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Stowe Story Labs Awards $50,000 Short Film Production Grant to Ali Imran Zaidi for The Boy with the Dinosaur Head
Ali Imran Zaidi Stowe Story Labs is awarding their inaugural $50,000 Short Film Production Grant to Ali Imran Zaidi for The Boy with the Dinosaur Head, a story about a first-grade foster child whose teacher is “trying to help him out of his shell after a localized extinction level event.”
Zaidi is a Black List Feature Writers Lab alum, and an inaugural fellow in Riz Ahmed’s Pillars Fund Artist Fellowship for Muslim Creators supported by Amazon, Disney and Netflix. He is currently developing a TV series with Ley Line Entertainment. Zaidi’s short will be directed by Imran J. Khan, whose debut coming-of-age feature, Mustache won the Audience Award at its SXSW premiere. Also one of the inaugural fellows in the Pillars Artist Fellowship, Imran has an editing background, having cut TV projects for Disney+ and Netflix, and features such as Space Jam: A New Legacy, and Minions: The Rise of Gru.
The Short Film Production Grant was awarded by a jury consisting of producer Liz Cardenas (Ten to the Six Pictures); Tom Berkeley and Ross White, Oscar-winning Filmmakers of An Irish Goodbye; Independent Spirit and Gotham Award-nominated filmmaker Ellie Foumbi (Our Father the Devil); Producer Alex Boden (Cloud Atlas, Sense8); producer and development executive Ali Doyle (Kneecap); award-winning playwright and screenwriter Melody Cooper; talent manager Corey Trent Ackerman (Evoke Entertainment); writer/director Shari Lynette Carpenter (Queen Sugar, Single Black Female); Stowe co-founder, screenwriter and script consultant David Pope; PAGE international screenwriting awards executive cirector Kristin Over; and Stowe founder and director, Emmy-nominated filmmaker David Rocchio (The Gun Shop).
From the press release:
Independent Spirit Award-winning producer Liz Cardenas will serve as Executive Producer and mentor on the project to administer the $50,000 grant. The award will be administered in partnership with the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards, and includes a discounted ARRI camera package; festival submission support, advice, and post-festival run distribution on short film distribution platform WeShort; consultation with Seed&Spark on crowdfunding, pitching, and distribution; festival fee submission waiver and automatic admission to the Sidewalk Film Festival; festival fee submission waiver to enter the Galway Film Fleadh, Pittsburgh Shorts and Script Film Competition and the Seattle International Film Festival; an invitation to join the Portrait community platform; and the option to create an Empact campaign.
Grant award winner, Writer Ali Imran Zaidi said “As a father of two little ones about the age of the boy in this story, I’m often heartbroken witnessing the grave hardship children around the world face as a result of our grownup inability to manage our conflicts. This film is about the most uncomplicated cost of conflict: the lives and happiness of children. Out of that common ground, maybe there’s a place where we can begin again. Or if we can love these children enough, maybe they can lead us there.” He continued, “To be selected for the Stowe Short Film Production Grant is a little mind-blowing. It’s actively opening up doors as we dive into pre-production, and it’s obliterating two giant obstacles when creating short independent film; financing and production guidance. This being the inaugural grant is both humbling and, quite frankly, motivating, because I want more filmmakers to receive what I’m receiving. I’m excited to make a film we’ll be creatively proud of, and to build momentum for the program itself.”
Executive Producer and Mentor for the grant-award winning film, Liz Cardenas said, “A well-executed and impactful short film can be a game-changer for an emerging filmmaker’s career or someone wanting to switch lanes in the industry and be seen in a new light. What Stowe Story Labs is doing with this Short Film Production Grant is incredible — $50K is a lot of money. As an alum of one of their writers’ retreats and having been a mentor for Stowe for a while now, I love the community they’ve created. Therefore, I’m thrilled to be able to support the organization in this exciting new endeavor and help Ali bring his truly original, beautiful and timely story to life on screen.”
“We exist to empower emerging artists and to help them develop skills and projects,” said David Rocchio, Stowe’s Founder and Director. “The short film grant program is a powerful tool to achieve our mission. Ali’s lovely film deserves to be made, and we are proud to be partnering with him to help get it out into the world,” he said.
Stowe Story Labs is a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to helping top emerging and established screenwriters, filmmakers, and creative producers develop skills and projects. Stowe’s mission is to help advance their community members’ work, and through that to bend the world a bit through story. Learn more about Stowe’s Writer’s Retreats and Grant Programs at stowestorylabs.org.
