Ian Olds, Geremy Jasper, Boots Riley & Laure de Clermont Tonnerre Among SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grant Finalists

If you’re looking for a comprehensive overview of the not so distant future in American indie film, a reliable sampling is usually found in the bi-annual SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grants finalist (and future winners) lists. Grants will be awarded next month, but this finalists’ list overviews a look into the 2016-17 pool of talent and feature films. Among the trio of items that are in various stages of production and we’re keeping tabs on, we have Ian Olds (docu helmer of Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi) who moved into fiction feature filmmaking with The Fixer. Produced by Caroline von Kuhn (Camden Int. Film Fest Managing Director and docu field expert), this is said to include supporting players in the shape of Melissa Leo and James Franco. And speaking of Franco…, Travis Mathews from Interior. Leather Bar. fame has Oscillate Wildly next in line. Beasts of the Southern Wild and Western producer Michael Gottwald is in pre-production with the Sundance labbed Patti Cake$ from Geremy Jasper.

On the script stage front, we have several known identities beginning with The Dry Land (2010) and X/Y (2014) filmmaker Ryan Piers Williams working on Staring At The Sun, docu helmer Jesse Moss (The Overnighters tops our list for the best docu of 2014) is working on an untitled Whaling Project, while popular Sundance helmer of My Brother the Devil in Sally El Hosaini is working on Jones.

Female filmmakers who were present at the 2015 edition of Sundance are sharpening their pencils as well: Chloé Zhao is already hard at work with The Last Prairie and Laure de Clermont Tonnerre is getting Mustang, her feature debut film readied. And finally, poet-rapper-songwriter Boots Riley (see pic above) is adapting from his collection of oeuvres with Sorry To Bother You, which will be produced by Ping Pong Summer / Entertainment producer George Rush. Here is the press release:

Up to $300,000 will be awarded to one or more narrative feature film projects at various stages of production. SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grants are awarded twice annually to narrative feature films that will have “significant economic or professional impact on the Bay Area filmmaking community.”

To date more than $2.8m has been awarded since the launch of the Film Society’s flagship grant programme in 2009. Winners of the spring 2015 SFFS / KRF Filmmaking Grants will be announced in May.

SPRING 2015 SFFS / KRF FILMMAKING GRANT FINALLISTS

Blustar – Stella Kyriakopoulos, co-writer-director and Margaret Shin, co-writer
Screenwriting

Chickenshit – Jessica dela Merced, writer-director
Screenwriting

The Fixer – Ian Olds, writer-director, and Caroline von Kuhn, producer
Production

Freeland – Mario Furloni and Kate McLean, co-writer-directors
Screenwriting

Jones – Sally El Hosaini, writer-director
Screenwriting

The Last Black Man In San Francisco– Joseph Talbot, writer-director and Rolla Selbak, producer
Pre-production

The Last Prairie – Chloé Zhao, writer/director
Screenwriting

Mustang – Laure de Clermont Tonnerre, writer-director
Screenwriting

Oscillate Wildly – Travis Mathews, writer-director
Production

Patti Cake$ – Geremy Jasper, writer-director, and Michael Gottwald, producer
Pre-production

Reza And The Refugee – Aaron Douglas Johnston, writer-director
Screenwriting

Sorry To Bother You – Boots Riley, writer-director, and George Rush, producer
Screenwriting

Staring At The Sun – Ryan Piers Williams, writer/director
Screenwriting

Untitled Whaling Project – Jesse Moss, writer-director
Screenwriting

What Waits For Them In Darkness – Stephen Dunn, writer-director
Screenwriting