Annenberg Foundation | News | Sundance Institute Announces Six New Filmmakers for 2005 Annenberg Film Fellows Program

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Sundance Institute Announces Six New Filmmakers for 2005 Annenberg Film Fellows Program

Date: May 26, 2005

Source: Sundance Institute

Contact Name: Cynthia Wornham

Contact Phone: (310) 360-1981

More Information: http://institute.sundance.org

LOS ANGELES, CA: Sundance Institute announced today the selection of six emerging filmmakers as the sophomore “class” of Annenberg Film Fellows – Hilary Brougher, D.W. Harper, David Kaplan, Stew, Elisabeth Subrin and Taika Waititi. These Fellows reflect the powerful vision and individuality at the heart of American independent film expressed through their projects which range from YEAR OF THE FISH, by David Kaplan, a cutting-edge animated version of the classic Cinderella story set in New York's Chinatown, to a story of domestic terrorism from the point of view of Timothy McVeigh in DREAMLAND, by D.W. Harper, and WE CAN SEE TODAY, by Stew, a story of the deeply intimate and complex relationship between two families – one black, one Jewish – living in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles in 1973. The Annenberg Film Fellows Program is unique among Sundance programs and initiatives in that it gives direct financial support to facilitate the making of the Fellows' projects.

Created in April 2004 by a $5 million grant directed by Annenberg Foundation trustee, Charles Annenberg Weingarten, 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. Each year, the Annenberg Fellows Program will support up to six Fellows of the Feature Film Program, as they participate in the different aspects of the Institute's Feature Film Program, including the June Directors Lab and the January and June Screenwriters Labs, as well as the Film Music Lab, the Producers Conference, Screenplay Readings, and receive ongoing creative and business support.
“These six filmmakers embody the very spirit of the Sundance Institute; they're original, imaginative and wonderfully talented,” said Ken Brecher, Executive Director of the Sundance Institute. “We all know how difficult it is to bring films from the page to the screen, but as recipients of Annenberg Film Fellowships, these filmmakers will find it easier to focus on their filmmaking – which, after all, is exactly what they should be doing.”

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 is 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 provides a continuum of support designed to serve the full range of needs of new filmmakers: a series of structured residencies on screenwriting, directing, film music, and producing films; mentors drawn from all creative and business areas of filmmaking; personal stipends for living expenses during intensive periods of creation, pre-production grants for needed services at this stage (e.g. casting director, budgeting, etc.), and completion grants to overcome obstacles in moving projects successfully through post-production.

“The Annenberg Fellows Program allows us to significantly expand the ways we can support emerging indie filmmakers," said Michelle Satter, Director of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program. “By providing financial support in the form of assistance grants at critical moments in a film's development, pre-production, and completion, we expect that three features from the first group will start production this year."

2005 ANNENBERG FILM FELLOWS PROGRAM
This year's six Annenberg Film Fellows and their film projects are:

Hilary Brougher / STEPHANIE DALEY
Hilary Brougher grew up in upstate New York and graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City, where she lives today. In 1997, she wrote and directed her first feature, THE STICKY FINGERS OF TIME. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, played numerous festivals, and was distributed in the U.S. by Strand Releasing. Brougher developed STEPHANIE DALEY at the Screenwriters and Directors Labs.

In STEPHANIE DALEY, pregnant forensic psychologist Lydie Crane is hired to learn the truth behind the case of 16-year-old Stephanie Daley, who is accused of concealing her pregnancy and murdering her infant.

D.W. Harper / DREAMLAND
Los Angeles resident D.W. Harper is an independent filmmaker, video artist, and co-founder of CLC Films. His first feature, THE DELICATE ART OF THE RIFLE, has become an indie cult classic, winning numerous international awards and garnering considerable critical praise. In addition to projects in film, he is currently teaching and completing an MFA at the UCSD School of Visual Arts, as well as working as an artist-in-residence at the UCSB Professional Artists Lab. Harper will bring DREAMLAND to the upcoming June Directors/Screenwriters Labs.

DREAMLAND is an unflinching portrayal of the origins of domestic terrorism telling the tragic story of Tim McVeigh, from his boyhood dreams of being a soldier to his life as a man at war with his own country.

David Kaplan / YEAR OF THE FISH
New York resident David Kaplan has made several short films, including LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD, starring Christina Ricci and Quentin Crisp, which premiered at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, was shown in theatres and on television throughout the world, and received numerous international awards. His most recent film, the computer-animated LOVEDEATH, was commissioned for Lincoln Center's 2003 New York Video Festival. Kaplan has been supported at the Screenwriters and Directors Labs and received his MFA from NYU's Graduate Film School.

Using cutting-edge animation, YEAR OF THE FISH is a contemporary retelling of the Cinderella story set in the underbelly of New York City's Chinatown.

Stew / WE CAN SEE TODAY
Stew is a Los-Angeles based critically acclaimed singer/songwriter whose releases have won numerous “Album of the Year” accolades. Stew's musical-in-progress, PASSING STRANGE (co-created with Heidi Rodewald and director Annie Dorsen), which was commissioned by the Public Theater of New York, has been invited for the second year to the upcoming Sundance Theatre Lab. He is presently an artist-in-residence at California Institute of the Arts where he is developing an original musical for its Theater School. Stew will develop WE CAN SEE TODAY (co-written by Heide Rodewald) at the upcoming June Directors/Screenwriters Labs as his directorial feature debut.

WE CAN SEE TODAY is the vibrant and authentic story of the deeply intimate and complex relationship between two families – one black, one Jewish – living in the Fairfax district of Los Angeles circa 1973.

Elisabeth Subrin / UP
New York resident Elisabeth Subrin's award-winning trilogy of experimental biographies have screened widely in the United States and abroad at venues including the Rotterdam International Film Festival, the New York Film Festival, and the Whitney Biennial. Her work has been featured in solo shows at the Museum of Modern Art, the Vienna International Film Festival, the Film Center at the Art Institute of Chicago, and many universities and art centers internationally. A 2002-2003 Guggenheim Fellow, Subrin is a visiting lecturer in the Department of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University. She developed UP at the Screenwriters and Directors Labs.

In UP, an opportunity to join the fast-paced world of a dot.com has unforeseen repercussions for a young woman when it triggers a spectacular manic-depressive cycle, causing her to "crash" just as the company collapses in the stock market fallout.

Taika Waititi / SOMETHING BEGINNING WITH LOVE
Taika Waititi has been recognized internationally for his shortfilm TWO CARS, ONE NIGHT, which was nominated for an Oscar in the Live Action category in the 2005 Academy Awards. His latest short, TAMA TU, screened this year at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, where it received an honorable mention; the Berlin International Film Festival, where it received a special jury prize; and at the Aspen Shortsfest, where it received a special award for its originality. Taika is of Te Whanau-A-Apanui descent, from the east coast of New Zealand. He will develop his first feature project SOMETHING BEGINNING WITH LOVE at the upcoming June Directors/Screenwriters Labs.

SOMETHING BEGINNING WITH LOVE is an unconventional comedy about two awkward misfits, for whom life is the question, and love is the answer.

2004 ANNENBERG FILM FELLOWS PROGRAM
In its inaugural year the Annenberg Film Fellows Program's five recipients, Aditya Assarat, HI-SO, Sterlin Harjo, FOUR SHEETS TO THE WIND, Emily Hubley, THE TOE TACTIC, Kazuo Ohno, MR. CRUMPACKER AND THE MAN FROM THE LETTER, and Alex Rivera, THE SLEEP DEALER, received living stipends which allowed them to focus solely on the further development of their scripts. The Fellows, all on their way to starting production, were supplemented with pre-production grants throughout the year, permitting the recipients to move their films forward in significant ways.

THE SUNDANCE INSTITUTE FEATURE FILM PROGRAM
The Annenberg Film Fellows Program is part of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program, a year-round program dedicated to supporting artist development and the advancement of distinctive, singular independent projects. Each year 20-25 emerging filmmakers from the U.S. and abroad participate in the program which includes the Screenwriters and Filmmakers Labs, ongoing creative and practical advice, the post-production project, and financial support through fellowship opportunities. 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 read aloud by professional actors.

In the past several years, the Feature Film Program has supported the work of numerous emerging independent filmmakers, including Miranda July's ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW, winner of a Special Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, the coveted Caméra d'Or Prize at Cannes, and which is scheduled for release by IFC Films this June; Ira Sachs' FORTY SHADES OF BLUE, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival; Hany Abu-Assad's PARADISE NOW, winner of the Blue Angel and Amnesty International Prizes at the 2005 Berlin International Film Festival and scheduled for release by Warner Independent Pictures this fall; and DOWN IN THE VALLEY, David Jacobson's sophomore directorial effort starring Edward Norton and Evan Rachel Wood which just recently premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and will be the opening film at the upcoming Los Angeles Film Festival.

A number of projects supported by the Feature Film Program are currently in post-production: SHALL NOT WANT, Laurie Collyer's narrative directorial debut starring Maggie Gyllenhaal, and HARSH TIMES, David Ayer's directorial debut starring Christian Bale and Freddy Rodriguez. Projects supported by the Feature Film Program in pre-production include THE MINDER, the first feature from 2005 Sundance/NHK Latin America Award winner Rodrigo Moreno; and SWEET MUD, Israeli filmmaker Dror Shaul's sophomore directorial effort.

THE ANNENBERG FOUNDATION
Founded by publisher, diplomat and philanthropist Walter H. Annenberg in 1989, The Annenberg Foundation exists to advance the public well-being through improved communication. As the principal means of achieving its goal, the Foundation encourages the development of more effective ways to share ideas and knowledge. The Annenberg Foundation has offices in Radnor, Pennsylvania and Los Angeles, California.

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 theatre 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 nonfiction 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. The Sundance Institute Feature Film Program is a year-round program dedicated to supporting artist development and the advancement of distinctive, singular independent projects. Each year 20-25 emerging filmmakers from the U.S. and abroad participate in the program which includes the Screenwriters and Filmmakers Labs, ongoing creative and practical advice, the post-production project, and financial support through fellowship opportunities. 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 Film Music Program is dedicated to supporting and nurturing emerging film composers, as well as impacting the ways in which independent filmmakers approach music in their films. The Institute also maintains The Sundance Collection at UCLA, a unique archive of independent film.

For more information, contact Cynthia Wornham, Director of External Affairs at (310) 360-1981, or Irene Cho, Press Office Manager, at (810) 328-3456.

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