Seven lucky receipients working on six projects are the 2008’s Annenberg Film Fellows grants winners…or in other words, these folks got cash to keep the dream alive. Filmmakers Fellipe Barbosa, Frank Budgen, Daniel Casey, John Magary, Moon Molson, and Lara Foot Newton and Gerard Marx whom all were breathing fresh air and workshopping their projects in June at the Sundance Institute’s Directors Lab will now plan the next steps in prepping for production.
Here are the projects to keep an eye out for in 2010 and beyond…:
BLOOD ABUNDANCE, OR THE HALF-LIFE OF ANTOINETTE/John Magary (writer/director): Set amidst poverty, with moments of both joy and upheaval, BLOOD ABUNDANCE, OR THE HALF-LIFE OF
ANTOINETTE is a retelling of the chaotic life of Antoinette Dawson as she raises seven children in New Orleans.
John Magary has written and directed several short films, including SITE IN FISHKILL CREEK, WE ARE ALL GUERRILLAS, WHAT’S IT LIKE THERE? and OUR NATIONAL PARKS. His short film THE SECOND LINE was a national finalist for the Student Academy Awards, and has played at festivals around the world, including Sundance, SXSW (Special Jury Prize), Tribeca, AFI Dallas (Grand Jury Prize, Best Short), Edinburgh, and Torino.
CASA GRANDE/Fellipe Barbosa (co-writer/director) and Karen Sztajnberg (co-writer): Exploring issues of class privilege among Rio’s decadent elite, CASA GRANDE depicts a teenage boy’s struggle to escape his overprotective parents as they covertly spiral into bankruptcy.
Fellipe Barbosa completed his MFA in directing at Columbia University. Two of his short films, LA MUERTE ES PEQUEÑA and SALT KISS, screened at the Sundance Film Festival. SALT KISS was also an official selection of the New York Film Festival and the Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival, and won over 10 international awards, including in Aspen, Austin and Guadalajara.
MEADOWLANDZ/Moon Molson (writer/director): After a black American teen finds his African immigrant stepfather passed out drunk in their tenement-building hallway, he and his friends spend the night trying to unload the stepfather as they inexorably barrel toward a violent resolution.
Moon Molson is a New York-based filmmaker living in Harlem. His short film POP FOUL has screened at more than 75 film festivals worldwide and has won more than 30 international film festival awards, including the Panavision Grand Jury Prize at the 2007 Palm Springs ShortFest, the REEL Shorts Jury Prize at the 2007 South By Southwest Film Festival, the HBO Short Film Award at the 2006 American Black Film Festival, and the 2006 Student Academy Award.
POLETOWN/Daniel Casey (writer/director): Set in the heart of Detroit’s dying Polish community, POLETOWN follows the story of three men whose fates collide in the wake of racially motivated murder.
A native of Detroit, Daniel Casey holds an MFA from the American Film Institute. Casey has been awarded four Emmys for his work in public service announcements, as well as the Herman Fox Award for Breakthrough Filmmaking and AFI’s prestigious Tom Yoda Scholarship. Casey’s feature film, THE DEATH OF MICHAEL SMITH, made for just over five hundred dollars, took the Grand Jury Prize for Excellence at the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival and the Best Feature Award from the 2007 Silver Lake Film Festival
SHOCKHEADED PETER/Frank Budgen (writer/director): Adapted from the award-winning West End stage show, via the nineteenth century nursery rhymes of HeinrichHoffmann, SHOCKHEADED PETER is a deliciously gruesome, hilariously nasty, cautionary tale for adults.
Frank Budgen started directing commercials full-time in the early 1990s after leaving BMP-DDB advertising agency where he was an award-winning copywriter and creative director. He co-founded Gorgeous Enterprises, which frequently tops the UK Production Company of the Year list.
TSHEPANG/Lara Foot Newton and Gerhard Marx (co-writers/co-directors): A devastating portrayal of child abuse in rural South Africa, TSHEPANG is a vivid portrait of a town cut off bypoverty.
Lara Foot Newton earned an honors degree in drama from the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Among the 34 productions she has directed to date, 23 have been new South African works, including a staging of Zakes Mda’s novel WAYS OF DYING. Foot Newton, in collaboration with Gerhard Marx, won six international awards for their short film AND THERE IN THE DUST.
Gerhard Marx is an artist, scenographer, animator, and theatre maker. His work, including AND THERE IN THE DUST, a short animated film co-directed with Lara Foot Newton and animated by Marx, has won numerous awards. His scenographic and theatre work has received international acclaim and has won him two Naledi Theatre Awards.
