The independent filmmaking community consists of some great and supportive organizations around the country and we are happy to see many of our Film Independent Fellows being honored by them. Here’s a look at some of the successes our Fellows have been having:

Julia Loktev's The Loneliest Planet

The 2011 AFI Film Festival by Audi had its closing night last night and Film Independent Fellow Julia Loktev (Someone to Watch Award 2007) was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for her film The Loneliest Planet.

The top prize in the Fest’s World Cinema section was shared by two films, one which is Kinyarwanda by Alrick Brown, produced by Fellow Darren Dean (Fast Track).

On the Ice directed by Cara Marcous

The Sundance Film Institute has selected Fellow Cara Marcous’ (Fast Track) film On the Ice to participate in their Film Forward Program. The Film Forward program is an initaitve that partners the Sundance Institute with government organizations including the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. On the Ice was the Project Involve Screening for the 2011 Los Angeles Film Festival. The Sundance Institute also recently screened a handful of Native American films at the Autry Museum, all of which happened to be made by Film Independent Fellows! The program consisted of Grab by Billy Luther, On the Ice by Cara Marcous, and Shimasani produced by Nanobah Becker and Heather Rae.

Fast Track Fellow Courtney Hunt is set to direct her second film, Rule #1, starring Reese Witherspoon. Her first feature Frozen River was a 2009 Spirit Award nominee for Best Director, Best First Screenplay and Best Feature.

Fellow Jason Berman (also from Fast Track) was recently picked by Variety for their annual Ten Producers to Watch article. Jason recently participated in the Film Independent Forum where he spoke on the Reach Your Audience: Marketing Clinic panel.

Nekisa Cooper, Five Nights in Maine (photo courtesy of indieWIRE)

Earlier this month, the San Francisco Film Society announced ten finalists for the filmmaking grants they’ll be award later this year. Of the ten finalists, four of the projects are by Film Independent Fellows:
- Five Nights in Maine, directed by Maris Curran and produced by Nekisa Cooper (Fast Track, Project Involve, Netflix FIND Your Voice) . (Sidenote: Maris and Nekisa were recently in our offices casting this film)
- Future Weather, directed by Jenny Deller (Screenwriters Lab, Fast Track, Netflix FIND Your Voice) and produced by Kristin Fairweather (Producers Lab, Fast Track, Netflix FIND Your Voice)
- One Good Thing, written by Eric Escobar (Screenwriters Lab)
- Test directed by Chris Mason Johnson (Screenwriters Lab)

The International Documentary Association (IDA) will be holding their annual IDA Documentary Awards on December 2 and Fellows Kelly Duane De La Vega and Katie Galloway (Fast Track) will be up for an award with their film Better This World. We wish them luck!

Directed by Jon M. Chu (Project Involve)

Cinema Eye Honors have also selected Film Independent Fellows as nominees for the Nonfiction Filmmaking wards. The late Tim Hetherington (Fast Track) was nominating in the Nonfiction Short Filmmaking category for his autobiographical film, Diary. Jon M. Chu (Project Involve) has been nominated for Cinema Eye’s Audience Choice prize for his film Justin Bieber: Never Say Never. Congratulations to both films.

IFP’s Gotham Award nominations were announced in October and more congratulations are in order for the team behind Meek’s Cutoff, director Kelly Reichardt and producers Anish Savjani and Neil Kopp who are nominated for Best Picture; Better This World directors Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega nominated for Best Documentary; Breakthrough Director nominee Dee Rees’ for Pariah; and Jenny Deller who is up for the Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Live the Dream Grant with her film Future Weather.

You can learn more about the programs these Fellows are involved in by visiting the Labs and Programs page and view bios of our entire group of Fellows in our Talent Guide.

November 11th, 2011 • No Comments