LOS ANGELES — Sundance Institute and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) announced Tuesday the twelve finalists for the 2008 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Award.
This annual award supports new visionary artists in international cinema and is presented to emerging film directors from four global regions to support them in realizing their next projects. One winner each from Europe, Latin America, the United States and Japan is selected by members of an international jury. The four winners will be announced during the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and presented with their awards at the Festival Awards Ceremony.
The winning filmmaker from each region will receive a $10,000 award and a guarantee from NHK to acquire the Japanese television broadcast rights upon completion of their project.
Past recipients of the award include: Miranda July, ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW (USA); Andrucha Waddington, THE HOUSE OF SAND (Brazil); Lucrecia Martel, LA CIENAGA (Argentina); Juan Pablo Rebella and Pablo Stoll, WHISKY (Uruguay); Walter Salles, CENTRAL STATION (Brazil); Chris Eyre, SMOKE SIGNALS (USA); György Pálfi, TAXIDERMIA (Hungary) and Catalin Mitulescu, THE WAY I SPENT THE END OF THE WORLD (Romania).
Recent winners include Lucia Cedron, AGNUS DEI (Latin America); Caran Hartsfield, BURY ME STANDING (USA); Tomoko Kana, TWO BY THE RIVER (Japan); and Dagur Kari, THE GOOD HEART (Europe). Alex Rivera (USA) will premiere his film SLEEP DEALER in competition at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival.
This year's projects range from Slovenia and Bosnia to Chile, Japan and the United States. The twelve finalists for the 2008 Sundance/NHK International Filmmakers Awards are:
EUROPE
Janez Burger / CIRCUS FANTASTICUS (Slovenia) — After losing his wife and home to the ravages of war, Stevo and his two children discover a new beginning when a circus arrives at their demolished home to stage a final performance.
Born in Slovenia, Janez Burger studied directing at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Czech Republic. His first feature IDLE RUNNING was a box office hit in Slovenia. It was shown at more than 60 festivals worldwide and received more than 20 awards. His second feature RUINS received 13 awards at the Slovenian Film Festival and was selected as Slovenian nominee for Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Burger also produced GRAVEHOPPING, directed by Jan Cvitkovi, which received 23 festival awards, has been sold in 15 European countries and was also Slovenian nominee for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
Radu Jude / The HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD (Romania) — When working class teenager Delia wins a luxury car in a promotional campaign, she and her parents travel to Bucharest to shoot a commercial in which she must thank the sponsoring company for the car. As the shoot wears on, the car slowly becomes both the object and catalyst of an absurd clash of desire, values, and will between Delia's cash-strapped parents and her youthful self.
Radu Jude was born in Bucharest in 1977. He graduated in 2003 from the filmmaking department of Media University. He worked as an assistant director for feature films shot in Romania, such as AMEN by Costa Gavras and THE DEATH OF MR. LAZARESCU by Cristi Puiu. He has directed several commercials and short films including THE TUBE WITH A HAT (2006), which won the Short Filmmaking Award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, the Golden Gate Award at San Francisco Film Festival, and the Best Narrative Short at Los Angeles Film Festival. THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD is his first feature film.
Jasmila Zbanic / ON THE PATH (Bosnia and Herzegovina) — A young married couple's love is put to the test as the wife searches for salvation from her war-ravaged past, and her alcoholic husband attempts to find salvation by joining a radical sect of Islam.
Born in Sarajevo in 1974,Jasmila Zbanic is a graduate of her native city's Academy of Dramatic Arts, in the Department of theater and film directing. Zbanic began making films in 1997 when she founded the artists' association Deblokada, through which she produced, wrote and directed numerous films, such as BIRTHDAY (part of the omnibus film LOST & FOUND), RED RUBBER BOOTS, IMAGES FROM THE CORNER, AFTER AFTER, and WE LIGHT THE NIGHT.
LATIN AMERICA
Alejandro Fernández Almendras / HUACHO (Chile) — Set in the Chilean countryside, HUACHO presents a day in the life of a small rural family struggling to adjust to changing economic realities and a modern world that continues to move on without them.
Alejandro Fernández Almendras was born in Chillán, Chile, in 1971. He has worked as a journalist, photographer and film critic, and has lived in Chile and New York. He has directed several short films, including LO QUE TRAE LA LLUVIA (2007), which screened at the Berlin Film Festival and was awarded the Casa de Americas prize in the Version Española short film competition; and DESDE LEJOS (2006), which won best short film at the Santiago International Film Festival , and best regional work at the Valdivia Film Festival. Almendras is a 2007 Artists' Fellowship recipient of the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA).
Paz Fabrega / AGUA FRIA DE MAR (Costa Rica) — On the south pacific coast of Costa Rica, a young woman encounters a strange little girl, who brings on a crisis of unsuspected proportions. She is faced with the limitations and loneliness of her privileged life complicated by the heightened atmosphere of the unpredictable, vast nature, which make human effort seems small and absurd.
Paz Fabrega studied filmmaking at the London Film School. Her graduation film, TEMPORAL, shot in rural Costa Rica, has been in competition at Clermont Ferrand, Tampere, Angers and AFI Latin American Film Festival and won the best short award in Biarritz and best fiction in Costa Rica. AGUA FRIA DE MAR, her first feature, was developed at the Binger Filmlab in Amsterdam, won the ARTE award at the Buenos Aires Lab in BAFICI, and has received development support from the Hubert Bals Fund.
Juliana Rojas & Marco Dutra / HARD LABOR (Brazil) — Strange and terrifying things start to happen inside the newly opened store of a young middle-class housewife as family relations and social roles shift when her husband suddenly loses his job.
Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra studied at the São Paulo University's Film School. Their graduation film THE WHITE SHEET was shown in many festivals around the world, including the Cinéfondation in Cannes 2005. Their second short, A STEM, was selected for the International Critic's Week in Cannes 2007, and won the Kodak Discovery Award for Best Short Film. Both Juliana and Marco are members of Filmes do Caixote, a collective of several young directors from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. TRABALHAR CANSA (HARD LABOR) is their first feature film.
UNITED STATES
Braden King / HERE — Measurement and orientation break down in an intensely visual, landscape-obsessed road movie that chronicles the relationship between an American mapmaker and a foreign art photographer who impulsively decide to travel together into deeply uncharted territory.
Braden King co-directed the lyric Aleutian Island documentary, DUTCH HARBOR: WHERE THE SEA BREAKS ITS BACK, which had extensive festival screenings and a theatrical release. King has directed music videos and short films for artists including Sonic Youth, Will Oldham, Chan Marshall (Cat Power), Sparklehorse and Yo La Tengo. Recent non-narrative work includes HEAVEN IS A PLACE / NOTHING EVER HAPPENS, a film/video installation commissioned by Chris Doyle for the 50,000 BEDS exhibition at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum; and [THE STORY IS STILL ASLEEP], a multi-channel film, video and live music event that will premiere at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival. His screenplay, HERE (co-written with Dani Valent), has received grants and awards from the Creative Capital, Alfred P. Sloan and Annenberg Foundations.
Jake Mahaffy / FREE IN DEED — A desperate man's attempt at deliverance while trying to perform a miracle fails and results in the death of a young boy. Recently released from prison, the man returns to the same small town where now his own child has fallen ill.
Jake Mahaffy was born and raised in Ohio, studied filmmaking at the Russian State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow and co-founded the Handcranked Film Projects collaborative in Boston. Mahaffy's short films and feature film, WAR (2004), have screened in festivals and competitions including Sundance, Rotterdam, Edinburgh, Stockholm, Cinematexas, Ann Arbor and the Student Academy Awards. His screenplay, FREE IN DEED has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Creative Capital Grant, the Sundance Institute's Lynn Auerbach Screenwriting Fellowship, and an Annenberg Film Fellowship. FREE IN DEED was developed at the 2006 Sundance Institute Filmmaker Lab.
James Ponsoldt / REFRESH, REFRESH — Three boys in the high desert of central Oregon battle heartbreak and explore the redemptive power of violence when their Marine reservist fathers are called to duty in Iraq.
James Ponsoldt was born and raised in Athens, Georgia, received a BA in English from Yale, and an MFA in directing from Columbia University's Graduate Film Program. Ponsoldt's short films and debut feature, OFF THE BLACK (theatrically distributed by THINKFilm), have played at more than 100 festivals worldwide, including Sundance, Tribeca, Stockholm, Clermont-Ferrand, Seattle, Cork, Edinburgh, and Hamptons. His screenplay, REFRESH, REFRESH, was developed at the 2007 Sundance Screenwriters' Lab and received the Lynn Auerbach Screenwriting Fellowship.
JAPAN
Akira Ichinose / LAMPLIGHT AND SHADOWS — A young pregnant woman storms into a store run by an old man and ask s for his son, whom she claims is the father of her baby. An awkward and fragile relationship develops between the young woman and the old man.
Akira Ichinose was born and raised in Osaka, Japan. He holds an undergraduate degree in art theory from Doshisha University, and a Master of Fine Arts from Nihon University. His graduation work, A RED BRIDGE, was screened in many festivals including 34th International Student Film Festival Potsdam, and 35th Molodist Kyev International Film Festival. A RED BRIDGE also gained favorable attentions at Yokohama 2005 International Triennale of Contemporary Art. His latest work CAN YOU HEAR participated in Cannes Film Market and HDFEST.
Yukihiko Goto / THREE COLD DAYS AND FOUR WARM DAYS — Masayuki, an old Japanese fisherman, stands amidst the snowy hinterland of northeast China, bearing an urn containing the ashes of his late young wife, Lei. Returning to Lei's village, Masayuki is reminded of the passage of time and longs for what was lost.
Yukihiko Goto was born and raised in Tokyo, Japan. He started making shorts films while attending Osaka University of Foreign Studies completing a major in Chinese. In 2007, he graduated from the Beijing Film Academy with a Masters Degree in Directing. During his studies, he took countless trips to northeast China to research this current project. His graduation film FIRECRACKER is showing at The International Film & Video Festival of Beijing Film Academy, and various festivals throughout Japan.
Aiko Nagatsu / APOPTOSIS — A young woman suddenly loses her job at a publishing company in Tokyo, which is followed by the loss of her apartment, lover, friends and family. She gradually learns to accept her fate, and starts to understand that some things are never lost.
Aiko Nagatsu was deeply involved in the performing arts as she studied drama throughout junior high and high school. At the age of 20, she entered an animation-production company in Tokyo, where she learned two different styles of animation: Disney animation and so-called "Japanimation." She worked in various capacities for many animated films including MULAN 2, PHOO'S HEFFALUMP MOVIE, and FLAG. At the age of 25, she left the company to start her own filmmaking career. APOPTOSIS is her first feature film project.