American New Wave 25: Athina Rachel Tsangari

You might be surprised to learn that, one of the producers on Yorgos Lanthimos’ sophomore, Un Certain Regard-winning feature, was a NYU grad and part of the emerging indie scene in Austin. While obtaining her MFA in film production at the University of Texas, Greek born Athina Rachel Tsangari was a full fledged Austinite who co-founded and was the artistic director of the Cinematexas International Short Film Festival (programming the early shorts from the likes of Weerasethakul, Reichardt, Maddin, Miranda July, Don Hertzfeld) and get this, her first introduction to feature film was a small role in Richard Linklater‘s seminal film, Slacker. Prior to wearing the producer’s hat on Lanthimos’ debut film Kinetta and being the associate producer on Dogtooth, she directed first feature film in 2000’s The Slow Business of Going (voted amongst the year’s best “first” features by the Village Voice Critics Poll in 2002) which evolved from her thesis film Fit, a Student Academy Award winning short. She also executive produced Bryan Poyser‘s short Pleasureland, and his Sundance selected feature debut, Lovers of Hate.

Now that Tsangari is back in the non red, white & blue – economically troubled native Greece, she relies, more than ever, on the independent filmmaking experiences acquired in the U.S. for her next pair of projects: Attenberg, which marks her return to directing and Lanthimos’ next film Alps. (about a secret society of dead people’s substitutes) which she’ll produce with him, and should be ready for 2011.