Sundance announced its winners on Friday morning, with Alessandra Lacorazza’s In The Summers took the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and Brendan Bellomo’s Porcelain War the U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary.
Silje Evensmo Jacobsen’s A New Kind Of Wilderness won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary, while Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez earned the corresponding world cinema dramatic prize for Sujo.
The pair collaborated as writers on the 2020 World Cinema – Dramatic prize winner Identifying Features directed by Valadez.
The Festival Favorite Award went to Daughters by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae, whose film also...
Silje Evensmo Jacobsen’s A New Kind Of Wilderness won the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary, while Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez earned the corresponding world cinema dramatic prize for Sujo.
The pair collaborated as writers on the 2020 World Cinema – Dramatic prize winner Identifying Features directed by Valadez.
The Festival Favorite Award went to Daughters by Angela Patton and Natalie Rae, whose film also...
- 1/26/2024
- ScreenDaily
The 2024 Sundance Film Festival awards were announced today at The Ray Theatre in Park City, Utah.
See the list of 2024 winners below, and congrats to all the winners.
Festival Favorite Award
Daughters (USA) – Angela Patton and Natalie Rae
U.S. Dramatic Competition
Grand Jury Prize
In the Summers (USA) – Alessandra Lacorazza
Directing Award
In the Summers (USA) – Alessandra Lacorazza
The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award
A Real Pain – Jesse Eisenberg
Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance
Suncoast (USA) – Nico Parker
Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble
Dìdi – Sean Wang
Audience Award
Dìdi – Sean Wang
U.S. Documentary Competition
Grand Jury Prize
Porcelain War – Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev
Directing Award
Sugarcane – Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie
Special Jury Award for Sound
Gaucho Gaucho (USA, Argentina) – Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw
Special Jury Award for The Art of Change
Union (USA) – Stephen Maing and Brett Story
Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award
Frida...
See the list of 2024 winners below, and congrats to all the winners.
Festival Favorite Award
Daughters (USA) – Angela Patton and Natalie Rae
U.S. Dramatic Competition
Grand Jury Prize
In the Summers (USA) – Alessandra Lacorazza
Directing Award
In the Summers (USA) – Alessandra Lacorazza
The Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award
A Real Pain – Jesse Eisenberg
Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance
Suncoast (USA) – Nico Parker
Special Jury Award for Best Ensemble
Dìdi – Sean Wang
Audience Award
Dìdi – Sean Wang
U.S. Documentary Competition
Grand Jury Prize
Porcelain War – Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev
Directing Award
Sugarcane – Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie
Special Jury Award for Sound
Gaucho Gaucho (USA, Argentina) – Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw
Special Jury Award for The Art of Change
Union (USA) – Stephen Maing and Brett Story
Jonathan Oppenheim Editing Award
Frida...
- 1/26/2024
- by Prem
- Talking Films
The Sundance Institute and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation today named the recipients of three artist grants aimed at supporting projects currently in development, as they officially bestowed their Feature Film Prize on Sam and Andy Zuchero’s Love Me, all through their joint Science-In-Film Initiative.
Emily Everhard received a $17,000 cash award under the Sloan Episodic Fellowship for her NASA aquanaut script Tektite, with writer-directors Sara Crow and David Rafailedes claiming the Sloan Development Fellowship for Satoshi, taking home $17,000 for their project about the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin. Filmmaker Lizzi Oyebode received a $25,000 cash award through the Sloan Commissioning Grant for her feature project Inverses, about the lone Jewish professor resisting a Nazi takeover of the world’s leading university math department.
The Zucheros’ debut feature Love Me had previously been announced as the recipients of the $25,000 Feature Film Prize, presented to an outstanding title focusing on science or technology as a theme,...
Emily Everhard received a $17,000 cash award under the Sloan Episodic Fellowship for her NASA aquanaut script Tektite, with writer-directors Sara Crow and David Rafailedes claiming the Sloan Development Fellowship for Satoshi, taking home $17,000 for their project about the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin. Filmmaker Lizzi Oyebode received a $25,000 cash award through the Sloan Commissioning Grant for her feature project Inverses, about the lone Jewish professor resisting a Nazi takeover of the world’s leading university math department.
The Zucheros’ debut feature Love Me had previously been announced as the recipients of the $25,000 Feature Film Prize, presented to an outstanding title focusing on science or technology as a theme,...
- 1/22/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Festival will take place January 18–28, 2024, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City.
Sundance Film Festival’s top brass have unveiled the 40th anniversary edition line-up for 2024 as Steven Soderbergh makes his return as director for the first time since his 1989 breakout sex, lies and videotape, and Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui’s Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is the opening night film.
The full slate of works announced includes 82 features representing 24 countries, and 91 selections including episodic programmes. World premieres make up 94% of the entire roster, and 40% of the filmmakers are debutants.
The festival will take place January...
Sundance Film Festival’s top brass have unveiled the 40th anniversary edition line-up for 2024 as Steven Soderbergh makes his return as director for the first time since his 1989 breakout sex, lies and videotape, and Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui’s Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story is the opening night film.
The full slate of works announced includes 82 features representing 24 countries, and 91 selections including episodic programmes. World premieres make up 94% of the entire roster, and 40% of the filmmakers are debutants.
The festival will take place January...
- 12/6/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
The 2023 Nantucket Film Festival, running June 21-26, with kick off with four films on its opening day lineup. For the 12th consecutive year, a Disney and Pixar movie will open the festival with “Elemental,” which premieres in May at the Cannes International Film Festival.
Also on Day 1 are Sophie Barthes’ “The Pod Generation,” coming off stops at Sundance and Sarasota — Barthes will also receive the inaugural Maria Mitchell Visionary Award for the film; SXSW-premiere documentary “Joan Baez I am a Noise,” with Baez herself in attendance; and Austrian documentary “Patrick and the Whale,” which premiered at TIFF 2022.
Recent Bleecker Street acquisition “Jules,” starring Ben Kingsley, Harriet Sansom Harris, and Jane Curtin, will be the closing-night film.
Guests announced to be in attendance include Michaela Watkins (“You Hurt My Feelings”), Allison Williams (“M3GAN”), Lola Tung (“The Summer I Turned Pretty”), Graham Greene (“Dances with Wolves”), and Julio Torres (“Problemista”).
Other films...
Also on Day 1 are Sophie Barthes’ “The Pod Generation,” coming off stops at Sundance and Sarasota — Barthes will also receive the inaugural Maria Mitchell Visionary Award for the film; SXSW-premiere documentary “Joan Baez I am a Noise,” with Baez herself in attendance; and Austrian documentary “Patrick and the Whale,” which premiered at TIFF 2022.
Recent Bleecker Street acquisition “Jules,” starring Ben Kingsley, Harriet Sansom Harris, and Jane Curtin, will be the closing-night film.
Guests announced to be in attendance include Michaela Watkins (“You Hurt My Feelings”), Allison Williams (“M3GAN”), Lola Tung (“The Summer I Turned Pretty”), Graham Greene (“Dances with Wolves”), and Julio Torres (“Problemista”).
Other films...
- 4/26/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Summer exclusive theatrical release planned.
Roadside Attractions and Vertical have acquired North American rights to Sophie Barthes’ 2023 Sundance Alfred P. Sloan feature prize-winner The Pod Generation.
The distribution partners plan a summer exclusive theatrical release on for the film, which is set in a near future where A.I. is all the rage as a New York couple participate in an initiative involving mobile, artificial wombs.
Emilia Clarke, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Vinette Robinson, and Jean-Marc Barr star in Barthes’ third film after Cold Souls and Madame Bovary.
Geneviève Lemal, Yann Zenou, Nadia Kamlichi, and Martin Metz served as producers, while the executive producers are Clarke,...
Roadside Attractions and Vertical have acquired North American rights to Sophie Barthes’ 2023 Sundance Alfred P. Sloan feature prize-winner The Pod Generation.
The distribution partners plan a summer exclusive theatrical release on for the film, which is set in a near future where A.I. is all the rage as a New York couple participate in an initiative involving mobile, artificial wombs.
Emilia Clarke, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Vinette Robinson, and Jean-Marc Barr star in Barthes’ third film after Cold Souls and Madame Bovary.
Geneviève Lemal, Yann Zenou, Nadia Kamlichi, and Martin Metz served as producers, while the executive producers are Clarke,...
- 3/28/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
A Thousand and OneU.S. – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeA Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell)Directing PrizeSing J. Lee (The Accidental Getaway Driver)Audience Award The Persian Version (Maryam Keshavarz)Special Jury Award: ActingLio Mehiel (Mutt)Special Jury Award: Creative VisionMagazine Dreams (Elijah Bynum)Special Jury Award: Ensemble CastTheater Camp (Molly Gordon, Nick Lieberman)Waldo Salt Screenwriting AwardMaryam Keshavarz (The Persian Version)
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury Prize Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson)Directing Prize Luke Lorentzen (A Still Small Voice) Audience Award Beyond Utopia (Madeleine Gavin)Jonathan Oppenheim Editing AwardDaniela I. Quiroz (Going Varsity in Mariachi)Special Jury Award for Freedom of ExpressionBad Press (Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, Joe Peeler)Special Jury Award: Clarity of VisionThe Stroll (Kristen Lovell, Zackary Drucker)
ScrapperWORLD Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury Prize Scrapper (Charlotte Regan)Directing Prize Marija Kavtaradze (Slow)Audience AwardShayda (Noora Niasari)Special Jury...
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury Prize Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (Joe Brewster, Michèle Stephenson)Directing Prize Luke Lorentzen (A Still Small Voice) Audience Award Beyond Utopia (Madeleine Gavin)Jonathan Oppenheim Editing AwardDaniela I. Quiroz (Going Varsity in Mariachi)Special Jury Award for Freedom of ExpressionBad Press (Rebecca Landsberry-Baker, Joe Peeler)Special Jury Award: Clarity of VisionThe Stroll (Kristen Lovell, Zackary Drucker)
ScrapperWORLD Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury Prize Scrapper (Charlotte Regan)Directing Prize Marija Kavtaradze (Slow)Audience AwardShayda (Noora Niasari)Special Jury...
- 1/27/2023
- MUBI
Back in Park City, Utah, for the first time since 2020, the Sundance Film Festival concluded with an in-person awards show. The U.S. dramatic grand jury prize went to the Focus Features release “A Thousand and One,” from debut writer-director A.V. Rockwell, one of eight women in this year’s female-led competition.
Jeremy O. Harris, a member of the three-person U.S. dramatic jury at Sundance, choked back tears as he presented the award to Rockwell, admitting that he left the director’s premiere screening and cried on the street, as the film unearthed “all the feelings I’ve learned to mask in public spaces.”
Rockwell’s film is set in an unforgiving New York City in the late ’90s, where a single mother moving from shelter to shelter kidnaps her 6-year-old son from foster care. As they improbably forge a life and bond, their darkest secret threatens to disrupt what they’ve built.
Jeremy O. Harris, a member of the three-person U.S. dramatic jury at Sundance, choked back tears as he presented the award to Rockwell, admitting that he left the director’s premiere screening and cried on the street, as the film unearthed “all the feelings I’ve learned to mask in public spaces.”
Rockwell’s film is set in an unforgiving New York City in the late ’90s, where a single mother moving from shelter to shelter kidnaps her 6-year-old son from foster care. As they improbably forge a life and bond, their darkest secret threatens to disrupt what they’ve built.
- 1/27/2023
- by Matt Donnelly and Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Justin H. Min has joined the cast of Searchlight Pictures’ “The Greatest Hits,” Variety has learned exclusively.
Star of Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy” and breakout in the Sundance player “After Yang,” Min joins the previously announced Lucy Boynton in the emotional movie musical from writer-director Ned Benson (“The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby”).
While character details are under wraps, the project is described as a love story centering on the connection between music and memory, and how the two transport us.
Min, a rising star on the fan favorite Marvel series “Umbrella,” turned heads in the titular role of “After Yang.” Released by A24 and directed by Koganda, the futuristic tale of loss won the Alfred P. Sloan feature film prize in Park City earlier this year. On Tuesday, Min was announced in the cast of “Shortcomings,” the directorial debut of comedian Randall Park, and will also be seen in...
Star of Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy” and breakout in the Sundance player “After Yang,” Min joins the previously announced Lucy Boynton in the emotional movie musical from writer-director Ned Benson (“The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby”).
While character details are under wraps, the project is described as a love story centering on the connection between music and memory, and how the two transport us.
Min, a rising star on the fan favorite Marvel series “Umbrella,” turned heads in the titular role of “After Yang.” Released by A24 and directed by Koganda, the futuristic tale of loss won the Alfred P. Sloan feature film prize in Park City earlier this year. On Tuesday, Min was announced in the cast of “Shortcomings,” the directorial debut of comedian Randall Park, and will also be seen in...
- 8/31/2022
- by Matt Donnelly
- Variety Film + TV
In its continued bid to provide compelling artist-forward stories, WarnerMedia OneFifty has picked up the live action Oscar-nominated short “Please Hold” to stream exclusively on HBO Max where it bows on March 17.
The directorial debut of Mexican-American screenwriter Kd Dávila, who co-wrote the short with Levin Menekse, “Please Hold” is a darkly comic dystopian tale set in the not-so-distant future.
It follows young Mateo Torres (played by Erick Lopez) who in a case of mistaken identity, is arrested by a police drone while on his way to work. He finds himself in a fully automated prison cell where he struggles to find a living human being to set things straight as his situation gets even more absurd and frustrating by the nanosecond.
“The idea for the film came to us after I read this article about a Latino man who got arrested and jailed by mistake because he had a common Spanish name,...
The directorial debut of Mexican-American screenwriter Kd Dávila, who co-wrote the short with Levin Menekse, “Please Hold” is a darkly comic dystopian tale set in the not-so-distant future.
It follows young Mateo Torres (played by Erick Lopez) who in a case of mistaken identity, is arrested by a police drone while on his way to work. He finds himself in a fully automated prison cell where he struggles to find a living human being to set things straight as his situation gets even more absurd and frustrating by the nanosecond.
“The idea for the film came to us after I read this article about a Latino man who got arrested and jailed by mistake because he had a common Spanish name,...
- 3/14/2022
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
This year’s Sundance Film Festival featured 84 feature films, 59 short films, and 26 jury-awarded prizes — with at least 7 of them distributed to Asian productions. Unsurprisingly, most of the Asian award winners revolved around tales of precarity. Shaunak Sen’s Delhi-based ecology-conscious film “All That Breathes” won a Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary category. Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing’s on-the-ground documentary about Rohingya discrimination in the Rakhine State, “Midwives” won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award: Excellence in Verite Filmmaking. Maryna Er Gorbach’s Ukraine-Turkey co-production about a family living along the precarious Ukraine-Russian border, “Klondike”, took home the Directing Award: World Cinema Dramatic.
Several dramatic films took their pickings, too. Philippines-based Martika Ramirez Escobar’s love letter to cinema, “Leonor Will Never Die,” also was selected for the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Innovative Spirit. Shorts “Night Bus” (Joe Hsieh) and “Warsha” (Dania Bdeir) likewise swept the shorts fiction awards,...
Several dramatic films took their pickings, too. Philippines-based Martika Ramirez Escobar’s love letter to cinema, “Leonor Will Never Die,” also was selected for the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Innovative Spirit. Shorts “Night Bus” (Joe Hsieh) and “Warsha” (Dania Bdeir) likewise swept the shorts fiction awards,...
- 1/30/2022
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
NannyU.S. – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeNanny (Nikyatu Jusu)Directing PrizeJamie Dack (Palm Trees and Power Lines)Audience Award Cha Cha Real Smooth (Cooper Raiff)Special Jury Award: Uncompromising Artistic Visionblood (Bradley Rust Gray)Special Jury Award: Ensemble CastJohn Boyega, Michael Kenneth Williams, Nicole Beharie, Connie Britton, Olivia Washington, and Selenis Leyva (892)Waldo Salt Screenwriting AwardKD Dávila (Emergency)Descendant U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury Prize The Exiles (Ben Klein, Violet Columbus)Directing Prize Reid Davenport (I Didn’t See You There) Audience Award Navalny (Daniel Roher)Jonathan Oppenheim Editing AwardErin Casper and Jocelyne Chaput (Fire Of Love)Special Jury Award: Creative VisionDescendant (Margaret Brown)Special Jury Award: Impact for ChangeAftershock (Paula Eiselt, Tonya Lewis Lee)Utama World Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury Prize Utama (Alejandro Loayza Grisi)Directing Prize Maryna Er Gorbach (Klondike)Audience AwardGirl Picture (Alli Haapasalo)Special Jury Award for ActingTeresa Sánchez (Dos Estaciones)Special Jury Award for Innovative SpiritLeonor Will Never Die (Martika Ramirez Escobar...
- 1/28/2022
- MUBI
The virtual Sundance Film Festival concluded with a virtual awards show — no host this year, just a series of statements and videos parceled out across two hours by Twitter. It was a strangely anti-climactic way of wrapping a low-key festival, while giving winners a chance to prep polite, crew-inclusive acceptance speeches.
Among the audience prizes, U.S. Dramatic winner “Cha Cha Real Smooth” represents the biggest sale of the festival so far, scooped up by Apple for $15 million — 1,000 times the budget of writer-director-star Cooper Raiff’s shoestring-budgeted debut, “Shithouse.”
The Festival Favorite award went to “Navalny.” This prize, selected by audiences from across all sections of the festival, recognizes a late addition to the lineup (“Navalny” was not announced until this past Monday), protected on account of its political sensitivity, as the documentary tracks Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny while he was recovering from an assassination attempt in Berlin. Accepting the honor,...
Among the audience prizes, U.S. Dramatic winner “Cha Cha Real Smooth” represents the biggest sale of the festival so far, scooped up by Apple for $15 million — 1,000 times the budget of writer-director-star Cooper Raiff’s shoestring-budgeted debut, “Shithouse.”
The Festival Favorite award went to “Navalny.” This prize, selected by audiences from across all sections of the festival, recognizes a late addition to the lineup (“Navalny” was not announced until this past Monday), protected on account of its political sensitivity, as the documentary tracks Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny while he was recovering from an assassination attempt in Berlin. Accepting the honor,...
- 1/28/2022
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Now that Sundance has answered the question looming over the 2022 festival by going all-virtual for the second year in a row, it’s full-steam ahead. And today the nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the members of its six juries, including Marielle Heller (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”), Andrew Haigh (“Weekend”), Joey Soloway (“Transparent”), and Payman Maadi (“A Separation”). The 16 jurors will bestow awards upon the festival’s winners January 28, with award-winning movies available for extended online viewing during the festival’s closing weekend.
“These exceptional individuals will come together to offer a collaborative lens on our program,” said Sundance’s Director of Programming Kim Yutani in an official statement. “Their diverse personal perspectives can elevate work above the sum of its parts.” As previously announced, the jury for Alfred P. Sloan jury deliberated in advance of the festival and awarded the prize to “After Yang,” directed by Kogonada.
And audiences will...
“These exceptional individuals will come together to offer a collaborative lens on our program,” said Sundance’s Director of Programming Kim Yutani in an official statement. “Their diverse personal perspectives can elevate work above the sum of its parts.” As previously announced, the jury for Alfred P. Sloan jury deliberated in advance of the festival and awarded the prize to “After Yang,” directed by Kogonada.
And audiences will...
- 1/7/2022
- by Mark Peikert
- Indiewire
Marielle Heller (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), Garrett Bradley (Time), Joey Soloway (Transparent), Andrew Haigh (Lean on Pete) and Dawn Porter (The Me You Can’t See) have been named as jurors for the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, taking place virtually from January 20-30.
Heller, who brought her first feature The Diary of a Teenage Girl to the festival in 2015, will preside over the U.S. Dramatic Competition with C’mon C’mon producer and former Annapurna Pictures exec Chelsea Barnard, and A Separation actor Payman Maadi.
Bradley, whose Sundance-premiering doc Time earned an Oscar nomination in 2021, will oversee the U.S. Documentary Competition with Peter Nicks, the director behind 2021 Sundance title Homeroom, and director-cinematographer Joan Churchill.
Soloway, the Transparent and I Love Dick creator who brought their first feature, Afternoon Delight, to Sundance in 2013, will serve as this year’s sole juror of the Next section, with Reservation Dogs director...
Heller, who brought her first feature The Diary of a Teenage Girl to the festival in 2015, will preside over the U.S. Dramatic Competition with C’mon C’mon producer and former Annapurna Pictures exec Chelsea Barnard, and A Separation actor Payman Maadi.
Bradley, whose Sundance-premiering doc Time earned an Oscar nomination in 2021, will oversee the U.S. Documentary Competition with Peter Nicks, the director behind 2021 Sundance title Homeroom, and director-cinematographer Joan Churchill.
Soloway, the Transparent and I Love Dick creator who brought their first feature, Afternoon Delight, to Sundance in 2013, will serve as this year’s sole juror of the Next section, with Reservation Dogs director...
- 1/7/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
The feature premiered internationally in Sundance’s Next sidebar earlier this year.
Paris-based sales company Wide Management has acquired world sales rights for French-Venezuelan filmmaker Alexis Gambis’s Sundance 2021 selection Son Of Monarchs ahead of the physical Cannes market in July.
The feature premiered in Sundance’s Next category earlier this year where it won the Alfred P. Sloan feature film prize for best science-themed work and received a warm critical reception.
Rising Mexican actor Mexican lead actor Tenoch Huerta Mejía (Narcos: Mexico) stars as a New York-based Mexican biologist specialising in butterflies.
Zigzagging between his new life in New...
Paris-based sales company Wide Management has acquired world sales rights for French-Venezuelan filmmaker Alexis Gambis’s Sundance 2021 selection Son Of Monarchs ahead of the physical Cannes market in July.
The feature premiered in Sundance’s Next category earlier this year where it won the Alfred P. Sloan feature film prize for best science-themed work and received a warm critical reception.
Rising Mexican actor Mexican lead actor Tenoch Huerta Mejía (Narcos: Mexico) stars as a New York-based Mexican biologist specialising in butterflies.
Zigzagging between his new life in New...
- 6/28/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
The feature premiered internationally in Sundance’s Next sidebar earlier this year.
Paris-based sales company Wide Management has acquired world sales rights for French-Venezuelan filmmaker Alexis Gambis’s Sundance 2021 selection Sons Of Monarchs ahead of the physical Cannes market in July.
The feature premiered in Sundance’s Next category earlier this year where it won the Alfred P. Sloan feature film prize for best science-themed work and received a warm critical reception.
Rising Mexican actor Mexican lead actor Tenoch Huerta Mejía (Narcos: Mexico) stars as a New York-based Mexican biologist specialising in butterflies.
Zigzagging between his new life in New...
Paris-based sales company Wide Management has acquired world sales rights for French-Venezuelan filmmaker Alexis Gambis’s Sundance 2021 selection Sons Of Monarchs ahead of the physical Cannes market in July.
The feature premiered in Sundance’s Next category earlier this year where it won the Alfred P. Sloan feature film prize for best science-themed work and received a warm critical reception.
Rising Mexican actor Mexican lead actor Tenoch Huerta Mejía (Narcos: Mexico) stars as a New York-based Mexican biologist specialising in butterflies.
Zigzagging between his new life in New...
- 6/28/2021
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
CodaU.S. – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeCoda (Siân Heder)Directing PrizeSiân Heder (Coda) Audience Award Coda (Siân Heder) Special Jury Award for Ensemble CastCoda (Siân Heder) Special Jury Award for Best ActorClifton Collins Jr. (Jockey)Waldo Salt Screenwriting AwardAri Katcher and Ryan Welch (On the Count of Three)Summer Of SoulU.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury Prize Summer Of Soul (Questlove) Directing Prize Natalia Almada (Users) Audience Award Summer Of Soul (Questlove)Special Jury Award for EditingKristina Motwani and Rebecca Adorno (Homeroom)Special Jury Award for Innovation in Non-fiction ExperimentationTheo AnthonySpecial Jury Award for Emerging FilmmakerParker Hill, Isabel Bethencourt (Cusp)HiveWORLD Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury Prize Hive (Blerta Basholli) Directing Prize Blerta Basholli (Hive) Audience Award Hive (Blerta Basholli)Special Jury Award for ActingJesmark Scicluna (Luzzu)Special Jury Award for Creative VisionBaz Poonpiriya (One for the Road)Writing With FireWORLD Cinema – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury Prize Writing With Fire (Rintu Thomas, Sushmit Ghosh)Directing Prize Hogir Hiror...
- 2/3/2021
- MUBI
Annika Glac and Robyn Kershaw.
Marie Curie, the Polish-born physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity, is often portrayed on screen and in books as stuffy, cold and asexual.
That characterisation is unfair and inaccurate, according to Polish/Australian filmmaker Annika Glac, who aims to set the record straight in her biopic Radiant.
The drama will focus on the Nobel Prize winner from the time she won the top prize in chemistry and physics at Sorbonne University through her marriage to Pierre Curie, his death and her subsequent affair with married Frenchman Paul Langevin.
“When I read her letters to Pierre, they were so touching, passionate and beautiful,” Glac tells If. “She had a delicate psychology which you never see in the films and documentaries that were made about her.”
Producer Robyn Kershaw, who met the writer-director through a mutual friend, is raising the finance from Polish, French...
Marie Curie, the Polish-born physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity, is often portrayed on screen and in books as stuffy, cold and asexual.
That characterisation is unfair and inaccurate, according to Polish/Australian filmmaker Annika Glac, who aims to set the record straight in her biopic Radiant.
The drama will focus on the Nobel Prize winner from the time she won the top prize in chemistry and physics at Sorbonne University through her marriage to Pierre Curie, his death and her subsequent affair with married Frenchman Paul Langevin.
“When I read her letters to Pierre, they were so touching, passionate and beautiful,” Glac tells If. “She had a delicate psychology which you never see in the films and documentaries that were made about her.”
Producer Robyn Kershaw, who met the writer-director through a mutual friend, is raising the finance from Polish, French...
- 10/13/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
Which film will follow on from ‘Roma’ in winning the prize?
The 93 submissions for the best international feature award at the 2020 Oscars have been announced, and Screen has kept a list of all the entries below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
Scroll down for latest entries
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
The 93 submissions for the best international feature award at the 2020 Oscars have been announced, and Screen has kept a list of all the entries below.
This is the first year the award will be given under the new name of ‘best international feature film’, after a change in April from ‘foreign-language film’.
Scroll down for latest entries
The eligibility rules remain the same: an international feature film is defined as a feature-length motion picture produced outside the Us with a predominantly non-English dialogue track and can include animated and documentary features.
- 10/8/2019
- by 1101321¦Ben Dalton¦26¦¬0¦Emma Kiely, Nancy Epton¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Sci-fi double Alfred P. Sloan Prize Sundance winner Mike Cahill directs.
Amazon Studios has come on board to produce alongside Endgame Entertainment Mike Cahill’s sci-fi drama Bliss starring Salma Hayek and Owen Wilson.
Endgame’s Jim Stern serves as producer and the company’s Lucas Smith is executive producer alongside Marsha Swinton (Hala). Amazon Studios is financing the project and holds worldwide rights.
Described as a mind-bending love story, Bliss centres on recently divorced Greg (Wilson) whose life is falling apart when he meets the enchanting Isabel (Hayek), a woman who lives on the streets and is convinced that the polluted,...
Amazon Studios has come on board to produce alongside Endgame Entertainment Mike Cahill’s sci-fi drama Bliss starring Salma Hayek and Owen Wilson.
Endgame’s Jim Stern serves as producer and the company’s Lucas Smith is executive producer alongside Marsha Swinton (Hala). Amazon Studios is financing the project and holds worldwide rights.
Described as a mind-bending love story, Bliss centres on recently divorced Greg (Wilson) whose life is falling apart when he meets the enchanting Isabel (Hayek), a woman who lives on the streets and is convinced that the polluted,...
- 6/20/2019
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
The 18th Tribeca Film Festival will host big screen world premieres of major new small screen shows such as The Boys, Chernobyl, Tuca & Bertie and The Hot Zone. There will also be a special Tribeca Talks Farewell Conversation with the cast and creator of Mr. Robot and the creative team behind The Simpsons will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the longest-running animated series in television history.
James Kleinmann takes a look at some of the TV highlights at this year’s Tribeca, for the full lineup and to purchase tickets head to the official Tribeca website.
The Simpsons – 30th Anniversary The Simpsons – 30th Anniversary. Image courtesy of Fox
Following a screening of the episodes Marge vs the Monorail and The Day the Earth Stood Cool, the creative team behind The Simpsons will celebrate the show’s incredible thirty year run, and counting. Executive producers James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean and Matt Selman,...
James Kleinmann takes a look at some of the TV highlights at this year’s Tribeca, for the full lineup and to purchase tickets head to the official Tribeca website.
The Simpsons – 30th Anniversary The Simpsons – 30th Anniversary. Image courtesy of Fox
Following a screening of the episodes Marge vs the Monorail and The Day the Earth Stood Cool, the creative team behind The Simpsons will celebrate the show’s incredible thirty year run, and counting. Executive producers James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean and Matt Selman,...
- 4/23/2019
- by James Kleinmann
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
March 1
– Now in its fourth year, the Doc10 film festival is proud to announce their official 2019 film slate. Presented by Chicago Media Project, Doc10 will open with the critically acclaimed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez documentary “Knock Down the House” and close with Emmy Award-winning director John Chester’s “The Biggest Little Farm.” In celebration of the highly curated event, filmmakers from this year’s ten best documentaries will be descending on Chicago for screenings and Q&A’s. Doc10 will also showcase Vr content, industry panels, and creative workshops, and takes place from April 11 – 14, 2019 in Chicago, Il.
Winner of the Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, “Knock Down the House” follows progressive activist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other insurgent female candidates running for Congress in 2018. Setting their sights on making a difference, the film chronicles these women as they fight for the issues they are most passionate about and shake...
– Now in its fourth year, the Doc10 film festival is proud to announce their official 2019 film slate. Presented by Chicago Media Project, Doc10 will open with the critically acclaimed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez documentary “Knock Down the House” and close with Emmy Award-winning director John Chester’s “The Biggest Little Farm.” In celebration of the highly curated event, filmmakers from this year’s ten best documentaries will be descending on Chicago for screenings and Q&A’s. Doc10 will also showcase Vr content, industry panels, and creative workshops, and takes place from April 11 – 14, 2019 in Chicago, Il.
Winner of the Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, “Knock Down the House” follows progressive activist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other insurgent female candidates running for Congress in 2018. Setting their sights on making a difference, the film chronicles these women as they fight for the issues they are most passionate about and shake...
- 3/1/2019
- by Indiewire Staff
- Indiewire
Clemency (Chinonye Chukwo)U.S. – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeClemency (Chinonye Chukwo)Directing AwardThe Last Black Man in San Francisco (Joe Talbot)Special Jury Award for Vision and CraftHoneyboy (Alma Har’el)Special Jury Award for Creative CollaborationThe Last Black Man in San Francisco (Joe Talbot)Special Jury Award for Breakthrough PerformanceRhianne Barreto (Share)Waldo Salt Screenwriting AwardShare (Pippa Bianco)Audience AwardBrittany Runs a Marathon (Paul Downs Colaizzo)
Next Next Audience AwardThe Infiltrators (Cristina Ibarra, Alex Rivera)Next Innovator AwardThe Infiltrators (Cristina Ibarra, Alex Rivera)
U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury PrizeOne Child NationDirecting AwardAmerican Factory (Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert)Special Jury Award for an Emerging FilmmakerJawline (Liza Mandelup)Special Jury Award for Moral UrgencyAlways in Season (Jacqueline Olive)Special Jury Award for EditingApollo 11 (Todd Douglas Miller)Special Jury Award for CinematographyMidnight Family (Luke Lorentzen)Audience AwardKnock Down the House (Rachel Lears)
World Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeThe Souvenir (Joanna Hogg)Directing AwardThe Sharks (Lucia...
Next Next Audience AwardThe Infiltrators (Cristina Ibarra, Alex Rivera)Next Innovator AwardThe Infiltrators (Cristina Ibarra, Alex Rivera)
U.S. – DOCUMENTARYGrand Jury PrizeOne Child NationDirecting AwardAmerican Factory (Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert)Special Jury Award for an Emerging FilmmakerJawline (Liza Mandelup)Special Jury Award for Moral UrgencyAlways in Season (Jacqueline Olive)Special Jury Award for EditingApollo 11 (Todd Douglas Miller)Special Jury Award for CinematographyMidnight Family (Luke Lorentzen)Audience AwardKnock Down the House (Rachel Lears)
World Cinema – DRAMATICGrand Jury PrizeThe Souvenir (Joanna Hogg)Directing AwardThe Sharks (Lucia...
- 2/3/2019
- MUBI
Chinonye Chukwu’s “Clemency,” a drama starring Alfre Woodard as a prison warden agonizing over capital punishment, has won the Grand Jury Prize for dramatic films at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, which handed out its awards at a ceremony in Park City on Saturday evening.
Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s “One Child Nation” won the Grand Jury Prize for documentaries.
The directing awards in the U.S. dramatic and documentary competitions went to Joe Talbot for “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” and Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert for “American Factory,” respectively.
Also Read: Sundance's Haves and Have Nots: Can Traditional Indie Distributors Still Compete?
The Grand Jury Prizes in the World Cinema Dramatic competition went to Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir,” while in the World Cinema Documentary competition it went to “Honeyland” by Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska.
Audience awards went to “Paul Downs Colaizzo’s “Brittany Runs a Marathon...
Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s “One Child Nation” won the Grand Jury Prize for documentaries.
The directing awards in the U.S. dramatic and documentary competitions went to Joe Talbot for “The Last Black Man in San Francisco” and Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert for “American Factory,” respectively.
Also Read: Sundance's Haves and Have Nots: Can Traditional Indie Distributors Still Compete?
The Grand Jury Prizes in the World Cinema Dramatic competition went to Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir,” while in the World Cinema Documentary competition it went to “Honeyland” by Ljubomir Stefanov and Tamara Kotevska.
Audience awards went to “Paul Downs Colaizzo’s “Brittany Runs a Marathon...
- 2/3/2019
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
The Sundance Film Festival concluded with five female directors — and one man — sharing the grand jury prizes in the four main competition categories.
In U.S. dramatic competition, African-American writer-director Chinonye Chukwu won for “Clemency,” in which Alfre Woodard plays a prison warden who connects with a death-row inmate. Meanwhile, in the world dramatic category, Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir” specifically looks at the challenges and setbacks facing a young female filmmaker, who puts her directing ambitions on hold in order to deal with the drug-addicted man who monopolizes her attention.
Top U.S. documentary honors went to Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s “One Child Nation,” a personal exploration of the suffering and aftermath of China’s infamous population-control policy through co-director Wang’s family. In the world documentary competition, “Honeyland” — an artful portrait of a Macedonian beekeeper struggling to protect her livelihood — was a clear favorite with the jury,...
In U.S. dramatic competition, African-American writer-director Chinonye Chukwu won for “Clemency,” in which Alfre Woodard plays a prison warden who connects with a death-row inmate. Meanwhile, in the world dramatic category, Joanna Hogg’s “The Souvenir” specifically looks at the challenges and setbacks facing a young female filmmaker, who puts her directing ambitions on hold in order to deal with the drug-addicted man who monopolizes her attention.
Top U.S. documentary honors went to Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang’s “One Child Nation,” a personal exploration of the suffering and aftermath of China’s infamous population-control policy through co-director Wang’s family. In the world documentary competition, “Honeyland” — an artful portrait of a Macedonian beekeeper struggling to protect her livelihood — was a clear favorite with the jury,...
- 2/3/2019
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Legion M, billed as the world’s “first fan-owned entertainment company,” has promoted David Baxter to vice president of development, where he will oversee the company’s development slate of film, television, and Vr projects with COO and head of content, Terri Lubaroff.
Baxter has been in the spotlight in recent days as a key event producer of the high-profile Star Lee tribute scheduled for Wednesday at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The event will be hosted by Kevin Smith who, like industry veteran Baxter, knew and admired the late Marvel Comics icon for decades.
With more than 25 years in the entertainment industry as a development executive, producer, and award-winning WGA writer, Baxter joined Legion M as the head of content-developing services when the company was formed by Paul Scanlan and Jeff Annisonin in 2016. The company uses the equity crowdfunding laws enabled by the federal Jumpstart Our Business Startups...
Baxter has been in the spotlight in recent days as a key event producer of the high-profile Star Lee tribute scheduled for Wednesday at the Tcl Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. The event will be hosted by Kevin Smith who, like industry veteran Baxter, knew and admired the late Marvel Comics icon for decades.
With more than 25 years in the entertainment industry as a development executive, producer, and award-winning WGA writer, Baxter joined Legion M as the head of content-developing services when the company was formed by Paul Scanlan and Jeff Annisonin in 2016. The company uses the equity crowdfunding laws enabled by the federal Jumpstart Our Business Startups...
- 1/29/2019
- by Geoff Boucher
- Deadline Film + TV
Though he’s played antic roles such as Lola in “Kinky Boots,” master actor Chiwetel Ejiofor’s most conspicuous characteristic is his air of soulful gravitas. That’s a quality that aims to dominate his feature directorial debut as well. But “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind,” which dramatizes Malawian engineer William Kakwamba’s youthful struggle to save his starving village via technical ingenuity, carries its seriousness like a virtuous heavy load that gradually drives the film into the ground. Competently mounted yet plodding, it’s manifestly a labor of love that becomes a bit of a labor to watch. Netflix plans a streaming launch as well as limited theatrical release on March 1.
Adapting the subsequently Dartmouth-graduating Kakwamba’s book of the same name, Ejiofor’s screenplay is set in 2001 Malawi. Things are hard for most in that impoverished southeast African republic, and farmer Trywell (the writer-director) hopes education will...
Adapting the subsequently Dartmouth-graduating Kakwamba’s book of the same name, Ejiofor’s screenplay is set in 2001 Malawi. Things are hard for most in that impoverished southeast African republic, and farmer Trywell (the writer-director) hopes education will...
- 1/27/2019
- by Dennis Harvey
- Variety Film + TV
When the Sundance Film Festival kicks off next week, the annual event will flood Park City, Utah with plenty of high-powered talent, and it seems that this year’s jury members might offer up as much notoriety and star power as the people on the big screen. The Sundance Institute has announced the “20 celebrated and revered expert voices across film, art, culture, and science” who will make up this year’s juries, designed to award feature-length and short films shown at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival with 12 prizes. Those names include filmmakers Jane Campion, Damien Chazelle, Yance Ford, Rachel Grady, Ciro Guerra; screenwriters Phyllis Nagy and Sev Ohanian; actors Tessa Thompson, Sheila Vand, and Corey Stoll; and many more.
All this year’s winners, save for the short film awardees (which are announced at a separate ceremony on January 29), will be announced at a ceremony on February 2 that will be livestreamed at sundance.
All this year’s winners, save for the short film awardees (which are announced at a separate ceremony on January 29), will be announced at a ceremony on February 2 that will be livestreamed at sundance.
- 1/17/2019
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Before the New Year rings in the Sundance Institute added five features and a Special Event today to the 2019 Sundance Film Festival taking place from Jan. 24 to Feb. 4.
This includes the world premiere of Alex Lehmann’s Paddleton which follows the friendship of two misfit neighbors, one of whom has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Mark Duplass, Ray Romano, Ravi Patel, Christine Woods star and Mark and Jay Duplass, Mel Eslyn, Alana Carithers, and Sean Bradle produce.
In the Midnight Section, there’s two world premieres, Patrick Brice’s Corporate Animals and Babak Anvari’s Wounds.
The logline for Corporate Animals written by Sam Bain reads: Disaster strikes when the egotistical CEO of an edible cutlery company leads her long-suffering staff on a corporate team-building trip in New Mexico. Trapped underground, this mismatched and disgruntled group must pull together to survive. Demi Moore, Ed Helms, Jessica Williams, and Karan Soni star.
This includes the world premiere of Alex Lehmann’s Paddleton which follows the friendship of two misfit neighbors, one of whom has been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Mark Duplass, Ray Romano, Ravi Patel, Christine Woods star and Mark and Jay Duplass, Mel Eslyn, Alana Carithers, and Sean Bradle produce.
In the Midnight Section, there’s two world premieres, Patrick Brice’s Corporate Animals and Babak Anvari’s Wounds.
The logline for Corporate Animals written by Sam Bain reads: Disaster strikes when the egotistical CEO of an edible cutlery company leads her long-suffering staff on a corporate team-building trip in New Mexico. Trapped underground, this mismatched and disgruntled group must pull together to survive. Demi Moore, Ed Helms, Jessica Williams, and Karan Soni star.
- 12/20/2018
- by Anthony D'Alessandro
- Deadline Film + TV
Troop Zero to close festival; The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind named 2019 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize winner.
The world premiere of Babak Anvari’s Under The Shadow follow-up Wounds has joined the 2019 Sundance Film Festival line-up as festival organisers unveiled on Thursday (20) five features and a special event.
Wounds (USA-uk) will screen in Midnight and stars Armie Hammer and Dakota Johnson in the story of a New Orleans bartender who experience strange occurrences after he picks up a phone left behind at his bar.
Midnight will also feature the world premiere of Partrick Brice’s Corporate Animals from...
The world premiere of Babak Anvari’s Under The Shadow follow-up Wounds has joined the 2019 Sundance Film Festival line-up as festival organisers unveiled on Thursday (20) five features and a special event.
Wounds (USA-uk) will screen in Midnight and stars Armie Hammer and Dakota Johnson in the story of a New Orleans bartender who experience strange occurrences after he picks up a phone left behind at his bar.
Midnight will also feature the world premiere of Partrick Brice’s Corporate Animals from...
- 12/20/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
While press and film fans pore over selections for Sundance 2019, no group dissects titles as diligently as acquisitions executives for distributors, cable and broadcast networks, and streaming services. Most entries do not yet have deals for release or play, and every one — no matter how obscure — is scoured for potential.
Last year, one of the seemingly less-likely offerings was a Next selection, “Search.” The feature debut of Aneesh Chaganty, it starred John Cho and Debra Messing. Chaganty wasn’t entirely unknown; he directed a Google Glass spec that led to him working for the search giant. Its producers included Timur Bekmambetov (“Hardcore Henry”). However, the film also took place entirely on computer screens, which could suggest a noble experiment more than a potential hit. Instead, its success transformed the Next section.
Sony bought the film for its Screen Gems label, changed its title to “Searching,” and gave it a late-summer release.
Last year, one of the seemingly less-likely offerings was a Next selection, “Search.” The feature debut of Aneesh Chaganty, it starred John Cho and Debra Messing. Chaganty wasn’t entirely unknown; he directed a Google Glass spec that led to him working for the search giant. Its producers included Timur Bekmambetov (“Hardcore Henry”). However, the film also took place entirely on computer screens, which could suggest a noble experiment more than a potential hit. Instead, its success transformed the Next section.
Sony bought the film for its Screen Gems label, changed its title to “Searching,” and gave it a late-summer release.
- 12/7/2018
- by Tom Brueggemann
- Indiewire
Sarah Paulson is sprinting toward her next project, Lionsgate’s upcoming thriller “Run,” the studio announced on Thursday.
The “American Horror Story” actress will star in the film as a mother raising a teenage girl in total isolation. As the girl’s life begins to unravel, she discovers her mother’s sinister secret.
The film is the next project from the team behind John Cho’s mystery and thriller that premiered at Sundance, “Searching.” Aneesh Chaganty will direct “Run,” while Natalie Qasabian and Sev Ohanian are producing from a script by Chaganty and Ohanian.
Also Read: 'American Horror Story': Is This Sarah Paulson's New 'Apocalypse' Character? (Video)
Production is set to begin on “Run” on Oct. 31.
Paulson has been especially busy of late. She’ll next be seen in Susanne Bier’s “Bird Box,” which will be released on Dec. 21 by Netflix, as well as the sequel to M.
The “American Horror Story” actress will star in the film as a mother raising a teenage girl in total isolation. As the girl’s life begins to unravel, she discovers her mother’s sinister secret.
The film is the next project from the team behind John Cho’s mystery and thriller that premiered at Sundance, “Searching.” Aneesh Chaganty will direct “Run,” while Natalie Qasabian and Sev Ohanian are producing from a script by Chaganty and Ohanian.
Also Read: 'American Horror Story': Is This Sarah Paulson's New 'Apocalypse' Character? (Video)
Production is set to begin on “Run” on Oct. 31.
Paulson has been especially busy of late. She’ll next be seen in Susanne Bier’s “Bird Box,” which will be released on Dec. 21 by Netflix, as well as the sequel to M.
- 10/11/2018
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
In today’s film news roundup, Disney announces key promotions in film marketing, Film Independent announces more than two dozen grants and Alamo Drafthouse will celebrate the VHS format.
Marketing Promotions
Walt Disney Studios has promoted Ryan Stankevich and Martha Morrison to the posts of senior vice president of marketing.
Studio marketing president Asad Ayaz made the announcement Tuesday. Stankevich will focus on titles from Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm, while Morrison will oversee titles from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios.
They will also handle Disney’s other live action film projects and lead global campaigns and strategy for Disney’s entire theatrical slate.
“This is a truly amazing team and I’m so proud of the work we’ve done together over the past several years,” said Ayaz in a statement. “Martha and Ryan are talented and fearless leaders who will set a bold course for our film campaigns,...
Marketing Promotions
Walt Disney Studios has promoted Ryan Stankevich and Martha Morrison to the posts of senior vice president of marketing.
Studio marketing president Asad Ayaz made the announcement Tuesday. Stankevich will focus on titles from Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm, while Morrison will oversee titles from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios.
They will also handle Disney’s other live action film projects and lead global campaigns and strategy for Disney’s entire theatrical slate.
“This is a truly amazing team and I’m so proud of the work we’ve done together over the past several years,” said Ayaz in a statement. “Martha and Ryan are talented and fearless leaders who will set a bold course for our film campaigns,...
- 9/19/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
After a highly competitive bid, Lionsgate has acquired the original screenplay “Run” by the writing team of Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian and placed the project on fast-track development.
The studio plans to shoot “Run” in the fall. The story centers on a homeschooled teenager who begins to suspect her mother is keeping a dark secret from her.
“Run” is the next project from the duo behind the missing-persons thriller “Searching,” which stars John Cho and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January in the Next section. Chaganty is directing “Run” and Ohanian is producing with Natalie Qasabian, who also produced “Searching.”
The contained thriller will be released under the Lionsgate label. CAA Media Finance and attorney Arine Harapeti brokered the deal on behalf of Chaganty and Ohanian. The duo are also represented by Harapeti, as is Qasabian.
“Searching” won three awards at Sundance — the Alfred P. Sloan Prize,...
The studio plans to shoot “Run” in the fall. The story centers on a homeschooled teenager who begins to suspect her mother is keeping a dark secret from her.
“Run” is the next project from the duo behind the missing-persons thriller “Searching,” which stars John Cho and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January in the Next section. Chaganty is directing “Run” and Ohanian is producing with Natalie Qasabian, who also produced “Searching.”
The contained thriller will be released under the Lionsgate label. CAA Media Finance and attorney Arine Harapeti brokered the deal on behalf of Chaganty and Ohanian. The duo are also represented by Harapeti, as is Qasabian.
“Searching” won three awards at Sundance — the Alfred P. Sloan Prize,...
- 6/7/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
In today’s film news roundup, “Yellow Submarine” gets a re-release, Meg Ryan gets an honor and John Cho’s “Searching” will open the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival.
Re-release
Abramorama has agreed with Apple Corps Ltd. and Universal Music Group to re-release The Beatles’ animated feature film, “Yellow Submarine,” in North America in July in celebration of its 50th anniversary.
Abramorama is a specialist in music films, partnering in 2016 with Apple Corps, Imagine Entertainment, White Horse Pictures, StudioCanal and Umg’s Polygram Entertainment on the Ron Howard documentary “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years.” Abramorama has also released films about Neil Young, Pearl Jam and Green Day.
“Yellow Submarine” was restored in 4K digital resolution by Paul Rutan Jr. and his team of specialists at Triage Motion Picture Services and Eque Inc. The film’s songs and score were remixed at Umg’s Abbey Road Studios...
Re-release
Abramorama has agreed with Apple Corps Ltd. and Universal Music Group to re-release The Beatles’ animated feature film, “Yellow Submarine,” in North America in July in celebration of its 50th anniversary.
Abramorama is a specialist in music films, partnering in 2016 with Apple Corps, Imagine Entertainment, White Horse Pictures, StudioCanal and Umg’s Polygram Entertainment on the Ron Howard documentary “The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years.” Abramorama has also released films about Neil Young, Pearl Jam and Green Day.
“Yellow Submarine” was restored in 4K digital resolution by Paul Rutan Jr. and his team of specialists at Triage Motion Picture Services and Eque Inc. The film’s songs and score were remixed at Umg’s Abbey Road Studios...
- 4/6/2018
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Sundance announced its winners last night, with “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” and “Kailash” taking the top prizes. IndieWire has been in Park City for the entirety of the festival, with dozens of reviews and video interviews to show for it. Here’s what we’ve had to say about the prizewinners:
Read More:2018 Sundance Film Festival Awards Winners: ‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post’ and ‘Kailash’ Win Grand Jury Prizes
U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize: “The Miseducation of Cameron Post”
U.S. Dramatic Directing Award: Sara Colangelo, “The Kindergarten Teacher”
U.S. Documentary Directing Award: Alexandria Bombach, “On Her Shoulders”
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Achievement in Acting: Benjamin Dickey, “Blaze”
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Excellence in Filmmaking: “I Think We’re Alone Now”
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Storytelling: “Three Identical Strangers”
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking: “Minding...
Read More:2018 Sundance Film Festival Awards Winners: ‘The Miseducation of Cameron Post’ and ‘Kailash’ Win Grand Jury Prizes
U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize: “The Miseducation of Cameron Post”
U.S. Dramatic Directing Award: Sara Colangelo, “The Kindergarten Teacher”
U.S. Documentary Directing Award: Alexandria Bombach, “On Her Shoulders”
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Achievement in Acting: Benjamin Dickey, “Blaze”
U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Excellence in Filmmaking: “I Think We’re Alone Now”
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Storytelling: “Three Identical Strangers”
U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking: “Minding...
- 1/28/2018
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
The 2018 Sundance Film Festival drew to a close this evening with the announcement of the annual fest’s award winners, care of a free-wheeling ceremony hosted by Jason Mantzoukas, who stars in Hannah Fidell’s Sundance comedy “The Long Dumb Road.”
The Grand Jury Prizes, considered Sundance’s biggest honor, went to Desiree Akhavan’s “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” (U.S. Dramatic), Derek Doneen’s “Kailash” (U.S. Documentary), Tolga Karaçelik’s “Butterflies” (World Cinema Dramatic), and Talal Derki’s “Of Fathers and Sons” (World Cinema Documentary).
Read More:The 2018 IndieWire Sundance Bible: Every Review, Interview, and News Item Posted During the Festival
Each year, the festival’s juries give out directing prizes in each of the four competition categories. This year, each directing prize went to a female filmmaker, including Sara Colangelo, Alexandria Bombach, Sandi Tan, and Isold Uggadottir. The festival’s dedicated screenwriting prize, the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award,...
The Grand Jury Prizes, considered Sundance’s biggest honor, went to Desiree Akhavan’s “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” (U.S. Dramatic), Derek Doneen’s “Kailash” (U.S. Documentary), Tolga Karaçelik’s “Butterflies” (World Cinema Dramatic), and Talal Derki’s “Of Fathers and Sons” (World Cinema Documentary).
Read More:The 2018 IndieWire Sundance Bible: Every Review, Interview, and News Item Posted During the Festival
Each year, the festival’s juries give out directing prizes in each of the four competition categories. This year, each directing prize went to a female filmmaker, including Sara Colangelo, Alexandria Bombach, Sandi Tan, and Isold Uggadottir. The festival’s dedicated screenwriting prize, the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award,...
- 1/28/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Out in Park City, there may be no one who’s having a better go at Sundance than Search filmmaker Aneesh Chaganty, whose feature directorial debut won the 2018 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and was swooped up by Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions in a $5 million deal, one of the first of the festival. And the film’s successes don’t end there—writer Sev Ohanian has been awarded the Sundance Institute/Amazon Studios Producers Award for Narrative Feature Producer. An…...
- 1/22/2018
- Deadline
John Cho starrer is recipient of Alfred P. Sloan Film Prize.
In its third deal to be announced in Park City, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (Spwa) is understood to have paid $5m for the world on Aneesh Chaganty’s thriller Search starring John Cho.
The deal closed in the early hours of Monday morning (January 22) after the Next selection and Alfred P. Sloan Film Prize recipient premiered on Sunday evening.
Cho plays a man in touch with his high school daughter via social media and messaging who believes the girl has gone missing when she does not reply to a series of texts.
Teaming up with a detective in the real world, the father navigates the internet in a bid to find his daughter. Debra Messing also stars.
Chaganty wrote the screenplay with Sev Ohanian. Timur Bekmambetov and Ohanian of Bazelevs produced alongside, Adam Sidman and Natalie Qasabian produced, and Ana Liza Muravina, Maria Zatulovskaya, and Igor Tsay...
In its third deal to be announced in Park City, Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (Spwa) is understood to have paid $5m for the world on Aneesh Chaganty’s thriller Search starring John Cho.
The deal closed in the early hours of Monday morning (January 22) after the Next selection and Alfred P. Sloan Film Prize recipient premiered on Sunday evening.
Cho plays a man in touch with his high school daughter via social media and messaging who believes the girl has gone missing when she does not reply to a series of texts.
Teaming up with a detective in the real world, the father navigates the internet in a bid to find his daughter. Debra Messing also stars.
Chaganty wrote the screenplay with Sev Ohanian. Timur Bekmambetov and Ohanian of Bazelevs produced alongside, Adam Sidman and Natalie Qasabian produced, and Ana Liza Muravina, Maria Zatulovskaya, and Igor Tsay...
- 1/22/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Recipient of $20,000 Alfred P. Sloan Fast Track Grant named.
Film Independent has announced the 10 projects and 24 filmmakers selected for the 14th annual Fast Track film finance market.
The programme, held during the imminent Los Angeles Film Festival (June 14-22), helps producer-director teams advance their projects through meetings with industry executives, financiers, agents and managers, distributors, production companies, and granting organisations.
Participants will spend three days attending meetings with the aim of building relationships and gaining exposure for their projects.
2017 Fast Track Projects and Fellows are:
Blow The Man Down Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy (co-writers,co-directors), Drew Houpt (producer)
Cantering Hikari (writer,director,producer) Peter Maestrey (producer)
Farewell Tour Sean Hackett (writer,director), Frederick Thornton (producer)
Followers Tim Marshall (writer,director), Christina Radburn (producer)
Maybe Tomorrow Eliza Lee (writer,director), Michelle Sy (producer), Sophia Chang (executive producer)
Radiant Annika Glac (writer,director), Robyn Kershaw (producer)
Son Of A Very Important Man Najwa Najjar (writer,director), Hani...
Film Independent has announced the 10 projects and 24 filmmakers selected for the 14th annual Fast Track film finance market.
The programme, held during the imminent Los Angeles Film Festival (June 14-22), helps producer-director teams advance their projects through meetings with industry executives, financiers, agents and managers, distributors, production companies, and granting organisations.
Participants will spend three days attending meetings with the aim of building relationships and gaining exposure for their projects.
2017 Fast Track Projects and Fellows are:
Blow The Man Down Bridget Savage Cole and Danielle Krudy (co-writers,co-directors), Drew Houpt (producer)
Cantering Hikari (writer,director,producer) Peter Maestrey (producer)
Farewell Tour Sean Hackett (writer,director), Frederick Thornton (producer)
Followers Tim Marshall (writer,director), Christina Radburn (producer)
Maybe Tomorrow Eliza Lee (writer,director), Michelle Sy (producer), Sophia Chang (executive producer)
Radiant Annika Glac (writer,director), Robyn Kershaw (producer)
Son Of A Very Important Man Najwa Najjar (writer,director), Hani...
- 6/6/2017
- ScreenDaily
The 2017 Sundance Film Festival is coming to a close with tonight’s awards ceremony. While we’ll have our personal favorites coming early this week, the jury and audience have responded with theirs, topped by Macon Blair‘s I don’t feel at home in this world anymore., which will arrive on Netflix in late February, and the documentary Dina. Check out the full list of winners below see our complete coverage here.
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented by Larry Wilmore to:
Dina / U.S.A. (Directors: Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini) — An eccentric suburban woman and a Walmart door-greeter navigate their evolving relationship in this unconventional love story.
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented by Peter Dinklage to:
I don’t feel at home in this world anymore. / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Macon Blair) — When a depressed woman is burglarized, she...
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Documentary was presented by Larry Wilmore to:
Dina / U.S.A. (Directors: Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini) — An eccentric suburban woman and a Walmart door-greeter navigate their evolving relationship in this unconventional love story.
The U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic was presented by Peter Dinklage to:
I don’t feel at home in this world anymore. / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Macon Blair) — When a depressed woman is burglarized, she...
- 1/29/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Yesterday at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, Michael Almereyda’s new film “Marjorie Prime” won the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Feature Film Prize. The Prize is selected by a jury of film and science professionals and presented to outstanding feature films focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character. The jury presented the award to “Marjorie Prime” for its “imaginative and nuanced depiction of the evolving relationship between humans and technology, and its moving dramatization of how intelligent machines can challenge our notions of identity, memory and mortality.” As a result, the film will receive a $20,000 cash award from the foundation.
Read More: ‘Marjorie Prime’ Exclusive Photo: First Look at Jon Hamm and Lois Smith in Michael Almereyda’s New Film
“We are thrilled to partner with Sundance for the 14th year in a row and award the 2017 Sloan...
Read More: ‘Marjorie Prime’ Exclusive Photo: First Look at Jon Hamm and Lois Smith in Michael Almereyda’s New Film
“We are thrilled to partner with Sundance for the 14th year in a row and award the 2017 Sloan...
- 1/25/2017
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
An extraordinary year for the Colombian Oscar nominee continued as Ciro Guerra’s drama was announced on Wednesday as winner of the 2016 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize.
A jury comprising former winners Mike Cahill and Shane Carruth, Kerry Bishé from Catch And Release, science professor Clifford Johnson, and Harvard director of space genetics Ting Wu awarded the $20,000 cash award.
They cited the film for its “original and provocative portrait of a scientist and a scientific journey into the unknown, and for its unconventional depiction of how different cultures seek to understand nature.”
For the first time the Institute said it will add a Fellowship for a writer with an early-stage episodic project to support its development for television.
Writer-director Mark Levinson has been awarded the $15,000 Sundance Institute / Sloan Fellowship for The Gold Bug Variations, while co-writers Darcy Brislin and Dyana Winkler (Bell) each receive $12,500 Sundance Institute / Sloan Commissioning Grants.
“Our Science-in-Film...
A jury comprising former winners Mike Cahill and Shane Carruth, Kerry Bishé from Catch And Release, science professor Clifford Johnson, and Harvard director of space genetics Ting Wu awarded the $20,000 cash award.
They cited the film for its “original and provocative portrait of a scientist and a scientific journey into the unknown, and for its unconventional depiction of how different cultures seek to understand nature.”
For the first time the Institute said it will add a Fellowship for a writer with an early-stage episodic project to support its development for television.
Writer-director Mark Levinson has been awarded the $15,000 Sundance Institute / Sloan Fellowship for The Gold Bug Variations, while co-writers Darcy Brislin and Dyana Winkler (Bell) each receive $12,500 Sundance Institute / Sloan Commissioning Grants.
“Our Science-in-Film...
- 1/27/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Today, Film Independent announced the 10 projects selected for the 13th annual Fast Track film financing market. Held during the Los Angeles Film Festival, now underway, the program helps producer/director teams push their projects forward through 60 meetings with top industry decision-makers, from financiers and agents to managers, distributors and granting organizations and production companies. Three days of intensive meetings will offer exposure and networking opportunities for filmmakers. The Fast Track is supported by Film Independent Artist Development lead funder Time Warner Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Nea Art Works, Efilm, Loyola Marymount University School of Film and Television and Netflix. At the annual Film Independent Fast Track Welcome Dinner, Film Independent also presented two Alfred P. Sloan grants to support films that explore science and technology themes or that depict scientists, engineers and mathematicians: Michael Almereyda's...
- 6/16/2015
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
In terms of support, they got a taste for what the Sundance Institute had to offer in concretizing aspects of their respective screenplays and in terms of scenery, they’ll need to pack significantly less heavier suitcases. Nia DaCosta (Little Woods), Olivia Newman (First Match), Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre (pictured above) (Mustang) & Yung Chang (Eggplant), Christopher Makoto Yogi (I Was A Simple Man), Mark Kindred (Rogue) and trio Brent Green, Michael McGinley and Thyra Heder‘s untitled project are technically moving onto the next round working on the directing portion of their projects at the June Directors and Screenwriters Labs. they’ll be joined by The Imposter helmer Bart Layton‘s narrative debut, American Animals. The Screenwriters Lab attendees are Dan Krauss‘ docu-to-feature adaptation of The Kill Team, Boots Riley‘s Sorry to Bother You, Frances Bodomo, Mariam Bakacho Khatchvani and Irakli Solomanashvili‘s Afronauts, and finally Fernando Coimbra‘s The...
- 5/7/2015
- by admin
- IONCINEMA.com
The Sundance Institute announced I Origins as the winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, as well as the recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Lab Fellowship, which is presented through the Institute’s Feature Film Program.
These activities, as well as a panel at the Festival and the Alfred P. Sloan Commissioning Grant, are part of the Sundance Institute Science-in-Film Initiative, which is made possible by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The initiative supports the development and exhibition of new independent film projects that explore science and technology themes or that depict scientists, engineers and mathematicians in engaging and innovative ways.
“We are delighted to collaborate with Sundance Institute for the 11th year in a row and to recognize Mike Cahill’s original and compelling I Origins as the winner of this year’s Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize,” said Doron Weber, Vice President, Programs at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “With Academy Award-nominated films like this year’s Gravity and Her, I Origins—as well as new scripts we are developing with Sundance Institute Labs such as The Buried Life and Prodigal Summer—demonstrates that not only are science and technology central to understanding, engaging with and dramatizing modern life, but they also make for cracking good films that draw large audiences.”
Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, said, “Independent filmmakers offer unique perspectives on the role math, science and technology play in our world and culture. The Sundance Institute Science-in-Film Initiative, with critical support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, recognizes and encourages these projects as they make their way to audiences.”
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize
I Origins, directed and written by Mike Cahill, has been awarded the 2014 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and will receive a $20,000 cash award by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The Prize is selected by a jury of film and science professionals and presented to outstanding feature films focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.
In I Origins, a molecular biologist and his lab partner uncover startling evidence that could fundamentally change society as we know it and cause them to question their once-certain beliefs in science and spirituality. The cast includes Michael Pitt, Brit Marling, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Steven Yeun, Archie Panjabi. The jury presented the award to the film for its “intelligent and nuanced portrayal of molecular biologists as central characters, and for dramatizing the power of the scientific process to explore fundamental questions about the human condition.”
Previous Alfred P. Sloan Prize Winners include: Andrew Bujalski, Computer Chess (2013); Jake Schreier, Christopher Ford, Robot & Frank (2012); Musa Syeed, Valley of Saints (2012); Mike Cahill and Brit Marling, Another Earth (2011); Diane Bell, Obselidia (2010); Max Mayer, Adam (2009); Alex Rivera, Sleep Dealer (2008); Shi-Zheng Chen, Dark Matter (2007); Andrucha Waddington, The House of Sand (2006); Werner Herzog, Grizzly Man (2005), Shane Carruth, Primer (2004) and Marc Decena, Dopamine (2003). Several past winners have also been awarded Jury Awards at the Festival, including the Grand Jury Prize for Primer, the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for Sleep Dealer and the Excellence in Cinematography Award for Obselidia.
This year’s Alfred P. Sloan jury members are:
Dr. Kevin Hand Dr. Kevin Hand is deputy chief scientist for Solar System Exploration at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His research focuses on the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the solar system. His fieldwork involves exploring some of Earth’s most extreme environments from the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, to the depths of the Earth’s oceans, to the glaciers of Kilimanjaro.
Flora Lichtman Flora Lichtman is a science journalist living in New York. She has worked as a video journalist for the New York Times and National Public Radio’s Science Friday and writes regularly for Popular Science magazine. She is the coauthor of Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us.
Max Mayer Max Mayer is a founder and producing director of New York Stage and Film and has directed over 50 new plays by writers such as John Patrick Shanley, Lee Blessing, and Eric Overmyer. In addition to writing and directing Better Living and Adam, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and won the Sloan Prize, Mayer has directed As Cool as I Am and episodes of The West Wing, Alias, and Family Law and written three produced plays.
Jon Spaihts Jon Spaihts is the screenwriter of The Darkest Hour, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, and the upcoming Passengers and The Mummy. The one-time physics student and science writer continues to specialize in science fiction.
Jill Tarter Astronomer Jill Tarter, the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for the Seti Institute, has devoted her career to hunting for signs of sentient beings elsewhere. The lead for Project Phoenix, a decade-long Seti scrutiny of about 750 nearby star systems, she now leads Seti’s efforts to build and operate the Allen Telescope Array. A 2009 Ted prize recipient, she is also the real-life researcher upon whom the Jodie Foster character in Contact is largely based.
Sundance Institute / Alfred P. Sloan Lab Fellowship
The Buried Life (U.S.A.) Joan Stein Schimke and Averie Storck (co-writers/co-directors) An archaeologist risks her reputation for the dig of her career, but when her rock 'n' roll sister and overbearing father follow her to the excavation, she discovers her biggest challenge is facing what's above ground.
Joan Stein Schimke and Averie Storck have just attended the Institute’s January Screenwriters Lab with The Buried Life.
Joan Stein Schimke was nominated for an Academy Award® for her short film One Day Crossing, which won several other awards including the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Best Woman Student Filmmaker, Best Director, National Board of Review and the Student Academy Award® Gold Medal. Other directing credits include Law and Order and the short film Solidarity, which screened at over a dozen festivals including the New York Film Festival. Stein Schimke is an Mfa graduate of Columbia University’s Film Program and is currently an Associate Professor at Adelphi University in New York.
Averie Storck is an Mfa graduate of Columbia University’s Film Program. Her award-winning short films include Live at Five , which won the New Line Cinema Development Award and screened at more than 30 international film festivals. Prior to filmmaking, Storck worked for People and Vogue magazines, was a writer for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and studied improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in NYC. She currently teaches and directs at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Founded in 1934, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a non-profit philanthropy that makes grants in science, technology and economic performance. This Sloan-Sundance partnership forms part of a broader national program by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to stimulate leading artists in film, television, and theater; to create more realistic and compelling stories about science and technology; and to challenge existing stereotypes about scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in the popular imagination. Over the past decade, the Foundation has partnered with some of the top film schools in the country – including AFI, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Nyu, UCLA, and USC – and established annual awards in screenwriting and film production and an annual first-feature award for alumni. The Foundation has also started an annual Sloan Feature Film Prize at the Hamptons International Film Festival and initiated new screenwriting and film production workshops at the Hamptons and Tribeca Film Festival and with Film Independent. As more finished films emerge from this developmental pipeline—four features were completed in 2013, with half a dozen more on deck—the foundation has also partnered with the Coolidge Corner Theater and the Arthouse Convergence to screen science films in up to 40 theaters nationwide. The Foundation also has an active theater program and commissions over a dozen science plays each year from the Ensemble Studio Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club and Playwright Horizons.
These activities, as well as a panel at the Festival and the Alfred P. Sloan Commissioning Grant, are part of the Sundance Institute Science-in-Film Initiative, which is made possible by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The initiative supports the development and exhibition of new independent film projects that explore science and technology themes or that depict scientists, engineers and mathematicians in engaging and innovative ways.
“We are delighted to collaborate with Sundance Institute for the 11th year in a row and to recognize Mike Cahill’s original and compelling I Origins as the winner of this year’s Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize,” said Doron Weber, Vice President, Programs at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “With Academy Award-nominated films like this year’s Gravity and Her, I Origins—as well as new scripts we are developing with Sundance Institute Labs such as The Buried Life and Prodigal Summer—demonstrates that not only are science and technology central to understanding, engaging with and dramatizing modern life, but they also make for cracking good films that draw large audiences.”
Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, said, “Independent filmmakers offer unique perspectives on the role math, science and technology play in our world and culture. The Sundance Institute Science-in-Film Initiative, with critical support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, recognizes and encourages these projects as they make their way to audiences.”
Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize
I Origins, directed and written by Mike Cahill, has been awarded the 2014 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and will receive a $20,000 cash award by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The Prize is selected by a jury of film and science professionals and presented to outstanding feature films focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.
In I Origins, a molecular biologist and his lab partner uncover startling evidence that could fundamentally change society as we know it and cause them to question their once-certain beliefs in science and spirituality. The cast includes Michael Pitt, Brit Marling, Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, Steven Yeun, Archie Panjabi. The jury presented the award to the film for its “intelligent and nuanced portrayal of molecular biologists as central characters, and for dramatizing the power of the scientific process to explore fundamental questions about the human condition.”
Previous Alfred P. Sloan Prize Winners include: Andrew Bujalski, Computer Chess (2013); Jake Schreier, Christopher Ford, Robot & Frank (2012); Musa Syeed, Valley of Saints (2012); Mike Cahill and Brit Marling, Another Earth (2011); Diane Bell, Obselidia (2010); Max Mayer, Adam (2009); Alex Rivera, Sleep Dealer (2008); Shi-Zheng Chen, Dark Matter (2007); Andrucha Waddington, The House of Sand (2006); Werner Herzog, Grizzly Man (2005), Shane Carruth, Primer (2004) and Marc Decena, Dopamine (2003). Several past winners have also been awarded Jury Awards at the Festival, including the Grand Jury Prize for Primer, the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for Sleep Dealer and the Excellence in Cinematography Award for Obselidia.
This year’s Alfred P. Sloan jury members are:
Dr. Kevin Hand Dr. Kevin Hand is deputy chief scientist for Solar System Exploration at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. His research focuses on the origin, evolution, and distribution of life in the solar system. His fieldwork involves exploring some of Earth’s most extreme environments from the McMurdo Dry Valleys of Antarctica, to the depths of the Earth’s oceans, to the glaciers of Kilimanjaro.
Flora Lichtman Flora Lichtman is a science journalist living in New York. She has worked as a video journalist for the New York Times and National Public Radio’s Science Friday and writes regularly for Popular Science magazine. She is the coauthor of Annoying: The Science of What Bugs Us.
Max Mayer Max Mayer is a founder and producing director of New York Stage and Film and has directed over 50 new plays by writers such as John Patrick Shanley, Lee Blessing, and Eric Overmyer. In addition to writing and directing Better Living and Adam, which premiered at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival and won the Sloan Prize, Mayer has directed As Cool as I Am and episodes of The West Wing, Alias, and Family Law and written three produced plays.
Jon Spaihts Jon Spaihts is the screenwriter of The Darkest Hour, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, and the upcoming Passengers and The Mummy. The one-time physics student and science writer continues to specialize in science fiction.
Jill Tarter Astronomer Jill Tarter, the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for the Seti Institute, has devoted her career to hunting for signs of sentient beings elsewhere. The lead for Project Phoenix, a decade-long Seti scrutiny of about 750 nearby star systems, she now leads Seti’s efforts to build and operate the Allen Telescope Array. A 2009 Ted prize recipient, she is also the real-life researcher upon whom the Jodie Foster character in Contact is largely based.
Sundance Institute / Alfred P. Sloan Lab Fellowship
The Buried Life (U.S.A.) Joan Stein Schimke and Averie Storck (co-writers/co-directors) An archaeologist risks her reputation for the dig of her career, but when her rock 'n' roll sister and overbearing father follow her to the excavation, she discovers her biggest challenge is facing what's above ground.
Joan Stein Schimke and Averie Storck have just attended the Institute’s January Screenwriters Lab with The Buried Life.
Joan Stein Schimke was nominated for an Academy Award® for her short film One Day Crossing, which won several other awards including the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Best Woman Student Filmmaker, Best Director, National Board of Review and the Student Academy Award® Gold Medal. Other directing credits include Law and Order and the short film Solidarity, which screened at over a dozen festivals including the New York Film Festival. Stein Schimke is an Mfa graduate of Columbia University’s Film Program and is currently an Associate Professor at Adelphi University in New York.
Averie Storck is an Mfa graduate of Columbia University’s Film Program. Her award-winning short films include Live at Five , which won the New Line Cinema Development Award and screened at more than 30 international film festivals. Prior to filmmaking, Storck worked for People and Vogue magazines, was a writer for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and studied improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in NYC. She currently teaches and directs at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Founded in 1934, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation is a non-profit philanthropy that makes grants in science, technology and economic performance. This Sloan-Sundance partnership forms part of a broader national program by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to stimulate leading artists in film, television, and theater; to create more realistic and compelling stories about science and technology; and to challenge existing stereotypes about scientists, engineers, and mathematicians in the popular imagination. Over the past decade, the Foundation has partnered with some of the top film schools in the country – including AFI, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, Nyu, UCLA, and USC – and established annual awards in screenwriting and film production and an annual first-feature award for alumni. The Foundation has also started an annual Sloan Feature Film Prize at the Hamptons International Film Festival and initiated new screenwriting and film production workshops at the Hamptons and Tribeca Film Festival and with Film Independent. As more finished films emerge from this developmental pipeline—four features were completed in 2013, with half a dozen more on deck—the foundation has also partnered with the Coolidge Corner Theater and the Arthouse Convergence to screen science films in up to 40 theaters nationwide. The Foundation also has an active theater program and commissions over a dozen science plays each year from the Ensemble Studio Theater, Manhattan Theatre Club and Playwright Horizons.
- 1/24/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Mike Cahill’s “I Origins” has won the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, the Sundance Institute announced Tuesday. Additionally, Joan Stein Schimke and Averie Storck’s “The Buried Life” has been named the recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Lab Fellowship, which is presented through the Institute’s Feature Film Program. Both recognitions are part of the Sundance Institute Science-in-Film Initiative, which is made possible by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The initiative supports the development and exhibition of new independent film projects that explore science and technology themes or that depict scientists,...
- 1/21/2014
- by Jeff Sneider
- The Wrap
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