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Oona Yaffe in Picture Day

The story of a frustrated 12-year-old on a military base trying to fit in at a new school and fighting with her parents in the run-up to getting her school photo, Picture Day isn’t the short of short film you’d expect to qualify for the Oscars. It’s not a message film. It doesn’t represent a cause. It might very well be thought of as political, but not overtly so. It has made it through the festival qualifying process based on merit. It’s one of the very best shorts in that position this year.

When I meet writer/director Kelly Pike to discuss it, she immediately tells me that she too is surprised by the film’s success.

Kelly Pike

“This is the story I really wanted to make and the story I really want to tell. So, you know, everything else be damned,...

Set around the day when photographs of children are taken at school, Kelly Pike’s Oscar-qualifying short film is a snapshot of an army kid who has just been subjected to yet another move as her parents’ marriage crumbles and she begins to assert her own identity. Anchored by a soulful performance from Oona Yaffe as the troubled Casey, it’s a film that addresses issues many viewers will have experienced themselves, yet does so with a specificity that will make it difficult to forget.

Casey likes butterflies. They’re a commonplace metaphor for coming of age, but Casey likes to collect them when they’re dead. With great care and precision, she pins them to a board which tells us, at a glance, all the places she has lived. Here, her new school presents what seem like familiar problems. Within moments of taking her seat she has been pinged a note which asks if.

The American Film Institute revealed its list of eight women selected for this year’s Directing Workshop for Women on Wednesday. The participants will take part in a year-long, tuition-free film production course, culminating with each of them directing a short film that will premiere at a special showcase in Los Angeles in 2021.

The new class of Dww participants are: Michelle Krusiec, April Maxey, Mary Molina, April Moreau, Kelly Pike, Jessica Shields, Lucretia Stinnette and Em Weinstein. Five of the participants are women of color. Read their bios here.

Also Read: Oscars 2020: Women Scored Record 31% of Nominations Overall Despite Female Director Snub

“AFI has a long history of advocating for directors from underrepresented communities and we continue that tradition with this new class of filmmakers,” said Susan Ruskin, Dean of the AFI Conservatory and Evp of the American Film Institute. “We are thrilled to welcome these eight artists into...

AFI Fest said Friday that I Am Not Alone, Garin Hovannisian’s documentary about the 2018 Armenian revolution, won this year’s feature film Audience Award, topping the list of prizes given for the annual festival that wrapped its run last night in Hollywood.

The festival also said today that it will hold its 2020 edition next October 15-22.

Among the winners unveiled today were Sonia K. Hadad’s Exam, which took the Grand Jury Prize in the Live Action Short category, while Niki Lindroth von Bahr’s Something to Remember won the Grand Jury Prize for Animated Short. The wins make both films Oscar-eligible in those categories.

The festival’s documentary competition resulted in a tie, with Grand Jury prizes going to Sophia Nahil Allison’s A Love Song for Latasha and Elivia Shaw’s The Clinic.

Here’s the list of winners:

Audience Award – Feature

I Am Not Alone

(Dir...

Keep up with the glitzy awards world with our weekly Awards Roundup column.

– Megan Ellison will receive the Producers Guild of America’s 2017 Visionary Award at the PGA Awards on January 28, 2017 in Los Angeles. The award recognizes television, film, or new media producers for their unique or uplifting contributions to our culture through inspiring storytelling or performance.

Ellison is being recognized with the award for her work as a fierce supporter of distinctive and creative voices in films such as “American Hustle,” “Her,” “The Master,” “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Foxcatcher,” and most recently “20th Century Women.”

Read More: Annette Bening to Receive Career Achievement Award, Ridley Scott Honored By Directors Guild and More

“Megan Ellison joined our industry when she founded Annapurna Pictures just over six years ago, and she got here just in time,” PGA awards chairs Donald De Line and Amy Pascal said in a statement. “Megan and her...