Another space of distribution deals have been made this week at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival:
• Fox Searchlight bought worldwide distribution rights to “Patti Cake$,” director Geremy Jasper’s crowd-pleasing tale of a white New Jersey girl (Danielle McDonald) who pursues his dreams of being a rap star. It played in the U.S. Dramatic competition.
• Fox Searchlight also picked up worldwide distribution rights to Amanda Lipitz’s documentary “Step,” which follows the progress of a step team at an inner-city Baltimore school. Fox Searchlight also acquired the remake rights. The movie played in the U.S. Documentary competition.
• Sony Pictures Classics has bought worldwide rights to the comedy “Brigsby Bear,” which played in the U.S. Dramatic competition. Directed by Dave McCary and filmed in Utah, the movie stars Kyle Mooney (who co-wrote the screenplay) as a young man whose life is upended, and he discovers the children’s TV show he watched his entire life was made for an audience of one.
Roadside Attractions and FilmNation teamed up to secure North American rights to “Beatriz at Dinner,” starring Salma Hayek as a holistic therapist who encounters a businessman (John Lithgow) at a dinner party. The movie, which played in the Premieres section, was directed by Miguel Arteta and written by Mike White.
• Amazon picked up the true-life drama “Crown Heights,” starring Lakeith Stansfield as a Brooklyn man wrongfully imprisoned for a murder he didn’t commit. The movie was directed by Matt Ruskin.
• Amazon also has picked up worldwide theatrical rights to “City of Ghosts,” Matthew Heineman’s documentary (in the U.S. Documentary competition) about a citizen-journalist group risking life and limb to get out information about the Islamic State’s atrocities in Syria. The movie was produced by A&E Indie Films, and A&E will retain the TV rights.
• IFC Midnight has acquired U.S. rights to “78/52,” director Alexandre O. Phillippe’s documentary (which played in the Midnight section) that dissects the shower scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho.”
• RLJ Entertainment landed U.S. rights to the Midnight title “Bushwick.” The movie, directed by Cary Murnion and Jonathan Milott and starring Brittany Snow and Dave Bautista, is set in a near-future in which a secessionist Texas militia invades Brooklyn.
ALMOST HEAVEN (UK, 2017) is a gentle portrait of a young girl coming-of-age and her start into the working world learning an unusual job. The first feature film by British Director Carol Salter will celebrate its world premiere at the section Generation 14plus of the Berlin International Film Festival and is nominated for the overall sections Glashütte Original Documentary Award. The prize will be presented during the official Award Ceremony in the Berlinale Palast. ALMOST HEAVEN is one of 16 documentaries that have been nominated for the Award.
Synopsis
Far from home, afraid of the dark, and terrified of ghosts, young Ying Ling is training to become a mortician in one of China’s largest funeral homes. Charming, cheeky and quirky, Ying Ling spends 24 hours a day with her fellow trainee morticians, living together and working in a basement with no daylight. She learns to perform spa and beauty treatments for the dead, speaking to them softly, watched by their family members. Against this backdrop, she forms a special friendship with a fellow mortician Jin Hau and they share the strangeness of working with the dead together. In their spare time, they go together to arcades and fast food outlets, bantering playfully with each other, a welcome relief from the daily grind at the funeral home. But when Jin Hau suddenly leaves the funeral home, Ying Ling is left to face the harsh realities of the job alone.
ALMOST HEAVEN is a reflection on death and the fragility of life but also a reflection what it is like to be young and alive; a tender elegy to first love, friendship and caring for the dead.
Director: Carol Salter, UK, 2017, 75 Minutes, Color, 5.1
Stay tuned for more on ALMOST HEAVEN!
The Director. Carol Salter is an award winning documentary director and editor who has specialized in making intimate portraits of extraordinary people in other cultures. Her films, e.g. the semi long documentary Mayomi (2008) and the documentary short film Unearthing the Pen (2011) have been presented at many international film festivals winning numerous awards worldwide.
For many years now, the Berlin International Film Festival has been committed to documentary film and diverse documentary forms. This was evident not only in the programmes of the different sections, initiatives and special series but also in the European Film Market (EFM).
Thanks to the support of Glashütte Original, watch manufacturer from Saxony, the Berlin International Film Festival is launching a new award, the Glashütte Original Documentary Award.
The Glashütte Original Documentary Award is endowed with € 50,000, funded by Glashütte Original. The prize money will be split between the film’s director and producer. A total of 16 documentary entries from the current programmes of the Competition, Berlinale Special, Panorama, Forum, Generation and Perspektive Deutsches Kino sections are nominated for the Glashütte Original Documentary Award.
The prize will be presented during the official Award Ceremony in the Berlinale Palast on February 18. In addition to the prize money, Glashütte Original will also provide the trophy, which will be finely crafted in the company’s manufactory in Saxony.
A three-member jury will pick the winner:
Daniela Michel (Photo by Fabrizio Maltese)
Daniela Michel (Mexico)
Born in Mexico City, Daniela Michel is a film critic and founding director of the Morelia International Film Festival, an annual event launched in 2003 to support a new generation of Mexican filmmakers. After studying filmmaking she received a degree in English Literature. She has curated retrospectives of Mexican cinema in and outside Mexico. Michel has also served on the Jury for the “Un Certain Regard” and “La Semaine de la Critique” sections of the Cannes Film Festival, the Venice Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, the Locarno International Film Festival, the San Sebastian International Film Festival, the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), the Sarajevo Film Festival, among other festivals, as well as the Rockefeller Foundation’s Media Arts Fellowships and the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.
Laura Poitras (Photo by Jan Sturman
Laura Poitras (USA)
Laura Poitras, who was born in the USA, first studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and then The New School in New York. Her work crosses the boundaries of documentary film, journalism, and art. In 2006 she began her 9/11 Trilogy with the film My Country, My Country, for which she received her first Oscar nomination. This was followed by The Oath (2010), which like My Country, My Country, was shown in the Berlinale’s Forum section. With CITIZENFOUR, the third part of her trilogy, Poitras won the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2015. With this film about Edward Snowden, she also took home awards from the German Film Prize, the Director’s Guild of America, and BAFTA. Her reporting on NSA surveillance has appeared in Der Spiegel, The Guardian, and the Washington Post, and received a Pulitzer Prize and the Nannen Prize for Press Freedom. In 2016, she mounted her first solo museum exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. She is co-creator of the visual journalism project, Field of Vision.
Samir (Photo courtesy of Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion)
Samir (Iraq / Switzerland)
Samir was born in Bagdad and moved with his family to Switzerland when he was seven years old. In the 1980s, after studying at Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK) and training to be a typesetter, he began working as a cameraman, director, and screenwriter. Over the years he has made more than 40 short and full-length films. In 1994, he – and documentary filmmaker Werner Schweizer and producer Karin Koch – took over Dschoint Ventschr (spoken like Joint Venture) Filmproduktion, which concentrates on promoting young Swiss talents. Samir has directed both fiction and documentary films for the cinema and television – including Snow White (2005), which received multiple awards – as well as many stage productions. His documentary Iraqi Odyssey was screened in the Berlinale Panorama in 2015 and submitted by Switzerland for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
The following films are nominated for the Glashütte Original Documentary Award:
Competition (1)
Beuys – Germany
By Andres Veiel
Berlinale Special (1)
La libertad del diablo (Devil’s Freedom) – Mexico
By Everardo González
Panorama (5)
Belinda – France
By Marie Dumora
El Pacto de Adriana – Chile
By Lissette Orozco
Erase and Forget – United Kingdom
By Andrea Luka Zimmerman
Fünf Sterne (Five Stars) – Germany
By Annekatrin Hendel
Istiyad Ashbah (Ghost Hunting) – France / Palestine/ Switzerland / Qatar
By Raed Andoni
Forum (5)
For Ahkheem – USA
By Jeremy S. Levine and Landon Van Soest
Maman Colonelle (Mama Colonel) – Democratic Republic of Congo / France
By Dieudo Hamadi
El mar la mar – USA
By Joshua Bonnetta and J.P. Sniadecki
Mzis qalaqi (City of the Sun) – Georgia / USA / The Netherlands / Qatar
By Rati Oneli
Tigmi n Igren (House in the Fields) – Morocco / Qatar
By Tala Hadid
Generation (3)
Almost Heaven – United Kingdom
By Carol Salter
Shkola nomer 3 (School Number 3) – Ukraine / Germany
By Yelizaveta Smith, Georg Genoux
Soldado (Soldier) – Argentina
By Manuel Abramovich
Perspektive Deutsches Kino (1)
Eisenkopf (Ironhead) – Germany
By Tian Dong
All nominated films will celebrate their world premiere at the Berlinale 2017.
CAMBRIDGE, MA (January 26th, 2017) – The Hasty Pudding Theatricals, the oldest theatrical organization in the United States, welcomed Oscar winning actress, OCTAVIA SPENCER (who was nominated for a second Oscar earlier this week), to Harvard University, where she received her Woman of the Year award.
The Woman of the Year is the Hasty Pudding Theatricals oldest honor, bestowed annually on performers who have made lasting and impressive contributions to the world of entertainment. Established in 1951, Woman of the Year has been given to many notable and talented entertainers, including Meryl Streep, Debbie Reynolds, Mary Tyler Moore, Julia Roberts, Jodie Foster, Dame Helen Mirren, and most recently Kerry Washington.
Octavia Spencer, the Hasty Puddings 2017 Woman of the Year parades through Cambridge, Mass. (Photo credit: Getty Images)
The Woman of the Year festivities, presented by RELATED, began with a parade through the streets of Cambridge. The weather was uncharacteristically warm for Cambridge in January. Following the parade, the Hasty Pudding Theatricals hosted a celebratory roast for the actress at Farkas Hall, the Hasty Pudding’s historic home in the heart of Harvard Square since 1888. Before she was able to receive her pot, Ms. Spencer had to work her way off the “naughty list”, which she was placed on due to her roles in the Bad Santa movies. First she referenced her infamous pie scene from The Help by choosing one of three people to pie in the face. Her choice was a Hasty Pudding member dressed as Presidential Counselor, Kellyanne Conway. She also proved her fealty to her alma mater, Auburn University, by tackling an archrival, University of Alabama fan onstage. Due to her fondness for pink nail polish, she was charged with giving another Cast member a makeover with an oversize tube of nail polish. Finally, she rounded out her roast by singing a duet of James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good)” in reference to her role in Get on Up.
A press conference followed the presentation, which was the first to be live-streamed free and to the public via the Hasty Pudding’s Facebook (www.facebook.com/thehastypudding), as it happened. To close out the festivities, the Hasty Pudding Theatricals members performed several musical numbers from the group’s upcoming 169th production, Casino Evil.
The Hasty Pudding Theatricals will celebrate their 51st Man of the Year, RYAN REYNOLDS, on Friday February 3rd, 2017. The traditional roast and Pudding Pot ceremony will take place at Farkas Hall, as well as the Opening night of HPT 169: Casino Evil.
TO LIVE STREAM the Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ Man of Year press conference, viewers can tune in at 8:30 p.m. EST on Friday, February 3rd via the Hasty Pudding’s Facebook www.facebook.com/thehastypudding
TO PURCHASE TICKETS to the Hasty Pudding Theatricals’ 169th production, Casino Evil, contact the HPT Box Office at 617-495-5205 or order online at www.hastypudding.org/buy- tickets. The show will be performed at Harvard University’s historic Farkas Hall, located at 12 Holyoke Street, from February 3rd until March 5th. The company then travels to New York to perform at The Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College on March 10th and 11th (call 212-772-4448 for tickets), followed by performances on March 15th-17th at Hamilton City Hall in Bermuda.
ABOUT THE HASTY PUDDING INSTITUTE OF 1770
The Hasty Pudding Institute of 1770’s philanthropic mission is to provide educational and developmental support in all aspects of the performing arts for the underprivileged, to encourage satire and comedy, and to cultivate young talent around the world. The Institute is comprises the Hasty Pudding Club (the oldest social club in the United States), the Hasty Pudding Theatricals (the third oldest theater group in the world, after the Comédie-Française and the Oberammergau Passion Players) and the Harvard Krokodiloes (the foremost collegiate a cappella group in the United States). Over the last two centuries, it has grown into a premiere performing arts organization, a patron of the arts and comedy, and an advocate for satire and discourse as tools for change worldwide.
Nomination for the Glashütte Original Documentary Award at Berlin Film Festival
FOR AHKEEM (USA, 2017) is the coming-of- age story of an extraordinary young girl who never gives up as she strives to balance school, family, and trauma within the challenging world of being a Black teenager in America. This feature documentary by Jeremy Levine and Landon Van Soest will celebrate its world premiere at the section Forum of the Berlin International Film Festival and is nominated for the overall sections Glashütte Original Documentary Award. The prize will be presented during the official Award Ceremony in the Berlinale Palast. FOR AHKEEM is one of 16 documentaries that have been nominated for the Award.
Beginning one year before the fatal police shooting of a Black teenager in nearby Ferguson, Missouri, FOR AHKEEM is the coming-of-age story of Daje Shelton, a Black 17-year-old girl in North St. Louis. She fights for her future as she is placed in an alternative high school and navigates the marginalized neighborhoods, biased criminal justice policies and economic devastation that have set up many Black youth like her to fail. After she is expelled from her public high school, a juvenile court judge sends Daje to the court-supervised Innovative Concept Academy, which offers her one last chance to earn a diploma. Over two years we watch as Daje struggles to maintain focus in school, attends the funerals of friends killed around her, falls in love with a classmate named Antonio, and navigates a loving-but-tumultuous relationship with her mother.
As Antonio is drawn into the criminal justice system and events in Ferguson just four miles from her home seize the national spotlight, Daje learns she is pregnant and must contend with the reality of raising a young Black boy.
Through Daje’s intimate coming of age story, FOR AHKEEM illuminates challenges that many Black teenagers face in America today, and witnesses the strength, resilience, and determination it takes to survive.
Since 2006, when it introduced the GWFF Best First Feature Award, the Berlinale has been even more committed to supporting the next generation of film makers. The award is endowed with 50,000 Euros, donated by the GWFF (Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung von Film- und Fernsehrecht), a society dedicated to safeguarding film and television rights. The prize money is to be split between the producer and the director of the winning film. Additionally, the director will be awarded with a high-quality viewfinder as both a useful instrument and memorable trophy.
Festival Director Dieter Kosslick and the heads of the Competition, Panorama, Forum, Generation and Perspektive Deutsches Kino sections have nominated a total of 16 directorial debuts. The winners will be announced at the official Award Ceremony in the Berlinale Palast on February 18.
A three-person jury will decide on the GWFF Best First Feature Award:
Jayro Bustamante (Photo credit: berlinale.de)
Jayro Bustamante (Guatemala)
In 2015 with his debut feature, Ixcanul, Jayro Bustamante was the first Guatemalan director invited to participate in the Competition of the Berlinale. Cast with amateur actors from the region of the Kaqchikel Maya, the film won the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize. Ixcanul went on to screen at 60 other film festivals, including those in Karlovy Vary, Jerusalem, Telluride, Toronto, Biarritz, Cartagena, Mumbai, Guadalajara, Ghent, and San Sebastián, and took home 52 awards. What is more, Ixcanul was the second Guatemalan movie ever submitted for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Jayro Bustamante, who had previously studied in Paris and Rome, as well as directed commercials for Ogilvy & Matter, has also made a variety of short, documentary, and animated films. Currently he is working on his next two full-length feature films: Temblores and Los tenis de barrondo.
Clotilde Courau (Photo credit: Roch Armando)
Clotilde Courau (France)
Clotilde Courau began her acting career at 16 and performed on stage while still at acting school. For her screen debut in Jacques Doillon’s The Little Gangster, which ran in the Berlinale Competition in 1991, she received the European Film Award and her first nomination for a César. Ever since, Clotilde Courau has been an established star of French cinema. She is known for films such as Elisa (dir: Jean Becker, 1995); The Bait (dir: Bertrand Tavernier, 1995); the opening film of the Berlinale 2007, La vie en rose (dir: Olivier Dahan); and In the Shadow of Women (dir: Philippe Garrel, 2015). She has also starred in international productions, e.g. in Paul Mazursky’s The Pickle (1993) and Rod Lurie’s Deterrence (1999). Courau regularly performs on the stage: recently she played in “Piaf, l’être intime”, which she also directed. Her latest film Le Ciel attendra by Marie Castille Mention-Schaar will open in German cinemas in 2017.
Mahmoud Sabbagh (Photo credit: Ahmed Mater)
Mahmoud Sabbagh (Saudi Arabia)
Born in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) in 1983, author, director and producer Mahmoud Sabbagh presented his debut feature, Barakah Meets Barakah, in the Berlinale’s Forum section in 2016. There this remarkably humorous film won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury. It went on to be screened at, e.g., the Toronto International Film Festival, and ultimately entered the race – only the second Saudi Arabian film ever to do so – for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. For some years now, Sabbagh, who has a degree in documentary filmmaking from New York’s Columbia University, has been considered one of the pioneers of a new independent generation of filmmakers in his country. Among other works, he has directed and penned a documentary on the controversial poet Hamza Shehata as well as the highly-regarded online TV series Cash.
The following 16 films are nominated for the GWFF Best First Feature Award:
Competition(2)
Django – France
By Etienne Comar
With Reda Kateb, Cécile de France, Alex Brendemühl, Ulrich Brandhoff
Wilde Maus – Austria
By Josef Hader
With Josef Hader, Pia Hierzegger, Georg Friedrich, Jörg Hartmann, Denis Moschitto
Panorama(2)
Kaygı (Inflame) – Turkey
By Ceylan Özgün Özçelik
With Algı Eke, Özgür Çevik
Pieles(Skins) – Spain
By Eduardo Casanova
With Ana Polvorosa, Candela Peña, Carmen Machi, Macarena Gómez, Secun de la Rosa, Jon Kortajarena, Antonio Duran “Morris”, Eloi Costa
Forum(3)
Adiós entusiasmo(So Long Enthusiasm) – Argentina / Colombia
By Vladimir Durán
With Camilio Castiglione, Mariel Fernandez, Laila Maltz, Martina Juncadella, Verónica Llinás
Casa Roshell – Mexico / Chile
By Camila José Donoso
With Roshell Terranova, Liliana Alba, Lia García, Diego Alberico, Cristian Aravena
Motza el hayam (Low Tide) – Israel / France
By Daniel Mann
With Gal Hoyberger, Susanne Gschwendtner, Amnon Wolf, Eran Ivanir, Oleg Levin
Generation(5)
As duas Irenes(Two Irenes) – Brazil
By Fabio Meira
With Priscila Bittencourt, Isabela Torres
Butterfly Kisses – United Kingdom
By Rafael Kapelinski
With Theo Stevenson, Liam Whiting
Estiu 1993(Summer 1993) – Spain
By Carla Simón
With Laia Artigas, Paula Robles
Freak Show – USA
By Trudie Styler
With Alex Lawther, Abigail Breslin
Wallay – France / Burkina Faso / Qatar
By Berni Goldblat
With Makan Nathan Diarra, Ibrahim Koma
Perspektive Deutsches Kino (4)
Back for Good – Germany
By Mia Spengler
With Kim Riedle, Juliane Köhler, Leonie Wesselow, Nicki von Tempelhoff
Die beste aller Welten(The Best Of All Worlds) – Germany / Austria
By Adrian Goiginger
With Verena Altenberger, Jeremy Miliker, Lukas Miko, Michael Pink
Millennials – Germany
By Jana Bürgelin
With Anne Zohra Berrached, Leonel Dietsche, Jan Koslowski, Anna Herrmann
Die Tochter(Dark Blue Girl) – Germany
By Mascha Schilinski
With Helena Zengel, Karsten Antonio Mielke, Artemis Chalkidou
All nominated films will celebrate their world premiere at the Berlinale 2017.
Winners of Commissioning Grant, Episodic Storytelling Grant and Lab Fellowship Revealed
Park City, Utah — At a reception during the 2017 Sundance Film Festival today, the beneficiaries of $60,000 in grants from Sundance Institute and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation were revealed. Doron Weber, the Vice President of Programs at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, announced the winners: Michael Almereyda’s Marjorie Prime won the Feature Film Prize; Adam Benic’s Levittown (Sundance Institute | Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Episodic Storytelling Grant); Darcy Brislin and Dyana Winkler’s Bell (Sundance Institute | Sloan Lab Fellowship); and Jamie Dawson and Howard Gertler’s Untitled Smallpox Eradication Project (Sundance Institute | Sloan Commissioning Grant).
The reception was preceded by an all-female panel on women in science and their onscreen portrayals (or lack thereof), with discussion of half a dozen films about women in science that were supported and championed by Sloan, including the hit film Hidden Figures. These activities are part of the Sundance Institute Science-In-Film Initiative, which is made possible by a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute (Photo via Sundance.org)
“Support for these artists and their projects is more timely than ever,” said Keri Putnam, Executive Director of Sundance Institute, “Telling nuanced, human stories about science and technology is the most effective way to drive understanding of the forces that play such a major role in shaping our world today.”
“We are thrilled to partner with Sundance for the 14th year in a row and award the 2017 Sloan Feature Film Prize at Sundance to Michael Almereyda’s Marjorie
Doron Weber, Vice President at the Sloan Foundation (Photo via Sloan.org)
Prime,” said Doron Weber, Vice President at the Sloan Foundation. “With cool intelligence, wit and poignancy — allied to a deft directorial hand and a stellar cast — Almereyda explores the emotional landscape of artificial intelligence and dramatizes the emerging impact of intelligent machines on our most intimate human relationships. Sloan is also delighted to award three new screenwriting grants at Sundance focusing on scientists and inventors who helped shape the modern world as part of our “non-profit movie studio for science ” and a national development pipeline which has resulted in 20 feature films to date.”
Marjorie Prime: Winner of Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize
Marjorie Prime has been awarded the 2017 Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize and will receive a $20,000 cash award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. The Prize is selected by a jury of film and science professionals and presented to outstanding feature films focusing on science or technology as a theme, or depicting a scientist, engineer or mathematician as a major character.
Marjorie Prime / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Michael Almereyda) — In the near future—a time of artificial intelligence—86-year-old Marjorie has a handsome new companion who looks like her deceased husband and is programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. What would we remember, and what would we forget, if given the chance? Cast: Jon Hamm, Geena Davis, Lois Smith, Tim Robbins.
The jury presented the award to the film for its “imaginative and nuanced depiction of the evolving relationship between humans and technology, and its moving dramatization of how intelligent machines can challenge our notions of identity, memory and mortality”
As previously announced, this year’s Alfred P. Sloan jury members are: Heather Berlin, Tracy Drain, Nell Greenfieldboyce, Nicole Perlman and Jennifer Phang.
Previous Alfred P. Sloan Prize Winners include: Ciro Guerra, Embrace of the Serpent (2015); Mike Cahill, I Origins (2014); Andrew Bujalski, Computer Chess (2013); Jake Schreier and Christopher Ford, Robot & Frank (2012); Musa Syeed, Valley of Saints (2012); Mike Cahill and Brit Marling, Another Earth (2011); Diane Bell, Obselidia (2010); Max Mayer, Adam (2009); Alex Rivera, Sleep Dealer (2008); Shi-Zheng Chen, Dark Matter (2007); Andrucha Waddington and Elena Soarez, House of Sand (2006); Werner Herzog, Grizzly Man (2005); Shane Carruth, Primer (2004) and Marc Decena, Dopamine (2003). Several past winners have also been awarded Jury Awards at the Festival, including the Grand Jury Prize for Primer, the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award for Sleep Dealer and the Excellence in Cinematography Award for Obselidia.
To support the development of screenplays with science or technology, Sundance Institute and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation provide three different opportunities for screenwriters through a Commissioning Grant, a Lab Fellowship and an Episodic Storytelling Grant. All provide a cash award to support further development of a screenplay and to retain science advisors, along with overall creative and strategic feedback throughout development.
Sundance Institute / Sloan Commissioning Grant
Jamie Dawson and Howard Gertler will receive a $12,500 cash award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Previous winner’s include Alex Rivera’s La Vida Robot and Robert Edwards’s American Prometheus.
Untitled Smallpox Eradication Project (U.S.A.) / Jamie Dawson (Writer) and Howard Gertler (Producer)
In 1965, the World Health Organization orders a massive operation to eradicate the deadly smallpox virus from the human population. A ragtag band of very different personalities — from ashram hippies to tenacious scientists to tactical bureaucrats — clash and collaborate as they fight to pull off the impossible.
Jamie Dawson is a New York native and graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts Film Program. He has sold or optioned work to companies such as BCDF Pictures, Manage-ment/Dan Halsted, Formation Entertainment, and Permut Presentations. Projects in development include: The Rabbit Garden, his Black List script about controversial author Jerzy Kosinski (Being There) with producer David Permut and director Janusz Kaminski; and Swan Song, a television series based on the award-winning, cult classic novel by Robert McCammon (Boy’s Life).
Oscar-nominated producer Howard Gertler’s credits include David France’s How to Survive a Plague, which premiered in competition at Sundance 2012 and was released by IFC Films/Sundance Selects; in addition to the Academy Award nomination, the film collected New York Film Critics’ Circle, Peabody, IFP Gotham, IDA and GLAAD Media Awards. He’s both an IFP/Gotham and Film Independent Spirit Award winner, the latter of which he won for producing John Cameron Mitchell’s Shortbus, which premiered in the official selection in Cannes and was released worldwide. His upcoming films include John Cameron Mitchell’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s How to Talk to Girls at Parties, produced with See-Saw Films, Film4, Ingenious and Screen Yorkshire, to be released by A24 and Studiocanal UK in 2017.
Sundance Institute / Sloan Lab Fellowship
Darcy Brislin and Dyana Winkler will receive a $15,000 cash award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Previous winners include Logan Kibbens’s Operator, Michael Almereyda’s Experimenter, and Rob Meyer’s A Birder’s Guide to Everything.
Bell (U.S.A.) / Darcy Brislin (Co-Writer) and Dyana Winkler (Co-Writer)
At a pivotal point in history, hearing society began a golden age of communication with the advent of the telephone, while deaf society plummeted into a dark age with the eradication of sign language and spread of eugenics. At the helm of both trajectories stands a single man—Alexander Graham Bell. This project was the recipient of the 2016 Sundance Sloan Commissioning Grant.
A Boston native, Darcy Brislin studied Art History and French at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. She received an MFA in screenwriting and directing from EICAR, the International Film School of Paris, where she met co-writer Dyana Winkler. Currently based in Los Angeles, Brislin has written screenplays with Sundance award-winning director Ondi Timoner and has a feature film in development entitled Crown Chasers, with Maria Bello attached to produce.
Dyana Winkler is a writer, director, producer based in Brooklyn. Her most recent film, a feature-length documentary entitled United Skates, is currently in post production and has received awards from the Sundance Institute, New York State Council For the Arts, Fledgling Foundation, Film Independent, Chicken & Egg, IFP, and many more. Winkler met her writing partner, Darcy Brislin, in Paris, France, while completing their MFAs in screenwriting and directing, and discovered their shared passion for casting new light on historical figures. They went on to write their first screenplay Turing, and have teamed up for a second time with Bell, which was the recipient of the 2016 Sundance Sloan Commissioning Grant.
Sundance Institute / Sloan Episodic Storytelling Grant: Levittown
Adam Benic will receive a $12,500 cash award from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Levittown (U.S.A.) / Adam Benic (Writer, Creator)
A one-hour drama series about visionary WWII veteran, Lieutenant William Levitt, who on his 40th birthday broke ground on the largest private construction project in American history. Alongside his attorney father and architect brother, Will fights against an antiquated industry to fill the massive postwar housing need, thus building the world’s first mass-produced suburb, Levittown, Long Island.
Adam Benic is a Writers’ Assistant on TNT’s Animal Kingdom, and formerly a Showrunner’s Assistant on Hulu’s Shut Eye, CBS’s Extant, and a graduate of AFI’s MFA Screenwriting program. Adam hails from Long Island, New York where he grew up in a Levitt home.
The Sundance Film Festival®
The Sundance Film Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most groundbreaking films of the past three decades, including Boyhood, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station, Whiplash, Brooklyn, Twenty Feet from Stardom, Life Itself, The Cove, The End of the Tour, Blackfish, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Super Size Me, Dope, Little Miss Sunshine, sex, lies, and videotape, Reservoir Dogs, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, An Inconvenient Truth, Precious and Napoleon Dynamite. The Festival is a program of the non-profit Sundance Institute®. 2017 Festival sponsors to date include: Presenting Sponsors – Acura, SundanceTV, Chase Sapphire®, and Canada Goose; Leadership Sponsors – Adobe, AT&T, DIRECTV, Omnicom, Stella Artois® and YouTube; Sustaining Sponsors – American Airlines, Canon U.S.A., Inc., Creators League Studio, Daydream, Francis Ford Coppola Winery, GEICO, The Hollywood Reporter, IMDb, Jaunt, Kickstarter, Oculus and the University of Utah Health. Sundance Institute recognizes critical support from the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, and the State of Utah as Festival Host State. The support of these organizations helps offset the Festival’s costs and sustain the Institute’s year-round programs for independent artists. Look for the Official Sponsor seal at their venues at the Festival. sundance.org/festival
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 15 years, 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 San Francisco Film Society, the Black List, and Film Independent’s Producing Lab and Fast Track program and has helped develop such film projects as Morten Tyldum’s The Imitation Game, Mathew Brown’s The Man Who Knew Infinity, Michael Almereyda’s Experimenter, Rob Meyer’s A Birder’s Guide to Everything, Musa Syeed’s Valley of Saints, and Andrew Bujalski’s Computer Chess.
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 Nick Payne’s Incognito, Frank Basloe’s Please Continue, Deborah Zoe Laufer’s Informed Consent, Lucas Hnath’s Isaac’s Eye, and Anna Ziegler’s Photograph 51, recently on London’s West End.
The Foundation’s book program includes early stage support for Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, now a major motion picture that was awarded the San Francisco Film Society Sloan Science in Cinema Prize in 2016.
(Source: Press release courtesy of Sundance Media Relations)
HOLLYWOOD, Calif./PRNewswire/—Academy Award nominated actress, Angela Bassett, will be honored with the “Reel Icon” award by the American Black Film Institute, at their annual “New, Next, Now Legend” Oscar Week gala for her iconic roles and career achievement as one of cinemas all-time favorite actors, in a poll conducted by American Black Film Institute.
The event will be held at the fabulous Prestons-over-Hollywood at the Hollywood Loews Hotel, on Friday, February 24, and once again brings together actors, producers, writer/directors and top executives, as they celebrate and highlight the years’ accomplishments amid the backdrop of Hollywood’s most glamorous weekend.
ABFI’s theme for the evening “New, Next, Now, Legend” reflects its mission to preserve the cinematic legacy of African American films and films of the global Black experience, while nurturing its current crop of emerging talented writers, directors and artists who give voice to the continued enhancement of the Black experience on film.
“We are excited to bring the excitement and camaraderie of our previous Oscar festivities among industry professionals to Prestons-over-Hollywood, where we can pay well-deserved tribute to an iconic and well respected artist such as Angela Bassett, while fortifying partnerships, old and new, which is always the order of the day at the ABFI gala,” said American Black Film Institute Executive Director Gordon Kenney.
The ultra-chic venue which boasts a glass-enclosed wall-to-wall view of the iconic Hollywood sign and the Hollywood Hills, says it’s delighted to host Hollywood’s elite, in such an exclusive and elegant space, where the venues festivities at this time of year are normally reserved strictly for the Academy and its events. With the theme, “New, Next, Now, Legend,” other artists receiving awards include rising star of Survivor’s Remorse and Independence Day 2, Jessie T. Usher, HBO breakout star Issa Rae, creator and executive Producer of HBO’s hit “Insecure,” Golden Globe nominated director Barry Jenkins, Moonlight’s Naomie Harris, and emerging screen talent Janelle Monae, whose turns in both “Hidden Figures” and “Moonlight” have been garnering critical praise, as a rising screen talent worth watching.
The American Black Film Institute is a non-profit cinematic arts foundation, whose goal is to preserve and promote the legacy of diverse stories of people of color on film, while enhancing their financial viability and broadening their success. With Academy Awards weekend as the backdrop, and a new crop of stars on the rise, the word is out that the 2017 ABFI gala promises to be among the events not to be missed.
And so we put goldfish in the pool.Wins Grand Jury Prize
Park City, Utah — Winners of the 2017 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 68 shorts selected from 8,985 submissions, went toAnd so we put goldfish in the pool., written and directed by Makoto Nagahisa. Full video of the ceremony is at youtube.com/sff. The Short Film program is presented by YouTube.
This year’s Short Film jurors are Shirley Kurata, David Lowery and Patton Oswalt.
Short Film awards winners in previous years include Thunder Road by Jim Cummings, World of Tomorrow by 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 Blossom by 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 at over 50 theaters in the U.S. and Canada each year, and short films and filmmakers take part in regional Master Classes geared towards supporting emerging shorts-makers in several cities. Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program, supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and in partnership with The Guardian and The New York Times’ Op-Docs, provides grants to makers of documentary shorts around the world, including new filmmakers in Cuba featured in a Special Event program at this year’s Festival.
2017 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Jury Awards:
The Short Film Grand Jury Prize was awarded to:And so we put goldfish in the pool. / Japan (Director and screenwriter: Makoto Nagahisa) — One summer day, 400 goldfish were found in the swimming pool of a secondary school. This is a story about the four 15-year-old girls who put them there.
The Short Film Jury Award: U.S. Fiction was presented to: Lucia, Before and After / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Anu Valia) — After traveling 200 miles, a young woman waits out Texas’s state-mandated 24-hour waiting period before her abortion can proceed.
The Short Film Jury Award: International Fiction was presented to: And The Whole Sky Fit In The Dead Cow’s Eye / Chile, U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Francisca Alegría) — Emeteria is visited by the ghost of her patrón, Teodoro. She believes he has come to take her to the afterlife—but he has more devastating news.
The Short Film Jury Award: Non-fiction was presented to: Alone / U.S.A. (Director: Garrett Bradley) — This investigation into the layers of mass incarceration and its shaping of the modern black American family is seen through the eyes of a single mother in New Orleans, Louisiana.
The Short Film Jury Award: Animation was presented to: Broken – The Women’s Prison at Hoheneck / Germany (Directors: Volker Schlecht, Alexander Lahl, Screenwriters: Alexander Lahl, Max Mönch) — This animated documentary about Hoheneck, the main women’s prison in former East Germany, is based on original interviews with former inmates. It’s a film about political imprisonment, forced labor and enormous profits on both sides of the Iron Curtain.
A Special Jury Award for Cinematography was presented to: Dadyaa — The Woodpeckers of Rotha / Nepal, France (Directors and screenwriters: Pooja Gurung, Bibhusan Basnet, Cinematographer: Chintan Rajbhandari)— Atimaley and Devi’s village is haunted by memories. When a dear friend leaves the village without saying goodbye, the old couple faces a dilemma: keep living with the memories or leave the village for good?
A Short Film Special Jury Award for Editing was presented to: Laps / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Charlotte Wells, editor Blair McClendon) — On a routine morning, a woman on a crowded New York City subway is sexually assaulted in plain sight.
The Sundance Film Festival®
The Sundance Film Festival has introduced global audiences to some of the most groundbreaking films of the past three decades, including Boyhood, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station, Whiplash, Brooklyn, Twenty Feet from Stardom, Life Itself, The Cove, The End of the Tour, Blackfish, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, Super Size Me, Dope, Little Miss Sunshine, sex, lies, and videotape, Reservoir Dogs, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, An Inconvenient Truth, Precious and Napoleon Dynamite. The Festival is a program of the non-profit Sundance Institute®. 2017 Festival sponsors include: Presenting Sponsors – Acura, SundanceTV, Chase Sapphire®, and Canada Goose; Leadership Sponsors – Adobe, AT&T, DIRECTV, Omnicom, Stella Artois® and YouTube; Sustaining Sponsors – American Airlines, Canon U.S.A., Inc., Creators League Studio, Daydream, Francis Ford Coppola Winery, GEICO, The Hollywood Reporter, IMDb, Jaunt, Kickstarter, Oculus and the University of Utah Health. Sundance Institute recognizes critical support from the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development, and the State of Utah as Festival Host State. The support of these organizations helps offset the Festival’s costs and sustain the Institute’s year-round programs for independent artists. Look for the Official Sponsor seal at their venues at the Festival. sundance.org/festival
Sundance Institute
Founded in 1981 by Robert Redford, Sundance Institute is a nonprofit organization that provides and preserves the space for artists in film, theatre, and new media to create and thrive. The Institute’s signature Labs, granting, and mentorship programs, dedicated to developing new work, take place throughout the year in the U.S. and internationally. The Sundance Film Festival and other public programs connect audiences to artists in igniting new ideas, discovering original voices, and building a community dedicated to independent storytelling. Sundance Institute has supported such projects as Beasts of the Southern Wild, Fruitvale Station, Sin Nombre, The Invisible War, The Square, Dirty Wars, Spring Awakening, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder and Fun Home.
La La Land continues its strong showing on the awards circuit with a whopping 14 Oscar nominations tying the all-time nominations record 0f 14 set by All About Eve (1950) and tied first by Titanic (1997).
Meryl Streep receives a record-breaking 2oth Oscar nmination for her role in Florence Foster Jenkins (Photo via imdb)
Legendary Hollywood actress, Meryl Streep, received a record-breaking 20th Oscar nomination for her role as a deluded singer in Florence Foster Jenkins. Ms. Streep breaks her own record of 19 nominations.
O.J.: Made in America, a Documentary Feature nominee, is the longest film ever nominated for an Academy Award with a run time of 7 hours and 47 minutes.
La La Land is the first musical with original music and story to receive a Best Picture nomination since All That Jazz (1979) and the second since Anchors Aweigh (1945).
Denzel Washington is the seventh individual to receive Acting and Best Picture nominations for the same film, joining Warren Beatty, Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio and Bradley Cooper.
With his Best Picture nomination for Manchester by the Sea, Matt Damon becomes only the third individual to be nominated in the Acting, Writing and Best Picture categories. The others are Warren Beatty and George Clooney.
With their Best Picture nominations for Moonlight, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner become the first individual producers to have nominations in the Best Picture category in four consecutive years.
In the acting categories, seven individuals are first-time nominees (Andrew Garfield, Mahershala Ali, Lucas Hedges, Dev Patel, Isabelle Huppert, Ruth Negga and Naomie Harris). Six of the nominees are previous acting winners (Denzel Washington, Jeff Bridges,Natalie Portman, Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Octavia Spencer).
The 89th Academy Awards will be announced in the Dolby Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center, Sunday, February 26, 2017. Jimmy Kimmel is scheduled to host and the program will air on ABC at 7PM EST. Without further ado,
The Nominees are:
Actor in a Leading Role
Nominees
Casey Affleck
Manchester by the Sea
Andrew Garfield
Hacksaw Ridge
Ryan Gosling
La La Land
Viggo Mortensen
Captain Fantastic
Denzel Washington
Fences
Actor in a Supporting Role
Nominees
Mahershala Ali
Moonlight
Jeff Bridges
Hell or High Water
Lucas Hedges
Manchester by the Sea
Dev Patel
Lion
Michael Shannon
Nocturnal Animals
Actress in a Leading Role
Nominees
Isabelle Huppert
Elle
Ruth Negga
Loving
Natalie Portman
Jackie
Emma Stone
La La Land
Meryl Streep
Florence Foster Jenkins
Actress in a Supporting Role
Nominees
Viola Davis
Fences
Naomie Harris
Moonlight
Nicole Kidman
Lion
Octavia Spencer
Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams
Manchester by the Sea
Animated Feature Film
Nominees
Kubo and the Two Strings
Travis Knight and Arianne Sutner
Moana
John Musker, Ron Clements and Osnat Shurer
My Life as a Zucchini
Claude Barras and Max Karli
The Red Turtle
Michael Dudok de Wit and Toshio Suzuki
Zootopia
Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer
Cinematography
Nominees
Arrival
Bradford Young
La La Land
Linus Sandgren
Lion
Greig Fraser
Moonlight
James Laxton
Silence
Rodrigo Prieto
Costume Design
Nominees
Allied
Joanna Johnston
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Colleen Atwood
Florence Foster Jenkins
Consolata Boyle
Jackie
Madeline Fontaine
La La Land
Mary Zophres
Directing
Nominees
Arrival
Denis Villeneuve
Hacksaw Ridge
Mel Gibson
La La Land
Damien Chazelle
Manchester by the Sea
Kenneth Lonergan
Moonlight
Barry Jenkins
Documentary (Feature)
Nominees
Fire at Sea
Gianfranco Rosi and Donatella Palermo
I Am Not Your Negro
Raoul Peck, Rémi Grellety and Hébert Peck
Life, Animated
Roger Ross Williams and Julie Goldman
O.J.: Made in America
Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow
13th
Ava DuVernay, Spencer Averick and Howard Barish
Documentary (Short Subject)
Nominees
Extremis
Dan Krauss
4.1 Miles
Daphne Matziaraki
Joe’s Violin
Kahane Cooperman and Raphaela Neihausen
Watani: My Homeland
Marcel Mettelsiefen and Stephen Ellis
The White Helmets
Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara
Film Editing
Nominees
Arrival
Joe Walker
Hacksaw Ridge
John Gilbert
Hell or High Water
Jake Roberts
La La Land
Tom Cross
Moonlight
Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon
Foreign Language Film
Nominees
Land of Mine
Denmark
A Man Called Ove
Sweden
The Salesman
Iran
Tanna
Australia
Toni Erdmann
Germany
Makeup and Hairstyling
Nominees
A Man Called Ove
Eva von Bahr and Love Larson
Star Trek Beyond
Joel Harlow and Richard Alonzo
Suicide Squad
Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson
Music (Original Score)
Nominees
Jackie
Mica Levi
La La Land
Justin Hurwitz
Lion
Dustin O’Halloran and Hauschka
Moonlight
Nicholas Britell
Passengers
Thomas Newman
Music (Original Song)
Nominees
Audition (The Fools Who Dream)
from La La Land; Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
Can’t Stop The Feeling
from Trolls; Music and Lyric by Justin Timberlake, Max Martin and Karl Johan Schuster
City of Stars
from La La Land; Music by Justin Hurwitz; Lyric by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul
The Empty Chair
from Jim: The James Foley Story; Music and Lyric by J. Ralph and Sting
How Far I’ll Go
from Moana; Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Best Picture
Nominees
Arrival
Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Aaron Ryder and David Linde, Producers
Fences
Scott Rudin, Denzel Washington and Todd Black, Producers
Hacksaw Ridge
Bill Mechanic and David Permut, Producers
Hell or High Water
Carla Hacken and Julie Yorn, Producers
Hidden Figures
Donna Gigliotti, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Pharrell Williams and Theodore Melfi, Producers
La La Land
Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz and Marc Platt, Producers
Lion
Emile Sherman, Iain Canning and Angie Fielder, Producers
Manchester by the Sea
Matt Damon, Kimberly Steward, Chris Moore, Lauren Beck and Kevin J. Walsh, Producers
Moonlight
Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner, Producers
Production Design
Nominees
Arrival
Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Paul Hotte
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Hail, Caesar!
Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
La La Land
Production Design: David Wasco; Set Decoration: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco
Passengers
Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena
Short Film (Animated)
Nominees
Blind Vaysha
Theodore Ushev
Borrowed Time
Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj
Pear Cider and Cigarettes
Robert Valley and Cara Speller
Pearl
Patrick Osborne
Piper
Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer
Short Film (Live Action)
Nominees
Ennemis Intérieurs
Sélim Azzazi
La Femme et le TGV
Timo von Gunten and Giacun Caduff
Silent Nights
Aske Bang and Kim Magnusson
Sing
Kristof Deák and Anna Udvardy
Timecode
Juanjo Giménez
Sound Editing
Nominees
Arrival
Sylvain Bellemare
Deepwater Horizon
Wylie Stateman and Renée Tondelli
Hacksaw Ridge
Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright
La La Land
Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan
Sully
Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman
Sound Mixing
Nominees
Arrival
Bernard Gariépy Strobl and Claude La Haye
Hacksaw Ridge
Kevin O’Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace
La La Land
Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steve A. Morrow
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Mac Ruth
Visual Effects
Nominees
Deepwater Horizon
Craig Hammack, Jason Snell, Jason Billington and Burt Dalton
Doctor Strange
Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli and Paul Corbould
The Jungle Book
Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon
Kubo and the Two Strings
Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean and Brad Schiff
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel and Neil Corbould
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Nominees
Arrival
Screenplay by Eric Heisserer
Fences
Screenplay by August Wilson
Hidden Figures
Screenplay by Allison Schroeder and Theodore Melfi
Lion
Screenplay by Luke Davies
Moonlight
Screenplay by Barry Jenkins; Story by Tarell Alvin McCraney
Writing (Original Screenplay)
Nominees
Hell or High Water
Written by Taylor Sheridan
La La Land
Written by Damien Chazelle
The Lobster
Written by Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou
Manchester by the Sea
Written by Kenneth Lonergan
20th Century Women
Written by Mike Mills
Thank you to Oscars Producers Jennifer Todd and Mike DeLuca!
Pictured left to right, Oscars Producers Jennifer Todd and Mike DeLuca. (Photo courtesy of Oscars.org)
