FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Melanie Bates, Film Independent
Tel: 323 556 9338 or mbates@filmindependent.org
 
Ryan Collins, Ginsberg/Libby
Tel: 323 645 6800 or ryan.collins@ginsberglibby.com
 

SIX FILMMAKERS SELECTED FOR THE
2018 FILM INDEPENDENT PRODUCING LAB

 

$50,000 Sloan DISTRIBUTION GRANT AWARDED TO TO DUST WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY SHAWN SNYDER AND PRODUCED BY ALESSANDRO NIVOLA AND JOSH CROOK

Los Angeles (November 13, 2018) — Film Independent, the non-profit arts organization that produces the Spirit Awards, announced the producers selected for its 18th annual Producing Lab. This five-week intensive program prepares Creative Producers for the ever-changing film landscape, both creatively and strategically, through intense project workshop sessions and intimate conversations. Filmmakers work with the Lead Producing Mentor Rebecca Green (I’ll See You In My Dreams, It Follows), with whom they will workshop their project as a group during the lab and through follow-up one-on-one meetings to craft a strategy that propels their projects forward. Fellows also attend sessions with guest speakers that delve more specifically into the different aspects of producing including development, financing, production and distribution. The Lab culminates in a daylong pitch session and meetings with established executives that offer participants valuable practical experience while further expanding their industry networks and introducing their projects to a larger cross-section of the industry.
 
“We are thrilled to support another cohort of innovative creative producers, including for the first time producers with films in post-production, providing them with crucial mentorship as they prepare to navigate the evolving and complex distribution landscape.” said Jennifer Kushner, Director of Artist Development at Film Independent.
 
This year’s Guest Speakers include: Len Amato, President of HBO Films; Giulia Caruso (Columbus); Michael Hartman of Ziffren Brittenham; Ali Herting of A24; Ray Mansfield of QC Entertianment; Amanda Marshall of Cold Iron Pictures; Sara Murphy (If Beale Street Could Talk, Gemini); Avril Z. Speaks and Nijla Mu’min (Jinn); Anita Surendran of Gary Krauss Sandler Des Rochers; and Ryan Zacarias (A Ciambra, Mediterranea).
 
The 4th annual Sloan Distribution Grant, a $50,000 grant to help maximize the distribution for a film that explores science and technology themes or that depicts scientists, engineers and mathematicians in engaging and innovative ways, was awarded to To Dust, written and directed by Shawn Snyder and produced by Alessandro Nivola and Josh Crook. The film stars Matthew Broderick and Géza Röhrig and will be released in early 2019. Film Independent also previously awarded the annual $30,000 Sloan Producing Lab grant to Clay Pruitt, for his project Bell.
 
Recent projects developed through the Producing Lab include Chloé Zhao’s Spirit Award Nominated Songs My Brothers Taught Me produced by Angela C. Lee and Mollye Asher; Clay Liford’s Slash produced by Brock Williams which premiered at the 2016 South by Southwest Film Festival; Joseph Wladyka’s Spirit Award nominated Manos Sucias produced by Elena Greenlee and Márcia Mayer; and Sian Heder’s Tallulah produced by David Newsom, which premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
 
Film Independent Artist Development promotes unique independent voices by helping filmmakers create and advance new work through its Filmmaker Labs (Directing, Documentary, Episodic, Producing and Screenwriting), Grants Program which awards over $930K annually to filmmakers, the Fast Track finance market, Fiscal Sponsorship and Project Involve, Film Independent’s signature diversity program.
 
For more information on Film Independent Artist Development, please contact Jennifer Kushner, Director of Artist Development, at 323 556 9375. Additional information and an application form can be found at filmindependent.org.
 
The 2018 Producing Lab is supported by Artist Development Lead Funder Time Warner Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

 

The 2018 Producing Lab filmmakers and projects are:

 
Title: Bell

Producer: Clay Pruitt

Logline: From the controversy surrounding his invention of the telephone, to his lesser known work with eugenics, this is the untold story of famed inventor Alexander Graham Bell, whose love for his deaf wife changed the course of history, for better and for much worse.

 

Title: Clementine

Producer: Aimee Lynn Barneburg

Logline: A heartbroken woman steals away to her estranged lover’s lake house in the Pacific Northwest where she becomes entangled with a teenage girl.

 

Title: Flash Before the Bang

Producer: Delbert Whetter

Logline: A ragtag deaf track team and their checked-out coach must overcome their school’s indifference, outsiders’ low expectations and their own self-doubts to make it to the state track and field championship.

 

Title: Hollow Point

Producer: Diana Ward

Logline: Six strangers must overcome their fears and each other in order to survive when they are trapped at a desert crossroads in a deadly game of cat and mouse.

 

Title: Martinez

Producer: Georgina Gonzalez

Logline: A gift from a dead neighbor inspires a lonely man to open up and rediscover life as he starts a relationship with her through her old belongings.

 

Title: Selah and the Spades

Producer: Lauren McBride

Logline: Selah Madewell, 17, rules the student body of The Haldwell School with an iron fist wrapped in a velvet glove. By turns charming and callous, Selah chooses who to keep close and who to cut loose, walking the fine line between being feared and loved.
 

ABOUT FILM INDEPENDENT

Film Independent is the nonprofit arts organization that champions creative independence in visual storytelling and supports a community of artists who embody diversity, innovation and uniqueness of vision. Film Independent helps filmmakers make their movies, builds an audience for their projects, and works to diversify the film industry. Film Independent’s Board of Directors, filmmakers, staff and constituents is comprised of an inclusive community of individuals across ability, age, ethnicity, gender, race and sexual orientation. Anyone passionate about film can become a Member, whether you are a filmmaker, industry professional or a film lover.
 
In addition to producing the Spirit Awards, Film Independent produces Film Independent Presents, a year-round screening series for its members that offers unique cinematic experiences for the Los Angeles creative community and the general public.
 
Through annual screenings and events, Film Independent provides access to a network of like-minded artists who are driving creativity in the film industry. Film Independent’s Artist Development program offers free Labs for selected writers, directors, producers and documentary filmmakers and presents year-round networking opportunities. Project Involve is Film Independent’s signature program dedicated to fostering the careers of talented filmmakers from communities traditionally underrepresented in the film industry.
 
For more information or to become a Member, visit filmindependent.org.
 

ABOUT THE ALFRED P. SLOAN FOUNDATION

The New York-based Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, founded in 1934, makes grants in science, technology, and economic performance. Sloan’s program in Public Understanding of Science and Technology, directed by Doron Weber, supports books, radio, film, television, theater and new media to reach a wide, non-specialized audience.
 
Sloan’s Film Program encourages filmmakers to create more realistic and compelling stories about scientists, science and technology and to challenge existing stereotypes about scientists and engineers in the popular imagination. Over the past two decades, Sloan has partnered with some of the top film schools in the country—including AFI, Carnegie Mellon, Columbia, NYU, UCLA and USC—and established annual awards in screenwriting and film production, along with an annual best-of-the-best Student Grand Jury Prize administered by the Tribeca Film Institute. The Foundation also supports screenplay development programs with the Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, the SFFILM, the Black List, and Film Independent’s Producing Lab and Fast Track program and has given early recognition to stand-out films such as Searching, The Martian, and Hidden Figures. The Foundation has supported theatrical documentaries such as The Bit Player, Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story, Particle Fever, and Jacques Perrin’s Oceans.
 
The Foundation also has an active theater program and commissions about twenty science plays each year from the Ensemble Studio Theater and Manhattan Theatre Club, as well as supporting select productions across the country. Recent grants have supported Lucy Kirkwood’s Mosquitoes, Chiara Atik’s BUMP, Nick Payne’s ConstellationsLucas Hnath’s Isaac’s Eye, and Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51, recently on London’s West End starring Nicole Kidman. The Foundation’s book program includes early support for Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, the best-selling book that became the highest grossing Oscar-nominated film of 2017 and continues to have a wide-ranging cultural impact.
 
For more information about the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, visit sloan.org.

 

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