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Sundance Institute has announced the 2024 Directors, Screenwriters, and Native Labs fellows.

The Native Lab takes place in person in Santa Fe, New Mexico, from April 29–May 4 and will support four fellows and two artists in residence. The Lab focuses on centring Indigeneity in the storytelling of participants from Native and Indigenous backgrounds and will work on feature film and episodic scripts through one-on-one feedback sections and roundtable discussions with advisors.

The fellows are: Don Josephus Raphael Eblahan (writer-director) with Hum (Phil-usa); Ryland Walker Knight (writer-director) with The Lip Of The World (USA); Charine Pilar Gonzales (writer-director) with Ndn Time (USA...

The Sundance Institute has announced its fellows for the 2024 Directors, Screenwriters, and Native labs, which include a diverse mix of artists from the realms of film, TV, and theatre. For more than 40 years, participating in a Sundance lab has been a rite of passage for those seeking to work in the upper echelons of independent film. The developmental programs take place throughout the spring and summer and allow notable rising filmmakers and Indigenous artists to hone their craft under the mentorship of working professionals. Notable alumni of the programs include Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Ryan Coogler, Wes Anderson, and Chloe Zhao.

“For over four decades since their conception, the labs remain critical to the vitality of the independent filmmaking community. It has never been more important to invest in the growth of independent storytellers. While our Directors and Screenwriters Labs take place over several weeks, our commitment to these...

Exclusive: The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced the eight women selected for the 2023 Sundance Women to Watch x Adobe Fellowship. They were all chosen for their exceptional talent and commitment to furthering their creative practice.

“We’re excited to partner with Adobe to champion and uplift this talented group of women artists who are working across creative disciplines,” said Michelle Satter, Founding Senior Director, Artist Programs at Sundance Institute. “Our 2023 cohort, selected from underrepresented communities, will receive granting and a continuum of support from Sundance and Adobe as they take their next steps to develop and sustain their careers.”

All fellows receive support through a $6,250 cash grant; skill-building workshops; referrals to career development opportunities; a 12-month membership to Adobe Creative Cloud to create, share their stories, and further refine their craft; and a connection to the Sundance Elevate professional development initiative.

Created in 2020 under the name Women at Sundance Adobe Fellowship,...

The Sundance Institute has named the participants and projects set for the 2023 editions of a pair of its flagship programs: the Screenwriters Lab and Screenwriters Intensive.

Lab participants will include Joseph Sackett (Cross Pollination), Sean Wang (Dìdi (弟弟)), Abinash Bikram Shah (Elephants in the Fog), Gabriela Ortega (Huella), Walter Thompson-Hernández (If I Go Will They Miss Me), Hadas Ayalon (In a Minute You’ll Be Gone), Bernardo Cubría, John Hibey & Joshua Penn Soskin (Kill Yr Idols), Dania Bdeir & Bane Fakih (Pigeon Wars), Rashad Frett & Lin Que Ayoung (Ricky), Farida Zahran (The Leftover Ladies), Masami Kawai (Valley of the Tall Grass) and Audrey Rosenberg (Wild Animals).

Those set for the Intensive are Keisha Rae Witherspoon & Jason Fitzroy Jeffers (Arc), Shireen Alihaji (Blue Veil), Spencer Cook & Parker Smith (Lame), Jesahel Newton-Bernal (Leche), Cynthia Lowen (Light Mass Energy), Rebin Zangana (Qareen), David Liu (Santa Anita), Urvashi Pathania (Skin), Ciara Leina`ala Lacy (Untitled...

The Northwest Film Forum has selected filmmaker Izabel Acevedo will be the 2022 recipient of the Lynn Shelton “Of A Certain Age” Grant. Acevedo will receive an unrestricted cash award of 20,000 to financially support her first narrative feature film.

“Today is such a joyful day,” Acevedo said. “I feel seen as a filmmaker, and I’m thrilled and thankful to see now that this project has suddenly taken over my schedule.”

The grant honors late film and television director Lynn Shelton, who died from acute myeloid leukemia in 2020. Shelton found inspiration in the fact that acclaimed filmmaker Claire Denis once spoke at the Nwff disclosing that she did not make her first feature film until she was 40, which influenced Shelton to direct her own, “We Go Way Back,” at age 39.

Co-founded by Duplass Brothers Productions, founded by brothers Jay and Mark Duplass, and Nwff, and with support from a number of community members,...

The feature film “Freda” and short film “You Can Always Come Home,” both family dramas, earned top prizes at the 39th edition of Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival. Presented in a hybrid format this year, with both in-theater and virtual presentations, the 2022 Festival ran from March 4-13.

Making its U.S. premiere at this year’s Festival, “Freda,” directed by Géssica Généus, earned the top award for her first feature set in Haiti, the $25,000 Knight Marimbas Award. The winning film was selected by jury members Damon D’Oliveria, April Dobbins and Rubén Peralta Rigaud. Of the film, the jury noted, “this film resonated with all of us for its strong, female-centered narrative, and its exceptional performances from emerging actors. We couldn’t stop thinking about this world and these characters, and we appreciated being immersed in a place that we don’t often see onscreen – portrayed in such a realistic,...

Two family dramas, the feature film Freda and short film You Can Always Come Home, have earned the top prizes at the 39th edition of Miami Dade College’s Miami Film Festival. Presented in a hybrid format with in-theater and virtual presentations, the 2022 Festival ran from March 4 through tomorrow.

Making its US premiere at this year’s Festival, Freda, directed by Géssica Généus, earned the top award for her first feature. Set in Haiti, the $25,000 Knight Marimbas Award, supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, is an international competition for new narrative feature films that best exemplify richness and resonance for cinema’s future.

The winning film was selected by jury members Damon D’Oliveria, April Dobbins, and Rubén Peralta Rigaud. The jury said, “This film resonated with all of us for its strong, female-centered narrative, and its exceptional performances from emerging actors. We couldn’t stop...

Are you ready for Queen Sugar Season 6?

OWN announced today the acclaimed drama series, created and executive produced by filmmaker Ava DuVernay, returns Tuesday, September 7 at 8 p.m. Et/Pt on OWN.

In anticipation of the series return, the season six trailer was unveiled, showing glimpses of the Bordelon family reclaiming their lives coming out of the pandemic.

"As Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) and Darla (Bianca Lawson) plan the arrival of their new baby, Nova (Rutina Wesley) continues to speak out against political corruption, and Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) faces a life-altering decision," according to OWN.

"Throughout the season, we witness the joy amid the struggle and humanity's ability to persevere through whatever life may bring," the logline continues.

In continuing the creative vision DuVernay established in season one of hiring an entirely female directorial team, season six includes five filmmakers making their television directing debut.

The Queen Sugar Season 6 directorial line-up includes: Bertha Bay-Sa Pan,...

The Bordelon family is returning for season 6 on Sept. 7 at 8 p.m. Et/Pt and OWN has your first look at how they’re reclaiming their lives out of the pandemic.

The Ava DuVernay series returns as Ralph (Kofi Siriboe) and Darla (Bianca Lawson) are planning for the arrival of their new baby while Nova (Rutina Wesley) continues to speak out against political corruption and Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) faces a life-altering decision. Queen Sugar’s sixth season will reveal joy amid the struggle and humanity’s ability to persevere through whatever life may bring.

There are newcomers expanding this universe including Tammy Townsend, who joined in a series regular role in April. Her character Billie is the daughter of beloved Bordelon family friend Prosper Denton (Henry G. Sanders), who returns to St. Josephine for the first time in 20 years to care for her ailing father.

Paula Jai Parker, Marquis Rodriguez,...

Queen Sugar is currently airing its fifth season on OWN, but work has already begun on season six. Paula Jai Parker, Tammy Townsend, Marquis Rodriguez, and McKinley Freeman have joined the cast of the series which follows the Bordelon siblings in the fictional Louisiana town of Saint Josephine.

The series makes a point of hiring female directors and those working on the sixth season include Bertha Bay-Sa Pan, Carmen Marrón, Cierra Glaude, Keisha Rae Witherspoon, Marie Jamora, Shari Carpenter, Shaz Bennett, and Stephanie Turner, with Lisa France now serving as producing director. Across the six seasons, 42 female filmmakers have been hired, 39 of whom are first-time television directors.

Read More…...

Exclusive: Tammy Townsend (K.C. Undercover) has been tapped as a new series regular on the upcoming sixth season of Ava DuVernay’s drama Queen Sugar, which is currently in production in New Orleans.

Paula Jai Parker (The Wayans Bros.), Marquis Rodriguez (When They See Us) and McKinley Freeman (Titans) have joined the OWN series as recurring, while Lisa France, Bertha Bay-Sa Pan, Carmen Marrón, Cierra Glaude, Keisha Rae Witherspoon, Marie Jamora, Shari L. Carpenter, Shaz Bennett and Stephanie Turner will all have their turn as helmers for Season 6, which is set to premiere later in the fall. The addition of the nine directors continues DuVernay’s commitment to hiring an entirely woman-led directing team for the show. The latest addition brings the series’ total women director count to 42 filmmakers, 39 of whom are first-time television directors.

Set in rural Louisiana and the fictional community of St. Josephine, the Anthony Sparks...

Christine D’Souza Gelb, the veteran independent film financing and sales executive, has launched a new production and management venture with Killer Films executive David Hinojosa and Kevin Rowe as founding partners.

Named 2Am, the venue brings together a trio of considerable indie film players and boasts backing from one of the space’s most premium brands: A24.

The Oscar-winning studio behind titles like “Moonlight” and “Room,” as well as the TV hit “Euphoria,” has invested in the full-service company at an undisclosed share. 2Am will operate independently, insiders said, with no exclusive first look deal with the distributor.

Gelb left Endeavor Content last summer, where she had risen to partner and served as a fixture in brokering some of the most exciting films of the past decade and a half — including titles like Lulu Wang’s “The Farewell,” Ari Aster’s “Midsommar,” Kenneth Lonergan’s Oscar winner “Manchester by the Sea,...

Exclusive: Former Endeavor Content partner Christine D’Souza Gelb has teamed with Killer Films production exec David Hinojosa and manager Kevin Rowe to launch 2Am, a new production and management venture that gets off the ground with backing from A24.

The company launches with designs on managing filmmaker clients, and producing projects primarily in the film and television space. For indie studio A24, this is its first foray in investing in a management concern. Sources said there will be an arms length relationship between the two companies with no first look deal.

The catalyst for the new company is D’Souza Gelb, who spent 15 years at a top agent in film financing and sales as a partner at Endeavor Content, before surprising colleagues last May with an internal note that she would stop being an agent. She wanted to take some time and plot a course change, and early this fall she began putting together 2Am.

Closing out a year in which we’ve needed The Criterion Channel more than ever, they’ve now announced their impressive December lineup. Topping the highlights is a trio of Terrence Malick films––Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The New World––along with interviews featuring actors Richard Gere, Sissy Spacek, and Martin Sheen; production designer Jack Fisk; costume designer Jacqueline West; cinematographers Haskell Wexler and John Bailey; and more.

Also in the lineup is an Afrofuturism series, featuring an introduction by programmer Ashley Clark, with work by Lizzie Borden, Shirley Clarke, Souleymane Cissé, John Akomfrah, Terence Nance, and more. There’s also Mariano Llinás’s 14-hour epic La flor, Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time, Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, plus retrospectives dedicated to Mae West, Cary Grant, Barbra Streisand, and more.

Check out the lineup below and return every Friday for our weekly streaming picks.

When beloved filmmaker Lynn Shelton unexpectedly passed away earlier this year, her tight-knit communities rallied together to find a way to honor her legacy in a way that felt appropriate for the big-hearted creator. In July, Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum and Duplass Brothers Productions announced their solution: the launch of the Lynn Shelton “Of a Certain Age” Grant. The $25,000 unrestricted cash grant will be awarded each year to a U.S.-based woman or non-binary filmmaker, age 39 or older, who has yet to direct a narrative feature.

Less than four months later, the selection committee has chosen their inaugural winner: Keisha Rae Witherspoon, a Caribbean-American filmmaker based in Miami. Per the official announcement, “Witherspoon’s work is driven by interests in science, speculative fiction, and fantasy, as well as documenting the unseen and unheralded nuances of diasporic peoples.”

Her dazzling short film “T” world-premiered at the BlackStar Film Festival...

Each of the 12 finalists in TheWrap’s ShortList Film Festival 2020 faced creative, emotional and logistical challenges. Some found it difficult to separate themselves from their subject matter. Others, despite the best planning, ran into unforeseen production issues that required quick decisions.

In a Zoom conversation with TheWrap Awards Editor Steve Pond, the diverse group of filmmakers from the U.S. and abroad discussed the work that went into their shorts — which ranged from animation to scripted stories to documentaries.

Barbara Attie, who along Janet Goldwater and Mike Attie chronicled the workers at an abortion helpline in “Abortion Helpline, This Is Lisa” talked about how emotionally difficult shooting would be. “Every time we would leave a shoot we would all be like feeling devastated at what our subjects were going through,” the documentarian said. The subjects would often be young women who needed to get hundreds or thousands of dollars in...

The short film “T,” which won the top award for shorts at this year’s Berlin Film Festival and is now a finalist in TheWrap’s ShortList Film Festival, is a bold, impressionistic and documentary-style look at rituals surrounding death in the Black community, particularly in the South. That may make it especially timely at this moment in our history, but director Keisha Rae Witherspoon definitely thinks of it as a film not for one particular time.

“I suppose for some people there might be a renewed context, but what we’re seeing now is a continuation of what’s been happening for a very long time,” Witherspoon said. “More than anything, what we’re probably seeing is a more crystalline perspective on the fact that we really do reside at a fork in the road, and that a lot of people are desperately in need of healing.”

Healing, in a way,...

TheWrap on Thursday announced the 12 finalists for the ninth annual ShortList Film Festival, including stories from around the world about abortion, gender-identity, gentrification, bullying, opioids and a garbage man who lives alone on an asteroid.

Online viewing and voting launches today on ShortListFilmFestival.com and runs through August 19. The jury will award the Industry Award while TheWrap’s online voters will determine the Audience Award and Student Award. The winners will be announced at a virtual awards ceremony on August 20.

This year’s selected films have won awards at festivals including SXSW, Sundance Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, AFI Fest, Miami Film Festival and Brooklyn Film Festival. The films and filmmakers come from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Israel and Macedonia.

In addition to the lineup of festival winners, the ShortList Film Festival also features up-and-coming filmmakers from top film schools across the country. The...

Festival cancelled three days from scheduled finale.

The Miami Film Festival, which elected to continue with virtual judging after cancelling screenings and events towards the end of its 2020 edition in response to the novel coronavirus pandemic, has announced its winners.

Dudley Alexis’ race riots documentary When Liberty Burns won the $30,000 Knight Made in Mia Feature Film Award, Jayro Bustamante’s Mexico-Guatemala horror thriller La Llorona (pictured) received the $40,000 Knight Marimbas Award, and Aeden O’Connor Agurcia’s 90 Minutes about the Honduran national obsession with football won the Toyota Narrative Feature Film Audience Award.

The newly created Toyota Documentary Feature Film...

Update, writethru: The 70th Berlin Film Festival, and the first under new leadership team Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian, drew to a close this evening with the Golden Bear awarded to Mohammad Rasoulof’s There Is No Evil. Rasoulof is currently banned from leaving Iran for participation in social and political activity. This is the second time in five years that Berlin’s top prize has gone to an Iranian filmmaker unable to travel outside their home country — the last time was in 2015 when Jafar Panahi scooped the honor for Taxi.

Along with Panahi and Asghar Farhadi, Rasoulof, whose credits also include Manuscripts Don’t Burn, is among the best-known Iranian filmmakers on the international stage. His last picture, A Man Of Integrity, won Cannes’ Un Certain Regard prize in 2017, but his passport was confiscated that same year. Yesterday, the director issued a statement of regret over his inability to...

The 2020 Berlin Film Festival, which kicked off on February 20, handed out its top prizes today as the fest comes to a close in Germany. The night’s top winner, Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof for “There Is No Evil,” could not attend the ceremony due to an Iran-sanctioned travel ban and possible prison sentence for his politically charged film (read IndieWire’s review here). See all this year’s winners below.

As is befitting for a festival season marked by tension, activists were gathered outside the festivities in front of the Berlinale Palast, where the honors took place, demonstrating for climate change. The 70th edition of the Berlinale weathered its share of controversies this year, too, from jury president Jeremy Irons digging up past controversial remarks to the revelation that late festival chief Alfred Bauer had ties to the Nazi party. The first edition assembled by artistic director Carlo Chatrian and...

The Caribbean Film Mart (Cfm) has been in the making for several years and in September its debut took place at the 2015 trinidad+tobago film festival (ttff) . Bruce Paddington, a filmmaker himself as well as an academic and the Founder and Director of the Festival, along with Annebelle Alcazar, Jonathan Ali and Nneka Luke, and spearheading the Cfm and the Caribbean Film Database (Cfdb) , Emilie Upczak and Melanie Archer, have created an A level event which after 10 years now encompasses three important aspects of film beyond the showcasing of the Caribbean and international docs and fiction films: filmmaking, film marketing and film education which this year included an academic symposium through the University of the West Indies, a Youth Jury of young people from 16 to 21 and sold out matinees for school children.

Cfm envisages the Caribbean -- home to the most genetically variegated people of the world -- as a whole whose varied stories will go out into the larger world (much like the Trinis themselves). Coming from islands which remind us of those planets described in Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ), the Caribbeanos gathered here in Trinidad to receive coaching and positive feedback to extend their reach into the rest of world. Our world, still divided along colonial and post-colonial color and class lines needs this idealistic and inspiring vision.

For more coverage of the event, Lisa Harewood, a Barbados filmmaker, has written about the event in Shadow and Act.

This year 15 feature film projects from 10 countries were pitched and discussed at the inaugural Caribbean Film Mart (Cfm) in parallel with an academic symposium of university professors presenting on films, festivals and markets at the Hyatt Hotel. The unique mix of academics and professionals with upcoming filmmakers was vibrant, alive and upbeat, and we hope it continues to grow even though the financing from Acp Cultures which made this event possible may not continue to lend its support.

The 11 fiction feature projects and four doc projects (out of 100 submissions) selected from Guadaloupe, Cuba, Curaçao, Guyana, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Barbados, Dominican Republic and The Bahamas in development and pre-production were discussed over three days with 30 international film producers, sales agents and film funds coming from diverse countries in the Caribbean, Europe and North America.

The meetings resulted in professional relationships and partnerships that will enable the production and distribution of the participating projects going forward.

“We are pleased that a number of the projects are from ttff alumni, some of whom have gone through our Rbc Focus: Filmmakers’ Immersion, and others the Eave Producers’ training initiative which took place at ttff/14,” said Emilie Upczak, ttff Creative Director.

The selected projects were selected by the ttff, the Global Foundation of Democracy and Development from the Dominican Republic, the Association for the Development of Art Cinema and Practice from Guadeloupe, the Foundation of New Latin American Cinema in Cuba, and the Regional and International Festival of Cinema of Guadeloupe.

The project is co-financed by the Acp Cultures+ Program (Acp Group of States), funded by the European Union ( European Development Fund), and implemented by the Acp Group of States.

The projects were all most interesting visualized stories, and the filmmakers themselves, whether just beginning or with one or two features already under their belts, were all well prepared and professionally aligned with the more seasoned professionals in their objectives. Every one of the selected projects holds a promise of unique enchantments.

Jan Miller the international consultant and trainer specializing in film and television coproduction and coventuring who started Transatlantic Partners after she established Atlantic Partners, part of the Atlantic Film Festival in Nova Scotia, and who has delivered one of the top pitching and content development events for 20 years created a substantive and fun environment intensely devoted to the filmmakers.

The winner of the 15 selected Cfm projects was:

1. "Kidnapping Inc.” a fiction feature from Haiti to be directed by Bruno Mourral and produced by Gaethan Chancy and Remi Grelletty who both produced “Moloch Tropical” and “Murder in Pacot” and Raoul Peck the award winning director who has also produced five features and four docs.

Read more about Raoul Peck and his current production “The Young Karl Marx” on Shadow and Act.

“Kidnapping Inc.” has Canal + Antilles as a coproducer as well as private equity. They are still seeking other coproduction partners.

This twisted, dark comedy is about two delivery men working for an underground kidnapping corporation in Haiti. Doc and Zoe are scheduled to deliver a senator’s son worth $300,000. In the midst of their usual bickering, one kills the senator’s son accidentally. Trying to fix the mess they find themselves in, they stumble upon the senator’s son’s lookalike, which sets them on the craziest kidnapping of their lives.

Bruno Mourral is interested in developing the industry in Haiti as well as making movies. He says, “’Kidnapping Inc. is a dark comedy and satire of Haitian society waltzing between ‘City of God’ and ‘Pulp Fiction’. This film depicts the raw complexity and Haiti’s harsh day-to-day and pushes the viewer towards a better understanding of social issues such as color, sexism, machismo, social class discrimination and identity.

2. “The Dragon” is a fictional story from Trinidad and Tobago based upon the novel by the world renowned (but little known in the U.S.) Earl Lovelace and to be directed by his daughter Asha Lovelace. Having read the novel I can say that this story of a Trinidad community of African descendants which has inherited traits cultivated under slavery is immediately riveting. It brings another view of the radical political actions we in the U.S. witnessed in the 70s. Moreover, a musical composition written by a Trini composer who read the novel and was so enamored that he freely and without asking composed an entire opus makes this immediately into a transmedia project which is accessible and exploitable. The novel, the musical opus, and what I hope to see -- the movie -- all tell a tale of a people we can identify with but have never seen like this.

The book is a masterpiece and brings to mind “Black Orpheus” with its setting in the poverty-stricken Calvary Hill whose inhabitants’ lives are centered in the yearly Carnival. It also brings to mind John Steinbeck’s stories with struggling characters in the Salinas Valley.

Director Asha Lovelace’s debut short “George and the Bicycle Pump” premiered at Toronto International Film Festival. She co-wrote, produced and directed her first feature “Joebell and America” which screened at several film festivals and won for Best International Narrative Feature Film at the Women’s International Film Festival in Miami in 2008. She lectures on film at the University of the West Indies, founded and is festival director of Africa Film Trinidad and Tobago, a film festival dedicated to African cinema.

Producer Lesley-Anne Macfarlane has worked in the audio-visual industry in U.K. and Trinidad, graduated with an Ma in Cultural Policy and Management from City University, London and has produced several short films and music videos.

The story centers on Aldrick whose sole responsibility in life is to his dragon masquerade that he plays for Carnival. When he finds himself falling for Sylvia, the most desired young woman on the hill, he is unable to commit to her and she succumbs to the advances of an older man. This plummets Aldrick into a moment of blind rebellion that ends in tragedy and forces him to confront his role as dragon and man.

3. “ Sprinter” from Jamaica will be directed by Storm Saulter whose well-received first feature, the 2010 crime drama “Better Mus’ Come” received U.S. distribution through Ava du Vernay’s Affrm. It is being produced by Donald Ranvaud (“City of God”) who is well known and well loved on the international film circuit.

This fictional feature is set against the world of track and field – an area in which Jamaica has excelled for decades – and addresses urgent and poignant broader themes. “Those images of Rastas smoking ganja on the beach or the gunman from Kingston – it isn’t who we are,” Saulter told Jeremy Kay in a Screen interview.

In his interview with Screen, Jeremy also asked what has it been like pitching to dozens of people here.

“You kind of have to get to the soul of the thing and you see what people respond to. This is about meeting with people that can help with financing and also potentially sales agents and exploring co-production possibilities. Jamaica does not have a treaty with the U.S .but we have treaties with the U.K. and Canada. It’s this whole puzzle you have to put together. The responses have been positive.”

The film is about Akeem, a young Rastafarian, who surprisingly shatters the 200-metre high-school track record. He must make the national team tocompete at the World Youth Championships in Philadelphia if he wants a chance to reunite with his mother who has been living there illegally for ten years. Akeem’s overnight popularity and the sudden return of his estranged older brother disrupt his focus. Meanwhile, a scandal is brewing that threatens to derail his career before it’s even started.

4. “ Beauty Kingdom ” is a Dominican Republic project to be directed by Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas who will also produce along with Mónica De Moya. Guzmán and Cárdenas also worked together on "Sand Dollars" (2014) which premiered at Tiff in 2014, "Jean Gentil" (2010) which premiered in Venice in 2010 and "Cochochi" (2007).

This fictional feature takes place in a magical place in the Caribbean and is about the most expensive film of all time which is about to be shot. The Diva, a 70-year-old eccentric actress (played by Geraldine Chaplin), has arrived to star in the film. She finds herself surrounded by the absurdity that such a film production implies, as she rigorously prepares for her role. All the while, she senses the impending end of the world. Nevertheless, the film must go on.

5. “Doubles With Slight Pepper” is a fiction feature coproduction of Trinidad and Tobago and the U.S. to be directed by Ian Harnarine, produced by Ryan Silbert and exec produced by Spike Lee.

Ian Harnarine , a Trinidadian living in Canada has already won numerous awards for the short that this feature is based upon and has been working on this feature for several years. The film will go into production in Trinidad in November.

In Lisa Harewood’s interview for Shadow and Act , Ian said, "The Caribbean Film Mart was incredibly important in opening up the world (literally!) to the project. To meet face to face with people from Sundance Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, Norwegian South Film Fund, World Cinema Support etc makes the opportunities available to me very real."

Dhani, a young Trinidadian street vendor, struggles to support himself and his mother by selling doubles. When his estranged father, Ragbir, unexpectedly invites him to New York, Dhani must travel to America and decide if he will save his father’s life.

Best Short Film at the Toronto International Film Festival 2011

Best Live Action Short Drama at the Genie Awards 2012 (the Canadian Academy Awards)

Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film:

filmmakermagazine.com/news/people/ian-harnarine/

Watch the short Here.

6. “The Extraordinary Journey of Celeste Garcia” from Cuba will be the first fiction feature to be directed by Arturo Infante. His shorts have shown at home and abroad and have won several awards and he has written several produced scripts such as “Havana Eva” and “L’edad de la peseta”, films which Cuban film fans all know well. His producers,Claudia Calviño and Alejandro Tovar are two of Cuba’s top young producers whose film “Juan of the Dead” is Cuba’s most current best selling satire. Like that, this story highlights characters who must react to a surreal situation in an already slightly surreal country called Cuba.

Celeste is in her sixties and sells tickets at a planetarium. The discovery of an alien race shocks the world. Humans will send a spaceship carrying regular citizens to make contact with the alien civilization. Tired of her monotonous life, Celeste decides to apply for a spot on the ship and embark into the unknown.

What Celeste and the rest of the passengers on the ship seek in another galaxy is the Cuban dream of a better life.

Arturo speaks of his interest in characters, both real and as actors. “Growing up in a family with many women made me develop a special ‘ear’ towards the feminine. I spent my childhood in an old colonial-style house, hearing the voices of my mother, my grandmothers, aunts and neighbors. They all talking from one side to another, sharing their stories, dreams and secrets, but also their visions about the reality and politics of my country. That’s why I think the main character in my story must necessarily be a woman. I realize now that Celeste embodies all those voices of my childhood. Celeste’s character also represents my parents’ generation. A generation that gave their best years to build a utopian project that was diverted into paths that were not exactly the ones they dreamed of. A generation now marked by disenchantment and skepticism, a process of which I have been a constant witness. With my story I want to give Celeste a chance to travel to a new planet, the opportunity to see the rebirth of those fallen dreams of her youth.”

http://www.facebook.com/produccionesdela5taavenida

7. “The Fisherman’s Son” from Puerto Rico and Colombia will be directed by Edgar Deluque. Producer Annabelle Mullen from PR is a former entertainment attorney with several credits to her name. She presented this project about a transsexual running away from the city to his childhood home at a fishermen’s island after murdering a policeman. He must face his father whom he hasn’t seen in fifteen years and who doesn’t want anything to do with his transsexual child.

The writer-director, Edgar Deluque, is an emerging talent from Colombia.

8. “Hello Nicki” from Trinidad and Tobago will be directed by Miquel Galofré whose previous moving doc about songwriters who were in prison in Kingston, Jamaica, “Songs of Redemption”, showed at various festivals including Havana and Krakow. Aside from this Miquel has made six other feature docs This doc, produced by Jean Michel Gibert whose sequel to “Pan! Our Music Odyssey” called “ Re-Percussions! Our African Odyssey ” just won the award for Best Trinidad and Tobago Documentary Feature Film at ttff.

This documentary follows Shanice, a teenage girl from Trinidad, as she seeks to actualize her grand dream of making music and collaborating with Nicki Minaj, a Trinidadian born American rapper – the most popular musical personage in the world today. Shanice is a spirited soul living with cerebral palsy and has a unique way of viewing the world. She is keenly aware of the isolation her appearance has caused, but her personality remains bright, upbeat and hopeful.

http://www.miquelgalofre.com .

You can meet Shanice here: https://vimeo.com/136969025 Password: Shanice

9. “Papa Machete” from Haiti, Barbados and U.S. to be directed by Jonathan David Kane is based upon the short which screened at ttff. The producers, Jason Fitzroy Jeffers and Keisha Rae Witherspoon were discussing the doc as well as the fiction feature to be made. Many of the people they spoke with, including myself, thought the fiction feature would be more accessible, though perhaps a TV doc would also be possible with the footage they have made the 10 minute short with.

The story is fascinating as the machete was used as a weapon 200 years ago when Haitian slaves defeated Napoleon’s armies with the very tool they used to work the land. Papa Machete explores the esoteric martial art that emerged from this victory through the life and recent death of Alfred Avril, a poor farmer who was one of the art’s few remaining masters. With his passing, Avril’s two sons are confronted with loss, legacy and American dreams.

10. “Wind Rush” is conceived as a doc coproduction between Trinidad and Tobago and U.S. director-writer-producer Vashti Harrison lives in Atlanta, Geogia. Her parents are Trinis and she has a great love for Trinidad and its music. This is an experimental doc about Calypso music which serves a significant role in the Caribbean emigrant experience in London, which began in earnest in the 1950s. Calypso was the music of the minority, the voice of the other, and it helped to define the West Indian identity in England. Using the music of calypsonians Lord Beginner and Lord Kitchener as a road map to this journey of discovery and displacement, the film will focus on their homes both in Trinidad and London.

The criticism she received was about obtaining music clearances in U.K. when she herself is not a U.K. resident or citizen. Perhaps she needs to find a U.K. producer who can also access U.K. Funds. Her experimental films and docs have shown around the world at Rotterdam, Edinburgh, N.Y. and Havana Film Festivals. All of her work focuses into her Caribbean heritage and is quite evocative, artistic and well executed.

11. “Conch” from Curaçao will be directed and produced by German Gruber whose first film, urban drama, “Sensei Redenshon” was completed in 2013 and will be released in the Netherlands this fall. This fiction feature about the natural side of Curaçao is a road movie about a young boy who runs away from home after the loss of his mother. Searching for the message that he saw her whisper into a conch shell the night before her death, he seeks clues from the characters he meets along his desolate journey. Between nightmares of drowning and daydreams of becoming a musician, he eventually confronts his fear of the sea to find the answer.

12. “Green Days by the River” is a fiction feature set against the backdrop of rural Trinidad in 1952. A fifteen-year-old boy who has just moved to a village naively seeks the affection of two girls, an attractive rich Indian girl, and a more personable and accessible one. The ensuing triangle forces him to focus on becoming a man as he must make life enduring decisions.

Director Michael Mooleedhar has made several award winning shorts.Producer Christian James graduated in 2014 with an Mfa in Cretive Producing from Columbia College Chicago, has interned with K5 International during 2014 Cannes and participated in the 2015 Rotterdam Film Festival Lab.

13. “Potomitans : Women Pillars in Revolt” , a doc project from Guadeloupe will be directed by Bouchera Azzouz whose first documentary, “Nos Meres nos daronnes” (“Our Mothers”) aired this year on France 2 (France Televisions) and was one of its biggest audience hits. This is her second work on popular feminism. Producer Nina Vilus' short "Vivre” has won awards and their “Villa Karayib”, a 3 minute 30 second series with 140 episodes aired on Canal + Antilles. Laurence Lascary is coproducing.

This film is an exploratory journey into the heart of the everyday life of five Guadeloupean women who are considered “potomitans”, women who assume professional and familial responsibilities without the help of a man. Everything rests on the courage of these women, who are trying to emancipate themselves by claiming a new way of being a woman.

It is an Art & Vision Productions, De l’autre cote du periph (Dacp) and Canal + Antilles coproduction which Canal + will broadcast in the French Caribbean. 37% of the financing is secured through the Guadeloupe regional council, Agence national pour la cohesion social et l’egalite des chances (Asce), Ministry of French overseas territories. Apcag network of theaters in Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guyana along with Aubervilliers Theater in France will premiere the film.

14. “The Seawall” is a fiction project to be coproduced by Guyana and U.S.

Director Mason Richards says, “My intention for ‘The Seawall’ is to create a dramatic narrative set in Guyana, South America with simple characters navigating through complex issues within the Caribbean cultural context. It is also my intention to make a film that seeks to reconcile our Caribbean and non-Caribbean identities through the journey of my protagonist who returnes “home” to Guyana and is confronted with issues of his past that he has suppressed. The story needs to be told because many of us from the Caribbean diaspora struggle with “trans-national” identities, meaning we are from the Caribbean, however we’ve immigrated to other countries like the U.S. where we’ve adapted to a new dominant culture and way of life. With tht, there is a feeling of “dis-connect” as though we have left something behind, back “home” in the Caribbean, whether it’s family members, our cultural identity, or simply our childhood memories. It is also my intention to make an entertaining, quality film that highlights the beauty of the Caribbean through the stories and hearts of the characters.

The fiscal partner of this project is Frog (Friends and Returned Peace Corps Volunteers of Guyana), Verisimiltude in New York City. The executive producer C.R. Wooten has exec produced several film projects for TV and HBO and exec produced the short film, “The Seawall”.

The writer-director, Mason Richards, is an alumnus of Film Independent’s Project Involve, a recipient of Sony Pictures Diversity Fellowship 2012, winner of The Ainslie Alumni Achievement Award 2011 and Guyana’s 46th Independence Golden Arrowhead Award.

Producer Sohini Sengupta is an award-winning of creative director of theatrical campaigns, including “Birdman”, “12 Years a Slave”, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”, “Black Swan” and “Slumdog Millionaire”. She is a production team member of the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and was named one of Glamour Magazine’s 35 under 35 Women Who Run Hollywood.

Malachi, a struggling young writer in Brooklyn, learns of his girlfriend’s pregnancy and returns to his birth country, Guyana, to sell off his inheritance. In Guyana, Malachi ends up confronting his estranged father who abandoned him as a child. Malachi gets closure, and makes decisions about the kind of father he would be to his unborn child.

15. “Epiphany” by Maria Govan who is a self-taught filmmaker from the island of New Providence in The Bahamas. When she was 18 she moved to L.A. and worked for four years on Hollywood sets. In 1999 she returned home, bought a digital camera and began making small guerilla-style local documentaries. In 2004 she moved to New York and began writing her first narrative script “Rain” which premiered in 2008 at the Toronto International Film Festival, won several awards and aired on Showtime to a strong audience response. Her second film “Play the Devil” was shot entirely in Trinidad in the spring of 2015 and she hopes it will premiere in the winter of 2016.

Producer Abigail Hadeed has worked with Caribbean crews on big budget commercials. She worked on the short “4am” in 2011 which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festval. In 2012 she produced an award winning feature doc “La Giata” and produced “Play the Devil” with Maria.

They are looking for coproducers and can offer a 35% rebate on Trinidadian spend with a 50% rebate on roles in key positions for films shot in Trinidad. Exterior and ocean environments can be shot in the Bahamas.

Set in the Bahamas — Mary, a loner with a passion for spear fishing and the sea, is forced to give up her room to her overbearing cousin’s girlfriend, an “illegal” colorful Cuban named Gabriel. When a love triangle develops and George realizes he’s been betrayed, the women are forced into the dark terrain of human smuggling.

Links to “Rain” (director’s previous work): Trailer

Link to Maria Govan’s Show Reel: https://vimeo.com/35611171

Other films in the program but exceeding the official number of 15 include

16. “Cargo” from The Bahamas, a fiction feature based upon the short film of Kareem Mortimer. Producer Trevite Willis has produced several films including the Lgbt feather “Children of God” with Kareem directing. Producer Alexander Younis now has a doc, “Brigidy Bram ” in post-production.

“Cargo”, based upon Kareem’s short “Passage”, is about a Bahamian fisherman whose life is slowly unraveling. After wasting his remaining money at a gambling house, he is approached by a security guard who suggests that Kevin supplement his income by using his vessel as a means to transport people illegally into the United States. Kevin leads scores of migrants on a treacherous, unsettling and perilous final journey.

17. “Scattered” reminded me of “Desperately Seeking Susan” in the story of an young uptight British woman who has her run-of-the-mill life disrupted when the Caribbean grandmother she barely knew leaves a request for her to scatter her ashes in Trinidad where a free-spirited cousin takes her on a wild road trip that changes her life forever.

The director-producer-cowriter, Karen Martinez, is a Trinidadian filmmaker based in London, U.K. She has worked extensively in the film world in U.K. and the Caribbean. In 2013 she wrote, produced and directed her frist narrative fiction “After Mas”. Her most recent film, “Dreams in Transit” is an essay-style documentary of a contemporary migrant reflcting on identity and the meaning of “home”.

18. “Unfinished Sentences” by writer-director-producer Mariel Brown, an award winning documentary director and founder of the creative and production company Savant. Her documentary films have been screened on television, at festivals and other special events around the world, most recently at the Pan African Film Festival and Clermont-Ferrand.

This is a story of a writer father and a filmmaker daughter who walks the line between adoration and disappointment, success and failure, race, family and art. When he dies, in her great grief she discovers his poetry and prose transcend death, allowing her to hear his voice again and to find a way back to her own self. For more information go to http://www.unfinishedsentencesfilm.com.

19. “Queen of Soca” by Kevin Adams

“’ Queen of Soca’ was inspired by my home base of Laventille, Trinidad and Tobago where the frustration of living a life of restricted opportunity is a narrative I observe often.“

“ Queen of Soca” is the story of Olivia, who lives in an impoverished community and is striving to make a better life for herself. Her life is full of struggles, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

The short version of “Queen of Soca”, entitled “No Soca No Life” premiered at Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival in 2012 and has been well received by movie goers and movie industry practitioners. “No Soca No Life” is currently available on Vimeo, Pay per view.

“We are now focused on the original goal of creating a blockbuster inspirational story for the world to enjoy, and using the Trinidad and Tobago culture as the vehicle for our message. On behalf of myself and my team, thank you for your interest in this project and we look forward to completing this journey with you !”

The Cfm was held from 24-27 September at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The ttff/15 took place from 15-29 September.