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Film Independent has chosen eight projects and 12 filmmakers for its 2013 Documentary Lab. The eight-week intensive program is designed to help filmmakers who are currently in post-production on their feature-length documentary. Lab mentors provide creative feedback and story notes to the selected filmmakers and help filmmakers strategize the completion, distribution, and marketing of their film. Projects and participants are Birdmen (Milena Pastreich); KUSAMA: Princess Of Polka Dots (Heather Lenz); Maidentrip (Jillian Schlesinger, Emily McAllister); Mary Woronov, Cult Queen From Warhol To Corman (Francesca Di Amico, Claudia Unger), Mateo (Aaron Naar); Rich Hill (Tracy Droz Tragos, Andrew Droz Palermo); Storyteller: The Wonderful, Magical Life Of The Man Who Saved Ben Hur (Joe Forte); and Top Spin (Mina T. Son, Sara Newens). Click over for a complete description. READ MORE »
Film Independent Names Docu Lab Fellows
‘Pariah’ Producer Nekisa Cooper Awarded Inaugural $10,000 Fox Film Grant
Nekisa Cooper, winner of the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award with director Dee Rees for their Sundance break-out Pariah, has been named the recipient of the inaugural Project Involve Fellowship. Film Independent and the Fox | HBCU Media Alliance (FHMA) partnered on the new initiative in association with Film Independent’s Project Involve program, which fosters the development of filmmakers from traditionally underrepresented communities. Cooper will receive a $10,000 grant prize for her next feature Bolo, a Southern crime thriller that reteams her director Rees in the story of a Memphis police detective investigating a murder in her own community.
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Andy Samberg On Hosting Spirit Awards
Andy Samberg made this video about preparing to host the Film Independent Spirit Awards on February 23rd. Hope he’ll be funnier than this lame bit:
Film Independent Selects 8 Filmmakers For Its 2013 Directing Lab
The selected filmmakers are Nicholas Greene, Jacob Hatley, Krisy Gosney, Aldo Velasco, Amber Sealey, Daniel Casey, Morna Ciraki, and Alex Moratto. The annual program is designed to assist promising directors develop new narrative feature films, improve their craft and advance their filmmaking careers in a nurturing yet challenging environment. It begins today and continues through mid-April in Los Angeles. The selected filmmakers are provided digital camera and sound packages and a cash stipend to shoot scenes, as well as access to a variety of production resources. This year’s Lab Mentors include Karen Moncreiff (The Trials Of Cate McCall, The Dead Girl), James Ponsoldt (The Spectacular Now, Smashed) and Angela Robinson (True Blood, The L Word). Click over for the complete list of 2013 Film Independent Directing Lab filmmakers and a description of their projects. Read More »
Four Indie Filmmakers Receive Spirit Awards Grants
Directers Adam Leon and Peter Nicks have been awarded Film Independent Spirit Awards Filmmaker grants along with producer Mynett Louie and filmmaker Laura Colella. Awards were announced Saturday during the Spririt Awards Nominees Luncheon hosted by Salma Hayek and Jeremy Renner at BOA Steakhouse in West Hollywood.
Related: Film Independent Names Mary Sweeney Board Chair
Leon, director of Gimme The Loot, received the Someone to Watch Award which includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant. The award recognizes as-yet unheralded talent. Other finalists included Rebecca Thomas for Electrick Children and David Fenster for Pincus. Nicks received the Stella Artois Truer Than Fiction Award for his documentary The Waiting Room. The award goes to talented but relatively unrecognized nonfiction filmmakers. It also includes a $25,000 unrestricted grant. Jason Tippet and Elizabeth Mims for Only The Young and Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel for Leviathan were the other finalists. Read More »
Film Independent Names Mary Sweeney Board Chair
Filmmaker and David Lynch collaborator Mary Sweeney replaces Bill Condon atop the board of the indie film organization, which among other events puts on the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Independent Spirit Awards (this year set for February 23 on the beach in Santa Monica and hosted by Andy Samberg). Film Independent‘s board members are Sweeney, Condon, Randy Barbato, Adriene Bowles, Effie T. Brown, Laura Dern, DeVon Franklin, Sid Ganis, Rodrigo García, Vondie Curtis Hall, Michael Helfant, Marcus Hu, Laura Kim, Sue Kroll, Kasi Lemmons, David Linde, Allan Mayer, Ted Mundorff, Gail Mutrux, Tom Ortenberg, Alan Poul, Cathy Schulman, Nancy Utley and Forest Whitaker. From today’s release: Read More »
Spirit Awards 2013 Set For February 23
Film Independent Names Lab Participants
Film Independent has chosen 8 projects and 12 filmmakers for its 12th annual Producing Lab sponsored by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The foundation focuses on projects about science and technology. The intensive five-week program offers promising producers a supportive … Read More »
Los Angeles Film Festival 2012 Winners
LOS ANGELES (June 24, 2012) – Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Spirit
Awards, announced the jury and audience award winners for the 2012 Festival The LA Film Fest ran from Thursday, June 14 to Sunday, June 24 in downtown Los Angeles. The two top juried awards are the Narrative Award and Documentary Award, each carrying an unrestricted $15,000 cash prize funded by Film Independent, for the winning film’s director. The Narrative Award recognizes the finest narrative film in competition at the Festival and went to Pocas Pascoal for the North American Premiere of All is Well, with an Honorable Mention going to Dominga Sotomayor’s Thursday Till Sunday. The Documentary Award recognizes the finest documentary film in competition at the Festival and went to Everardo González for the U.S. Premiere of Drought. The award for Best Performance in the Narrative Competition went to Wendell Pierce, Emory Cohen, E.J. Bonilla and Aja Naomi King for their performances in the World Premiere of Joshua Sanchez’s Four. The LA Film Fest also awarded an unrestricted $5,000 cash prize to each short film category.
The award for Best Narrative Short Film went to The Chair, directed by Grainger David. The award for Best Documentary Short Film went to Josh Gibson for Kudzu Vine. Joseph Pierce’s The Pub won for Best Animated or Experimental Short Film.
The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to Beasts of the Southern Wild, directed by Benh Zeitlin and the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature went to Birth Story: Ina May Gaskin and The Farm Midwives, directed by Sara Lamm and Mary Wigmore. Searching for Sugar Man, directed by Malik Bendjelloul won the Audience Award for Best International Feature.
The Audience Award for Best Short Film went to Asad, directed by Bryan Buckley. Piranhas Club, directed by Lex Halaby won the Audience Award for Best Music Video.
Awards were given out in the following categories:
Is ‘The Artist’ In Spirit Of An American Indie?
Do the Spirit Awards matter? They’re supposed to bring needed attention to American independent film – and they do. But the devil is in the details. The Artist just swept France’s top film awards, the Césars. But if the film wins the top … Read More »
Stephanie Allain Named Director Of Los Angeles Film Festival
More senior staff changes are taking place at Film Independent, the organization that annually produces the Los Angeles Film Festival and the Spirit Awards. Stephanie Allain, the longtime producer and former Columbia Pictures executive, has been named the … Read More »
Fox Sets Judges For New Diverse Writers Program
Fox Launches Diverse Writers Program
Fox TV and film writers, producers and executives have signed on to judge submissions for the Fox Writer’s Intensive, the new initiative for experienced writers with diverse background, ethnic minorities as well as LGBT, foreign-born, etc. Fox received several hundred submissions for the program by the November 9 deadline. Participating organization Film Independent is currently reviewing all of them and will present 20-30 finalists to Fox. The judges will select 10 scripts whose writers will enter the program. (The winners expected to be announced in the next few weeks.) The list of judges include: Carla Kettner (EP, Bones), Heather Mitchell (Supervising Producer, Scandal), Matt Olmstead (EP, Breakout Kings), Missy Alexander (Producer, How I Met Your Mother), Read More »
LAFCA And FIND Shine On Globes Weekend
Film Independent’s newly minted co-presidents Sean McManus and Josh Welsh welcomed the Spirit Awards nominees at lunch today. But first the Los Angeles Film Critics Association hosted its annual gala in Century City Friday night with a quirky event where critics usually reviled were praised instead. Some LAFCA filmmakers arrived late from competing Golden Globe parties like Paramount’s and CAA’s, but nowhere else hosted Uggie, the dog from The Artist. “This is by far the best fucking awards dinner I’ve been to in my life,” Alexander Payne exclaimed after accepting LAFCA’s Best Picture nod for The Descendants. Best Actor winner Michael Fassbender (Shame) recalled how he first came to LA a decade ago for pilot season but soon returned to London with his tail between his legs. ”It’s incredible to now stand here,” he gushed. Best Foreign Language winner Lu Chuan (City of Life and Death) sent a video that his investors were “holding him hostage” on his next film in China. So did Best Actress Yun Jung-hee (Poetry) and from Korea thanked critics in “the world capital of filmmaking” and signed off with ”I love you”.
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Film Independent Taps Sean McManus And Josh Welsh As Co-Presidents
Film Independent said that senior director Sean McManus and director of artist development Josh Welsh have been appointed co-presidents, a new position. That fills the hole left when longtime executive director Dawn Hudson departed in April to take the … Read More »
27th Spirit Awards Set For February 25
Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, announced today that the 27th Film Independent Spirit Awards will return to its traditional Saturday afternoon on February 25 in a tent
Film Independent Chooses 9 Projects for Producers Lab Mentoring
Film Independent has identified nine projects and their filmmakers for the organization’s 11th annual Producers Lab. Those selected include Brent Hoff and Malcom Pullinger, who are readying for production their El Diablo Rojo and will receive a $25,000 development grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which nurtures scripts and films about science and technology in hopes of guiding them into commercial production with distribution. The budding producers come from a variety of backgrounds, educated in the Midwest as well as New York, Los Angeles, and gaining know-how by working at studios, movie and TV production shingles, agencies and the like in a variety of capacities and getting feature and shorts work under their belts. Read More »
Joel McHale To Host 2011 Indie Spirit Awards
LOS ANGELES (November 17, 2010) – Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards and the Los Angeles Film Festival, announced today that Joel McHale will serve as host for the 2011 Film Independent Spirit Awards. The 26th edition of the awards will be held at
2011 Indie Spirits Return To Santa Monica
Sanity prevails! The 2011 Film Independent Spirit Awards are returning to their familiar Saturday afternoon perch on the beach in Santa Monica. The awards show will be held February 26, starting at 2 PM. It has always been one of the most enjoyable Oscar weekend events, but last year, the … Read More »
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