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Cheryl Boone Isaacs was elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Tuesday night (July 30) by the organization’s Board of Governors.

Boone Isaacs, who is beginning her 21st year as a governor representing the Public Relations Branch, served as Academy first vice president during the past year. She also produced the 2012 Governors Awards. Boone Isaacs succeeds Hawk Koch, who served a one-year term as president.

In addition, John Lasseter was elected first vice president; Jeffrey Kurland and Leonard Engelman were elected to vice president posts; Dick Cook was elected treasurer; and Phil Robinson was elected secretary.

These will be the first officer stints for Engelman, Kurland and Cook.  Lasseter previously served one-year terms as treasurer (2011-2012) and secretary (2009-2010). Robinson served as vice president during the past year, his fourth consecutive term in that office (2009-2013).

Boone Isaacs currently heads CBI Enterprises, Inc., where she has consulted on such films as “The Call,” “The Artist,” “The King’s Speech,” “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire,” “Spider-Man 2” and “Tupac: Resurrection.”Boone Isaacs previously served as president of theatrical marketing for New Line Cinema, where she oversaw numerous box office successes, including “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me” and “Rush Hour.” Prior to joining New Line in 1997, Boone Isaacs was executive vice president of worldwide publicity for Paramount Pictures, where she orchestrated publicity campaigns for the Best Picture winners “Forrest Gump” and “Braveheart.”

Academy board members may serve up to three consecutive three-year terms, while officers serve one-year terms, with a maximum of four consecutive years in any one office.

[via press release]

 

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163 new films in development have been selected for the Project Forum at 2013 Independent Film Week taking place September 15-19, 2013 at Lincoln Center in New York City. Through the Project Forum, creatives connect with the financiers, executives, influencers and decision-makers in film, television, new media and cross-platform storytelling that can help them complete their latest works and connect with audiences.

Featured works at the 2013 Independent Film Week include filmmakers and content creators from a variety of backgrounds and experience. From Academy Award® winners Louie Psihoyos (THE COVE) and Cynthia Wade (FREEHELD) to web-series innovators such as Mesh Flinders (LONELYGIRL 5) and Thom Woodley (THE BURG).

RBC’s Emerging Storytellers

Always Shine directed by Sophia Takal, written by Lawrence Michael Levine, produced by Kim Sherman and John Baker. Two best friends, Anna and Beth, take a weekend trip that turns deadly when Anna’s repressed jealousy and insecurities begin to surface. (Dramatic Thriller)

Awesome Asian Bad Guys directed by Patrick Epino and Stephen Dypiangco, written by Milton Liu, produced by Patrick Epino, Stephen Dypiangco, Milton Liu and Diana Williams, executive produced by Phil Yu, cinematography by Nasar Abich, edited by Soham Mehta. Two offbeat filmmakers must assemble a volatile group of Asian bad guy actors to take down LA’s most nefarious mobster. (Comedy)

Blues Run the Game directed and written by Alexander Jablonski. Out of jail and working on a cattle ranch, a recovering drug addict battles to solve a murder that no one will admit took place. (Mystery/Crime Thriller)

Claude is Waiting directed and written by Chris Mason Wells, produced by Jason Klorfein, Brendan McFadden and Rachel Wolther. A comic epic of self-delusion, crippling neurosis, intellectual posturing, and emotional devastation — a jagged and ragged portrait of the artist as a young mess. It’s a comedy? (Comedy)

Doubles with Slight Pepper directed and written by Ian Harnarine, produced by Christina Piovesan and Karina Rotenstein. A young Trinidadian street-vendor must travel to New York and decide if he will save his estranged father’s life. (Coming of Age)

Everything Beautiful is Far Away directed and written by Pete Ohs and Andrea Sisson, produced by Sarah Schutzki and Albert Uria, cinematography by Pete Ohs and Nandan Rao, edited by Pete Ohs and Andrea Sisson. A dystopian fable about a man, his robot girlfriend, and a beguiling young woman who all traverse a desert planet hoping to find a better life. (Sci-Fi)

Faith directed and written by Eli Daughdrill, produced by Mike S Ryan. After the tragic and untimely death of his son, a deeply religious man confronts God, his community, and himself as he tries to understand his new reality. (Drama)

Frail directed and written by Matthew Petock, produced by Daniel Carbone and Zachary Shedd. Over the course of a cold winter day, nineteen year-old Vanessa plots a petty theft that she hopes will lead to a better life for her and her young daughter -– but piece by piece, her plan unravels. (Dramatic Thriller)

Free the Town directed and written by Nikyatu Jusu, produced by Nikkia Moulterie and Vincho Nchogu, cinematography by Daniel Patterson. A Native virgin, a Brooklyn teen, and a European filmmaker collide in the midst of witch-hunting hysteria in Freetown, Sierra Leone. These three disparate lives build towards a deadly climax. (Dramatic Thriller)

The God of Rain and Thunder directed and written by Mesh Flinders, produced by Neda Armian. When the girl he loves is kicked out of his father’s commune, 15-year-old Indra goes to public high school to get her back. (Coming of Age)

The Highway Kind directed and written by J. Todd Walker. Two loners running from different wars meet on the American road. The farther they travel together, the closer they come to finding their ways home. (Drama)

I Like You Like You directed and written by Jac Schaeffer. Convinced that technology is the reason she’s still single, a woman searches for her grade school crush without any help from the Internet. (Romantic Comedy)

Just the Three of Us directed, written and produced by Angela Tucker. Regina and Hank, a couple in their early 70s, have lost the spark in their marriage. They decide to take a radical step to spice things up: What about a threesome? (Dark Comedy)

Little Sister directed and written by Zach Clark, produced by Daryl Pittman and Melodie Sisk, cinematography by Daryl Pittman, edited by Zach Clark. A young nun returns to the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina to visit her estranged parents and older brother, who was injured in the Iraq war. (Comedy)

Loners Together directed and written by Carlen Altman. A 29-year-old girl, obsessed with staying wrinkle-free at any cost, shares an eccentric, isolated life with her carefree mother in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, where they live surrounded by a menagerie of pills and pets. (Dark Comedy)

Lucky Grandma directed by Sasie Sealy, written by Angela Cheng and Sasie Sealy, produced by Krista Parris and Cara Marcous. A chain-smoking, gambling Chinese grandma ends up on the wrong side of luck… and the law. (Dark Comedy)

Nancy directed and written by Christina Choe, produced by Gerry Kim. Nancy, a 40-year-old serial imposter lives at home with her abusive, elderly mother. Desperate for love, she creates a fake blog and catfishes a lover, until her hoaxes grow to epic and tragic consequences. (Drama)

Raker directed by Andrew Rossi, written by Kate Novack and Andrew Rossi, produced by Josh Braun. A law student recruited to spy on a group of hacktivist classmates discovers that his professor is watching him to protect her own dark secret. (Dramatic Thriller)

Scape Goat directed, written and produced by Thom Woodley. A strange, anonymous performance artist in a goat costume turns the lives of several Brooklyn hipsters upside down. (Drama)

Shale directed and written by Jed Cowley. A submissive 70-year-old housewife makes the terrifying decision to leave her domineering husband after 50 years of marriage, and faces the consequences that follow. (Drama)

Slash directed and written by Clay Liford, produced by Brock Williams. A teen’s online erotic fiction leads him to discover truths about his own sexuality when his newfound notoriety forces him out into the real world. (Coming of Age)

Spare directed and written by Kevan Tucker. When a struggling model discovers that she has a more successful doppelganger, she kidnaps her and begins using her for spare parts. (Horror)

The Strange Ones directed and written by Christopher Radcliff and Lauren Wolkstein, written by Christopher Radcliff. A boy is found wandering alone on a rural highway. As his story is revealed, a deeper mystery emerges – one founded on lies, half-truths, and secrets. (Dramatic Thriller)

Varenya directed and written by Shripriya Mahesh, produced by Dev Benegal. Varenya, a South Indian Hindu priest accepts a young apprentice, and is forced to question the doctrines of his religion. (Drama)

Independent Filmmaker Labs

Documentary Labs:

Approaching the Elephant directed by Amanda Wilder and produced by Jay Craven. One year in the lives of a group of children at a newly opened ‘free school,’ where classes are voluntary and rules created by all-school democratic vote.

Bringing Tibet Home directed by Tenzin Tsetan Choklay and produced by Tenzing Rigdol. A Tibetan artist smuggles 20 tonnes of native Tibetan soil from Tibet to India for an art project to bring Tibet closer to its people in exile–literally.

Do I Sound Gay? Directed by David Thorpe, produced by Howard Gertler and Jenny Raskin, and executive produced by Dan Cogan. Determined to overcome his shame about “sounding gay,” director David Thorpe embarks on a hilarious, poignant, taboo-shattering exploration of the phenomenon of the “gay voice.”

Evolution of a Criminal directed by Darius Clark Monroe, produced by Darius Clark Monroe and Jen Gatien, and executive produced by Spike Lee. Ten years after robbing a Bank of America, filmmaker Darius Monroe returns home to examine how his actions affected the lives of family, friends…and victims.

Farmer Veteran directed by Jeremy Lange and Alix Blair and produced by D.L. Anderson. Adrift after years of combat, a wounded U.S. veteran begins farming to cultivate new meaning in a life after war.

In Country directed by Mike Attie and Meghan O’Hara and produced by Mike Attie, Meghan O’Hara, Daniel Chalfen, and Jim Butterworth. As a platoon of veterans recreates the Vietnam War in the woods of Oregon, surreal layers of fantasy and reality unearth America’s complicated relationship with war.

Kasamayaki (Made in Kasama) directed and produced by Yuki Kokubo. Shaken by the tsunami and nuclear disasters, a grown daughter returns to a rural Japanese artist community to reconnect with her estranged parents.

The Life & Mind of Mark DeFriest directed by Gabriel London, produced by Daniel Chalfen, and executive produced by Jim Butterworth. When a legendary escape artist comes up for parole after 30 years behind bars, a chance for freedom must be weighed against his infamous past.

Mateo directed by Aaron Naar and produced by Benjamin Dohrmann. Mateo follows America’s most notorious troubadour on his misadventures to Cuba.

Roots and Webs directed by Sara Dosa and produced by Josh Penn. Amid the frontier world of Oregon’s mushroom-hunting camps, two soldiers discover a new family in the woods, helping them to heal the wounds of war.

Narrative Labs:

AWOL directed by Deb Shoval, written by Karolina Waclawiak and Deb Shoval, produced by Jessica Caldwell, cinematography by Gal Deren. Days before deployment to Afghanistan, Joey, 19, returns home to Pennsylvania with plans to go AWOL with her married older lover Rayna and Rayna’s kids. (Drama)

Below Dreams directed, written, and produced by Garrett Bradley, edited by Carlos Marques-Marcet and Garrett Bradley, cinematography by Milena Pastreich and Brian C. Miller Richard. Three 26-year-olds struggle to find themselves in the shifting streets of New Orleans. (Drama)

Beneath the Harvest Sky directed and written by Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly, produced by Kavita Pullapilly, Aron Gaudet and Gita Pullapilly, executive produced by Allison Jones, cinematography by Steven Calitri, edited by Aron Gaudet. Two small town teens end up in a world of trouble as they get caught up in the illegal drug trade between Maine and Canada. (Drama)

Dig Two Graves directed and written by Hunter Adams, produced by Claire Connelly, PJ Fishwick and Hunter Adams, cinematography by Eric Maddison, edited by Scott Hanson. As a young girl takes desperate measures to save her broken family, she becomes entangled in a deadly quest for revenge. (Dramatic Thriller)

Dukhtar directed and written by Afia Nathaniel, produced by Cordelia Stephens, Khalid Ali and Afia Nathaniel, executive produced by Muhammad Nadeem Nawaz, cinematography and editing by Armughan Hassan. A mother pulls off a daring escape to save her daughter from a child marriage. A relentless hunt begins for them. (Dramatic Thriller)

Gabriel directed and written by Lou Howe, produced by Ben Howe and Luca Borghese, cinematography by Wyatt Garfield, edited by Jane Rizzo. A teenager’s obsessive search for his childhood girlfriend becomes increasingly frantic, and puts himself and everyone around him in danger. (Drama)

Homemakers directed and written by Colin Healey, produced by Dave Schachter, Ella Hatamian and Colin Healey, cinematography by Ben Powell, edited by Dave Schachter.A rootless young singer with a penchant for destruction must reconcile her domestic fantasies as she attempts to restore her late grandfather’s abandoned Pittsburgh home. (Comedy)

Kick Me directed, written, and edited by Gary Huggins, produced by Betsy Gran, cinematography by Michael Wilson. When a meek guidance counselor accidentally crosses a deadly criminal warlord, he must take to his feet in this urban-nightmare action-comedy. (Comedy)

Something, Anything directed and written by Paul Harrill, produced by Ashley Maynor, executive produced by Dee Bagwell Haslam and Ross Bagwell, Sr., cinematography by Kunitaro Ohi, edited by Jennifer Lilly. A would-be suburban mom’s life is upended in this movie about change and that which can be felt but not seen. (Drama)

Stay Then Go directed and written by Shelli Ainsworth, produced by Geoffrey Sass and Christine Walker, cinematography by Alan Canant, edited by Bo Hakala.Marian Baird is a wife, mother and event planner extraordinaire. When confronted with an unlikely incident that turns her life upside down, she is forced to choose whether or not to abandon the life she’s carefully created for herself and her family. (Drama)

No Borders International Co-Production Market

#PostModem directed by Lucas Leyva and Jilian Mayer, produced by Brett Potter and Jon David Kane, written by by Lucas Leyva and Jilian Mayer. #PostModem is a comedic, satirical sci-fi pop musical about a young girl who frees a futuristic Miami on the verge of the singularity. (Musical)

Americana directed by Zachary Shedd, produced by Daniel Carbone and Matthew Petock. The brother of a murdered actress suspects that his sister’s death was meant to serve the box office returns on her last film. (Dramatic Thriller)

Bab El Gehenom (The Gateway to Hell) directed by Oded Ruskin, produced by Saar Yogev and Naomi Levari. A routine military navigation drill in the desert turns into a nightmare as the soil of a demolished Bedouin village comes to life. (Supernatural Thriller)

The Beach House directed by Jeff Brown, produced by Sophia Lin, Matthew Yeager, and Jeff Brown, written by Jeff Brown. A romantic getaway for two high school sweethearts turns into a struggle for survival when unexpected guests exhibit signs of a mysterious transformative affliction. (Horror)

Beastdirected by Michael Pearce, produced by Kristian Brodie. When they kissed, a darkness opened within her… (Drama)

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea directed, and produced by Emre Akay, written by Emre Akay and Deniz Cuylan. Turkey, 1956. A small American base monitors Russian activity in the Black Sea. Meanwhile, a young Turkish Lieutenant falls desperately for the American Major’s wife. (Historical Fiction)

The Cavanaughs produced by Julie Lynn and Julien Farve. When an Evangelical mother suddenly falls in love with a woman, rejects motherhood and disavows her beliefs, her devout teenage son Luke is thrown into chaos, forcing him to forge new meaning from the ruins of love, family and faith. (Drama)

Curse the Darkness produced by Daniel Noah, Josh Waller, and Elijah Wood, written by Brandon Williams. A political activist advocating for workers’ rights in Miami discovers a corrupt plantation owner using Haitian toxins to turn illegal immigrants into zombie-like slaves. (Horror)

Dance for Me directed by Pia Marais, produced by Trish Lake and Dan Lake, written by Roger Monk. In the Afrikaans society of South Africa, a woman finds the lines between revenge, justice and love are blurred when she finally entraps her mother’s attacker. (Drama)

The Detective directed by Peter Andrikidis, produced by Sarah Boote and Michael Robertson, written by Roger Joyce. An Australian cop arrives in Afghanistan to investigate the death of a former colleague – his only ally is an Afghani policewoman and together they find his friend was caught up in the intrigue involving a village massacre. (Drama)

Dos Mujeres Y Una Vaca (Two Women and a Cow) written and directed by Efraín Bahamón, produced by José Antonio “Chepe” Calderón Gómez, executive produced by Alberto Amaya. Two illiterate women begin a journey to find someone that can read them a letter. Trapped in the war, they struggle to find their way back. (Drama)

The Edible Woman written and directed by Francine Zuckerman, produced by Judy Holm, Francine Zuckerman, and Michael McNamara. Marian is about to get married; it’s all she ever wanted. But when a free-spirited man comes into her life, Marian’s careful plans are upset. (Drama)

The Fire Dance written and directed by Rama Burshtein, produced by Assaf Amir. What happens to a woman when she falls deeply under the spiritual influence of a wise, honest, charismatic man? And what if this man isn’t her husband, and she and him belong to the biggest Hassidic group in New York? (Drama)

The Fixer directed by Ian Olds, produced by Caroline von Kuhn, written by Paul Felten and Ian Olds. An exiled Afghan journalist working in Northern California investigates the dark and morally complex backwoods of a seemingly peaceful bohemian community. (Drama)

The Innocent written and directed by Matthew Thompson, produced by Christine Alderson. John, a convicted murderer, takes a young girl hostage and escapes from prison, determined to prove his innocence. A powerful psychological thriller that keeps you guessing. (Dramatic Thriller)

Into the Light written and directed by Rowland Jobson, produced by Alastair Clark. A young mentally and physically scarred man, racked with guilt, is led to the truth behind his fractured dreams and nightmares on London’s unforgiving streets. (Dramatic Thriller)

Ivan Lendl Never Learnt to Volley directed by Justin Kurzel, produced by Anna McLeish and Sarah Shaw, written by Jed Kurzel. When a fatal accident of an opponent rocks the Moscow junior tennis circuit, 13-year-old Alexander and his father, Dimitri, begin a desperate journey across Europe to keep their dreams alive. (Based on a True Story)

Jätten (The Giant) written and directed by Johannes Nyholm; produced by Maria Dahlin and Morten Kjems Juhl; executive produced by Peter Hyldahl, Mimmi Spång, and Rebecka Lafrenz.Rikard, autistic and severely deformed, and haunted by the loss of his mother, escapes into an imaginary world where he is a 50-meter tall giant. (Drama)

Kashmir (working title) written, directed, and produced by Ashvin Kumar. Ten year old Noor’s father ‘disappeared’ after the Indian army arrested him in war-torn Kashmir, but when she goes looking for him, she stumbles upon mass-graves that implicate the Indian army. When her story makes national news, she herself is arrested and made to ‘disappear’.(Coming of Age)

King Jack written and directed by Felix Thompson, produced by Gabrielle Nadig. When shouldered with the responsibility of watching his younger cousin for the weekend, a delinquent 15 year-old finds himself stumbling towards maturity while struggling against the neighborhood bully in their small town. (Drama)

Love After Love directed by Russell Harbaugh, produced by Michael Prall, written by Eric Mendelsohn and Russell Harbaugh. In the tradition of Woody Allen and John Cassavetes, Love After Love is the sad, funny, romantic account of a mother and two grown sons as they struggle in the wake of a father’s death. (Drama)

The Love Songs of Nathan Swirsky written and directed by Peter Goldsmid; produced by Margaret Goldsmid and Peter Goldsmid. In 1951 Johannesburg, a shy white boy befriends an albino youth and, inspired by a flamboyant new pharmacist, rebels against his formidable, racist mother. (Coming of Age)

Manchild written and directed by Ryan Koo, produced by Chip Hourihan. A talented basketball player gets nationally ranked & must choose between schools, coaches, & faiths – all at the age of 13. (Drama)

Mimi & Me produced by Blake Corbet and Marly Reed, written by Marly Reed, executive produced by Jennifer Kawaja and Julia Sereny. Teenage misfit Em Dash and her gambling-addicted Grandma Mimi must become con-artists to save their family home from bikers in small town Vancouver Island. (Comedy)

Nervous Translation written and directed by Shireen Seno, produced by John Torres. Eight year-old Yael, shy to a fault, lives in her own private world. One day she finds out about a pen that can translate the thoughts and feelings of nervous people. (Drama)

Nowhere Road written and directed by Lea Nakonechny, produced by Christine Falco and Simon Nakonechny. An outlaw father’s shadow. A mother who’s in over her head. A brother and sister risking it all in an 18-wheeler bound for the border. (Drama)

Out of Range directed by Alexandra Roxo, produced by Kelly Williams and Jonathan Duffy, written by Devon Kirkpatrick and Alexandra Roxo. A neurotic gallery girl, forced to leave her posh NYC life and move to Texas for work, hitches a ride with a free-spirited college friend across the country. (Comedy)

Papaw Easy directed by Martha Stephens, produced by Brett Potter, written by Karrie Crouse and Martha Stephens. Under the watch of his vain, ‘Modern Christian’ uncle, a shy boy forges an unlikely partnership with a foul-mouthed, down and out playboy. (Drama)

Paramour directed by Phil Abraham, produced by Amy Rapp, written by Jordan Katz, executive produced by Meredith Vieira and Paul Brett. Paramour is a dramatic thriller, inspired by a true story, about a married German heiress who falls for a charming Swiss businessman with unforeseen motives. (Dramatic Thriller)

Pardon My Downfall directed by David Zellner, produced by Chris Ohlson and Nathan Zellner, written by David Zellner and Nathan Zellner. Pardon My Downfall tells the story of The Jibcutters, a country-western band as infamous for their debauchery as their musical talents, as they try to recapture their previous magic on one final tour through the American South. (Drama)

Saturn written and directed by Elan Gamaker, produced by Bridget Pickering. A domestic worker must protect two children from the spirit of their dead brother, out to wreak revenge on their father by capturing their souls. (Supernatural Thriller)

The Sky is Blue like an Orange directed by Caveh Zahedi, produced by Mike Ryan, written by Arnold Barkus. A reclusive middle-aged artist falls in love with a young coffee shop waitress who pretends to reciprocate his affections in order to steal his artwork. (Based on a True Story)

Solidarity directed by Rungano Nyoni, produced by Juliette Grandmont. A fire breaks out in a large compound in the centre of Lusaka. The very next day, its residents continue their lives as if nothing happened. (Dark Comedy)

Solitaire King written and directed by Bassam Jarbawi, produced by Shrihari Sathe. Unable to relive past basketball glory, or attain the girl of his future, Solitaire King follows a hallucinating Ziad, an ex political prisoner determined to become the champion he believes is expected of him. (Drama)

Soller’s Point written and directed by Matt Porterfield; produced by Ryan Zacarias, Jordan Mintzer, and Steve Holmgren; executive produced by Dan Carey. Serving parole on detention in his father’s house, an ex-offender finds the adjustment to society and the workforce more difficult than the confines of home. (Drama)

Taminex directed by Anya Meksin, produced by Kristie Lutz , written by William Gerrard and Anya Meksin, executive produced by Lawrence Mattis, and cinematography by Ian Bloom. During a pandemic, a sheltered young woman must venture into the city’s most dangerous district to procure the drug that can save her boyfriend’s life. (Thriller)

Torchbearer directed by Charles Officer, produced by Paul Barkin, written by David Bradley Halls. A forensic-geologist risks his life to seek closure for the family of a cold-case murder victim, in a desperate attempt to atone for his own personal tragedy. (Dramatic Thriller)

Torus directed by Michael Axelgaard, produced by Michael Axelgaard and Matthew Holt. When a physics experiment creates a tear between parallel universes, a bereaved boy sets out to find a world where his mother is still alive. (Science Fiction)

Tramontane directed by Vatche Boulghourjian, produced by Spencer Kiernan and Caroline Oliveira. Rabih, a young blind man, searches for a record of his own birth after discovering that his identity card is a forgery. He travels across Lebanon and gradually descends into a Kafkaesque encounter with a nation unable to retell his or its own past. (Drama)

Tree of Crows directed, produced, and written by Stephen Abbott. Among the ruins of post-apocalyptic South Africa lives Cain, a violently desperate man who suppresses his murderous past—until he falls for an alluring traveler. (Thriller)

Twelve Hundred and Ninety Six Hits directed by Moon Molson, produced by Daniella Kahane and Diana Ossana, written by Mark Poirier and Bill U’ren. A character driven comedy about a seventeen year-old SKA obsessed boy whose entire life changes the day he accidentally steals a sheet of acid. (Comedy)

The Witch of New Canaan Woode written and directed by Robert Eggers, produced by Jodi Redmond. A devout Christian family starts a small farm at the edge of a wood in early New England, only to be torn apart and driven to madness by an evil witch. (Drama)

Spotlight on Documentaries

Am I Don Quixote? Written, directed, and produced by Jimmy Ferguson. When a legendary circus star faces a broken marriage and career, he embarks on a fantastical quest to rediscover himself as the fabled knight Don Quixote.

The Autobiography of Michelle Maren directed by Michel Negroponte and Michelle Maren, written by Michel Negroponte, and produced by Michel Negroponte and Marie-Emmanuelle Hartness. The story of an abused child, who became a runaway, a beauty queen and a porn star in the 80’s. Today, barricaded in her apartment and impaired by multiple mental disorders, she attempts to reconcile with the past.

Ballet 422 (New York City Ballet Documentary) directed by Jody Lee Lipes and produced by Ellen Bar and Anna Rose Holmer. From first rehearsal to world premiere, Ballet 422 takes us backstage at New York City Ballet as emerging choreographer Justin Peck crafts a new work.

BE•HOLD directed by Richard Kroehling and produced by Sirad Balducci and Janet Kirchheimer. A performance film of Holocaust poetry. Poets, survivors, and actors perform poems from the Shoah to the present. A marriage of cinema and poetry.

Brick directed by Jessica Dimmock and Christopher LaMarca and produced by KateBrickwitnesses the loss and extraordinary risk experienced by five fathers and grandfathers finding courage to live as transgendered women within the Pacific Northwest’s hyper-masculine culture.

Brillo Box (3¢ off) directed and produced by Lisanne Skyler. In 1969, my parents bought a Warhol Brillo Box for $1,000. In 2010, it fetched $3,000,000. This is the story of what happened in between.

Children of the Inquisition written, directed and produced by Joseph Lovett. From medieval tortures, to the present, Children of the Inquisition follows descendants of the Iberian Inquisitions, as they unravel their complex—often buried—Jewish identity.

Cocaine Prison directed by Violeta Ayala and produced by Daniel Fallshaw, Cedric Bonin, and Alexandra Daly. From inside one of Bolivia’s notorious prisons, a cocaine worker, a drug mule, and his little sister reveal the country’s complex relationship with cocaine.

The Cure written and directed by Bernadette Wegenstein and produced by Bernadette Wegenstein and Jon Reiss. The Cure interweaves the intimate stories of a surgeon and her patients with the history, mythology, and current treatment battles in the breast cancer industry.

Dark Money written, directed, and produced by Kimberly Reed. After the Citizens United verdict, 501c4 dark money fuels corrupt politics across America, but one election cycle in Montana clarifies complex problems and offers solutions.

The Destruction of Memory directed by Tim Slade and produced by Joanna Buggy. Based on the acclaimed book, The Destruction of Memory is a vital, urgent exploration of the purposeful destruction of the built heritage, language, and culture of one people by another, and the disintegration of memory and identity that results.

Dinosaur 13 directed and produced by Todd Miller. The true tale of one of the greatest discoveries in history.

Elephant in the Room directed by Lucia Small and Ed Pincus and produced by Lucia Small, Ed Pincus, and Mary Kerr. Two filmmakers of different generations turn the camera on each other to explore friendship, legacy, loss, and living with terminal illness.

Evaporating Borders directed by Iva Radivojevic, produced by Landon Van Soest and Leandros Savvides, and executive produced by Laura Poitras. A visual essay about political migrants in Cyprus that explores the meaning of displacement and search for identity.

Flickering Time Bomb written, directed, and produced by Pietra Bretkelly. What is a country without a past? As Afghanistan teeters on an unpredictable future, Flickering Time Bombunwraps the world of three dreamers and 8,000 hours of film covered by the dust of 100 years of war. What surprises will emerge from the cloak of time?

Freedom Fighters directed by Jamie Meltzer and produced by David Alvarado and Kate McLean. There’s a new detective agency in Dallas, Texas, started by a group of exonerated men who have all spent decades in prison.

The Girl Who Knew Too Much directed by Amy Benson and Ramyata Limbu, produced by Amy Benson and Scott Squire, and executive produced by Karol Martesko-Fenster. A bold girl with a golden opportunity takes her own life and reveals South Asia’s newest epidemic.

The Good, Bad, and Deadly: China, U.S. and their Relationship written and directed by Vanessa Hope, produced by Vanessa Hope and Ted Hope, and executive produced by Geralyn Dreyfous. Courageous blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng’s escape from house arrest to NYU highlights U.S. democratic dysfunction, U.S.-China relations, and the “Wild West” way China runs.

Good Men, Bad Men, and a Few Rowdy Ladies directed by Andrea Scott, produced by Andrea Scott and Dev Brand, and executive produced by Julie Goldman and David Menschel. Florence, Arizona is a cowboy town with a prison problem. In the historic Wild West, what does a culture of incarceration do to a place and its people?

The Hand That Feeds written and directed by Robin Blotnick and Rachel Lears and produced by Robin Blotnick, Rachel Lears, and Patricia Benabe. A scrappy crew of undocumented immigrant workers face long odds and the threat of deportation when they take on a well-known New York restaurant chain.

The Heist directed by Louie Psihoyos, written by Mark Monroe, and produced by Fisher Stevens and Olivia Ahnemann. An unlikely team of activists comes together to give threatened species a voice and stop a mass extinction.

How to Become an Extreme Action Hero directed by Catherine Gund and produced by Catherine Gund and Tanya Selvaratnam. Hero harnesses the forces of action architect and provocateur Elizabeth Streb – colliding her life and work, testifying to the power and necessity of art.

In the Middle directed by Lorena Luciano and Filippo Piscopo and produced by Filippo Piscopo. The collision of two epic crises unfolds in small-town Italy, hit by a ferocious economic downturn when African migrants fleeing the Arab revolutions arrive by the thousands, demanding work and visas.

In the Shadow of the Dream directed by Asa Mader and produced by Christoph Jorg and Corinne Weber. A portrait of Clarence B. Jones, one of Martin Luther King’s trusted allies, comes out of the shadows of civil rights history to tell his tale.

In Your Voice, In Your Heart directed by Edward Lovelace and James Hall and produced by Lucas Ochoa. In February 2005, musician Edwyn Collins suffered a serious stroke. Unable to move and barely able to speak, his spectacular recovery back to center stage is both courageous and life affirming.

Island Soldier written and directed by Nathan Fitch and produced by Nathan Fitch and Jeremy Levine. A character-driven documentary about the service of Micronesians in the U.S. military–service that occurs at very high rates per capita.

The Joneses directed by Moby Longinotto, produced by Aviva Wishnow, and executive produced by Caroline Spry and Peter Day. A portrait of Jheri, a73-year-old transgender trailer park matriarch, and her sons in Bible Belt Mississippi. Recently reunited, will new revelations tear this family apart?

Journey Story directed by Keren Shayo and produced by Osnat Trabelsi, Galit Cahlon, Hilla Medalia, and Neta Zwebner-Zaibert. Timnit, 20, escaped Eritrea in 2011 and disappeared on her way to Israel. We follow the search for her and reveal the secret Torture Housecamps ran by Bedouins in Sinai.

Letters from Baghdad directed by Zeva Oelbaum and Sabine Krayenbühl, produced by Zeva Oelbaum, and executive produced by Thelma Schoonmaker and Denise Benmosche. More famous in her day than colleague Lawrence of Arabia, Gertrude Bell created a country, a king, and a museum in Baghdad. Who was she?

Long Year Begin directed by David Osit, written by David Osit and Malika Zouhali-Worrall, and produced by David Osit, Malika Zouhali-Worrall, and Caleb Heller. A science fiction documentary that examines humanity’s perpetual quest for preservation, and the consequences of choosing what we lose and what we save.

Make Me Normal directed by Mitch McCabe and produced by Jeff Kusama-Hinte. Are we medicalizing “Normal?” 30% of Americans are diagnosed with a mental disorder and 20% are on psychiatric drugs. What’s led to our new “Disorder Culture?” And what happened to “normal?”

Mind/Game: The Unquiet Journey of Chamique Holdsclaw directed and produced by Rick Goldsmith. The rise from broken home to superstardom of “the female Michael Jordan” and her subsequent roller-coaster battle with mental illness.

Mudflow directed by Cynthia Wade and Sasha Friedlander and produced by Sasha Friedlander and Vanessa Bergonzoli. Villagers in East Java, Indonesia, living with the results of fracking gone terribly wrong, seek justice from the corporate powers responsible for this man-made disaster.

The Other Man: F.W. de Klerk and End of Apartheid in South Africa directed by Nicolas Rossier and produced by Nicolas Rossier, Naashon Zalk, and Tami Woronoff. F.W. de Klerk was the last apartheid president of South Africa. In less than four years he went from being Mandela’s jailor to his second deputy vice president. The Other Man is the definitive film on de Klerk’s political journey and legacy.

Out of Mind directed and produced by Kristi Jacobson and executive produced by David Menschel.� Out of Mind is a compelling journey into the most invisible corners of the American justice system, prompting us to confront what happens behind the locked door and how it impacts us all.

The Overnighters directed by Jesse Moss and produced by Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine. Moths to a flame, broken, desperate men chase their dreams and run from their demons in the North Dakota oil fields. A local Pastor risks everything to help them.

Run and Gun directed by Marshall Curry and produced by Marshall Curry and Matthew VanDyke. A young Baltimorean with a gun in one hand and a camera in the other sets off to become a rebel fighter in the Libyan revolution.

Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda directed by Stephen Schible and produced by Stephen Schible, Eric Nyari, and Amy Lo. Intimate portrait of one of the foremost composers of our era; from iconic star of techno-pop during Japan’s economic boom to leading anti-nuclear activist, post-Fukushima.

Science Fiction Land directed and produced by Judd Ehrlich and executive produced by Nancy Schafer. The stranger than science fiction story of the theme park that changed the world but was never built.

She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry directed by Mary Dore and produced by Mary Dore and Nancy Kennedy. Protesters, poets, and shameless hussies! These women fought for their rights, and made a revolution.

Shield and Spear directed by Petter Ringbom and produced by Petter Ringbom and Alysa Nahmias. An artist paints a caricature of South African president Jacob Zuma that provokes a lawsuit, death threats, and massive street protests.

A Slippery Slope directed and produced by Yael Melamede and executive produced by Dan Ariely. A Slippery Slope is an exploration of the architecture of dishonesty. How can human beings lie, cheat, steal and still sleep at night?

Soft Vengeance: Albie Sachs and the New South Africa directed and produced by Abby Ginzberg and written by Rick Goldsmith. Albie Sachs, maimed in a car bomb attack, becomes a leading spokesperson for democracy and reconciliation in the new South Africa and then the world.

Tough Love directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal and produced by Stephanie Wang-Breal, Kristi Jacobson, Carrie Weprin, Ursula Liang, and Evan Briggs. Fighting to reunite with their children,Tough Love follows the lives of two parents in their emotional and trying journey through the child welfare system.

Trapped written, directed, and executive produced by Dawn Porter. In the abortion wars, the fight for the hearts, minds, and bodies of black women may be a decisive factor in America’s fight over the right to choose.

Untitled Chris Burden Documentary directed by Timothy Marrinan and Richard Dewey. A probing portrait of the man who risked his life in the name of art.

Untitled Transgender Youth Documentary directed by Eric Juhola and produced by Eric Juhola, Randy Stulberg, and Jeremy Stulberg. The film follows a landmark transgender rights case in Colorado, where a 6-year-old transgender girl is banned from the girls bathroom at her elementary school.

The Visual Crash directed by Yael Hersonski and produced by Itay Ken-tor. Unseen footage of the Gaza flotilla raid exposes the gap between reality and the media.

Walking Thunder: The Last Stand of the African Elephant directed and produced by Marie Wilkinson and Cyril Christo and executive produced by Lori Cheatle and Wendy Blackstone. A family’s journey over the course of a decade, witnessing and documenting awe-inspiring stories and breathtaking images of East Africa’s people and wildlife, focusing on the iconic elephant.

The Yes Men Are Revolting directed by Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno, and Carl Deal; produced by Laura Nix; and executive produced by Adam McKay and Alan Hayling. Notorious activists the Yes Men are on a gonzo mission to save the planet, one stunning hoax after another… but this time, it’s personal.

Trans Atlantic Partners

18% Gray directed by Viktor Chouchkov, produced by Borislav Chouchkov, written by Borislav Chouchkov, Viktor Chouchkov and Zachary Karabashliev. After his wife leaves him, a failed photographer stumbles upon a bag of marijuana, and determined to sell it, sets off to a wild trip that may lead him to the truth about his lost love and ultimately to himself. (Drama)

Afraid of the Dark produced by Magnus Ramsdalen. David is terrified of the dark. His therapist sends him to the North to go through exposure, but David quickly finds there’s a reason for his fear. (Horror)

Berlin Balagan produced by Sol Bondy, written by Rolf Basedow. Jewish spring breakers in post-war Berlin. (Drama)

Break a Leg directed by Francisco Padilla, produced by Germán Méndez. Two unemployed Mexican actors want to make it big in Hollywood but end up on the run in Texas from a real life mob boss. (Comedy)

Chained Melody written and directed by David Gleeson, produced by Nathalie Lichtenthaeler. A washed-up concert pianist finds redemption when he takes the only job on offer – teaching music to the inmates of a maximum-security prison. (Drama)

Cold Hands produced by Carole Sheridan. A fast-paced and exciting thriller that follows the story of Donnie Miller, a young husband and father whose extremely comfortable life in a small, remote Canadian town is suddenly wrecked by his past. (Drama)

Covet directed by Karen Lam, produced by Karen Wong. A young woman begins an adulterous affair with a rich man, unaware that he may be involved in the disappearance of her relative. (Drama)

Crush Season produced by Daniel Bekerman. A vineyard worker embarking on a new life in Canada fights to restore a community’s trust after a vindictive landowner tries to engineer his deportation to the country and past he has risked everything to escape. (Drama)

Cunningham produced by Kelly Gilpatrick. A 3D cinematic event about legendary American choreographer, Merce Cunningham, orchestrated through his dances. (Documentary- Experimental/Non-Traditional)

Dead and Buried directed by William Phillips, produced by Paula Devonshire. On an isolated farm, an intellectually disabled man struggles against a ghost who threatens to unearth a horrible secret from his past. (Supernatural Thriller)

Family Remains directed by Gaby Dellal, produced by Ailish McElmeel, written by Eoin O’Connor, executive produced by John Pinckard and Paul Donovan. Three American siblings are forced to fulfill their mother’s dying wish to have her ashes scattered in her home country – Ireland. (Comedy)

Get Happy written and directed by Jordan Christianson, produced by Lauren Grant and Lori Lozinski. Get Diploma, Get Girl, Get Job, Get Happy! (Comedy)

A Good Girl directed by Sean Garrity, produced by Marc Almon, written by Jonathan Williams. A thirty-something inventor tries to hold onto his youth by dating a free-willed eighteen-year-old, but it becomes an obsession that threatens his destiny with another woman. (Comedy)

Hungry For Love directed by Justin Ambrosino, produced by Soojin Chung. One lonely night, two depressed over-eaters make a suicide pact to eat until they have a heart attack. (Romantic Comedy)

League of Monster Slayers produced by Leonard Farlinger. Two orphaned children and their nanny battle an onslaught of monsters and confront a demon building a portal to a darker more evil nether world. (Drama)

Likho. Don’t Wake the Devil directed by Mitja Okorn, produced by Marcin Wierzchoslawski. A young boy discovers a dark family secret in the hostile world, full of imaginary monsters, created by his oppressive father. (Horror)

Man With Van written and directed by Ed Blythe, written by James Windeler, produced by Shrihari Sathe. An upright electrician bumbles into arson to provide for his daughter, until a lethal accident pits him against his best friend and their sociopathic boss. (Dramatic Thriller)

Nearly Dead directed by Christian Schwochow, produced by Katja Kuhlmann and Sebastian Storm. When Sarah realizes that her never-ending nightmares are reflections of a true murder, she enters the kingdom of the dead to find the killer. (Mystery/Crime Thriller)

Phantom Limbs written and directed by Michael Sladek, produced by Joseph Krings, Paul Schnee, Michael Sladek, and Mark Steele. Set in rural Nebraska, Phantom Limbs is an elegiac tale about two young sisters overcoming years of chronic abandonment by embarking on separate, precarious paths that force them to reconcile their shared history in ways they never expected. (Drama)

Record Breaking written and directed by Craig Abell-Champion, produced by T.R. Boyce, Jr. A British woman afflicted by long interval narcolepsy wakes from a world record breaking long coma with an irrepressible need to have a child. (Drama)

The Silver produced by Paul Pope. In a tale of redemption the life-or-death stakes of a perilous murder investigation reawakens the spirit of the beautiful but emotionally damaged Detective Vivien Ellis. (Dramatic Thriller)

Slightly Sane produced by Gaurav Dhingra. In 1947, the end of British colonial rule creates two nations by partitioning one motherland into; India and Pakistan. People have the freedom to choose their country. All people, even those in mental asylums. (Drama)

The Tale directed, produced, and written by Jennifer Fox, executive produced by Oren Moverman and Jack Lechner. Based on a true story, “The Tale” chronicles a woman’s journey to unravel the mystery of her first sexual relationship during the summer of 1973. (Drama)

Untitled Ryan Silbert Project, produced by Ryan Silbert.

Umrika written and directed by Prashant Nair, produced by Alan McAlex and Mathias Schwerbrock. To save his mother from heartbreak, a young Indian village boy invents letters from his missing brother in America, all the while searching for him. (Drama)

Vacationship produced by Yanick Létourneau, written by Cynthia Knight. A romantic comedy about love, sex, freedom and “vacationships” – relationships on vacation. No commitment. No long term prospects. No consequences. Or so the theory goes. (Romantic Comedy)

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THE BABUSHKAS OF CHERNOBYL

Anne Bogart and Holly Morris’ THE BABUSHKAS OF CHERNOBYL, Jamie Meltzer’s FREEDOM FIGHTERS and Jimmy Goldblum and Adam Weber’s TOMORROW WE DISAPPEAR are the winners of the 2013 San Francisco Film Society SFFS Documentary Film Fund award. The awards totaling $100,000 support feature-length documentaries in postproduction.

Previous DFF winners include Shaul Schwarz’s NARCO CULTURA, which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival; Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson’s AMERICAN PROMISE, which also premiered at Sundance and won the festival’s Special Jury Prize in the documentary category; and Zachary Heinzerling’s CUTIE AND THE BOXER, which won Sundance’s Directing Award for documentary, has played at film festivals worldwide and will be distributed theatrically by Radius-TWC.

2013 DOCUMENTARY FILM FUND WINNERS

THE BABUSHKAS OF CHERNOBYL — $40,000
Anne Bogart and Holly Morris, co-director/producers
As Fukushima smolders, and the world grapples with a dangerous energy era, an unlikely human story emerges from Chernobyl to inform the debate. TheBabushkas of Chernobyl is the story of an extraordinary group of women who live in Chernobyl’s post-nuclear disaster “Dead Zone.” For more than 25 years they have survived — and even, oddly, thrived — on some of the most contaminated land on earth. For more information visit thebabushkasofchernobyl.com.

Anne Bogart is a Los Angeles-based writer and documentary director/producer. For the past 12 years she has directed and produced numerous episodes for the Globe Trekker travel series. For 15 years she worked in Paris and London as a staff writer for Women’s Wear Daily and a freelance writer for numerous American magazines including Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. While in Europe, Bogart also produced and directed documentary and entertainment programming for a variety of French and U.K. broadcasters.

Holly Morris is the writer/director/creator of the award-winning eight-part PBS documentary series about extraordinary women around the world, Adventure Divas, and author of the book Adventure Divas: Searching the Globe for a New Kind of Heroine. Her award-winning story A Country of Women — on which The Babushkas of Chernobyl is based — was originally published in MOREmagazine, won Meredith’s “Editorial Excellence Award,” is featured in Best Travel Literature: 2013, and was republished in London’s Daily Telegraph andThe Week.

FREEDOM FIGHTERS — $20,000
Jamie Meltzer, director

FREEDOM FIGHTERS

There’s a new detective agency in Dallas, Texas, started by a group of exonerated men who have all spent decades in prison for crimes they didn’t commit. They call themselves the Freedom Fighters, and they’ve recently started working their first cases. For more information visit freedomfightersfilm.com.

Jamie Meltzer’s feature documentary films have been broadcast nationally on PBS and have screened at numerous film festivals worldwide. They include Off the Charts: The Song-Poem Story (Independent Lens, 2003), Welcome to Nollywood (PBS Broadcast, 2007), La Caminata (2009), and Informant, which won four best documentary/grand jury awards at film festivals in 2012 and is being released in theaters nationwide by Music Box Films. Meltzer teaches in the MFA Program in Documentary Film and Video at Stanford University.

TOMORROW WE DISAPPEAR — $40,000
Jimmy Goldblum and Adam Weber, co-director/producers

TOMORROW WE DISAPPEAR

When their homes are illegally sold to real estate developers, the magicians, acrobats and puppeteers of Delhi’s Kathputli colony must unite — or splinter apart forever.

Jimmy Goldblum is a Brooklyn-based writer, director, and interactive producer. In 2008 he won an Emmy for “New Approaches to Documentary” for Live Hope Love, a project he produced for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Goldblum’s projects have won Emmy, FWA, Webby, and SXSW awards and have earned coverage from the New York Times, Wired magazine,USA Today, and CNN.

Adam Weber is currently editing Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy?, Michel Gondry’s animated documentary about Noam Chomsky. He was the editor of Kanye West’s interactive film Cruel Winter, and assistant editor on Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds.

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The San Francisco Film Society today announced the eight finalists for the fifth annual $15,000 SFFS / Hearst Screenwriting Grant. The 2013 finalists include a number of writer-directors whose work has recently made waves on the international festival scene, including Destin Cretton (Short Term 12), Tom Gilroy (The Cold Lands) and Eliza Hittman (It Felt Like Love). The winner will be announced in mid-September.

2013 SFFS / HEARST SCREENWRITING GRANT FINALISTS

Eliza Hittman — A
Skye, a teenage girl living in rural Pennsylvania, catches a Greyhound bus on a secret journey to New York City to do something for which she might never be forgiven. Hittman’s previous work includes It Felt Like Love (2013). For more information visit elizahittman.com.

Tariq Tapa — THE BEST THAT TOMORROW WILL BRING
A recently homeless widow drives cross-country on a parade float, hoping to meet the grandson she has never known before he is deployed to war overseas. Tapa’s previous work includes Zero Bridge (2008). For more information visit mongrelworks.com.

Shaka King — LIQUID COURAGE
In the 90’s, drugs and alcohol ruined Deuce Harding’s career. In 2013 they’ll make him a star. King’s previous work includes Newlyweeds (2013). 

Destin Cretton — MA
After being a mom for 30 years, Jan is forced to deal with the fact that her youngest son has finally left the nest. On a road-trip down the Oregon Coast, she begins to learn what it means to live life after motherhood. Cretton’s previous work includes Short Term 12 (2013) and I Am Not a Hipster (2012).

Tom Gilroy — OUR LADY OF THE SNOW
When a convent is threatened with dissolution, the elderly nuns begin to have ecstatic visions. When the atheist teenager who cooks for them begins to share in those visions, supernatural events come to the aid of the convent. Gilroy’s previous work includes The Cold Lands (2013).  

Alistair Banks Griffin — SNOW THE JONES
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. Griffin’s previous work includes Two Gates of Sleep (2010).

Matthew Porterfield — SOLLERS POINT
After serving a parole term detained in his father’s house, an ex-offender finds the adjustment to society and the workforce more difficult than the confines of home. Porterfield’s previous work includes I Used to Be Darker (2013) andPutty Hill (2010). For more information visit hamiltonfilmgroup.org.

Jeremy Teicher and Alexi Pappas — STICK AND CHUB
In a small American town obsessed with competitive running, 21-year-old star athlete Plumb Marigold rebels against her parents, coaches, agents, and teammates just weeks before the upcoming Olympic trials. Teicher and Pappas’ previous work includes Tall As the Baobab Tree (2013). For more information visit stickandchub.com. 

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Ten first-time governors have been elected to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Board of Governors. In addition, eight incumbents have been reelected and one previous governor is returning to the board. This year’s election increases the Academy’s governing body from 43 to 48.

The first-time governors are Judianna Makovsky and Deborah Nadoolman, representing the Costume Designers Branch; Rick Carter and Jan Pascale, Designers Branch; Alex Gibney, Documentary; Lynzee Klingman, Film Editors; Amy Pascal, Executives; Kathryn Blondell and Bill Corso, Makeup Artists and Hairstylists; and Nancy Utley, Public Relations.

The reelected governors are Ed Begley, Jr., Actors Branch; John Bailey, Cinematographers; Kathryn Bigelow, Directors; Charles Fox, Music; Jon Bloom, Short Films and Feature Animation; Curt Behlmer, Sound; Richard Edlund, Visual Effects; and Robin Swicord, Writers.

Mark Johnson, representing the Producers Branch, is returning to the board after a hiatus.

The Academy’s 16 branches, including the recently created Costume Designers Branch, are each represented by three governors, who may serve up to three consecutive three-year terms. For the first time, the Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch is represented by three governors; the branch was previously represented by one.

Governors who were not up for reelection and who continue on the board are Annette Bening and Tom Hanks, Actors Branch; Jim Bissell, Designers; Richard P. Crudo and Dante Spinotti, Cinematographers; Jeffrey Kurland, Costume Designers; Lisa Cholodenko and Michael Mann, Directors; Michael Apted and Rob Epstein, Documentary; Dick Cook and Robert Rehme, Executives; Mark L. Goldblatt and Michael Tronick, Film Editors; Leonard Engelman, Makeup Artists and Hairstylists; Arthur Hamilton and David L. Newman, Music; Gale Anne Hurd and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers; Cheryl Boone Isaacs and Rob Friedman, Public Relations; Bill Kroyer and John Lasseter, Short Films and Feature Animation; Don Hall and Scott Millan, Sound; Craig Barron and John Knoll, Visual Effects; and Bill Condon and Phil Robinson, Writers.

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29 feature-length documentary films have been selected to receive more than $550,000 in grants from the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program and Fund (DFP). Grantees were selected from 772 submissions from 88 countries and include filmmakers working in Chile, Libya, Cuba, Cambodia and Pakistan as well as a broad range of experience, from first-time feature documentary filmmakers to Academy Award nominee Arthur Dong and veteran filmmaker Ed Pincus working with Lucia Small.

DEVELOPMENT

Chicago Boys (Chile) 
Director: Carola Fuentes
The film tells how a group of Milton Friedman’s disciples – backed by a military dictatorship in the ‘70s – managed to turn Chile into the first and most extreme model of neoliberalism in the world.

Children
Director: Maite Alberdi
Chilean support for people with Down Syndrome ends at 25, but life expectancy is now in the 50s. A group of friends are facing a stage they were never prepared for, because no one ever expected them to grow up or get old.

Concerning Violence (Sweden) 
Director: Goran Hugo Olsson
From the depths of the Swedish film archive comes newly discovered, powerful footage of the most daring moments in Third World liberation movements. Accompanied by classic text from The Wretched of the Earth by Franz Fanon, the new film will offer timeless reflections on violence and liberation.        

Eddie Adams: SAIGON ’68 (U.S.A.)
Director: Douglas Sloan
The most influential photograph to come out of the Vietnam War transformed the lives of both photographer Eddie Adams and General Loan, who summarily executed the prisoner. The film explores the surprising backstory and launches a broader inquiry into our perception and understanding of the visual image.

Flickering Time Bomb (New Zealand) 
Director: Pietra Brettkelly
Three men align in a passionate campaign to save Afghanistan’s rapidly deteriorating Film Archive, in a country whose culture and history are once again under threat of an uncertain future.

Freedom Fields (Libya)           
Director: Naziha Arebi
At the new dawn of a nation once cut off from the world, a dynamic group of women from fractured sides of the revolution come together with one hunger in common, to empower the women of Libya through sport. Their dream: to form the first national Libyan women’s football team.

Hotel Nueva Isla (Cuba/Spain) 
Directors: Irene Gutierrez and Javier Labrador
Jorge lives with his four neighbors in the formerly luxurious Hotel Nueva Isla in Old Havana. Now in ruins, it is a shelter for people living on the fringes of society. Evacuation becomes imminent, but Jorge resists abandoning the building.

School of Last Resort (U.S.A.) 
Directors: Landon Van Soest and Jeremy Levine
Three students at an experimental school for criminal youth struggle to fulfill their hopes in one of the most dangerous cities in the country.

Simple Justice (U.S.A.) 
Directors: Marion Lipschutz and Rose Rosenblatt
After 435 days in prison, a Chinese immigrant in Indianapolis is free on bail. Can her attorney clear the charges of murder and attempted feticide, or will she go to jail for her crime – attempting suicide while pregnant?

The Storm Makers (Cambodia / France) 
Director: Guillaume Suon
Filmmaker Guillaume Suon turns his cinematic lens on globalization and contemporary Cambodia.

Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four (U.S.A.) 
Director: Deborah S. Esquenazi
Four Chicana lesbians languish in Texas prisons, found guilty of sexually assaulting two girls ages 7 and 9. Now, advocates and attorneys believe that a spurned suitor’s revenge, homophobia and ‘junk science’ were key factors in their conviction. The film also explores the tedious process of exonerating innocents in Texas.

Untitled Colorado Documentary (U.S.A.) 
Director: Eric Juhola
The film follows a landmark case in Colorado, where a 6-year-old male-to-female transgender girl is banned from using the girls’ bathroom at her elementary school.

PRODUCTION / POST-PRODUCTION

Barring Race (U.S.A.) 
Director: Noel Schwerin
At an infamous prison in California, inmates and staff confront a U.S. Supreme Court ruling and a novel anti-violence program order, revealing America’s locked down racial order, and the hidden risks of transformative change.

Chameleon
Director: Ryan Mullins
Chameleon is a chronicle of the extraordinary escapades of Anas Aremeyaw Anas, a deep-cover investigative journalist in Ghana.           

Elephant in the Room (Working Title) (U.S.A.) 
Directors: Lucia Small and Ed Pincus
Two filmmakers of different generations turn the camera on each other to explore friendship, legacy and living with terminal illness. A film that spans the years of their friendship,Elephant in the Room (working title) offers a raw, personal glimpse into a creative partnership and the delicate process of capturing life’s precious moments.

The Hand that Feeds (U.S.A.) 
Directors: Rachel Lears and Robin Blotnick
Twelve undocumented immigrant workers take on a well-known New York City restaurant chain owned by powerful investors. This David-and-Goliath story explores what it takes for ordinary people to stand up for their dignity, and win.

The Killing Fields of Dr. Haing S. Ngor (U.S.A.)
Director: Arthur Dong
The periods before, during, and after the Khmer Rouge’s tyrannical rule over Cambodia are seen through the eyes of Dr. Haing S. Ngor, who escaped to America and recreated his experiences in The Killing Fields, winning an Oscar® for his first film. He became the de facto worldwide ambassador for truth and justice in his homeland, only to be gunned down in Chinatown Los Angeles – a case still muddled with transnational conspiracy theories.

Marmato (U.S.A.) 
Director: Mark Grieco
If Colombia is the new El Dorado of the global gold rush then Marmato, a mining town with over 500 years of history, is the new frontier. In its mountain there are $20 billion in gold, but its 8,000 inhabitants are at risk of being displaced by an open-pit mining project planned by a Canadian mining company.

Midway (U.S.A.) 
Director: Chris Jordan
Both elegy and warning, Midway explores the interconnectedness of species, with the albatross on Midway as a mirror of our humanity.

The Overnighters (U.S.A.) 
Director: Jesse Moss
Moths to a flame, broken, desperate men chase their dreams and run from their demons in the North Dakota oil fields. A local Pastor risks everything to help them.

Private Violence (U.S.A.) 
Director: Cynthia Hill
Have you ever wondered, “Why doesn’t she leave?” Private Violence follows domestic violence advocate Kit Gruelle as she accompanies women on the pathway from victim to survivor.

Radical Love (U.S.A.) 
Director: Hillevi Loven
Cole, a transgender Christian teen in rural North Carolina, searches for love and a spiritual community to call home.

Street Fighting Man (U.S.A.) 
Director: Andrew James
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.

Untitled Project (Faroe Islands/UK) 
Director: Mike Day
The pilot whale hunters of the Nordic Faroe Islands believe that hunting is vital to their way of life, but when a local doctor makes a grim discovery about the effects of marine pollution, environmental changes threaten to end the controversial tradition and change the community forever.

DISCRETIONARY

The Dream of Shahrazad (South Africa) 
Director: Francois Verster
Weaving together music, politics and storytelling, this film explores recent Middle East events through the metaphor of The 1001 Nights.

Out in The Night (formerly The Fire Next Time) (U.S.A.) 
Director: Blair Doroshwalther
A lifetime demanding self-defense. One night they fought back.

AUDIENCE ENGAGEMENT

25 To Life (U.S.A.) 
Director: Mike Brown
William “Reds” Brawner kept his HIV status a secret for over twenty years. Now Will seeks redemption from his nebulous and promiscuous past as he builds his own family. Audience Engagement support will be applied to the films’ outreach goals: to help decrease unsafe practices among the target population, reveal complexity in adult relationships, and dispel fear and misunderstandings surrounding the epidemic.

A Fierce Green Fire (U.S.A.) 
Director: Mark Kitchell
Narrated by Robert Redford, Ashley Judd, Van Jones, Isabel Allende and Meryl Streep, this exploration of the environmental movement looks at fifty years of global activism and the battle for a living planet. The Audience Engagement award supports work with environmental groups large and small as they mobilize and build grassroots campaigns.

Girl Model (U.S.A.) 
Directors: Ashley Sabin and David Redmon
Girl Model follows a 13-year-old Siberian girl and the American scout who discovers her through the complex, global human supply chain of the unregulated and often murky world of the international modeling industry. The Audience Engagement award supports a girl-fueled campaign to encourage the Department of Labor to extend child labor protections to under age models.

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Don Jons Addiction

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has extended invitations to join the organization to 276 artists and executives who “have distinguished themselves by their contributions to theatrical motion pictures. Those who accept the invitations will be the only additions to the Academy’s membership in 2013.” “These individuals are among the best filmmakers working in the industry today,” said Academy President Hawk Koch. “Their talent and creativity have captured the imagination of audiences worldwide, and I am proud to welcome each of them to the Academy.”

The 2013 invitees are:

Actors
Jason Bateman – “Up in the Air,” “Juno”
Miriam Colon – “City of Hope,” “Scarface”
Rosario Dawson – “Rent,” “Frank Miller’s Sin City”
Kimberly Elise – “For Colored Girls,” “Beloved”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt – “Lincoln,” “The Dark Knight Rises”
Charles Grodin – “Midnight Run,” “The Heartbreak Kid”
Rebecca Hall – “Iron Man 3,” “The Town”
Lance Henriksen – “Aliens,” “The Terminator”
Jack Huston – “Not Fade Away,” “Factory Girl”
Milla Jovovich – “Resident Evil,” “Chaplin”
Lucy Liu – “Kill Bill: Vol. 1,” “Chicago”
Jennifer Lopez – “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” “Selena”
Alma Martinez – “Born in East L.A.,” “Under Fire”
Emily Mortimer – “Hugo,” “Lars and the Real Girl”
Sandra Oh – “Rabbit Hole,” “Sideways”
Paula Patton – “Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol,” “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Michael Peña – “End of Watch,” “Crash”
Emmanuelle Riva – “Amour,” “Hiroshima, Mon Amour”
Jason Schwartzman – “Moonrise Kingdom,” “Rushmore”
Geno Silva – “Mulholland Drive,” “Amistad”
Danny Trejo – “Machete,” “Heat”
Chris Tucker – “Silver Linings Playbook,” “Rush Hour”

Cinematographers
Luca Bigazzi – “This Must Be the Place,” “Certified Copy”
Benoît Delhomme – “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas,” “The Proposition”
Simon Duggan – “The Great Gatsby,” “Killer Elite”
Greig Fraser – “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Snow White and the Huntsman”
Jonathan Freeman – “Remember Me,” “Fifty Dead Men Walking”
Greg Gardiner – “Race to Witch Mountain,” “Elf”
Eric Gautier – “Into the Wild,” “The Motorcycle Diaries”
Agnès Godard – “Sister,” “Beau Travail”
Eduard Grau – “Buried,” “A Single Man”
Jess Hall – “The Spectacular Now,” “Brideshead Revisited”
Fred Kelemen – “The Turin Horse,” “The Man from London”
Mark Lee Ping Bing – “Norwegian Wood,” “In the Mood for Love”
Reed Morano – “Little Birds,” “Frozen River”
Oleg Mutu – “Beyond the Hills,” “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”
Alex Nepomniaschy – “Narc,” “Safe” 
Christian Sebaldt – “Resident Evil: Apocalypse,” “Race to Space”
Ben Seresin – “World War Z,” “Unstoppable”
Adam Stone – “Mud,” “Take Shelter”
Checco Varese – “Girl in Progress,” “The Aura”
Ken Zunder – “Bending the Rules,” “That’s What I Am”

Costume Designers
Paco Delgado – “Les Misérables,” “Biutiful”
Sophie de Rakoff – “This Means War,” “Legally Blonde”
Carlo Poggioli – “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter,” “Cold Mountain”

Designers
Lori Balton – “Argo,” “The Dark Knight Rises”
Judy Becker – “Silver Linings Playbook,” “The Fighter”
Simon Bright – “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Avatar”
Martin T. Charles – “Marvel’s The Avengers,” “The Artist”
David M. Crank – “The Master,” “Lincoln”
Stefan Paul Dechant – “Oz The Great and Powerful,” “True Grit”
Tracey A. Doyle – “The Muppets,” “21”
Anna Lynch-Robinson – “Les Misérables,” “An Education”
Maria Nay – “Identity Thief,” “Ray”
David Smith – “Crazy, Stupid, Love.,” “The Holiday”

Directors
Nikolaj Arcel – “A Royal Affair,” “Truth about Men”
Ava DuVernay* – “Middle of Nowhere,” “I Will Follow” 
Paul Feig – “The Heat,” “Bridesmaids”
Catherine Hardwicke – “Twilight,” “Thirteen”
Kirk Jones – “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” “Waking Ned Devine”
Ken Kwapis – “Big Miracle,” “The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants”
Pablo Larraín – “No,” “Tony Manero”
Steve McQueen – “Shame,” “Hunger”
Kim Nguyen – “War Witch (Rebelle),” “City of Shadows”
Jafar Panahi* – “This Is Not a Film,” “The Circle” 
Todd Phillips – “The Hangover,” “Old School”
Joachim Rønning – “Kon-Tiki,” “Max Manus”
Espen Sandberg – “Kon-Tiki,” “Max Manus”
Tim Story – “Think Like a Man,” “Fantastic Four”
Benh Zeitlin – “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Glory at Sea”

Documentary
Orlando Bagwell – “Citizen King,” “Malcolm X: Make It Plain”
Rebecca Cammisa – “God Is the Bigger Elvis,” “Which Way Home”
Yung Chang – “China Heavyweight,” “Up the Yangtze”
Michael Chin – “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple,” “In the Shadow of the Stars”
Christine Choy – “In the Name of the Emperor,” “Who Killed Vincent Chin?”
Bonni Cohen – “The Island President,” “Wonders Are Many: The Making of Doctor Atomic”
Eduardo Coutinho – “As Canções,” “Cabra Marcado Para Morrer (Twenty Years Later)”
Miriam Cutler – “Kings Point,” “Ethel”
Andrea Nix Fine – “Inocente,” “War/Dance”
Sean Fine – “Inocente,” “War/Dance”
Robert Frank – “Cocksucker Blues,” “Pull My Daisy”
William Greaves – “Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey,” “Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One”
Lauren Greenfield – “The Queen of Versailles,” “Thin”
Patricio Guzmán – “Nostalgia for the Light,” “The Battle of Chile”
Vivien Hillgrove – “Symphony of the Soil,” “In the Matter of Cha Jung Hee”
Heddy Honigmann – “El Olvido (Oblivion),” “Crazy”
Vikram Jayanti – “The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector,” “Game Over: Kasparov and the Machine”
Peter Kinoy – “Poverty Outlaw,” “When the Mountains Tremble”
Claude Lanzmann – “Le Rapport Karski (The Karski Report),” “Shoah”
Kim Longinotto – “Rough Aunties,” “Sisters in Law”
Stanley Nelson – “Freedom Riders,” “Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple”
Jehane Noujaim – “Control Room,” “Startup.com”
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy – “Transgenders: Pakistan’s Open Secret,” “Saving Face”
Marcel Ophuls – “Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie,” “The Sorrow and the Pity”
José Padilha – “Secrets of the Tribe,” “Bus 174 (Ônibus 174)”
Jafar Panahi* – “This Is Not a Film,” “The Circle”
Elise Pearlstein – “Last Call at the Oasis,” “Food, Inc.” 
Raoul Peck – “Fatal Assistance (Assistance Mortelle),” “Lumumba: La Mort du Prophète”
Kevin Rafferty – “Harvard Beats Yale 29-29,” “The Atomic Cafe” 
J. Ralph* – “Chasing Ice,” “Man on Wire” 
Bob Richman – “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory,” “Waiting for ‘Superman'”
T. Woody Richman – “How to Survive a Plague,” “Fahrenheit 9/11”
Veronica Selver – “Berkeley in the Sixties,” “You Got to Move: Stories of Change in the South”
Jon Shenk – “The Island President,” “Lost Boys of Sudan”
Ricki Stern – “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” “The Devil Came on Horseback”
Robert Stone – “Earth Days,” “Radio Bikini”
Annie Sundberg – “Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work,” “The Devil Came on Horseback”
Renee Tajima-Pena – “Who Killed Vincent Chin?,” “My America (Or Honk If You Love Buddha)”
Agnès Varda – “The Beaches of Agnès,” “The Gleaners and I”
Roger Ross Williams – “God Loves Uganda,” “Music by Prudence”
Pamela Yates – “Granito: How to Nail a Dictator,” “The Reckoning: The Battle for the International Criminal Court”
Amy Ziering – “The Invisible War,” “Derrida”

Executives
Holly Bario
Jeb Brody
Eric d’Arbeloff
Dean C. Hallett
Lynn Harris
Jeff Ivers
Jonathan King
Robert Kirby
Dylan Leiner
Nick Meyer
Andrew Millstein
Hannah Minghella
Angela Morrison
Brian Roberts
Mark Roybal
Tucker Tooley
Kevin Tsujihara

Film Editors
Michael Berenbaum – “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” “Sex and the City”
Jeff Freeman – “Ted,” “Cruel Intentions”
James Haygood – “Where the Wild Things Are,” “Fight Club”
Stuart Levy – “Savages,” “Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps”
Mary Jo Markey – “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Super 8”

Makeup Artists and Hairstylists
Luisa Abel – “The Dark Knight Rises,” “Inception”
Anne Aulenta-Spira – “The Place beyond the Pines,” “Drive”
Terry Baliel – “The Dark Knight Rises,” “J. Edgar”
Thomas Floutz – “The Call,” “Hellboy II: The Golden Army”
Kay Georgiou – “Promised Land,” “Lincoln” 
Bernadette Mazur – “Men in Black 3,” “The Campaign”
Kim Santantonio – “Gangster Squad,” “Frost/Nixon”
Lisa Tomblin – “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1”
Kelvin R. Trahan – “Argo,” “Memoirs of a Geisha”
Lisa Westcott – “Les Misérables,” “Shakespeare in Love”

Members-at-Large
Victoria Alonso
Fred Baron
Ben Bray
Pieter Jan Brugge
Jackie Burch
Leo Davis
Susie Figgis
Lori Furie
Glenn S. Gainor
Joe Gareri
Lance Gilbert
Andy Gill
Mindy Marin
Laray Mayfield
Jeanne McCarthy
Neil Meron
Gary Powell
Ned Price
Michelle Satter
Stefan Sonnenfeld
Cindy Tolan
Brent Woolsey

Music
Ramiro Belgardt – “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “Lincoln”
Ramin Djawadi – “Safe House,” “Iron Man”
Jennifer Dunnington – “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Hugo”
Siedah Garrett – “Rio,” “Dreamgirls”
Joe Hisaishi – “Ponyo,” “Spirited Away”
Henry Jackman – “This Is the End,” “Wreck-It Ralph”
Cliff Martinez – “Drive,” “Traffic”
Prince – “Purple Rain,” “Happy Feet”
J. Ralph* – “Chasing Ice,” “Man on Wire”
Aaron Lael Zigman – “Peeples,” “Sex and the City”

Producers
Stefan Arndt – “Amour,” “The White Ribbon”
Jason Blum – “The Purge,” “Paranormal Activity”
Finola Dwyer – “Quartet,” “An Education”
Jack Giarraputo – “Anger Management,” “The Wedding Singer”
Veit Heiduschka – “Amour,” “The White Ribbon”
Lloyd Levin – “Green Zone,” “Watchmen”
Julie Lynn – “Albert Nobbs,” “Nine Lives”
Margaret Menegoz – “Amour,” “The White Ribbon”
Andrea Sperling – “Smashed,” “Like Crazy”

Public Relations
Rachel Cadden
Theresa Cross
Jeff S. Elefterion
Julie Fontaine
Jackson George
Anne Globe
Michael Lawson
Dennis O’Connor
Blair Rich
John G. Sabel

Short Films and Feature Animation
Marc Bertrand – “Gloria Victoria,” “Hollow Land”
Bryan Buckley – “Asad,” “The Wake-Up Caller”
Shawn Christensen – “Curfew,” “Brink”
Eric Darnell – “Madagascar,” “Shrek”
John C. Donkin – “Ice Age Continental Drift,” “Gone Nutty”
Ken Duncan – “9,” “Shark Tale”
Danielle Feinberg – “Brave,” “WALL-E”
Sam Fell – “ParaNorman,” “The Tale of Despereaux”
Matt Groening – “Maggie Simpson in ‘The Longest Daycare,'” “The Simpsons Movie”
Vicky Jenson – “Shark Tale,” “Shrek”
Travis Knight – “ParaNorman,” “Coraline”
Steve May – “Brave,” “Up”
Rich Moore – “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!”
Robert Neuman – “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Tangled”
Brandon Oldenburg – “Rise of the Guardians,” “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore”
PES – “Fresh Guacamole,” “Western Spaghetti” 
Steve Pilcher – “Brave,” “Shrek the Third”
Normand Roger – “Hollow Land,” “The Banquet of the Concubine”
Clark Spencer – “Wreck-It Ralph,” “Bolt”

Sound
Bobbi Banks – “The Call,” “Hustle & Flow”
Jose Antonio Garcia – “Argo,” “Babel” 
Simon Hayes – “Les Misérables,” “X-Men: First Class”
Edward J. Hernandez – “Real Steel,” “Basic Instinct”
Daniel S. Irwin – “Prometheus,” “Little Children”
Drew Kunin – “Life of Pi,” “Lost in Translation”
Michael W. Mitchell – “The Dark Knight Rises,” “The Matrix Reloaded”
Tom Ozanich – “Project X,” “Kill Bill: Vol. 2”
Mark Paterson – “Les Misérables,” “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” 
Richard Pryke – “127 Hours,” “Slumdog Millionaire”
Erin Michael Rettig – “A Good Day to Die Hard,” “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”
Ann Scibelli – “Prometheus,” “Inglourious Basterds”
Brian T. Slack – “Chéri,” “Crossover”
Bruce Tanis – “Gangster Squad,” “X-Men: First Class”
F. Elmo Weber – “Identity Thief,” “The Kids Are All Right”
Christopher T. Welch – “Silver Linings Playbook,” “(500) Days of Summer”
Dave Whitehead – “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “District 9”
Stuart Wilson – “Skyfall,” “War Horse”

Visual Effects
Jason Bayever – “Life of Pi,” “The Wolfman”
Mark Breakspear – “The Great Gatsby,” “Tropic Thunder”
Philip Brennan – “Snow White and the Huntsman,” “Minority Report”
Tony Clark – “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides,” “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” 
David Clayton – “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Avatar”
Michael Dawson – “Snow White and the Huntsman,” “The Devil’s Double”
Erik-Jan De Boer – “Life of Pi,” “Night at the Museum”
Donald R. Elliott – “Life of Pi,” “Seabiscuit”
John Goodson – “Red Tails,” “Marvel’s The Avengers”
Charley Henley – “Prometheus,” “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix”
John McLeod – “Django Unchained,” “The Aviator”
Mark Noel – “Oz The Great and Powerful,” “Transformers”
David Prescott – “Transformers,” “X-Men”
Guillaume Rocheron – “Life of Pi,” “Sucker Punch”
Wendy Rogers – “Puss in Boots,” “Shrek”
David Alexander Smith – “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “The Matrix Reloaded”
Wayne Stables – “The Adventures of Tintin,” “Avatar”
Richard Stammers – “Prometheus,” “Angels & Demons”
Richard Stutsman – “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Independence Day”
Christopher Townsend – “Captain America: The First Avenger,” “The Day after Tomorrow”
Stephan Trojansky – “Marvel’s The Avengers,” “Hereafter”
David Watkins – “Ali,” “Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom” 
Jeff White – “Marvel’s The Avengers,” “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”
Trevor Wood – “Prometheus,” “The Golden Compass”

Writers
Jessica Bendinger – “Aquamarine,” “Bring It On”
Reggie Rock Bythewood – “Notorious,” “Get on the Bus”
Tina Gordon Chism – “Peeples,” “Drumline”
Julie Delpy – “Before Midnight,” “2 Days in Paris”
Lena Dunham – “Nobody Walks,” “Tiny Furniture”
Ava DuVernay* – “Middle of Nowhere,” “I Will Follow”
John Gatins – “Flight,” “Coach Carter”
John Hamburg – “I Love You, Man,” “Meet the Parents”
John Lee Hancock – “Snow White and the Huntsman,” “The Blind Side”
Rian Johnson – “Looper,” “Brick”
Jeff Nichols – “Mud,” “Take Shelter”
Sarah Polley – “Take This Waltz,” “Away from Her”
Chris Terrio – “Argo,” “Heights”

Associates
Lorrie Bartlett
Paul Bronfman
Markham L. Goldstein
Robert Harvey
Gregory S. Laemmle
Sandra Marsh
Adam Schweitzer
Kimberly Snyder
Matthew L. Snyder
Les Zellan

 

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WHO IS DAYANI CRISTAL?

Six film projects have be selected as recipients for the 2013 Tribeca Film Institute (TFI) New Media Fund. The TFI New Media Fund was established in 2011 through a long-term partnership with the Ford Foundation’s  JustFilms Initiative to support non-fiction film projects that go beyond traditional screens, exploring storytelling that is interactive, cross-platform and participatory.

The recipients of grants are:

CHASING THE SUN
Key participants:  Paul Shoebridge, Michael Simons (The Goggles)
Description: Suppose we found a lost continent — impossible, but just imagine an opportunity to do things differently, to do anything besides business as usual. Chasing the Sun is an immersive online story about the Arctic.
Location: Canada: Vancouver, BC

THE YES MEN ARE REVOLTING
Key participants: Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno, Laura Nix, Mary Notari, The Public Society, Glocal
Description: The Yes Men Are Revolting ends with an urgent call to action—and with a tool, the Action Switchboard, that will help viewers answer that call. This human-moderated digital platform helps a global audience initiate and join direct actions that serve specific activist goals; it also provides training and other resources for carrying out media actions. Effectively, the Action Switchboard invites the film’s audience to join in the story the film and extend it in new and powerful ways.
Location: New York, Los Angeles

WHO IS DAYANI CRISTAL?
Key participants: Gael Garcia Bernal, Marc Silver, Lina Srivastava
Description: Deep in the scorching Sonoran desert beneath a cicada tree border patrol discovers a decomposing body. Lifting a t-shirt, they expose a tattoo that reads ‘Dayani Cristal.’ An anonymous body in the Arizona desert sparks the beginning of a search across a continent to seek out the people left behind and the meaning of a mysterious tattoo. “Who Is Dayani Cristal?” is a film and cross-platform exploration of stories underlying poverty, immigration, and the human rights of migrants who make journey across the US-Mexico border.|
Location: Mexico: Mexico City, UK: London, United States: New York

THIS IS MY BACKYARD (Logs of War)
Key participants: Anjali Nayar, Jude Mwenda, Andrew Hill, Daniel Burwen, Leonardo Bonanni
Description: Silas Siakor, winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize, risked everything to cut off warlord Charles Taylor from the illegal timber trade that was helping fund Liberia’s 14-year civil war. Now, Siakor tries to kick-start his country’s struggling economy through a sustainable logging industry.  “This is My Backyard” is a multi-platform project that crowd sources and disseminates information about land and resources in West Africa.
Locations: Kenya: Nairobi; Liberia: Monrovia; United States: New York, Boston, San Francisco

AMERICAN PROMISE
Key participants: Michèle Stephenson & Joe Brewster
Description: American Promise follows two African American boys and their families for 12 years as they navigate the terrain of race, privilege and opportunity at a rigorous New York City private school. To further the work of the film, the team are creating a web series and a goal-setting mobile app called “Promise Tracker”.
Location: New York

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Director Paris Barclay was elected President of the Directors Guild of America by acclamation at the Guild’s National Biennial Convention held over the weekend at DGA National Headquarters in Los Angeles.

“I am profoundly honored to be elected President of the DGA,” said Barclay to the assembled delegates after the vote. “The DGA has worked for more than three-quarters of a century to advance the creative and economic rights of directors and their teams and I look forward to continuing this strong tradition of service. As the son of a glass blower and a tile maker from Chicago, I am extremely humbled to have the honor to serve in the footsteps of the legendary leaders of the DGA like Frank Capra, Robert Wise and Gil Cates.”

Barclay has a deep history of service to the Guild, having most recently served four terms on the National Board as First Vice-President, beginning in 2005 and as Third Vice-President from 1999 to 2005. Barclay joined the Guild in 1992 and began his service as a member of the African American Steering Committee in 1993. He joined the Western Directors Council in 1997 as an alternate and was elected a full Council member in 1999 and has served on the Council for 16 years. In 2007, the Guild honored Barclay with the Robert B. Aldrich Achievement Award for extraordinary service to the DGA and its membership.

Barclay has directed over 130 episodes of television during his directing career, including: Sons of Anarchy, Glee, Smash, House, Cold Case, NCIS: Los Angeles, In Treatment, The Good Wife, CSI, Lost, The Shield, The West Wing, ER and NYPD Blue. In addition to episodic directing, Barclay has been an active director-producer, currently serving in that role in Sons of Anarchy and previously for In Treatment, Cold Case, City of Angels and NYPD Blue.  

Barclay has received 10 DGA Award nominations for Outstanding Direction in Comedy and Drama Television. He became the first Director in the history of the Guild to receive a comedy and a drama nomination in the same year, two years in a row (2008 In Treatment & Weeds and 2009 In Treatment & Glee). He won the 1998 DGA Dramatic Series Award for his NYPD Blue episode “Heart and Souls” featuring the death of Jimmy Smits’ character Bobby Simone. He has also won two Emmy Awards for his direction of NYPD Blue and received four additional Emmy nominations for producing and directing. Barclay has also received three NAACP Image Awards, four Peabody Awards, two Humanitas Prizes, and countless other recognitions. He also directed the HBO movie for television The Cherokee Kid and the Miramax feature Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood. He began his career in advertising working as a creative executive and then segued into directing commercials and music videos for artists including: Janet Jackson, Bob Dylan, and LL Cool J.

Barclay, a graduate of Harvard College, is married to his husband, Christopher Barclay, and has two sons.

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11 artists and filmmakers have been selected for the 2013 Sundance Institute | Time Warner Foundation Fellowship Program. The Fellowship program promotes cultural, socio-economic and gender diversity as well as artistic collaboration and innovation among emerging film and theatre storytellers, documentary filmmakers and film composers.  Each Fellow was identified by one of the following core programs of the Institute: Documentary Film Program, Feature Film Program, Film Music Program, Native American & Indigenous Film Program and Theatre Program.  Time Warner Foundation has supported the Institute since 2007, enabling direct support of 37 film and theatre artists, including Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station), Aurora Guerrero (Mosquita y Mari) and Annie Baker (Circle Mirror Transformation).

The 2013 Sundance Institute | Time Warner Foundation Fellows are:

Johnny 
Symons and S. Leo Chiang, Out Run (Documentary Film Program and Fund)— A transgender pioneer fights hostility and discrimination as she campaigns for Congress in the Philippines, illuminating the challenges facing openly LGBT politicians emerging in traditional parts of the world.

Johnny Symons (Co-Director) is an Emmy‐nominated documentary filmmaker based in San Francisco. Creating films since 1991, Johnny’s work primarily focuses on LGBT culture and politics. His film Daddy & Papa, about the personal, cultural and political impact of gay men raising kids, premiered at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

S. Leo Chiang (Co-Director) is a Taiwan-born, San Francisco-based filmmaker. His current documentary Mr. Cao Goes to Washington, won the Inspiration Award at the 2012 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. His other films include: A Village Called Versailles, To You Sweetheart, Aloha, One + One and Safe Journey.

Chinaka Hodge, 700th & International (Feature Film Program) — A trash-talking hood track phenomenon named Tuka dies by an unexpected bullet; she awakes to find herself in a corrupt version of heaven where everyone has a job – namely, to decide the exact moment of death for someone still living on earth.

Chinaka Hodge is a poet, educator and playwright from Oakland, California. She received her BA from NYU’s Gallatin School and her MFA from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. After nearly a decade of performing her own words around the globe and on two seasons of Def Poetry, she made the transition to the screen and received her first credit for Brave New Voices on HBO.

Yotam Silberstein (Film Music Program) — Since landing in New York, internationally-acclaimed guitarist Yotam has earned a well deserved spot among the Jazz elite by collaborating with legendary musicians such as James Moody, The Heath Brothers, Paquito D’Rivera, and the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars. Yotam’s mastery of the guitar is featured on an array of hit albums, ranging from his recent releases Resonance and Brasil on the Jazz Legacy Productions label, to Monty Alexander’s Grammy-nominated Harlem-Kingston Express Live! The Sundance Institute | Time Warner Foundation Fellowship included support for Yotam to procure recording equipment needed to build a small home studio and usable recording rig at his residence in Brooklyn.

Brooke Swaney, Circle (Native American & Indigenous Film Program) — Auralee, trapped in a dead-end job and a dead-end relationship, searches for her native roots while coping with a sudden onset of baby-mania. Frankie, a teenage Haida girl in Montana, acquaints herself with her new foster family while combating the after effects of abuse. Auralee wants a kid, Frankie wants love, and only one knows it is each other.

Brooke Swaney (Blackfeet & Salish) received her MFA in Film and Television from NYU’s Tisch School of Arts. Her first film, The Indigenoid, was nominated for Best Live Short at the 2005 American Indian Film Festival in San Francisco. In 2011, Ok Breathe Auralee premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Appropriate (Theatre Program) — The Lafayette family patriarch (and compulsive hoarder) is long dead, and it’s time to deal with the deserted and heavily mortgaged Arkansan homestead. When his adult children descend upon the former plantation to liquidate the estate, a gruesome discovery among his many belongings become just the first in a serious of treacherous surprises. A play about family secrets, memory loss and the art of repression.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a Brooklyn-based playwright. He is Usual Suspect and a former New York Theatre Workshop Playwriting fellow, an alum of the Soho Rep Writers/Directors Lab, Public Theater Emerging Writers Group and Ars Nova Playgroup. His honors include a Princess Grace Award, the Dorothy Strelsin Playwriting Fellowship, the Paula Vogel Award, and a fellowship in playwriting from the New York Foundation for the Arts. He is the recipient of the first-ever Sundance Institute Tennessee Williams Award.

Tanya Saracho, Song for the Disappeared (Theatre Program) — This new drama tells the story of a fractured family that comes together when the youngest son mysteriously disappears—presumably at the hands of the narcos that dominate the U.S./Mexico border. When their carefree (and sometimes careless) younger brother Javi disappears, the family is forced into their first reunion since their mother’s funeral as they search of the brother that no one—not the headstrong daughter nor the larger-than-life father—knows how to find.

Tanya Saracho was born in Sinaloa, México. She’s a playwright, director and actor as well as a writer for the upcoming Lifetime series Devious Maids and for the untitled Michael Lannan project for HBO. Named “Best New Playwright of 2010” by Chicago Magazine, Saracho is a new ensemble member at Victory Gardens Theater, a resident playwright emerita at Chicago Dramatists and a Goodman Theatre Fellow. Song For The Disappearedis a Goodman commission.

The Sundance Institute | Time Warner Foundation Native Producing Fellows are:

Ross Chaney, I am Thy Weapon — Written by Razelle Benally, I am Thy Weapon is the hard-edged fictional account about a dispirited 17-year-old young woman and her precocious eight-year-old sister as they search for light in the heavy shadows of life cast by poverty and apathy on the San Carlos Reservation in Arizona.

Ross Chaney (Osage & Cherokee Nations) is a multi-media artist who works in video, installation, painting, drawing and digital imagery. He has served as Executive Vice President of the Otoe-Missouria Tribal Economic Development Holding Company and as the COO and CFO of the Indian Affairs Cabinet of the State of New Mexico.

Jonny Cournoyer, Across the Creek — A contemporary vision of the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Indian Reservations in South Dakota.

Jonny Cournoyer (Rosebud Sioux) is a multi-disciplinary artist with a primary focus on filmmaking. He is currently in post-production on his debut documentary, Across the Creek, funded by VisionMaker Media. He is based in Los Angeles, California.

Kasmira Kipp, Alaska is a Drag — Leo, a charismatic 17-year-old gay boy, lives in blue-collar Alaska while working at a fish cannery. His two options for getting out of Anchorage are to train to become a professional boxer or train to become a fabulous drag queen. His worlds collide when he is forced to scale fish, box in the ring, and perform on stage, all in one day. Written by Shaz Bennett.

Kasmira Kipp (Nez Perce & Umatilla Tribes) has produced award-winning short films and also produced multimedia content featured on Comedy Central’s atom.com, IFC and the Sundance Channel. Kaz is a board member to Longhouse Media, an indigenous media arts organization that nurtures the expression and development of Native artists.

Blackhorse Lowe, Walk in Beauty — This animated film set in the 1600s follows twin Navajo girls, Morning Star and Evening Star, who come across a dead Spaniard’s body and find the skin so beautiful they are inspired to find a way to turn white.

Blackhorse Lowe (Navajo) is known for narrative films set on the Navajo reservation that explore the pull between Navajo tradition and contemporary non-Navajo ways. In 2007 Lowe received a New Visions/New Mexico Contract Award to direct Shimásání. His first feature film, 5th World, premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. 

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22 Fellows representing nine documentary film projects have been selected to participate in the Sundance Institute 2013 Documentary Edit and Story Labs, June 21-29 and July 5-13 at Sundance Resort in Sundance, Utah.

Built upon the immersive Lab model launched in 1981 by Sundance Institute President & Founder Robert Redford, each session of the Documentary Edit and Story Labs brings together director and editor teams with world-renowned documentary filmmakers and Sundance Institute staff to support creative risk-taking around issues of story, dramatic structure and character development.

JUNE 21-29 DOCUMENTARY EDIT AND STORY LAB

A BLIND EYE (U.S.)
Director: Kirsten Johnson
Editor: Amanda Laws
The voice of an American camerawoman explores the nature of cinematography and what she has failed to see while filming in Afghanistan through her encounters with two Afghan teenagers. Najeeb, a one-eyed boy, struggles to hide what really haunts him, while a bold teenage girl must decide how much she will risk to be visible. A U.S. Military surveillance blimp in the sky over Kabul tracks their every move.

ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM (U.S.)
Co-directors and Editor: Ed Pincus, Lucia Small
Producer: Mary Kerr
Two filmmakers of different generations turn the camera on each other to explore friendship, legacy, loss and living with terminal illness. Told from two points of view, Elephant in the Room offers a unique, raw, personal glimpse into a creative partnership and the difficulty of capturing the preciousness of life.

THE LAST HIJACK (U.S., Netherlands)
Co-directors: Tommy Pallotta and Femke Wolting
Editor: Edgar Burcksen
Mohamed, an experienced Somali pirate, assembles his team to conduct his final hijacking. Increasing pressure from his family and future wife to quit an increasingly dangerous profession provide the backdrop for this dramatic tale about survival in a failed state.

STREET FIGHTING MAN (U.S.)
Director: Andrew James
Editor: Jason Tippet
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.

TOTONEL (Romania)
Director: Alexander Nanau
Editor: Mirceau Olteanu
What happens when we discover that we can get more from life than our parents have to offer?

JULY 5-13 DOCUMENTARY EDIT AND STORY LAB

AN AFRICAN SPRING (U.S.)
Director: Elizabeth ‘Chai’ Vasarhelyi
Editor: Jay Freund
In the Spring of 2011, Senegal was pitched into crisis when President Abdoulaye Wade decided to change the constitution to allow for a third term. An artist-led youth movement erupted to protect one of Africa’s oldest and most stable democracies.

THE HOMESTRETCH (U.S.)
Co-Directors: Anne de Mare, Kirsten Kelly
Editor: Leslie Simmer
Four homeless teenagers brave Chicago winters, the pressures of high school, and life alone on the streets to build a brighter future. Against all odds, these kids defy stereotypes as they learn to reach out for help and create new, surprising definitions of home.

RICH HILL (U.S.)
Co-directors: Tracy Draz Tragos, Andrew Droz Palermo
Editor: Jim Hession
Rich Hill chronicles the turbulent lives of three boys living in a dying Midwestern town, witnessing their struggles up close as they fight to have self-worth, a sense of belonging and a family bond. Despite deep need, these boys still have hope. There is still the dream of transformation: that cycles of poverty can be broken, that love will sustain, that hard work will be rewarded, and that even they can live the American dream.

STRONG ISLAND (U.S.)
Director: Yance Ford
Editor: Shannon Kennedy
Haunted by the violent death for over 20 years, Strong Island is the director’s meditation on loss, the impact of grief over time and the illusive meaning of “justice.”

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