News

American Cinematheque’s Proof Film Festival announced the Filmmaker Award winners at their second annual festival in Culver City on Sunday.

This year’s festival featured 46 official short film selections. Each one had to convey a proof of concept of how the filmmakers would develop their short into a full-length feature or series.

Liz Sargent’s “Take Me Home” took home the Grand Jury Award. Her short film follows two sisters, Anna and Emily, as they share a rocky reunion after their mother’s passing. The two navigate Anna’s cognitive disability as they rebuild their relationship. Along with the award, Sargent also received a $60,000 camera package, courtesy of Panavision, to assist her with fleshing out a larger project from their proof-of-concept submission.

Giselle Bonilla’s “The Musical” won the Audience Choice Award. In the short, Doug Lebowitz, a middle school theater director, decides to take down his ex-girlfriend’s...

Exclusive: WME has unveiled the 2024 lineup for Futurefest, a student short film showcase in its second year, which is taking place today and on September 11 at the agency’s Beverly Hills offices.

The screening series, focused on diverse filmmakers, features master’s student shorts from Columbia, USC, NYU, AFI, and Harvard, with 10 to screen in total.

Among the filmmakers highlighted is Harvard’s Wesley Wang, who as we were first to report, has been set to helm a feature adaptation of his viral short nothing, except everything. for TriStar, with Darren Aronofsky’s Protozoa producing.

Check out the full WME Futurefest lineup below.

September 4

You Are Seen. directed by Wesley Wang (Harvard)

Logline: Influencers on a Hamptons trip are terrorized by a mysterious stalker.

The Truck directed by Elizabeth Rao (NYU)

Logline: In the heat of young love, impulsive Chinese American teen Jo and her Iranian American boyfriend Arash set...

Diana Naser’s “Amplified,” Adam J. Graves’ “Anuja,” Nina Gantz’s “Wander to Wonder” and Ben Proudfoot’s “The Final Copy of Ilon Specht” have qualified for Academy Awards in the short-film categories by winning the top awards at the 20th annual HollyShorts Film Festival, which took place this week in Hollywood and held its awards ceremony on Sunday night.

HollyShorts is one of about 150 Oscar-qualifying festivals whose top winners automatically become eligible for Oscars in the three shorts categories. It is one of only 15 festivals that qualifies as many as four films for Academy Awards.

“Amplified” won the Best Short Film Grand Prize, the festival’s top award. “Anuja” took the award for live-action short, “Wander to Wonder” for animated short and “The Final Copy of Ilon Specht” for documentary short.

Ben Proudfoot, the director of the last of those films, is the reigning Oscar champ in the Best Documentary Short category,...

Exclusive: The Latino Film Institute has selected 10 directors for the 4th annual Lfi Inclusion Fellowship.

The 2024 class includes Sisa Quispe, Daniel Eduvijes Carrera, Stacy Pascal Gaspard, Gerardo “Gerry” Maravilla, Giselle Bonilla, Eric Ibarra, Ambar Navarro, Felix Martiz, Sylvia Ray and Gianfranco Fernandez Ruiz.

Each fellow will receive a $30k grant to produce a short film along with individualized mentorship and industry networking opportunities with the support of the Netflix Fund for Creative Equity.

Sisa Quispe, Daniel Eduvijes Carrera, Stacy Pascal Gaspard, Gerardo “Gerry” Maravilla, Giselle Bonilla, Eric Ibarra, Ambar Navarro, Felix Martiz, Sylvia Ray and Gianfranco Fernandez Ruiz.

“We are thrilled to introduce our fourth class of fellows who embody the incredible diversity and untapped potential within our community,” shared Edward James Olmos, Academy Award-nominated actor and founder of Lfi. “This fellowship reinforces our commitment to fostering underrepresented storytellers, and we are immensely grateful for Netflix’s unwavering support in this mission.

Frieze and Deutsche Bank announced the winner for their second annual Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award, a $10,000 prize awarded to an emerging L.A.-based filmmaker.

The award, presented in association with Endeavor Content and Ghetto Film School, went to John Rizkallah, while Jane Chow earned the initiative’s first-ever audience award, which was voted for by the public. The news was announced during a virtual ceremony, during which all 10 of the initiative’s fellows — Tayo Amos, Alyse Arteaga, Giselle Bonilla, Jeremy Burkett, Chow, Ashley Chrisman, David Liu, Rizkallah, Andres Vazquez and Ciara Zoe[/link] — had their films presented.

“John Rizkallah and Jane Chow’s unique, deeply personal films that highlight their respective communities, made under challenging Covid-19 conditions, showcase the caliber of the next generation of innovative storytellers,” said Dan Guando, Endeavor Content’s senior vice president of film development and production, while announcing the winners. “We salute...

Exclusive: The Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award, in collaboration with Endeavor Content and the acclaimed non-profit academy Ghetto Film School (Gfs), has announced its 2021 shortlisted fellows and jury.

Now in its second year, the prize provides a platform and development program for emerging Los Angeles-based filmmakers aged 18 – 34. The initiative offers ten aspiring filmmakers the opportunity to embark on a rigorous four-month program at Gfs, culminating at Frieze Los Angeles this year.

Selected from an open call, the shortlisted fellows for the 2021 fellowship are as follows: Tayo Amos, Alyse Arteaga, Giselle Bonilla, Jeremy Burkett, Jane Chow, Ashley Chrisman, David Liu, Ciara Zoe, John Rizkallah and Andrés Vázquez. Tasked with responding to a brief to explore the ocean as a framework for

thinking about the complex environment of Los Angeles, the fellows produced individual short films that will be screened on the occasion of Frieze Los Angeles 2021.

The winner will...

For emerging filmmakers hoping to take the next step in their artistic and professional journey, finding a community of like-minded creators is crucial. With this goal in mind, Adobe has partnered with Sundance Institute on the Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellowship program which, since 2015, has provided mentorship and support to promising filmmakers early in their careers. With an eye toward elevating underrepresented voices, the fellowship enables the next generation of creatives by offering an opportunity to share their stories with the world.

This year, as a presenting sponsor of the Sundance Film Festival, Adobe launched a short spot highlighting the work of four Sundance Institute alumni, which was co-directed and edited by 2018 Sundance Ignite x Adobe Fellow Carol Nguyen. The vignette, titled “When I Tell the Story,” epitomizes the importance of giving new filmmakers a platform to share their work and their voice. “When I tell the story, it’s dark and glittery.

Sundance Institute has announced its latest class of fellows, a group of 10 young filmmakers selected for the yearlong Sundance Ignite x Adobe fellowship. They’ll participate in a year of mentorship, workshops, and receive other support and will have their films screened at Sundance Film Festival: London in August.

The fellows, who hail from around the world and are between the ages of 18-25, submitted 1- to 15-minute short films as part of their applications, which totaled a record high of 1,600. The fellows kicked off their fellowship year on Monday with the Sundance Ignite Digital Filmmakers Lab on Sundance Co//ab. The week-long lab prepares the fellows for the year ahead, with focuses on presenting one’s artistic self, pitching projects, case studies, and goal-setting.

Earlier this month, Sundance announced a series of layoffs and consolidations in reaction to the financial hits endured during the pandemic. While the organization announce...

Giselle Bonilla and Benita Ozoude prevail in pool of 380-plus submissions.

Source: Horizon Award

Horizon Award co-founders Cassian Elwes, Lynette Howell Taylor, and Christine Vachon on Saturday (January 20) announced the winners of the fourth annual Horizon Awards in Park City.

Giselle Bonilla (pictured second from left) and Benita Ozoude (pictured third from left) were announced as the winners for their short films of two minutes or less. The awards received a record 380-plus submissions from 275 films schools worldwide.

Bonilla (New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts) directed her short Virgencita about a woman who confesses her desire to abort a probable pregnancy.

University of Texas at Austin graduate Ozoude’s short Queen Of Rosewood centres on a Cajun food restaurant owner from East Austin who devotes her spare time to feeding the homeless.

Elwes (pictured far left), Howell Taylor (pictured third from right), and Vachon joined Sundance Feature Film Program founding director Michelle Satter to choose...