACULAT – Kenneth Mercken (director, Belgium), Marcian Lazar (producer, Romania): when a 19-year-old girl from a good family is committed to rehab, she becomes a prey to the male junkies. She learns that in order to regain control over herself and her own body, she must first destroy her old self.

LA BARRACUDA – Jason Cortlund (director, USA), Julia Halperin (director, USA), David Hartstein (producer, USA): when an odd young woman named Sinaloa shows up on Merle’s front porch claiming to be her half-sister, an exciting surprise leads to violence.

LA MUJER DE LOS PERROS – Laura Citarella (director, Argentina), Verónica Llinás (director, Argentina), Mariano Llinás (producer, Argentina): a woman shares her life with ten dogs in a shack in the outskirts of a big city. The realistic story of a strange queen.

NANCY – Christina Choe (director, USA), Gerry Kim (producer, USA): Nancy, a 40-year-old serial impostor, lives at home with her abusive, elderly mother. Desperate for love and connection, she creates a fake blog and catfishes a lover, until her hoaxes result in epic and tragic consequences.

RIVER OF EXPLODING DURIANS – Edmund Yeo (director, Malaysia), Ming Jin Woo (producer, Malaysia): a peaceful coastal town in Malaysia is turned upside down by the construction of a potentially radioactive plant. A young boy at the cusp of adulthood and an idealistic history teacher find themselves fighting for the soul of their hometown.

SHORT SKIN – Duccio Chiarini (director, Italy), Babak Jalali (producer, Iran / the UK): one has to grow hard but without ever losing tenderness.

THE DEBT – Ritesh Batra (director, India), Seher Latif (producer, India): a cop tries to prove his worth when he takes on the most important case of his life and learns how to be a parent.

THE STRIKE – Adam Breier (director, Hungary), Akos Schneider (producer, Hungary): one day a middle-aged family man asks himself what if his life would be different and decides to exchange the known for the unknown. An absurdly minimalist tragicomedy.

UNLESS – Matteo Servente (director, Italy), Ryan Watt (producer, USA): an imaginative 11-year-old boy barrels into a rural town on a stolen Trans-Am, upending the careful routines of an elderly police dispatcher and a secretive barber.

WINTER – Aamir Bashir (director, India), Alan McAlex (producer, India): Nargis was abandoned by her husband for the cause of Kashmir’s freedom. She waits and hopes for her love to return. But when he does return, scarred by violence, Nargis is forced to choose between love and freedom. 

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