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FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES:
• McKnight
Fellowships:
• Screenwriting
• Filmmaking
• Fresh Filmmakers Grant
• MNTV
• Non-IFP Grants & Fellowships
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PARTY: Selection, Election, and the Body Politic
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Screenwriting
IFP Minnesota is proud to announce the WINNERS
for the 2009 McKnight Screenwriting competition!
The 2009 Screenwriting Fellows and their stories:
Nicole Brending, PRESERVATION
LOGLINE: When a recluse taxidermist kills a nine-year-old girl's abusive father, and kidnaps her, he is forced to navigate the unwieldy world of families, fatherhood, and little girls - despite his desire to hunt, kill and preserve.
Karen Frank, THE GHOSTS OF GRAY’S POND
LOGLINE: A Ph.D candidate risks more than just her career when she investigates a string of mysterious deaths stretching back to the eighteenth century. She soon learns that those who remember the past... are condemned to die.
Three panelists selected the 2009 Fellows from the 7 finalists:
Patty Jenkins wrote and directed the award winning film MONSTER, staring Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci. MONSTER was named Best First Feature by the 2004 Independent Spirit Awards; was selected as one of the 10 best films of the year by American Film Institute and selected as the “The Best Film of the Year” by critic Roger Ebert; and garnered an Oscar, Golden Globe, Berlinale Silver Bear, SAG award and numerous other awards for lead actress Charlize Theron. Patty has since directed several episodes of HBO’s series ENTOURAGE and Fox’s former hit television series ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT. She is currently in preproduction on her next feature film.
Alexis Treadwell Murray worked at Creative Artists Agency where she learned first hand how projects are packaged and sold to studios. Craving to be back on the creative side of the filmmaking process, Murray landed a job in creative development for Alicia Key’s production company Big Pita Lil Pita Productions. They have a multiyear first-look deal with Disney to develop live-action projects. She is currently working on finding new projects for the company to produce.
Jennifer Steinman, Co-Founder of the film production company, Smush Media, began her career as a staff Editor at CBS, both in New York and San Francisco. Her work has aired nationally on PBS, The Discovery Channel, National Geographic Channel, Showtime’s Sundance Channel, The Food Network, and many other television networks. Her corporate clients include Visa, Symantec and The Gap. Her films have been accepted into many major film festivals including San Francisco International, Rotterdam, and Sundance. Her latest film, MOTHERLAND, won the Audience Award at SXSW 2009. She is currently seeking screenplays for production.
The finalists and their stories:
Elissa Elliot, IN THE UNLIKELY EVENT
LOGLINE: The accidental snowmobile death of a nine-year-old girl deeply impacts the family she's left behind.
David Erickson, THE COUNTRY ON THE CORNER
LOGLINE: After discovering his Iowa home is its own sovereign nation, a 4th grade school teacher declares his independence from the United States.
Patricia Fox, ANATOMY OF A TOWN
LOGLINE: The town tramp has been murdered and the Chief of Police uncovers all the dirty secrets of his community during the investigation, including one about himself; the victim was his half-sister which complicates the case because he once slept with her.
Andrew Hunt and Jason Lausche, HOVER
LOGLINE: Our planet has been surrounded by thousands of mysterious spacecrafts for over four years. Once a month, for fifty-three seconds, the Earth is shrouded in darkness. When the lights return...people are missing.
Migizi Pensoneau, THE LEGEND OF SUITPANTS
LOGLINE: A banker travels to the northern woods of Minnesota to hire an Indian guide and hunt a bear, with his ultimate goal being to experience nature as he’s only read about. His exposure is so great, and out of his own mind-set, that he descends into madness.
These judges chose the seven finalists from 64 submitted screenplays:
Courtney Andrialis
Courtney Andrialis is head of Development & Production at PalmStar Entertainment, where current projects include Veronika Decides to Die (adaptation of Paulo Coelho’s novel, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Lunar Park (adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ novel, starring Benicio Del Toro).
Amy Dotson
Amy Dotson is Producer & Managing Director of Programming for IFP NY, where she manages IFP's Narrative Rough Cut Labs & Emerging Narrative Program and is supervising producer of the yearly Filmmaker Conference, and oversees jury & talent for the Gotham Awards.
Ryan Harrington
Ryan is the Head of IndiePix Studio, serving as an executive producer on all of IndiePix films including Toots, The End of America, In a Dream, and The English Surgeon. He has managed production for Oscar-nominated films Murderball and Jesus Camp and Sundance hits My Kid Could Paint That and American Teen.
Carly Hugo
A founding partner of The Group Entertainment, a NYC film production and talent management company, Carly Hugo was Co-Producer of Peter and Vandy, which premiereD at Sundance Film Festival 2009. She was an Associate Producer of Loggerheads (Sundance '05) and the Executive Producer of Buick Riviera (Cannes L'Atelier, Best Feature Film at Sarajevo '08).
Lars Knudsen
Producers of features such as Old Joy, Wild Tigers I Have Known, and Don’t Let Me Drown (the latter will premiere in Competition at Sundance Film Festival 2009), Lars Knudsen and Jay Van Hoy were nominated for the 2009 Independent Spirit Producers Award. At the 2008 Toronto Film Festival, Variety singled out Knudsen and Van Hoy in their list of “10 Producers to Watch" and in 2006.
Alex Orlovsky
Alex Orlovsky currently sits on the board of Artists Public Domain, which was recently honored by IFP for having donated over $100,000 dollars towards the organization’s grants. Previous feature films include Half Nelson, which won three Gotham Awards and two Independent Spirit Awards and whose star, Ryan Gosling, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.
Anish Savjani
Founder of filmscience, an independent film production company, in 2005, Anish Savjani honed his production skills as assistant to famed producer Scott Rudin. Savjani has produced many acclaimed features, including Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy, Joe Swanberg's Nights and Weekends, and Spencer Parsons' I'll Come Running.
Jonathan Shukat
Jonathan is a development/production executive at PalmStar Entertainment. He began his career at GreeneStreet Films working on films including Awake, Wedding Daze, Tenderness, Gary the Tennis Coach, and Meet Bill.
Vinay Singh
Prior to starting Small Coup Films, Vinay was a Creative Executive at This Is That, a NY-based production company behind award-winning films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and was actively involved in development, production and post-production for numerous films including Adventureland and The Savages.
Bridget Stokes
Bridget Stokes is currently Research Coordinator for a new documentary on Bob Marley directed by Jonathan Demme. She was previously Director of Production & Development at Elephant Eye Films, a NY based independent film production company.
Joshua Zeman
Feature films Joshua Zeman has produced/co-produced include The Station Agent, which won the 2003 Sundance Audience and Screenwriting Award and The Hawk is Dying, starring Paul Giamatti, Michael Pitt and Michelle Williams. Recently he wrapped Against The Current, starring Joseph Fiennes, Justin Kirk, Elizabeth Reaser, Michelle Trachtenberg and Mary Tyler Moore, which will premiere at Sundance in 2009. His latest film, Cropsey, is premiering at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival.
About the McKnight Artists Fellowships for Screenwriters
The Minnesota based McKnight Foundation provides funding and counsel to local arts organizations administering its multiple artist fellowships in the areas of ceramic arts, composition, dance choreography, music, photography, theatre, screenwriting, filmmaking, visual art, and writing.
The McKnight Artists Fellowships for Screenwriters has grown to be the most prestigious screenwriting competition in the Upper Midwest, with one of the largest cash awards offered in national screenwriting competitions. Administered by IFP Minnesota for 11 years, the monies awarded recognize and support resident screenwriters of Minnesota who have excelled in the artistic discipline of writing for cinema. Each applicant submits one narrative feature screenplay, which is judged by professional screenwriters, directors, producers, development executives, and literary agents/managers outside Minnesota. Each of the two winning Fellows will receive a $25,000 cash award for excellence in the art of screenwriting.
McKnight Screenwriting Fellows
1997 Karl Gadjusek, John Olive, Jeffrey Williams
1998 Jim Berg, James Byrne, Jim Christensen
1999 David Grant, Shawn Lawrence Otto
2000 William Eigen, Jeane Moore
2001 Jane O'Reilly, Doug Pfeifer
2002 Steven Larson, Ron Stover
2003 Michael Starrbury, Bob Yates
2004 Susan Arakawa, Brad Pecelj
2005 Patrick Coyle, Bob Yates
2006 Steven Larson & Gary Jenneke, Zach Hammill
2007 Michael Starrbury, Wenonah Wilms
2008 Daniel Laurence, Alan W. Porter
2009 Nicole Brending, Karen Frank
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Upcoming
Events:
IFP MN Fresh Fête gala benefit! Thursday, July 23rd
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2009 Summer Workshops for Kids & Teens
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2009 Summer Class Schedule Now Available Online!
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Filmmakers, it's time to Emerge!: Apply for the Fresh Filmmaker Production Grant
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Cinema Lounge at Bryant-Lake Bowl! Wednesday, June 17th
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