News

We continue to look back at all of our favorite blog posts from each month this year. In Part 1, we already took a look at a few of the highlights of what the organization has been up to, as well as look at the first half of the year with the blog. So let’s not waste any time and get into the fun stuff with our favorite posts from the second half of the year.

July

The Must-List: Seven Films About Summer Vacations Gone Off the Rails

The summer heat got to us, and had us thinking of holidays gone array. Some stone cold classics here, that can at least put you in a summer state of mind in the dead of winter.

August

Live Read Recap: Zoe Lister-Jones’ “Wayne’s World” Electrifies the Wallis

We had a wild time with our Waynes World live read. There was a live band,...

Over five weeks, filmmakers from across the world converged for the Global Media Makers (Gmm) LA Residency a cultural diplomacy initiative of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau for Educational and Cultural Affairs (Eca). Held annually in June, our newest Fellows were given the opportunity to meet with leading U.S. industry professionals and develop their latest film and television projects. During this time, they visited some of the city’s most renowned professional hubs while still having the time to visit some of its most iconic landmarks.

One of the most popular programs of the LA Residency is the iPhone Collaborative Workshop. In its eighth iteration, five Fellows from Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America were selected to create a one-minute short film about Los Angeles using an iPhone 15 Pro. Each Fellow was paired with a local Film Independent Fellow, who acted as their creative producer. With...

The Sundance Institute has set 10 fellows for its inaugural Producers Intensive, taking place virtually from October 21-22.

The artists and projects selected on the nonfiction side are Rachel Dickinson (Let the Little Light Shine), Alba Jaramillo (La Flaca), Rajeswari Ramanathan (The 1980 Civil Case), Chris Renteria (Chain of Rocks) and Shannon Sun-Higginson (You Lucky You Got a Mamma). Those chosen for the Fiction fellowship are Beverley Gordon (Experience), Lauren López de Victoria (forward), Breanne Thomas (In the Jackpot), Jesy Odio (Molokai’ Bound) and Ashley Chrisman (The Homesick).

The Producers Intensive was designed through a collaboration between Sundance’s Documentary Film and Feature Film Programs, as a means of providing creative, strategic and professional development support for emerging fiction and nonfiction producers from traditionally underrepresented communities.

The two-day program features interactive group sessions and round table conversations on topics including the producer/director collaboration, pitching, legal & business affairs, packaging and financing, and budgeting.

Frieze and Deutsche Bank announced the winner for their second annual Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award, a $10,000 prize awarded to an emerging L.A.-based filmmaker.

The award, presented in association with Endeavor Content and Ghetto Film School, went to John Rizkallah, while Jane Chow earned the initiative’s first-ever audience award, which was voted for by the public. The news was announced during a virtual ceremony, during which all 10 of the initiative’s fellows — Tayo Amos, Alyse Arteaga, Giselle Bonilla, Jeremy Burkett, Chow, Ashley Chrisman, David Liu, Rizkallah, Andres Vazquez and Ciara Zoe[/link] — had their films presented.

“John Rizkallah and Jane Chow’s unique, deeply personal films that highlight their respective communities, made under challenging Covid-19 conditions, showcase the caliber of the next generation of innovative storytellers,” said Dan Guando, Endeavor Content’s senior vice president of film development and production, while announcing the winners. “We salute...

Exclusive: The Deutsche Bank Frieze Los Angeles Film Award, in collaboration with Endeavor Content and the acclaimed non-profit academy Ghetto Film School (Gfs), has announced its 2021 shortlisted fellows and jury.

Now in its second year, the prize provides a platform and development program for emerging Los Angeles-based filmmakers aged 18 – 34. The initiative offers ten aspiring filmmakers the opportunity to embark on a rigorous four-month program at Gfs, culminating at Frieze Los Angeles this year.

Selected from an open call, the shortlisted fellows for the 2021 fellowship are as follows: Tayo Amos, Alyse Arteaga, Giselle Bonilla, Jeremy Burkett, Jane Chow, Ashley Chrisman, David Liu, Ciara Zoe, John Rizkallah and Andrés Vázquez. Tasked with responding to a brief to explore the ocean as a framework for

thinking about the complex environment of Los Angeles, the fellows produced individual short films that will be screened on the occasion of Frieze Los Angeles 2021.

The winner will...

Exclusive: Danni Conner, Trevite Willis, Avril Speaks, Adetoro Makinde, Letitia Guillory, Ashley Chrisman, and Jessica Funches has been named the 2020 fellows for The Blackhouse Foundation’s 2nd annual Multicultural Producers Lab. The program highlights seven accomplished Black female producers responsible for fiction and nonfiction projects, showcasing the best-of-the-best in film and television.

Blackhouse Foundation launched the program last year with a mission to expand the number of multicultural production companies and executives, to increase their pipeline of content, and to support the sustainability of mid-career independent producers and the scale at which their projects and businesses operate.

In light of the current global pandemic program, this year’s program will consist of virtual symposiums, online workshops, and feedback sessions. Starting on Feb. 5th through the 9th, the 2020 fellows will have the opportunity to engage in in-person industry meetings and a pitch fest to showcase their projects to film studios, networks,...