IN TIMES OF FADING LIGHT (IN ZEITEN DES ABNEHMENDEN LICHTS)[/caption]
The European Film Academy announced the titles of the 51 films on this year’s 2017 EFA Feature Film Selection, the list of feature fiction films recommended for a nomination for the European Film Awards 2017! With 31 European countries represented, the list once again illustrates the great diversity in European cinema.
In the coming weeks, the over 3,000 members of the European Film Academy will vote for the nominations in the categories European Film, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenwriter. The nominations will then be announced on November 4 at the Seville European Film Festival in Spain. A seven-member jury will decide on the awards recipients in the categories European Cinematographer, Editor, Production Designer, Costume Designer, Hair & Make-up Artist, Composer and Sound Designer.
The 30th European Film Awards ceremony will take place on December 9 in Berlin.
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51 Feature Films Selected for 2017 European Film Awards
[caption id="attachment_23985" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] IN TIMES OF FADING LIGHT (IN ZEITEN DES ABNEHMENDEN LICHTS)[/caption]
The European Film Academy announced the titles of the 51 films on this year’s 2017 EFA Feature Film Selection, the list of feature fiction films recommended for a nomination for the European Film Awards 2017! With 31 European countries represented, the list once again illustrates the great diversity in European cinema.
In the coming weeks, the over 3,000 members of the European Film Academy will vote for the nominations in the categories European Film, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenwriter. The nominations will then be announced on November 4 at the Seville European Film Festival in Spain. A seven-member jury will decide on the awards recipients in the categories European Cinematographer, Editor, Production Designer, Costume Designer, Hair & Make-up Artist, Composer and Sound Designer.
The 30th European Film Awards ceremony will take place on December 9 in Berlin.
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WHITE SUN is Nepal’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
The award-winning film White Sun (Seto Surya), directed by Deepak Rauniyar has been selected by Nepal as the country’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 90th Academy Awards. In the film a former Maoist rebel struggles to reintegrate with his unwelcoming community and move beyond a painful past.
When his father dies, anti-regime partisan Chandra must travel to his remote mountain village after nearly a decade away. Little Pooja is anxiously awaiting the man she thinks is her father, but she’s confused when Chandra arrives with Badri, a young street orphan rumored to be his son. Chandra must face his brother Suraj, who was on the opposing side during the Nepali civil war. The two brothers cannot put aside political feelings while carrying their father’s body down the steep mountain path to the river for cremation. Suraj storms off in a rage, leaving Chandra with no other men strong enough to help. Under pressure from the village elders, Chandra must seek help from outside the village to obey the rigid caste and discriminatory gender traditions he fought to eliminate during the war. Chandra searches for a solution in neighboring villages, among the police, guests at a local wedding, and rebel guerrillas…
White Sun, executive produced by Danny Glover, had it’s world premiere at the 2016 Venice Film Festival, where it won the INTERFILM Award, and went on to win numerous awards at other film festivals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMiGofqtfFg
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RIP: Comedian, Star of MAX ROSE, Jerry Lewis Dead at 91
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Jerry Lewis in Max Rose[/caption]
Jerry Lewis, the comedian, actor and filmmaker, died on Sunday morning at his home in Las Vegas. He was 91.
Jerry Lewis as last seen in the independent film Max Rose, his first movie in almost 20 years, playing jazz pianist Max Rose who makes a discovery days before the death of his wife and embarks on an exploration of his own past.
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Alen Drljevic’s MEN DON’T CRY is Bosnia-Herzegovina’s Entry for 2018 Oscar Race for Best Foreign Film | TRAILER
Bosnia-Herzegovina has selected Alen Drljevic’s Men Don’t Cry (Muskarci koji ne placu) as the country’s official entry in the Foreign Language Film category of the 90th Academy Awards.
Men Don’t Cry, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 2017 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival last month, tells the story of a group therapy workshop, set in a hotel in the Bosnian mountains. A group of war-scarred veterans from different sides in the Yugoslavian conflict are brought together by a peace group to share their wartime experiences, and to try to establish a degree of trust and faith between them. Emotions are highly charged as old enmities and hostilities emerge, but the participants gradually learn to overcome their divisions and achieve a kind of understanding and respect for each other, or at least a tolerance, despite all the bloodshed that has flowed between them in the past.
The film features an all-star team of Balkan actors including Croatia’s Leon Lučev (The Black Pin, Circles) and Ivo Gregurević (Ungiven, The Reaper), Serbia’s Boris Isaković (Requiem for Mrs. J., A Good Wife), Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Emir Hadžihafizbegović (These Are the Rules, Death of a Man in the Balkans), Boris Ler (Circus Columbia) and Ermin Bravo (Love Island), as well as Slovenia’s Sebastian Cavazza (Nika, On the Path).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dgSSQGJSe4
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15 Films in EFA Documentary Selection 2017: ‘SCHOOL LIFE’ ‘THE WAR SHOW’ and More
[caption id="attachment_23844" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
DEAD DONKEYS FEAR NO HYENAS[/caption]
15 European documentaries have been recommended for a nomination for this year’s 2017 European Film Awards.
Ten documentary festivals have recommended to the committee one film each which has had its world premiere at the respective festival’s latest edition. Based on their recommendations and the films individually submitted, the EFA documentary committee decided on the EFA Documentary Selection.
EFA Members will now vote for five documentary nominations. Based on these nominations, the EFA Members will then elect the ‘European Documentary 2017’ which will be announced during the awards ceremony on December 9 in Berlin.
EFA Documentary Selection 2017
AUSTERLITZ Germany 94 min DIRECTED BY Sergei Loznitsa PRODUCED BY Sergei Loznitsa COMMUNION KOMUNIA Poland 72 min DIRECTED BY Anna Zamecka PRODUCED BY Zuzanna Krol, Anna Wydra, Izabela Lopuch & Hanka Kastelicova DEAD DONKEYS FEAR NO HYENAS Sweden, Germany, Finland 80 min DIRECTED BY Joakim Demmer PRODUCED BY Margarete Jangård, Heino Deckert & John Webster HOW TO MEET A MERMAID Netherlands, Denmark 90 min DIRECTED BY Coco Schrijber PRODUCED BY Frank van den Engel LA CHANA Spain, Iceland, USA 86 min DIRECTED BY Lucija Stojevic PRODUCED BY Lucija Stojevic, Greta Olafsdottir, Deirdre Towers & Susan Muska LIBERA NOS LIBERAMI Italy, France 90 min DIRECTED BY Federica Di Giacomo PRODUCED BY Francesco Virga & Paolo Santoni NOTHINGWOOD France, Germany 85 min DIRECTED BY Sonia Kronlund PRODUCED BY Laurent Lavolé & Melanie Andernach SCHOOL LIFE IN LOCO PARENTIS Ireland, Spain 99 min DIRECTED BY Neasa Ní Chianáin & David Rane PRODUCED BY David Rane, Montse Portabella, Angelo Orlando & Efthymia Zymvragaki STRANGER IN PARADISE Netherlands 72 min DIRECTED BY Guido Hendrikx PRODUCED BY Frank van den Engel TASTE OF CEMENT Germany, Lebanon, Syria, United Arab Emirates, Qatar 85 min DIRECTED BY Ziad Kalthoum PRODUCED BY Ansgar Frerich, Tobias Siebert & Eva Kemme THE GOOD POSTMAN Finland, Bulgaria 80 min DIRECTED BY Tonislav Hristov PRODUCED BY Kaarle Aho THE VENERABLE W LE VENERABLE W France, Switzerland 100 min DIRECTED BY Barbet Schroeder PRODUCED BY Margaret Menegoz & Lionel Baier THE WAR SHOW Denmark, Syria, Finland 100 min DIRECTED BY Andreas Dalsgaard & Obaidah Zytoon PRODUCED BY Miriam Nørgaard & Alaa Hassan ULTRA Hungary, Greece 81 min DIRECTED BY Balazs Simonyi PRODUCED BY Laszlo Jozsa, Balazs Simonyi, Rea Apostolides, Yuri Averof, Hanka Kastelicova & Anna Zavorszky WEST OF THE JORDAN RIVER A L’OUEST DU JOURDAIN France 124 min DIRECTED BY Amos Gitai PRODUCED BY Patricia Boutinard Rouelle, Romain Icard, Stéphanie Schorter, Amos Gitai, Shuki Friedman & Laurent Truchotv
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FILMMAKERS: Film Independent Now Accepting Entries for 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards
Film Independent is now accepting entries for the 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards, with the Regular Deadline on Tuesday, September 19, 2017 and the Final Deadline on Tuesday, October 10, 2017.
The nominations will be announced on Tuesday, November 21, 2017, and the Awards will be held on Saturday, March 3, 2018 and will premiere exclusively on IFC.
In addition to celebrating the broad spectrum of independent filmmaking, the Spirit Awards is also the primary fundraiser for Film Independent’s year-round programs which cultivate the careers of emerging filmmakers and promote diversity in the industry.
Film Independent Members comprise the exclusive voting body who determines the winners of the Film Independent Spirit Awards. Members are filmmakers, film industry leaders and film lovers. Anyone passionate about film can join by December 7, 2017 to be eligible to vote for the winners of the 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards and receive full nominee screening privileges.
Artists who have received industry recognition first at the Spirit Awards include Joel and Ethan Coen, Ava DuVernay, Spike Lee, Lynn Shelton, Oliver Stone, Ashley Judd, Steve McQueen, Robert Rodriguez, David O. Russell, Aaron Eckhart, Neil LaBute, Darren Aronofsky, Spike Jonze, Charlie Kaufman, Hilary Swank, Marc Forster, Todd Field, Christopher Nolan, Zach Braff, Amy Adams, Lena Dunham, Justin Simien and many more.
The Film Independent Spirit Awards include the following categories: Best Feature, Best First Feature, Best Screenplay, Best First Screenplay, Best Director, John Cassavetes Award (given to the best feature made for a budget under $500,000), Best Male Lead, Best Female Lead, Best Supporting Male, Best Supporting Female, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best International Film and Best Documentary. This year Film Independent introduces the Bonnie Award to recognize a talented, mid-career female director. Other grants, for emerging filmmakers include the Producers Award funded by Piaget, the Kiehl’s Someone to Watch Award, funded by Kiehl’s Since 1851 and the Truer Than Fiction Award.
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Filmmakers: Apply for Sundance Ignite Short Film Challenge
Seeking the next generation of emerging filmmakers, Sundance Institute and Adobe Project 1324 are now accepting filmmaker submissions for the Sundance Ignite Short Film Challenge. Fifteen winners will be selected from narrative and documentary short film submissions to win a career-launching opportunity: a full year of support and mentorship from Sundance Institute, starting with a free trip to attend a specialized program at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
For the third year of this program, one- to eight-minute original film submissions will be accepted through September 26 at sundanceignite2018.com. Entries addressing the prompt, “What stories ignite you?” will also be evaluated for technical excellence, demonstration of an original voice, innovative storytelling and strong character or subject development.
On top of an all-expenses-paid trip to the Festival, Sundance Ignite fellows are paired with a Sundance alumni professional for a full year of guidance and development, gaining industry exposure and meaningful mentorship. Past Sundance Ignite mentors include Effie Brown (Dear White People), producer Jason Berman, and Jeff Orlowski (Chasing Coral).
With Sundance Ignite as their launchpad, past fellows have springboarded into opportunities on the festival circuit, film school, and beyond. Past Sundance Ignite Fellows include Charlotte Regan, whose winning submission Standby (Official Selection Toronto International Film Festival 2016) was nominated for a BAFTA; Kayla Briët, whose short film submission Smoke That Travels was featured in Teen Vogue; and social impact documentary filmmaker Leah Galant (The Provider, Official Selection SXSW 2016).
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FILMMAKERS: 2018 Florida Film Festival Now Accepting Entries + Submissions
The 27th Annual Florida Film Festival sponsored by Full Sail University, will take place April 6 to 15, 2018, and is now officially accepted filmmaker entries. Qualified filmmakers can submit their entries through Florida Film Festival’s online entry form on Florida Film Festival website or through Withoutabox.
Competition categories include short films (both narrative and animation), documentary films (both short and feature length), narrative features, and international films (both short and feature length). Awards are determined by a jury of film professionals and by audience ballot.
2018 Florida Film Festival Submission Deadlines
SHORTS DEADLINES Early: October 20, 2017 Late: November 17, 2017 FEATURES DEADLINES Early: November 10, 2017 Late: December 8, 2017 The Florida Film Festival is one of only a handful of film festivals in the world to be accredited as a qualifying festival for the Oscars® in all three short film categories: Live Action, Animation, and Documentary. The winner of the Grand Jury Award in each of these categories will automatically qualify to enter the following year’s Academy Awards®.
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SFFILM Selects 10 Finalists for 2017 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund Grants
[caption id="attachment_23721" align="aligncenter" width="1200"]
The Feeling of Being Watched[/caption]
SFFILM has selected ten finalists for the 2017 SFFILM Documentary Film Fund which will award $125,000 to support feature-length documentaries in postproduction.
The SFFILM Documentary Film Fund is a partnership with the Jenerosity Foundation and was created to support singular nonfiction film work that is distinguished by compelling stories, intriguing characters and an innovative visual approach. Finalists were selected from more than 300 applicants, and winners will be announced in early September.
The SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has an excellent track record for championing important films that have gone on to earn great acclaim. Previous DFF winners include Peter Nicks’s The Force, which won the 2017 Sundance Film Festival Directing Award for documentary and SFFILM Festival’s Bay Area Documentary Award, and will be released this fall by Kino Lorber; Peter Bratt’s Dolores, which won the 2017 SFFILM Festival Audience Award for Documentary Feature following its Sundance premiere; Jamie Meltzer’s True Conviction, which won a Special Jury Mention for Documentary Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival; and Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer, which won Sundance’s Directing Award for documentary and was nominated for the 2014 Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature; among many others.
Since its launch in 2011, the SFFILM Documentary Film Fund has distributed nearly half a million dollars to advance new work by filmmakers nationwide. The 2017 Documentary Film Fund is made possible thanks to an expanded gift from the Jenerosity Foundation.
2017 DOCUMENTARY FILM FUND FINALISTS
The Feeling of Being Watched Assia Boundaoui, director/producer; Jessica Devaney, producer When a filmmaker investigates rumors of surveillance in her Arab-American neighborhood in Chicago, she uncovers one of the largest FBI terrorism probes conducted before 9/11 and reveals its enduring impact on the community. Hale County, This Morning, This Evening RaMell Ross, director; Joslyn Barnes and Su Hyeon Kim, producers What is the experience of coming-of-age in the Black Belt region of the US? This film presents the lives of two young men in a series of visual movements that replace narrative arc with orchestral form. Heaven Through the Back Door Anna Fitch and Banker White, co-director/producers; Sara Dosa, producer Heaven Through the Backdoor is a contemplative documentary that tells the story of Yo (Yolanda Shae), a fiercely independent 88-year old woman whose unique brand of individualist feminism impacts how she chooses to live in the final years of her life. (Former SFFILM FilmHouse Resident) How to Have an American Baby Leslie Tai, director/producer; Jillian Schultz, co-producer There is a city in Southern California that abounds with pregnant women from China. Told through multiple perspectives, How to Have an American Baby is a kaleidoscopic voyage behind the closed doors of the Chinese birth tourism industry. (SFFILM FilmHouse Resident, SFFILM fiscally sponsored filmmaker) The Judge Erika Cohn, director/producer; Sara Maamouri, co-producer The Judge provides rare insight into Shari’a law (Islamic law), an often misunderstood legal framework for Muslims, told through the eyes of Kholoud Al-Faqih, the first woman judge to be appointed to the Middle East’s religious courts. (SFFILM fiscally sponsored filmmaker) El Lugar de la Memoria Juan Pablo González, director; Makena Buchanan, Jamie Gonçalves, and Ilana Coleman, producers As economic and social conditions become dire, a wave of suicides among young people disrupts life in a small Mexican town. Through daily rituals and ceremonies amongst the people in this community, El Lugar de la Memoriapresents a reflection on the reconfiguration of rural life in Mexico. A Machine to Live In Yoni Goldstein and Meredith Zielke, co-directors; Sebastian Alvarez, producer; Andrew Benz, co-producer Hovering over what remains of Brazil’s modernist future, this film looks at how social control, rational design, and space-age architecture gave rise to a vast landscape of transcendental and mystical utopias. Midnight Family Luke Lorentzen, director; Kellen Quinn, producer; Daniela Alatorre,and Elena Fortes, co-producers In Mexico City, 16-year-old Juan Ochoa struggles to legitimize his family’s unlicensed ambulance business, as corrupt police in the neighborhood begin to target this cutthroat industry. Pahokee Ivete Lucas and Patrick Bresnan, co-director/producers; Maida Brankman, producer Pahokee, Florida (pop. 6,094): one hour by car across Palm Beach County from the presidential opulence of Mar-a-Lago. Against a backdrop of industrial agriculture and economic isolation, high school students from different racial and cultural backgrounds forge a sense of meaning and community via elaborate and colorful rites of passage. Pigeon Kings Milena Pastreich, director/producer; Michael Sherman and Matthew Perniciaro, producers Keith London, the godfather of Birmingham Rollers, and his mentee, Choo Choo, survive life in South Central LA through their dedication to somersaulting pigeons. image via The Feeling of Being Watched
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RIP: Country Superstar and Documentary “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me” Star Glen Campbell Dead at 81
Glen Campbell, the country and pop superstar and subject of the 2014 documentary, Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me, died on Tuesday in Nashville after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. He was 81.
Campbell revealed that he had the disease in June 2011, saying it had been diagnosed six months earlier. He then announced that he was going ahead with a farewell tour later that year in support of his new album, “Ghost on the Canvas.”
What was supposed to be a five-week tour turned into 151 shows over 15 months. Mr. Campbell’s last performance was in Napa, Calif., on Nov. 30, 2012, and by the spring of 2014 he had moved into a long-term care and treatment center near Nashville.
That tour and the way he and his family dealt with the sometimes painful progress of his disease were chronicled in a 2014 documentary, “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me,” directed by the actor James Keach.
The documentary film features those who know and love Glen, including Bruce Springsteen, Bill Clinton, The Edge, Paul McCartney, Jay Leno, Vince Gill, Jimmy Webb, Blake Shelton, Sheryl Crow, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Steve Martin, Chad Smith and Taylor Swift among many others.
In addition to his wife Kimberly Campbell, he is survived by eight children, Debby, Kelli, Travis, Kane, Ashley, Cal, Shannon and Dillon;many grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren; three sisters, Barbara, Sandra and Jane; and two brothers, John Wallace and Gerald.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAtgraWN5-I
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Matteo Servente’s WE GO ON Wins $10,000 Memphis Film Prize
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Mattteo Servente, director of WE GO ON, Winner 2017 Memphis Film Prize[/caption]
We Go On directed by Matteo Servente was named the winner of the 2nd annual Memphis Film Prize and walked away with the top award of $10,000 cash. In addition to the Memphis Grand Prize of $10,000, the top three films are automatically selected to screen at the Indie Memphis Film Festival in November 1-6.
“This year’s Film Prize films were amazing, so Matteo and the cast and crew of WE GO ON should be incredibly proud to have won our $10,000 prize,” said Gregory Kallenberg, founder and executive director of the Film Prize Foundation. “The Memphis Film Prize has, once again, shown that Memphis is an upcoming indie film capital. We couldn’t be prouder of Matteo and of this city for helping to make this event so successful.”
The Memphis Film Prize, which combines elements of a film contest and festival, invites filmmakers from all over the world to create and present a 5-15 minute short film with just one rule – it must be shot in Shelby County, TN.
“I feel very excited. There were so many other great films, and so I’m very happy that the audience and jurors picked WE GO ON. I want to share this incredible win with my cast, crew, and everybody involved and supported us.” said Matteo Servente, Grand Prize winner of the 2017 Memphis Film Prize. Filmmakers shot their films beginning in February and submitted them in June, when a rough cut of the films were due to contest organizers. From the eligible submissions, ten filmmakers were chosen to participate in the Memphis Film Prize Festival and, through a jury vote and a public vote, competed for a $10,000 cash prize. This year, the rapidly growing event saw more than 700 audience members attend the film festival and participate in the contest, far surpassing last year’s total of 600.
The additional Memphis Film Prize films that will play at Indie Memphis will be Favorites, directed by Tracy Facelli, and The Game directed by Robb Rokk.
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SFFILM Selects Two Filmmaking Teams to Receive Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships
SFFILM has selected two new screenwriting teams to receive Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships, which will support the development of their narrative feature screenplays. Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships are funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation as part of their support of programs that cultivate and champion films exploring scientific or technological themes and characters. Under the auspices of its Artist Development program, SFFILM fellowships are awarded to filmmakers developing screenplays that tell stories related to science or technology.
SFFILM Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowships are awarded twice annually, and each includes a $35,000 cash grant and a two-month residency at FilmHouse, SFFILM’s suite of production offices for local and visiting independent filmmakers. Fellows will gain free office space alongside access to weekly consulting services and professional development opportunities. SFFILM will connect each fellow to a science advisor with expertise in the scientific or technological subjects at the center of their screenplays, as well as leaders in the Bay Area’s science and technology communities. In addition to the residency and grant, SFFILM’s Artist Development team will offer industry introductions to producers and casting, financing, and creative advisors—investing in fellows from early script development stages through to release. Additional filmmaker support programs include the SFFILM / Rainin Filmmaking Grant, the Documentary Film Fund and full-year FilmHouse residencies.
“We greatly value the partnership with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to support narrative filmmakers with science-related projects in development,” said SFFILM Director of Artist Development Caroline von Kühn. “With so many significant leaders in science and technology right here in our back yard in the Bay Area, we have a great opportunity to bring that talent into play to deepen these projects at this crucial early stage. Both Bell and Dark Web have first time narrative writer/director teams whose commitment to story and integrity to the sciences represent the type of work we intend to come through this program.”
”We are delighted to partner with SFFILM in awarding these two Sloan Science in Cinema Fellowships to Bell and Dark Web, two outstanding scripts about the role of technology in society, one from the 19th century and one that is totally contemporary,” said Doron Weber, Vice President and Program Director at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. ”In a year that saw two successful Sloan-supported projects about female scientists and engineers—Hidden Figures and Bombshell: The Hedy Lamar Story—we are especially pleased that Bell, recipient of a previous Sloan grant, is written by two women and re-examines a great man of science through the lens of the key women in his life.”
Bell
Darcy Brislin and Dyana Winkler, co-writers
From the controversy surrounding his invention of the telephone to his lesser-known work with eugenics, this is the untold story of famed inventor Alexander Graham Bell, whose love for his deaf wife changed the course of history, both for the better and for the worse.
Currently based in Los Angeles, Darcy Brislin is a freelance writer and producer. She is the recipient of a number of fellowships, including the 2016 Sundance / Sloan Commissioning Grant, the 2017 Sundance Screenwriting Lab, the Kenyon Playwrights Conference, and the 20/20/20 Killer Films Residency lead by Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler. Her feature screenplay Crown Chasers is in development at UTA, with Maria Bello attached to produce. She is currently assisting director Ondi Timoner on the production of Mapplethorpe, a biopic about the acclaimed photographer, starring Matt Smith and John Benjamin Hickey.
Dyana Winkler is a freelance filmmaker who produces, directs, shoots, edits, and writes for hire in Brooklyn, NY. Clients include JP Morgan Chase, Under Armour, the US Open, Outside Television, TV on the Radio, and more. Her most recent fiction screenplay, Bell, was awarded the 2016 Sundance / Sloan Commissioning grant and participated in the 2017 Sundance Screenwriter’s Lab. Her first feature length documentary, United Skates, is currently in postproduction and has received awards from the Sundance Institute, IFP, Chicken & Egg Pictures, Film Independent, The Fledgling Fund, New York State Council on the Arts, and California Humanities.
“We’re thrilled to complete the writing process of Bell with the support and guidance of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and SFFILM,” said Brislin and Winkler in a statement. “We couldn’t think of a more inspiring community than San Francisco, as it has both creativity and technology at its heart.”
Dark Web
Mark Eaton and Ron Najor, co-writers
In Dark Web, an IT specialist is forced to go off the grid in order to stay alive after she is manipulated into hacking and exploiting a large software company.
Mark Eaton is a writer and director who got his start creating imaginative Super 8mm short films. He has written and directed commercials and music videos for a number of artists and brands including Blink-182, Tom DeLonge, Angels & Airwaves, Against Me, Good Old War, Macbeth Footwear, and James Coffee Co., bringing a careful balance of spirit and design to their collaborations. Eaton’s passion for visual narratives continued, directing the feature documentary Start the Machine and producing the independent sci-fi feature film Love. His feature script Dark Web was selected to be part of the Film Independent Screenwriting Labs in 2016.
Ron Najor’s first production was the feature film I Am Not a Hipster, which was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. He next produced the film Short Term 12, which won both the Grand Jury Prize and the Audience Award at SXSW in 2013. The film appeared on over 30 top-ten lists in 2013 and garnered a Gotham Award for Best Actress for Brie Larson and a Film Independent Spirit Award for Best Editing. Najor’s feature script Dark Web was selected to be part of the Film Independent Screenwriting Labs in 2016.
“We are thrilled that our script for Dark Web has been selected for the SFFILM Sloan Science in Cinema Filmmaker Fellowship, especially during this crucial time in the project’s development,” said Eaton and Najor in a statement. “As Dark Web is a technology-based story set in the Bay Area, the opportunity to further the project while living and working there will be invaluable to us.”