A week of Film, Video, Animation and Theatre work by students Of UCLA’S School of Theater, Film and Television, presented at UCLA’s James Bridges Theatre, Freud Playhouse and The DGA. Professor Myrl A. Schreibman is the Director of this year’s celebration of Emerging Artist. For more information on the festival, visit www.tft.ucla.edu/festival.
The UCLA School of Theater, Film & Television encompasses a rich history of emerging artists for the stage and the screen.
Beginning in the 1960’s, UCLA students within the Theater Arts Department could specialize in either Theater or Motion Pictures. Walking around campus fifty years ago, you might have seen student director Francis Ford Coppola (“The Godfather”) and Rob Reiner (“A Few Good Men”) pouring over storyboards, or cinematographer Dean Cundey (“Jurassic Park”) setting up a mid-shot, while producers Frank Marshall (“The Bourne Trilogy”) and Mike Medavoy (“Zodiac”) labored to pare down the budgets of their thesis films. You may have walked into the television studio and watched Lou Horvitz (Oscar Telecast, Grammy Awards) sitting in the control booth. You may even have seen the likes of Judy Kaye (“Mama Mia”), John Rubenstein (“Children of a Lesser God”) or Tom Skerrit (“Picket Fences”) rehearsing a monologue in the newly designed sculpture garden. Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison met while students in the department. Teachers included such masters as Jean Renoir, Stanley Kramer, Josef Von Sternberg, Julius Epstein, Norman Corwin and Arthur B. Friedman. There are too many to mention in the ensuing decades.
In the 1970’s and 1980’s the re-named Department of Film and Television came under the purview of the College of Fine Arts. Roaming the halls during this period you might have crossed paths with student writers Shane Black (“Lethal Weapon”), Roy Pool (“Armeggedon”),
and Gloria Katz (“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”), mulling over dialogue and fine-tuning sub-plots. Perhaps you would have passed a classroom full of showrunners in the making, young students who went on to create episodes of “Cheers”, “The Simpsons”, “The X-Files”, “Alias”, “Frasier”, “Everybody Loves Raymond”, “Sex And The City”, “The Office” and “Gossip Girl”. If you’d peered into the open doorway of a post-production suite, you would have seen student editors Craig Kitson (“8 Mile”), and Pietro Scalia (“Black Hawk Down”) hunched over, hard at work. Or if you visited a soundstage you may have seen Tim Robbins (Shawshank Redemption) getting ready to do a scene with Mariska Hargitay (“Law and Order SVU”).
In the early 1990’s the College of Fine Arts was restructured into two schools: the School of the Arts, and the School of Theater, Film and Television. Since then, directors Alexander Payne (“Sideways) and Catherine Hardwicke (“Twilight”) have shot their thesis films here, collaborating with their fellow students, perhaps even working off of material provided by the likes of writers such as Lance Dustin Black (“Milk”) and Laeta Kalogridis (“Shutter Island”).
The School of Theater, Film & Television aims to provide the highest possible standard of professional training while also encouraging an independent spirit of creative innovation, personal vision, and social responsibility to enlighten, engage and inspire a change for a better world. The UCLA Festival of New Creative Work is your first opportunity to see this philosophy in action.
Please join us for our week long festival of showcases and screenings and experience the future potential of our emerging artists.
Opening Night- Friday, June 3, 2011 James Bridges Theater
Alumnus of the Year: Director Allison Anders
Opening Night of the 2011 UCLA Festival of New Creative Work kicks off with some of the top narrative, documentary, and animated films coming out of the School of Theater, Film & Television. It offers up a selection of what will follow during the week, which culminates in the Director’s Spotlight night on June 9. In addition to the opening night screenings, student voted awards will be presented to graduate and undergraduate work in a variety of categories, such as Excellence in Screenwriting, Art Direction and Editing.
Honoree Allison Anders is a Los Angeles-based independent filmmaker. While a student at UCLA in 1983, Anders won the Alan Jacobson Award for best first film for “Nobody Home”. Also in 1983, with a chance to study under her mentor Wim Wenders on the set of his acclaimed film “Paris ,Texas” Anders was granted a President’s Undergraduate Fellowship. She graduated UCLA in 1986, summa cum laude, with the first prize in the Samuel Goldwyn Award for Screenwriting, and the first ever Nicholl Fellowship for Screenwriting from The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. In 1992 Anders was awarded the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best New Director. In 1995 she was the recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant” and in 2002 she won a George Foster Peabody Award for distinguished achievement and meritorious service for her semi-autobiographical film “Things Behind the Sun”.
From the release of her acclaimed first feature, “Border Radio” (1989; co-written and co-directed with Kurt Voss), Anders has established a body of work that is innovative in its visual and sound style and marked by ensemble acting and strong women characters. Her films as writer-director also include “Gas Food Lodging” (1992), “Mi Vida Loca” (1993), “Grace of My Heart” (1996), and “Sugar Town” (1999; co-directed with Kurt Voss). Anders’ films have premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival and at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival, and retrospectives of her work have been held in Thessaloniki, Greece; Sheffield, England; Hof International Film Festival, Germany, and at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival in the Czech Republic. She is also a Distinguished Professor at UCSB where she teaches courses including rock ‘n’ roll films, autobiographic writing, and music supervision one quarter every year. Anders most recently directed an episode of the acclaimed TNT series “Southland” and is currently in production on “Strutter”, a film co-directed with Kurt Voss, which completes their “Border Radio” trilogy. Mother of 3 grown children, Anders lives in Altadena, CA with her partner, writer Terry Graham.
Opening Night Lineup
Spider Fang!- Dir. Justin Perkinson- 2min
Rafi Baby- Dir. Christine Yuan- 9min
Stay Still- Dir. David Kelly- 17 min
The Deep End- Dir. Meredith Koch- 12min
Foot Soldier- Jon Crawford- 20min
Heart- Dir. Erick Oh- 8min
Metered- Dir. Jeff Bourg- 11min
I Love You Like Crazy- Dir. Tess Sweet- 23min
Fran’s Daughter- Dir. Eric Martin- 13min
Saturday, June 4, 2011 James Bridges Theater
Out of the Archive: Recent Work from the MIAS Program
The long-term survival and accessibility of our moving image heritage is dependent upon the work of archival professionals who preserve, restore, document, curate, and exhibit these materials. Out of the Archive will feature creative and preservation work by current students and recent graduates of the UCLA M.A. program in Moving Image Archive Studies (MIAS). Current students will present independent creative work and excerpts from their portfolios, representing their professional interests and achievements in the MIAS program. In a special segment of the program, recent MIAS alumni now working as professional archivists will show elements of their preservation work on the Hearst Metrotone News collection, one of the largest newsreel collections in the world, which is part of the collection of the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
The MIAS M.A. program at UCLA is offered jointly by the Cinema and Media Studies faculty in the School of Theater, Film & Television and the Department of Information Studies in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, in cooperation with the UCLA Film & Television Archive. This highly selective program was the first graduate degree established in the U.S. to educate professionals and academic scholars in this rapidly expanding field. MIAS students deal with the challenges of ever-changing technology, the complex legal and policy environment, and the evolving cultural contexts and expectations surrounding moving image archiving. Students also have the opportunity to put their knowledge into practice in practicum experiences at over 30 industry sites and cultural institutions in the U.S. and worldwide.
Design Showcase West
Saturday, June 4 2 p.m. to 5 p.m, Freud Playhouse, UCLA
The ninth annual Design Showcase West held at UCLA, the only national entertainment design showcase on the West Coast, features the work of students graduating from the nation’s top university design programs, including UCLA; California Institute of the Arts; UC San Diego; NYU; University of Missouri, Kansas City; UC Davis; the University of Texas, Austin; UC Irvine; and the North Carolina School of the Arts. Exhibits range from costume design to set, sound and lighting design.
Design Showcase West is hosted by the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television; the Costume Designers Guild, Local 892; the United Scenic Artists, Local 829; and the Art Directors Guild, Local 800. The Showcase is attended by entertainment producers, directors and A-list designers who are looking for new talent.
Admission is free. Parking is available in Lot 3 on a pay-by-space basis
For more information, please visit www.designshowcasewest.com or call (310) 825-2261
Animation Prom
5:00 PM and 8:30pm
James Bridges Theater, Melnitz Hall
on Saturday, June 4, 2011
Premiere Screening at *5:00 PM * All honors and awards will be presented at this screening only.
Outstanding Contribution to Animation Award: June Foray
Student Awards will be presented: Dan McLaughlin Award (Best in Show), Best Story, Best Animation and Best Art Direction
For almost 60 years, the UCLA Animation Workshop has promoted its “one person, one film” philosophy, allowing animators of all types to realize their concepts independently. The Workshop works in all mediums (be it pencils, clay, or Maya), and offers courses in all aspects of the production of an animated film. The Walter Lantz Digital Animation Studio serves as the analog-and-digital research and production facility for thesis students.
Recent graduates have been nominated for numerous Oscar and Annie awards, the latter conferred by the International Animated Film Society (ASIFA). In 2007, Gil Kenan ’02 was nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar for his directorial debut “Monster House”, and “The Simpsons Movie”, directed by Festival 2009 honoree, David Silverman, collected seven Annie nominations. Students have also been honored: Joaquin Baldwin was nominated for an Annie in 2009 for” Sebastian’s Voodoo”, and Emud Mokhberi was a member of the team that directed the Oscar-nominated romp “Oktapodi”. A landmark event for 2009 was the release of the Oscar-nominated “9”, produced by directors Tim Burton and Timur Bekmambetov (“Wanted”), an expanded feature adaptation of the Student Oscar-nominated short thesis film created by Shane Acker ’04 in the Animation Workshop. Other recent stars of UCLA’s Animation program include Korean animator Erick Oh. Oh’s exquisite work has been introduced and nominated at Student Academy Awards, Annecy Animation Festival, Hiroshima Animation Festival, Zagreb Animation Festival, SIGGRAPH, Anima Mundi, Ars Electronica, LACMA Director’s Night, and numerous other film festivals. An MFA from UCLA’s film program, Erick is currently at Pixar Animation Studios.
Voice actor, animator Fred Tatasciore (known for voicing the Hulk in the Ultimate Avengers, Next Avengers and Hulk Vs and “8” in the Tim Burton produced Shane Aker feature “9”.) Devin Uzan-Animator and Lead digital compositor at Rhythm and Hues (TFT MFA 1999). 
Known for “the Incredible Hulk”, Pirates Of the Carribean, 3″, “Night At The Museum”, “I, Robot”, “Spiderman”). The sometimes animation team is best known at UCLA for their wack DUCKY shorts.
Called the First Lady of cartoon voices, honoree June Foray is as legendary as the producers with whom she has worked: Walt Disney, Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, Walter Lantz, Hanna and Barbera, and Jay Ward. Working in radio, stage, television, and film, she was put under contract by Capitol Records to record children’s albums with Mel Blanc and Stan Freberg. Heard by Walt Disney, she was hired to be the voice of Lucifer the cat in “Cinderella”, an Indian squaw in “Peter Pan”, Witch Hazel and innumerable shows. Warners appreciating her talents hired her for dozens of shots including Tweety’s Granny and Yosemite Sam’s and Daffy Duck’s wives. (Witch Hazel again!) For Chuck Jones she voiced Cindy Lou Who in “The Grinch”, Jane Kangaroo in “Horton Hears A Who”, Raggedy Ann in ” The Great Santa Claus Caper” and “The Pumpkin Who Couldn’t Smile.” She voiced the mother in “Cricket In Times Square”, Talky Tina in the “Twilight Zone” and played in all three Rudyard Kipling shorts.
Foray then went on to voice Jokey Smurf and Grammi Gumi. Her voices can be heard in other features such as “Looney Tunes Back In Action”, “Thumbalina”, “Treasures Of The Lost Lamp”, “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and “Space Jam”. She is the voice of Grandma Fa in Disney’s “Mulan” for which she received a Grammy Nomination for her sing-a-long C.D. She appeared again in “Mulan II.”
But most of all people identify June as Rocky, the flying squirrel. She also voice Natasha and Nell from the “Bullwinkle” series and performed Rocky in the feature film “The Adventures Of Rocky And Bullwinkle” produced by Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Films and Universal.
June has received numerous awards including a Star in the Walk of Fame, July 7, 2000 and has been invited to speak all over the world. She received an International Award for her contribution to the Art of Animation at the 2004 Hiroshima Animation Festival, a PEGBOARD award in Belgium and is proud of the JUNE FORAY award given every year by ASIFA HOLLYWOOD, for her contribution to animation. Also as part of a tribute to Jay Ward, she was honored at the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City.
From 1977 – 2005, June was on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences where she chaired the student Academy Awards and co-chaired the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch. She also served on the International Board of Women in Animation.
June Foray is also a published writer and narrator on “C.D.Tall And Small Tales” A for children and she garnered a Festival Director’s award for writing, producing and narrating an animated short, You Can’t Teach An Old Dog New Tricks. ” Currently she is in on the Advisory Board of Chuck Jones Center for Creativity and the author of two books: “Perverse, Adverse And Pottenverse and Did You Grow Up With Me Too?” And, oh by the way, she is still working!
# UCLA Raw #1
Sunday June 5, 2011 James Bridges Theater
Festival continues with a program of films and videos showcasing the diverse talents of our student filmmakers.
Program A: FAMILY SUNDAY MORNING 10AM- 12:30 PM
1. In a Jam: 2 min
2. Fatboy: 15 min
3. Take Your Child to Work Day: 7 min
4. An American Heart: 10 min
5. Level 33: 9 min
6. Left and Gone: 17 min
7. Right Tree, Wrong Apple: 3 min
8. My Education: 11 min
9. Mushroom Hunt: 16 min
10. El Bolerito: 8 min
11. Mom’s Life in Film School: 32 min
Program B: LOVE/ROMANCE SUNDAY 12:45 PM-2:30 PM
1. Tell Me a Memory: 9 min
2. Sea Sick: 15 min
3. A Healthy Relationship: 10 min 15 secs
4. Love Analysis: 1 min
5. Anger Management: 11 min
6. Lost and Found: 3 min 40 secs
7. The Violet Crumble: 16 min
8. An Ode to Demons- 4 min 40 secs
9. Almost There: 17 min
10. Armor: 3 min
11. The Love Story: 2 min
12. Away From the Ranch: 18 min
UCLA Raw #2 Sunday, June 5, 2011 James Bridges Theater
Program C: FANTASY SUNDAY 7:30-9:15 PM
1. ARAX: 9 min
2. Little Solider: 14 min
3. The Girl in the Flammable Skirt: 25 min
4. Should I eat him?: 4:00 min
5. Nomads: 5 min 48 secs experimental doc
6. Cure: 7 min 40 secs
7. Scape Ore Swamp: 14 min
8. Once Around: 1 min 20 secs
9. Ghost of the Sad Clown: 10 min
10. Demon’s Dilemma: 14 min
Program D: CRIME: SUNDAY 9:30-11:10 PM
1. Bloomkampf: 6 min 47 secs
2. The Perfect Gentleman: 25 min
3. 64 – 4 min
4. Audition- 5 min 7 secs
5. Stay Still: 17 min
6. Babylon the great: 2 min
7. A Night at the Taco Truck: 10 min 28 secs
8. Election Eve: 11 min
9. Thank God For You, Charley: 10 min
10. El Diablo: 5 min
11. The Venus Jungle Jig: 3 min
Screenwriters Showcase Monday, June 6, 2011
Ralph Freud Playhouse
(THIS EVENT WILL START PROMPTLY AT 7:30 P.M.)
Distinguished Achievement in Screenwriting Award: Aaron Sorkin.
Our Host and MC: Mike Werb (“Face/ Off”, “The Mask”, “Lara Croft: Tomb Raider”.)
Academy-Award® winning writer Aaron Sorkin graduated from Syracuse University with a B.F.A. in Theatre in 1983. He made his Broadway playwriting debut at the age of 28 with the military courtroom drama, “A Few Good Men”, for which he received the John Gassner Award as Outstanding New American Playwright. The following year saw his off-Broadway play, “Making Movies” and in 2007 he returned to Broadway with “The Farnsworth Invention” directed by Des McAnuff.
Most recently, Mr. Sorkin’s film, “The Social Network”, earned him an Academy Award® for Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as a Golden Globe, British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), Writers Guild Award and the USC Scripter Award. The film, directed by David Fincher, was named Best Drama at the Golden Globes, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, and appeared on over 350 critics’ lists of the top ten films of 2010.
His film adaptation of “A Few Good Men” was nominated for four Academy Awards®, including Best Picture, and five Golden Globes, including Best Screenplay. He followed this success with the screenplays for “Malice”, starring Alec Baldwin and Nicole Kidman, and “The American President”, starring Michael Douglas and Annette Bening. Mr. Sorkin produced and wrote the television series “Sports Night for ABC” for two years, winning the Humanitas Prize and the Television Critics Association Award. He spent the next four years writing and producing the NBC series “The West Wing”, winning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series all four years. For his work on “The West Wing”, Mr. Sorkin also twice received the Peabody Award and the Humanitas Prize, and three Television Critics Association Awards. He also won a Golden Globe, a Writers Guild Award and three Producers Guild Awards.
In 2006, Mr. Sorkin wrote and produced the NBC television series “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip”. He also wrote the 2007 film” Charlie Wilson’s War”, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julia Roberts.
Mr. Sorkin is currently developing a new series with HBO, titled “More As This Story Develops,” set behind the scenes at a cable news show. He has acquired the rights to The Politician, the best-selling book by Andrew Young about the downfall of former Senator John Edwards. He will adapt the book and make his directorial debut with The Politician, which he will also produce.
The UCLA Graduate Screenwriters Association welcomes you to the 16th Annual Screenwriters Showcase. This event celebrates the work of UCLA’s Graduate Screenwriting students past and present. Portions of eight scripts will be previewed in five-minute staged excerpts. These scripts were selected by a panel of over 200 industry judges in a competition that began in March.
2011 SHOWCASE WINNERS
FEATURE WINNERS:
TRAPPED by Nicole Riegel
A drama of two West Virginia coal miners who are trapped underground after a methane explosion. As the drama of the above ground love affairs collide with the peril and secrets below ground, the two men must stick together in order to make it out alive.
THE FAMILY HARVEST by Megan Green
Slacker-girl Darcy is shocked when her long lost father shows up, looking for a kidney. She’s not a donor match, but one of her father’s illegitimate children might be, so Darcy tracks down her siblings to save her playboy father.
WETWORK INC by Spencer Ballou
Two suburban housewives–one desperate for money, the other desperate for excitement–haphazardly become contract killers. As business picks up, family complications arise, and the struggle to maintain their double lives becomes increasingly difficult.
SIMONE’S MASTERPIECE by Diana Densmore
When Simone’s mother falls into a coma, the twelve-year-old, self-proclaimed scientist and her two younger brothers, George and Tito, embark on a quest across Nevada to Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats. Their aim: to retrieve “stardust” from NASA’s comet sample return space capsule. Their hope: if wishing on a shooting star makes your dreams come true, actually having the dust of a comet will be the miracle that saves their mother.
BAD DOGS by Paul Bertino
When the sheriff of a frontier town discovers that a gang of bloodthirsty werewolves was responsible for his brother’s death, he must find a way to bring them to justice before he becomes their next meal.
TV WINNERS:
DEAR CHUCK NORRIS by Scott Sullivan (1/2 hr comedy)
A lovable loser gets his life together with the aid of a Chuck Norris self-help book.
STUNT COCK by Tony Baker (1/2 hr comedy)
An ex-cock fighting rooster named Stunt Cock has been put out to stud on a factory farm in Arizona. Stunt tries to raise his only son, Hatch, while dealing with the sudden arrival of Stunt’s abusive ex fight trainer, an immigrant worker named Domingo.
ASHBURTON PREP by Jeff King (1 hr drama)
An ensemble drama that follows the lives of several teachers and students at the most elite boarding school in the country as they struggle to balance their fragile social lives with the relentless demands of the academy.
FEATURE FINALISTS:
RESULTS MAY VARY by Manny Basanese
An ordinary young woman who lives vicariously through romantic comedy movies, uses a magic skin cream and suddenly finds her ordinary life has been transformed into a rom-com fantasy.
TAVY by Will Thompson
A young scientist working for a major pharmaceutical company rushes against time to rescue potentially life-saving medicinal plants in Madagascar, before they are wiped from the face of the Earth by forest fires ignited in the midst of a coup d’état.
DOWNSTATE by Adam Henkel
When a former small-town football hero sees suspicion surrounding his best friend’s drunk driving death, he launches his own investigation and struggles to uncover a conspiracy behind the tragedy.
THE COLONY by Will Honley
A scientific team arrives at NASA’s first colony on Mars and discovers all the colonists are dead, forcing the team to learn what happened before they suffer the same fate.
HOUDINI AND THE BOOK OF THOTH by Mike Gantman
Harry Houdini must deactivate traps, defeat creatures and outwit Dark Forces, as he and his wife Bess attempt to find a powerful Egyptian artifact and prevent its powers from being used as a weapon of mass destruction.
TV FINALISTS:
UNDONE by Evette Vargas (1hr drama)
When time crosses dimensions, a man suffering memory loss from a maliciously caused accident transcends time to discover the secrets behind it and who tried to kill him.
RINGS by Amy Aniobi (1hr drama)
A dysfunctional family of ex-circus performers living in modern day Brooklyn, NY turns to a life of crime to pay the bills.
ST. PERPETUUA by Jim McDermott (1hr drama)
When an idealistic young Catholic priest discovers that most of his parishioners would rather bicker about the altar wine than take a good look at themselves, he decides to “save” them by any means necessary.
Producers Marketplace Tuesday, June 7, 2011
The Billy Wilder Theater at the Hammer Museum
Vision Award Recipient: Lawrence Bender
Our Host and MC: Tom Nunan
This highly anticipated annual event features four graduate students in the distinguished UCLA Producers Program, who will present their feature film projects to a panel of top-tier industry judges. These project presentations were vetted by industry professionals throughout the academic year. During the Producers Marketplace, the finalists take the stage to present their projects in five-minute concept pitches. They then field a battery of questions from the judges about how they plan to get their projects made. The judges will select the most promising proposal and present the winning producer the UCLA Producers Marketplace Award as well as a cash award from Producer/Alum Dan Angel ’90. The audience will also get to select its favorite pitch. The evening also honors a person whose career exemplifies an extraordinary vision as a producer in all aspects of film art and business and who leaves an indelible mark on the industry. The Vision Award is presented by the Producers Guild of America and The UCLA School of Theater Film and Television.
Honoree Lawrence Bender (Producer) boasts an illustrious career spanning more than twenty years in the entertainment industry. His films to date have been honored with 29 Academy Award nominations, including three for Best Picture, and have won 6. His latest collaboration with director Quentin Tarantino, “Inglorious Bustards”, was nominated for a Golden Globe, Academy Award for Best Picture and BFCA Critics’ Choice Awards for Best Picture as well as Best Film honors from critics’ groups all over the country. Bender himself was nominated for the Producers Guild Darryl F. Snuck Producer of the Year Award for the film.
His new documentary, “Countdown To Zero”, which features Tony Blair, Presidents, Mushier, Gorbachev, De Clerk, and Carter among others details the urgent risk posed by proliferation, terrorism, and accidental use of nuclear weapons.
Previous to this Bender produced the profoundly influential “An Inconvenient Truth”, which Davis Guggenheim directed. It was honored in 2007 with the Academy Award® for Best Documentary Feature Film.
Prior to “An Inconvenient Truth”, Bender’s “Innocent Voices,” directed by Luis Mandolin, was Mexico’s official entry for the Academy’s Foreign Language Film competition. It received the 2005 Producers Guild Stanley Kramer Award as well as the National Board of Review’s Freedom of Expression Award.
Bender was previously nominated for a Producers Guild award for Good Will Hunting, which received a total of nine Academy Award® nominations.
“Pulp Fiction,” which scored seven Oscar® nominations, marked Bender’s second film with Quentin Tarantino. It was also nominated for a Producers Guild Award, a BAFTA Award for Best Film, and an Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature and the Palma door at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival.
Bender and Tarantino first teamed on “Reservoir Dogs”, which was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award as Best Feature in 1992. In addition to executive producing Tarantino’s and Robert Rodriguez’s “From Dusk Till Dawn”, Bender also produced “Tarantino’s Kill Bill I”, “Kill Bill II” and “Jackie Brown”. He holds the distinction of being the only producer to have two films in simultaneous competition at the Berlin Film Festival: “Good Will Hunting” and “Jackie Brown”.
For television, Bender has developed or produced projects for all of the major broadcast and cable networks. His four-hour miniseries, “The Legend of Earthsea,” based on the books by Ursula K. Le Guin, for the Syfy Channel in association with Hallmark Entertainment, was the network’s most watched show of the year. Bender was also nominated for a GLAAD Award as executive producer of MTV’s “Anatomy of a Hate Crime,” which addressed the murder of Matthew Shepard. Currently, Bender has two major projects in development at HBO: “Manhunt,” a nine-hour miniseries based on James L. Swanson’s N.Y. Times bestseller about the pursuit and capture of John Wilkes Booth, which is being adapted by David Simon (“The Wire,” “Treme”) and Tom Fontana (“Homicide,” “Oz”); and “Year Zero,” an eight-hour miniseries based on the music of Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor (who also scored “The Social Network”), which is being adapted by Dan Knauf (“Carnivale”).
Bender began his career as a production assistant at the American Film Institute in 1985. In addition to his feature film and television work, Bender has enjoyed success in producing commercials and music videos with his production company, A Band Apart.
A passionate social and political activist, Bender co-founded the Detroit Project in 2003, targeting the gas-guzzling SUV. He has traveled to the Middle East with the Israeli Policy Forum (IPF). He is also on the Advisory Board to the Dean at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and serves on the board of The Creative Coalition. He is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations and The Pacific Council. A recent recipient of the Torch of Liberty Award from the ACLU, he spends much of his time organizing fundraising.
FINALISTS:
Ryan Slattery BURDEN OF PROOF
Written by Academy Award © winning writer Bobby Moresco (“Crash”), this project is the gripping story of an innocent man who has spent his life behind bars, only to be released as the monster the system wanted him to be.
Aisha Summers CONFESSIONS OF A MODERN DAY DOG
Titan Brown, a Black Buppie, is a man trying to find himself through relationships with three unique women, only to discover that as he finds out what is important to him, he may loose “the One” he wants in the process.
Michael Acosta THE POKER KID
A luckless Vegas loser and his foul-mouthed companion hit the jackpot when they discover a 9 year-old poker wiz who always wins. But, they run in to problems when their harebrained get-rich-quick scheme backfires and the two are forced to become an unlikely pair of foster fathers.
UCLA Raw #3 Wednesday, June 8, 2011 James Bridges Theater
Program E: COMING OF AGE WEDNESDAY 7:30 PM-9:15 PM
1. Estela: 8:48 min
2. Once around: 1:20 min
3. Recipe: 12 min
4. Lily: 11 min
5. Little Creatures: 9 min
6. Autumn: 2 min
7. Ae-Eh- EE- Oh- OO- Lesson in Vowels: 3 min
8. Self Help: 12 min
9. Old Friends: 10 min
10. Two Monkeys Hugging: 3 min
11. Good Intentions: 19 min
12. Color Me In: 2 min
Program F: HORROR WEDNESDAY 9:30 PM-10:45 PM
1. My lips are sealed: 2 min
2. Fractal: 2 min 55 secs
3. My Apology: 10 min
4. The Song: 11 min
5. Break: 4 min 30 secs
6. Tread Darkly: 14 min
7. The Last Hour: 5 min
8. Viral: 10 min
9. The Last Capitalist: 3 min
10. Bled White: 11 min 11 secs
CLOSING Night DIRECTORS SHOWCASE
On Thursday, June 9, 2011 Directors Guild of America Theatre
Filmmaker of the Year Award: Lisa Cholodenko
Champion Spirit Award: Stacey Snider
The Directors Spotlight night is an evening for selected student filmmakers to present their work. The films you will see this evening have been chosen through a series of individual panels consisting of students and industry professionals after viewing many hours of animated, fiction and documentary work completed this year. Students in the animation and production/directing program both graduate and undergraduate met and viewed over 12 hours of film projects on May 7 and May 8. They recommended over 3 hours of film projects to move to the Blue Ribbon Jury who met the evening of May 13 to view the selected films.
The Directors Spotlight night offers up outstanding talent and since its inception more than a decade ago, Spotlight night has helped launch the careers of talented filmmakers such as Patricia Cardosa (“Real Women Have Curves”), Justin Lin (“Fast and Furious,” “Tokyo Drift”), Alexander Payne (“Sideways”) and Shane Acker (animated feature “9”). The evening will also honor a Filmmaker of the Year voted on by the students and Panavision will present a Cinematography Award to an outstanding Cinematography graduate student whose work will also be screened this evening. The festivities of this evening, which closes the Festival, will also recognize a member of the entertainment industry whose career reflects the courage and integrity to recognize, mentor and nurture new talent into the industry with the prestigious Champion Spirit Award.
Honoree Lisa Cholodenko
Lisa Cholodenko’s “The Kids Are All Right” (2010) was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. The critically acclaimed film won Best Comedy at The Golden Globes and Cholodenko and co-writer Stuart Blumberg also won a Spirit award for Best Original Screenplay and a Best Screenplay nod from The New York Film Critics Circle.
Cholodenko grew up in the San Fernando Valley and began working in the film industry in the early 1990s, as an assistant editor on “Boyz n the Hood “(1991) and “Used People” (1992). She then moved to New York City and earned an MFA in screenwriting and directing at Columbia University School of the Arts. After writing and directing an award-winning short film, “Dinner Party” (1997), she made her feature debut with “High Art” (1998), which won the National Society of Film Critics award for Ally Sheedy’s performance and The Waldo Salt Screenwriting award at the Sundance Film Festival. Both “High Art” and her second feature, “Laurel Canyon “(2002), premiered in the Cannes Film Festival’s Directors Fortnight program.
In addition to feature length film for Showtime, “Cavedweller” 2004), which garnered Spirit nominations for stars Kyra Sedgewick and Aiden Quinn, Cholodenko has directed episodes of such acclaimed series as
“Homicide: Life on the Street”, “Six Feet Under”, “The L Word” and “Hung”. She is currently developing an adaptation of Tom Perrotta’s novel, “The Abstinence Teacher”, for Warner Brothers and a new series for HBO.
Honoree Stacey Snider
Stacey Snider is a partner of DreamWorks Studios, along with Steven Spielberg, as well as its Co-Chairman and CEO where she oversees creative and financial aspects of all film development and production in addition to the company’s business strategy. The studio’s upcoming releases include “I Am Number Four,” directed by DJ Caruso, “Cowboys & Aliens,” a co-production with Universal Studios, directed by Jon Favreau, “The Help,” based on the New York Times best-selling novel, “Fright Night” directed by Craig Gillespie, “Real Steel” directed by Shawn Levy, and the Steven Spielberg directed “War Horse.”
Snider joined DreamWorks in 2006, after which the studio’s releases included several highly acclaimed features including “Flags of Our Fathers,” nominated for two Academy Awards, and “Letters from Iwo Jima”, nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. Both Films were directed by Clint Eastwood. The studio’s other high profile releases included “Dreamgirls,” which garnered eight Academy Award nominations, the adaptation of the international best-selling book “The Kite Runner,” and the musical “Sweeney Todd,” a DreamWorks and Warner Bros. co-production, which was nominated for three Oscars. In 2007, the studio had four consecutive films open #1 at the box office, including “Norbit,” “Blades of Glory,” “Disturbia,” and “Transformers,” which alone has grossed over $700 million worldwide.
Prior to joining DreamWorks, Snider served as Chairman of Universal Pictures where she oversaw all domestic and international business units of Universal Pictures, Focus Features, Universal Home Video, and Universal Pictures Franchise Development, including production, distribution, marketing as well as acquisitions, strategic planning, finance, and business development. During her tenure at Universal, Snider experienced remarkable success with a consistent output of films that were both domestic and international box-office hits, while garnering wide critical praise. Some of the franchises she originated and oversaw include “The Bourne” series, “The Mummy” series, the “American Pie” series, “The Fast and the Furious” series, and “Meet the Parents” and “Meet the Fockers.” “Erin Brockovich,” “A Beautiful Mind,” “Seabiscuit, “Ray,” “Lost in Translation,” and “Brokeback Mountain” were among the films that won critical and Academy Award recognition.
In addition to her many professional achievements, Snider currently serves on the boards of City Year, a national youth service organization, the Special Olympics of Southern California by whom she has been honored, and the American Film Institute. In 2004, the American Jewish Committee honored Snider with the Dorothy and Sherrill C. Corwain Human Relations Award for her professional and civic endeavors that have helped to promote tolerance and understanding.
She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and UCLA Law School.
SPOTLIGHT FILMS 2011
CONTRA EL MAR- Dir. Richard Parkin (Running time 19.0)
Despite his wife’s disapproval, Hector bides his time as a deep-sea diver to provide for his family and to save for his own fishing boat. But after an accident at sea, Hector is forced to confront the deadly nature of his profession and the responsibilities to his family.