Sundance Institute, in collaboration with A24, invites fans and supporters of independent cinema to celebrate writer / director Lulu Wang with a special premiere screening of her film The Farewell and afterparty at The Theatre at Ace Hotel DTLA on Wednesday, June 26th, 2019.

Wang, an alumna of Sundance Institute’s 2017 FilmTwo Initiative, will be honored with the Institute’s annual Vanguard Award presented by Acura at the summer benefit. Proceeds from the evening will advance Sundance Institute’s mission and programs that discover, support and amplify risk-taking and exciting independent artists across film, theatre and media.

The Farewell, which had its world premiere in the U.S. Dramatic Competition category at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, is a funny, uplifting tale based on an actual lie, in which Chinese-born, U.S.-raised Billi (Awkwafina) reluctantly returns to Changchun to find that, although the whole family knows their beloved matriarch, Nai-Nai (grandma), has been given mere weeks to live, everyone has decided not to tell Nai Nai herself. To assure her happiness, they gather under the joyful guise of an expedited wedding, uniting family members scattered among new homes abroad. As Billi navigates a minefield of family expectations and proprieties, she finds there’s a lot to celebrate: a chance to rediscover the country she left as a child, her grandmother’s wondrous spirit, and the ties that keep on binding even when so much goes unspoken. The film, starring Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin, Zhao Shuzhen, Lu Hong, Jiang and Yongbo, was produced by Daniele Melia, Peter Saraf, Marc Turtletaub, Andrew Miano, Chris Weitz, Jane Zheng, Lulu Wang, and Anita Gou, and will be released in theatres by A24 on July 12, 2019.

“We’re excited to celebrate the power of Lulu’s artistic vision in writing and directing The Farewell,” said Michelle Satter, Founding Director of the Sundance Institute Feature Film Program. “As a Fellow at our 2017 FilmTwo Initiative for second-time feature filmmakers, we had the honor of supporting Lulu’s journey on this deeply personal film which engaged enthusiastic audiences at the recent Sundance Festival. We’re thrilled to benchmark her journey with this year’s Vanguard Award, and we can’t wait to see what’s next.”

Sundance Institute’s Vanguard Award honors artists whose work and vision represent the highest level of breakthrough innovation, originality, and independent spirit that the Institute’s FFP program under Satter’s leadership has fostered in artists over its 30-year history. Past Vanguard Award recipients include Alejandro Gonzàlez Iñàrritu, Ryan Coogler, Glenn Close, Dee Rees, Quentin Tarantino, Marielle Heller and Boots Riley.
As the Presenting Sponsor of the Vanguard Award since 2015, Acura’s generous support helps fund the Institute’s programming dedicated to advancing the voices and work of bold, independent storytellers. Acura is joined in its support of The Farewell LA Premiere by Major Sponsor – Wells Fargo Private Bank, and Media Sponsor – Variety.

General admission tickets and special packages are available HERE.

The post Sundance Presents: The Farewell appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Winners of the 2019 Sundance Film Festival jury prizes in short filmmaking were announced today by Sundance Institute at a ceremony in Park City, Utah. The Short Film Grand Jury Prize, awarded to one film in the program of 73 shorts selected from 9,443 submissions, went to Aziza, directed by Soudade Kaadan and co-written by Kaadan and May Hayek.

The Short Film program is presented by YouTube, as part of their ongoing support for emerging storytellers, unique voices and independent artists. 2019 marks the seventh year YouTube has been the official sponsor of the Sundance Film Festival Shorts program.

This year’s Short Film jurors are Sheila Vand, Young Jean Lee and Carter Smith.

Short Film awards winners in previous years include Matria by Álvaro Gago, And so we put goldfish in the pool. by Makato Nagahisa, Thunder Road by Jim Cummings, World of Tomorrowby Don Hertzfeldt, SMILF by Frankie Shaw, Of God and Dogs by Abounaddara Collective, Gregory Go Boom by Janicza Bravo, The Whistle by Grzegorz Zariczny, Whiplash by Damien Chazelle, FISHING WITHOUT NETS by Cutter Hodierne, The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossomby Lucy Walker and The Arm by Brie Larson, Sarah Ramos and Jessie Ennis

The short film program at the Festival is the centerpiece of Sundance Institute’s year-round efforts to support short filmmaking. Select Festival short films are presented as a traveling program in over 70 cities in the U.S. and Canada each year, one of the few theatrical releases of short films in North America. Short films and filmmakers also take part in regional Master Classes geared towards supporting emerging shorts-makers in cities around the country.

Of the seven short films selected for awards this year, four projects (57% percent) were directed by women, two were directed by people who identify as LGBTQ, and six (85.7%) were directed by people of color.

2019 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Awards: 

The Short Film Grand Jury Prize was awarded to: Aziza / Syria, Lebanon (Director: Soudade Kaadan, Screenwriters: Soudade Kaadan, May Hayek) — A dynamic take on the life of Syrian refugees, told through black comedy.

The Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction was presented to: Green / U.S.A. (Director: Suzanne Andrews Correa, Screenwriters: Suzanne Andrews Correa, Mustafa Kaymak) — Green, an undocumented Turkish pedicab driver, unwittingly draws police attention, endangering his brother, his community, and himself.

The Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction was presented to: Dunya’s Day / Saudi Arabia, U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Raed Alsemari) — Abandoned by her domestic help, Dunya fights to throw the perfect graduation soirée.

The Short Film Jury Award: Non-fiction was presented to: Ghosts of Sugar Land / U.S.A. (Director: Bassam Tariq) — In Sugar Land, Texas, a group of young Muslim-American men ponder the disappearance of their friend “Mark,” who is suspected of joining ISIS.

The Short Film Jury Award: Animation was presented to: Reneepoptosis / U.S.A., Japan (Director and screenwriter: Renee Zhan) — Three Renees go on a quest to find God, who is also Renee. As they traverse the mountains and valleys of Renee, they discover all the great joys, sorrows, and mysteries of being Renee.

A Special Jury Award for Directing was presented to: FAST HORSE / Canada (Director and screenwriter: Alexandra Lazarowich) — The Blackfoot bareback horse-racing tradition returns in the astonishingly dangerous Indian Relay. Siksika horseman Allison Red Crow struggles with second-hand horses and a new jockey on his way to challenge the best riders in the Blackfoot Confederacy.

A Special Jury Award for Directing was presented to: The MINORS / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Robert Machoian) — A slice of life about a grandpa and his grandsons, the future and the past.

The post Sundance Short Film Winners Announced appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

After 40 years of service Bill Gosden, Director of the New Zealand International Film Festival, will retire in March 2019. NZIFF will begin a recruitment process to find a new Film Festival Director to programme the premier event.

“This year we have celebrated 50 years of NZIFF in Auckland and there, in Wellington and over the country as a whole, seen the best attendances ever. Now, sadly, we accept Bill’s decision to retire at the end of March for health reasons. Bill, over 40 years, has created not only the New Zealand International Film Festival as an unmissable annual event, but also audiences with an appetite to be surprised and rewarded by the best of the world’s cinema. We will all miss him and what he has brought to our cultural life during his tenure, and wish him the very best,” says Catherine Fitzgerald, Chair of the New Zealand Film Festival Trust.

The Trust oversees the not-for-profit event which has employed Bill since 1979, and for which he has curated/directed since 1981. His first curated national festival took place in 1984. Under Bill’s leadership the film festivals around NZ have grown to programme over 160 films for NZIFF events in 14 towns and cities around NZ, screening from July to September each year.

“March 2019 will mark the 40th anniversary of my first job at the Wellington Film Festival. In a constantly shifting mediascape there have been few dull stretches since. Regular iterations of the impending demise of cinema always denied us the luxury of reclining into ‘business as usual’. Like filmmaking itself, staging a film festival is a collaborative project. Marshalling the myriad interests at play may require concentration, discernment and even a little imagination, but the will to keep NZIFF thriving is widely shared. I am reminded again and again of the diversity of supporters who have seen us through the red and the black, the thick and thin,” says Bill Gosden.

“It’s been a pleasure and a privilege to enjoy that support for so long. I look back with pride on the astounding array of national and international filmmaking that has found its first New Zealand audience at NZIFF. I leave with great confidence that whoever steps up next will be working with a remarkable and cohesive crew who love NZIFF and know it backwards.” says Gosden.

NZIFF, as it was named in 2009, has been run by a small team of permanent staff, a number of short-term contractors and a large contingent of volunteers lead by Bill. The structure will remain the same, including key positions held by long-serving staff members General Manager Sharon Byrne, Communications Manager Rebecca McMillan, Programme Manager Michael McDonnell and Programmer Sandra Reid supported by contract programmers Malcolm Turner, Ant Timpson and Nic Marshall.

An international recruitment for the new Film Festival Director role is now underway.

The post NZIFF Director retirement announced for 2019 appeared first on Shane the Gamer.