Los Angeles, CA – Sundance Institute has announced today the selection of five aspiring filmmakers as the first “class” of Annenberg Film Fellows – Aditya Assarat, Sterlin Harjo, Emily Hubley, Kazuo Ohno and Alex Rivera. As the first participants in the newly established Annenberg Film Fellows Program, the filmmakers will receive extended support for a two-year period to facilitate the creation of their current films projects. Ranging from an animated feature about a young woman's emotional journey through a mischievous maze haunted by the loss of her father and a culturally insightful love story placed in Bangkok, to a science fiction drama about Mexican migrant workers of the future and a humorous American Indian tale of loss and love, the film projects of the first Annenberg Film Fellows, like their creators, are imaginative and diverse.
Created in April 2004 by a $5 million grant from The Annenberg Foundation to the Sundance Institute, the Annenberg Film Fellows Program is a five-year initiative designed to provide a combination of personal stipends, residencies and creative support for selected participants in Sundance Institute's Feature Film Program. The Annenberg Film Fellows Program supports up to five Feature Film Program participants or alumni as they partake in the different aspects of the Institute's Feature Film Program, including the Filmmakers and Screenwriters Labs in June and January, as well as the Film Music Lab, the Producers Conference, and Screenplay Readings.
“These five film artists embody the very spirit of the Sundance Institute – fresh, imaginative and original,” said Ken Brecher, Executive Director of the Sundance Institute. “As the first recipients of the new Annenberg Film Fellowships, these talented filmmakers will be able to draw from the vast resources of the Sundance Institute and Feature Film Program while focusing on advancing and producing their work at this critical moment in their creative process.”
“Sundance is one of the few places where emerging filmmakers can come to practice their craft and test their writing, directing, producing and composing skills among peers and professionals alike.” Said Michelle Satter, Director of the Sundance Feature Film Program. “ And what is truly inspiring is to hear the ways in which, in addition to this support, the financial stipends that come with being an Annenberg Film Fellow will tangibly impact these artists, allowing them to hire a casting director, bring in a writer or location scout, develop a budget or edit an animated reel for financing.”
This year's five Annenberg Film Fellows and their film projects include:
ADITYA ASSARAT (writer/director) –Thai filmmaker Aditya Assarat studied film at the University of Southern California and is currently a Fellow at the 2004 Sundance Institute Filmmakers and Screenwriters Labs. He has made several short films, including Motorcycle and Waiting, that have won 15 international awards and been invited to screen at over 70 film festivals including the Sundance Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, and the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival.
Assarat's film project, HI-SO, is a coming-of-age love story that captures the music, the mood, and the ethos of modern day Bangkok.
STERLIN HARJO (writer/director) - Native-American filmmaker Sterlin Harjo studied screenwriting under Andrew Horton in the University of Oklahoma's Film and Video Studies program. He is currently a Fellow at the Sundance Institute 2004 Filmmakers and Screenwriters Labs.
Harjo's film project, FOUR SHEETS TO THE WIND, is a mythical story that follows an American Indian, Cufe Smallhill, and his family, as they come to terms with tragedy in a small town in Oklahoma.
EMILY HUBLEY (writer/director) – New York City native Emily Hubley is a graduate of Hampshire College and is a Sundance Institute Filmmaker Lab alumna (having participated in the 2003 Filmmakers and Screenwriters Labs). She provided the art and animated segments for John Cameron Mitchell's Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Hubley's animated films have won awards at film festivals around the world, aired on the Sundance Channel, and have screened in numerous programs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She is about ready to enter pre-production on her animated feature THE TOE TACTIC.
Hubley's film project, THE TOE TACTIC, follows a young woman's search for her wallet through an animated and live-action world that is haunted by her dead father, populated by living objects and flawed individuals, and manipulated by a pack of capricious dogs.
KAZUO OHNO (writer/director) - Currently a Fellow at the 2004 Filmmakers and Screenwriters Labs, Kazuo Ohno grew up in Tokyo and New York and is a graduate of the MFA film program at Columbia University.
Ohno's film, MR. CRUMPACKER AND THE MAN FROM THE LETTER, portrays an overbearing boss who has done everything in his life decides to reconfigure his company as a place of philosophical inquiry. It is a comic chronicling of all the twists and contortions any life must go through in its quest for meaning
ALEX RIVERA (writer/director) – New York and Los Angeles-based filmmaker and digital media artist Alex Rivera attended Hampshire College and is a 2001 Sundance Institute Filmmaker Lab alumni. Over the past five years he has made documentary and fictional work that addresses the concerns of the Latino community through a language of humor, satire and metaphor. His hopes to begin production this fall on his feature film THE SLEEP DEALER.
Rivera's film project, THE SLEEP DEALER, is a bold, stark futuristic story of an immigrant who struggles to understand love and obligation in a world that pulls people apart. The Sleep Dealer brings timeless themes into a new world order.
ANNENBERG FILM FELLOWS PROGRAM
The goal of the Annenberg Film Fellows Program is to identify and foster a new generation of leading film artists, who generally have limited access to direct support for the development of new work. The Program will be a comprehensive initiative designed to identify and nourish talented emerging filmmakers throughout the creation of a specific film project (usually their first feature film). The Program will provide a continuum of support designed to serve the full range of needs of new filmmakers: a series of structured residencies on screenwriting, directing, and producing films; mentors drawn from all creative and business areas of filmmaking; personal stipends for living expenses during intensive periods of creation and pre-production; and small seed-grants, works-in-progress, or completion awards to overcome obstacles in moving projects forward into successful production and distribution.
SUNDANCE INSTITUTE FEATURE FILM PROGRAM
The Feature Film Program is a year round series of workshops and events. Its core programs are the Filmmakers and Screenwriters Lab. Held annually in June, the Filmmakers Lab hosts 8 filmmakers as they participate in a hands-on experience, working with professional cast and crew and under the mentorship of an artistic team of seasoned filmmakers. At the Screenwriters Lab, held twice each year in January and June, filmmakers work on their early draft scripts with the advice and guidance of experienced screenwriters.
Filmmaker Lab Fellows also participate in the annual Composers Lab, where the Fellows work emerging film composers to create a musical score for the scenes shot during the Filmmakers Lab, and the Sundance Independent Producers Conference which introduces filmmakers to the business and strategic aspects of getting their film made. Throughout the year, Sundance staff members offer ongoing creative and business assistance to Lab alumni. In many cases, the Institute has helped filmmakers find a producer, financing and other significant resources, helping to bring these projects into production. The Feature Film Program also presents the Screenplay Reading Series, in Los Angeles and New York, which provides a valuable opportunity for writers to hear their scripts performed by professional actors.
SUNDANCE INSTITUTE
Founded by Robert Redford in 1981, Sundance Institute is dedicated to the development of artists of independent vision and the exhibition of their new work. Since its inception, the Institute has grown into an internationally recognized resource for filmmakers and other artists. Sundance Institute conducts national and international labs for filmmakers, screenwriters, composers, writers, and theater artists. The annual Sundance Film Festival, a major program of Sundance Institute, is held each January and is considered the premier showcase for American and international independent film. The Institute supports non-fiction filmmakers through the Documentary Film Program by providing year-round support through the Sundance Documentary Fund and a series of programs that nurture their growth, encourage the exploration of innovative nonfiction storytelling, and promote the exhibition of documentary films to a broader audience. Through the Sundance Institute Theatre Program, the Institute is committed to invigorating the national theatre movement with original and creative work and to nurturing the diversity of artistic expression among theatre artists. The Institute also maintains The Sundance Collection at UCLA, a unique archive of independent film.
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