Chicken & Egg Pictures has announced their latest initiative, teaming up with Netflix on a $450,000 fund to support women and non-binary documentary filmmakers who have previously made at least two feature films and are currently working toward their next project. As many as 30 filmmaking teams will receive a $10,000 grant for research or a $20,000 grant for development. In addition to the grant, recipients will be provided with “peer support, mentorship opportunities and deeper connections in the documentary film industry.” The Chicken & Egg Pictures Research & Development Grant is accepting applications through 12 p.m. ET on Monday, April […]
Elliott Crosset Hove is a true rising star in the Danish film world. The remarkable new film Godland, his third collaboration with Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason, just landed him a European Film Award nomination for Best Actor. On this episode, he walks us through his extensive preparation “check list” which he uses to stimulate his unconscious mind and build a defense system to combat doubt. He talks about how the stunning but grueling environment where they shot Godland helped him stay in the moment, his method for approaching a character from another time period, and much more. Back To One […]
Every production faces unexpected obstructions that require creative solutions and conceptual rethinking. What was an unforeseen obstacle, crisis, or simply unpredictable event you had to respond to, and how did this event impact or cause you to rethink your film? We had a moving scene in the film where Aaju had a conversation with some friends who were concerned for her well-being, but it was a very private conversation. After the film was approved and locked, Aaju had second thoughts about the scene, so we opened up the film again and re-imagined the entire scene. Working with editor Mark Bukdahl, […]
Applications are open through November 11 for Indeed: Rising Voices Season 3. The program is in partnership with writer, director, producer and actor Lena Waithe and her company, Hillman Grad Productions, as well as 271 Films. Indeed: Rising Voices was created to help jumpstart the careers of Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) filmmakers, specifically those based in the U.S. Now in its third year, the program selects 10 filmmakers to receive up to $100,000 in financing for their film, which will then premiere at a New York City film festival next year. Indeed has once again made a […]
Submissions are now open for the 2022 edition of U.S. in Progress, which awards $100,000 in post-production services to American independent filmmakers with films in post-production. The event will take place November 9 – 11 at the American Film Festival in Wroclaw, Poland, where American projects in their final stages will meet European buyers as well as top Polish image and sound post-production companies. From the press release: The program’s objective is to inspire U.S. producers to work with Poland, either by fostering co-productions or to connect them with services and, for future projects, locations. The Polish Film Institute offers […]
Multimedia artist Jenny Perlin, whose work includes 16mm hand-drawn animated films, videos, installations, and drawings (some of which are in MoMA’s collection), opens this year’s hybrid Doc Fortnight with Bunker, a literal underground film. Beginning back in pre-pandemic 2018 Perlin took a cross-country road trip, hoping to explore the lives of men (almost all straight, white and middle-aged) who call decommissioned nuclear silos and military bunkers home. Along the way, she also meets the (demographically similar) businessmen building, selling and sometimes even living the fear-driven American dream. Filmmaker caught up with Perlin a few days before the doc’s February 23rd […]
Cannes declared itself open for business earlier this week, 2021’s first major international film festival to do so in an entirely physical edition (save the partially-digital market). The irony has not been lost on some attendees that Thierry Fremaux and co. opted to launch its first Un Certain Regard selection in more than two years (the festival’s main opening film, Leos Carax’s Annette, was reviewed by Vadim Rizov earlier this week here) with an epic about a man who continued fighting a war for nearly three decades after it ended. Invisible enemies, lost time and interminable isolation: familiar pandemic phraseology […]
Last year, Canadian filmmaker Sophy Romvari (who’s previously written for Filmmaker) launched the concept and a campaign for a new online short film platform. The Exquisite Shorts Program is designed to create a new model for short film exhibition. After a development period, the website and submissions are now live and ready to receive short films. Every film that screens in the program will be selected from submissions made through the website. The first short film will be selected by acclaimed Lingua Franca filmmaker, Isabel Sandoval. Here’s a refresher on how the program works: Filmmaker 1 → Picks a short […]
Friday, March 13, 2020, two days after the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, Jamin O’Brien had a check in his hand. The producer was headed to christen a new venture, an adaptation of the nonfiction bestseller The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace to be directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor. “I was literally going to deliver the deposit check for our production offices, which were going to open Monday, when we were shut down,” says O’Brien. Now, a little more than a year later, O’Brien is preparing to navigate the world of post-COVID film production for the first […]
Kentucker Audley and Albert Birney’s surreal sci-fi romantic comedy Strawberry Mansion reimagines the dystopia as something shockingly similar to our own world: a society where even our dreams are plagued with marketing and advertisement. The director duo also acted as editors for the film, and share the joy of working with post-VFX for the first time. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Birney: We’ve always edited our own work—it just seems like a natural part of our process. […]