THE DARK DIVIDE
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Stream this new indie film on Virtual Cinema release, available on October 18 - 30.
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#NFF2020 Showtime's Tony Cox Screenplay Competition Winners Announced!
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Feature Screenplay Winner :
Minor Modifications by Shia LaBeouf
Based on the life of rapper Kevin Abstract; this biographical fiction follows a Texas teen as he struggles with identity, finding meaningful relationships, sexual fluidity, and his direction in life.
Shia LaBeouf is an American actor, artist, filmmaker, and writer. He most recently wrote and starred in HONEY BOY (2019), which Amazon Prime released to rave reviews. He also co-starred in the NFF2019 Spotlight film THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON (2019), which was the highest-grossing independent film of 2019.
Short Screenplay Winner :
Martha by Sarah Smith
The true story of the week Martha Mitchell (wife of Nixon’s former Attorney General John Mitchell) was held captive in a Southern California hotel room in the aftermath of the Watergate break-in.
Sarah Smith is an award-winning filmmaker and television producer. Her latest short film, Black Hat, was an official selection of the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and won the 2019 Iris prize. She is the co-creator and director of the web series Tender Touches, which won 1st place at the 2018 AT&T create-a-thon. In 2015, Sarah debuted her short film, D.Asian, which went on to screen at over 35 festivals across the globe and was awarded the 2017 AT&T Underrepresented Filmmaker Award. She also won a WGA award as part of The Young & The Restless writing team. Sarah is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
60 MIN Episodic Screenplay Winner :
BEING SEEN by Andi Delott
When a marketing exec ages out of the industry and becomes invisible in society, she reclaims her strength by starting a high-end male escort service.
Andi Delott writes grounded dramas with female leads. Much of her inspiration comes from her career in entertainment advertising. As ABC’s agency of record for almost two decades, she led that account and helped successfully brand, launch and sustain multi year marketing campaigns for classics including Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Dancing with the Stars, and Modern Family to name a few. Now, in addition to ABC, her clients also include Apple, Netflix, Amazon and Disney Academy. Andi recently completed a fellowship with the 2019-2020 NBC Writers On The Verge program. Her writing accomplishments also include a 2018 PAGE Awards Fellowship/Stowe Story Labs; 2017 New York Women in Film and Television Writers Lab; 2019 Finalist in The Blacklist/Women in Film Episodic Lab and 2019 Semifinalist at the Austin Film Festival, among other contest placements. She graduated in 2019 from UCLA’s Professional Program for TV Screenwriting.
30 MIN Episodic Screenplay Winner:
DRYWALL by Rob Eckard
A deeply-closeted family man inherits his father’s construction company, only to discover that the business served as a cover for his father’s true passion: murder.
Rob Eckard is a Los Angeles-based screenwriter and educator, originally from the sweet tea-coated suburbs of Dallas, Texas. He holds degrees in theatre education and screenwriting from NYU and Emerson College, where he now teaches screenwriting as an affiliated faculty member. As a graduate student, he was selected for the Television Academy’s internship program and worked on the 20th Century Fox lot, including time at Modern Family and Fresh Off the Boat. His writing is heavily influenced by his Southern roots, queer identity, and unresolved daddy issues.
For Art Lovers: Q&A with AGGIE director Catherine Gund and MADE YOU LOOK: A TRUE STORY ABOUT FAKE ART director Barry Avrich
/Today we're profiling films for art lovers!
AGGIE explores the nexus of art, race, and justice through the story of art collector and philanthropist Agnes “Aggie” Gund, a true maverick who demonstrates the power of art to transform consciousness and inspire social change.
In MADE YOU LOOK: A TRUE STORY ABOUT FAKE ART, controversy erupts when an unassuming couple floods the American art market with a collection of fake art valued in the millions, bewildering the art world elite. This is an entertaining and suspenseful tale of an ingenious con that everyone wanted to believe was real.
Take a look at these filmmaker Q&As, and stream their films now through June 30 at NFF NOW: AT HOME!
For Globetrotters: Q&A with MAYOR director David Osit and THE MOLE AGENT director Maite Alberdi
/Are you a globetrotter? Do you enjoy international stories of intrigue? Then you don’t want to miss MAYOR by David Osit and THE MOLE AGENT by Maite Alberdi!
MAYOR: This captivating portrait of life in Palestine under Israeli occupation follows Musa Hadid, the Christian mayor of Ramallah, over the course of his second term as he navigates civic responsibilities in a volatile political climate.
THE MOLE AGENT: When a family becomes concerned about their mother’s well-being in a retirement home, they hire a private investigator, who plants 83-year-old Sergio inside the home as an undercover spy.
Take a look below at Q&As with both directors, then stream their films June 23-30 at NFF NOW: AT HOME!
NFF NOW: AT HOME Opening Night Q&A with BOYS STATE directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine
/Boys State is an entertaining and revealing look at American democracy and political division, following a group of high school boys as they create a mock government at an annual civics program hosted by the American Legion in Austin, Texas.
Before NFF NOW: AT HOME opening night film BOYS STATE, Digital Operations Director Allyson Morgan talks with directors Jesse Moss and Amanda McBaine. Take a look, and join us this evening for our one-night-only presentation of BOYS STATE!
An Announcement from NFF!
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Dear Friends,
It is with much joy that we announce our new initiative, NFF NOW: AT HOME, an online film and conversation series taking place June 23-30, during the originally scheduled dates of the Festival. NFF NOW: AT HOME offers a selection of new feature-length and short films, plus In Their Shoes conversations - all accessible from the comfort and safety of your home. The film line-up will be announced on June 8th.
Feature-length narrative films, documentaries, and short film programs will be available for pass-holders to stream for the 8 days beginning June 23. The collection of films will include new features exploring the worlds of art, politics, music, comedy, and much more, with filmmaker Q&As for select presentations, as well as three shorts programs featuring fresh new voices.
NFF NOW: AT HOME will also present an In Their Shoes conversation with the legendary Norman Lear, the film and television writer/director/producer known for All in the Family, Maude, Good Times, The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, and One Day at a Time. At 98, Mr. Lear is executive producing Season 3 of the reimagined One Day at a Time and a third installment of the Emmy-winning Live! In Front of a Studio Audience. He will join NPR’s Ophira Eisenberg to discuss his expansive body of work. Also included in this online program is an In Their Shoes conversation with the Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Forrest Gump, Eric Roth, about his newest films, including Dune with Timothée Chalamet, Jason Momoa, Zendaya, and Josh Brolin and Killers of the Flower Moon, to be directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert DeNiro. More conversations to be announced.
While we look forward immensely to seeing everybody in person on Nantucket for the Nantucket Film Festival in June of 2021, we are so very pleased to be able to bring NFF NOW: AT HOME to you, our loyal supporters, this summer. On with the show!
Mystelle Brabbée
Executive Director | Nantucket Film Festival
#NFF2020 Showtime's Tony Cox Film Screenplay FINALISTS Announced!
/Read more below about our short and feature screenplay finalists AND their scripts!
Minor Modifications by Shia LaBeouf
Based on the life of rapper Kevin Abstract; this biographical fiction follows a Texas teen as he struggles with identity, finding meaningful relationships, sexual fluidity, and his direction in life.
Shia LaBeouf is an American actor, artist, filmmaker, and writer. He most recently wrote and starred in HONEY BOY (2019), which Amazon Prime released to rave reviews. He also co-starred in the NFF2019 Spotlight film THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON (2019), which was the highest-grossing independent film of 2019.
Previous honors/recognition for screenwriting:
MINOR MODIFICATIONS won the 2020 Sun Valley Festival's High Scribe Award.
Hollywood Film Awards 2019 - Screenwriter of the Year for HONEY BOY (2019)
Misekakeru (Pretend) by Diana Ly
A Japanese rental wife, along with her best friend, searches for true connection after her long-time fake husband “breaks up” with her.
Diana Ly is a Vietnamese-American screenwriter and playwright based in Los Angeles. Born in Oklahoma, where her parents settled as refugees, she grew up as an ex-pat in the Philippines. Ly moved to Silicon Valley to study at Stanford University, and after earning BS and MS degrees in Computer Science, worked at Google for eight years, including a stint at the YouTube Space LA. A drama and theatre student for much of her life, she attended UCLA’s Professional Programs in Screenwriting and TV Writing. She was a 2017 Project Involve Fellow at Film Independent, a writer on Season 2 of GodComplX, a web series funded by Google’s CS in Media initiative, and she’ll be a 2020 Ragdale Artist Resident. She recently worked as a features assistant to showrunner Karin Gist. Diana writes stories about immigrants, nerds, and women who defy stereotypes.
Previous honors/recognition screenwriting:
2020 Ragdale Artist Resident
2019 SeriesFest's Women Writing Competition - Finalist
2019 Innovasian's Screenplay Contest - Finalist
2019 Sundance Development Track - Misekakeru (Pretend) advanced to the second round
2017 Film Independent Project Involve Fellow
2017 SeriesFest's Featuring Women Initiative - Semi-Finalist
2016 CBS Writers Mentoring Program - Finalist
Sunny Los Angeles by Steve Young
In 1911, an enforcer, sent on a mission by Thomas Edison to stop his filmmaking competitors in Los Angeles, discovers a knack for directing.
For 25 years, Steve Young wrote for David Letterman's Late Night and Late Show programs. He has also written for The Simpsons and wrote the Matt Groening-produced animated Christmas special, Olive the Other Reindeer. Most recent credits: NBC's Maya & Marty variety show, Harry Connick Jr.'s show Harry, and HBO’s Night of Too Many Stars. He is the co-author of "Everything's Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals,” and is the main subject of the award-winning comedy music feature documentary Bathtubs Over Broadway.
Previous honors/recognition screenwriting:
2017 Writers Guild of America Award (TV) Comedy/Variety Sketch Series for Maya & Marty - Nominated
2009 - 1991 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Writing for a Variety, Music or Comedy Series for Late Show with David Letterman - Nominated
2009, 2002, 2001, 2000 Writers Guild of America Award (TV) Comedy/Variety - (Including Talk) Series for Late Show with David Letterman - Nominated
2000 Annie Award Outstanding Individual Achievement for Writing in an Animated Television Production for Olive, the Other Reindeer - Won
1990 Writers Guild of America Award (TV) Variety - Musical for Not Necessarily the News - Won
‘Night, Dad by Fausto Barrionuevo
Late at night, while driving through the streets of Miami, a father and son finally move past small talk.
Fausto Barrionuevo is a filmmaker and poet with MFA’s in both concentrations and is currently a lecturer at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. A native to Miami, Florida with over ten years of experience as a video editor and story consultant, his most recent collaboration was on a feature film documentary entitled Union Time: Fighting for Workers’ Rights. His creative work ranges from poems published in several journals, such as Off the Coast: Maine’s International Poetry Journal and decomP magazine, where he was nominated for a Pushcart prize in 2011 for his poem “Ground,” to his short film Weight, which premiered at RiverRun International Film Film Festival and was awarded the honor of being part of the top ten selected films for Carnegie Mellon International “Faces” Film Festival.
SLOTS: A Commuter's Fantasy by Anthony Povah
Two middle-aged, middle managers dreaming of teenage glories plot to escape their humdrum lives for a day.
Anthony Povah was born in Liverpool and is based in the North West of England, he describes his passion for writing as a ‘hobby that got out of control’ after he was selected for the New Writing North Significant Ink development programme, and reached the finals of the BBC Drama Room scheme in 2017. Anthony’s work has been selected by numerous screenwriting contests and film festivals across the globe. He made his playwriting debut at The Dukes theatre in Lancaster, the UK in February 2019. Anthony writes for TV, radio, and film, and co-produced his debut short film last year. He is currently script consulting on a film project and has a radio play and short film waiting to restart production once the world reopens. An economics graduate with twenty years of experience in aerospace manufacturing, he is currently working on a high concept conspiracy thriller.
MARTHA by Sarah Smith
The true story of the week Martha Mitchell (wife of Nixon’s former Attorney General John Mitchell) was held captive in a Southern California hotel room in the aftermath of the Watergate break-in.
Sarah Smith is an award-winning filmmaker and television producer. Her latest short film, Black Hat, was an official selection of the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and won the 2019 Iris prize. She is the co-creator and director of the web series Tender Touches, which won 1st place at the 2018 AT&T create-a-thon. In 2015, Sarah debuted her short film, D.Asian, which went on to screen at over 35 festivals across the globe and was awarded the 2017 AT&T Underrepresented Filmmaker Award. She also won a WGA award as part of The Young & The Restless writing team. Sarah is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.
#NFF2020 Showtime's Tony Cox Feature Screenplay SEMI-FINALISTS Announced!
/Read more below about our feature screenplay semi-finalists!
A FISHERMAN’S VIEW by Michael Bernard
Michael Bernard is the author of 4 novels and 5 screenplays. His ‘midlife crisis' writing career began when his children and his money went off to college. Mike's work has placed in the NICHOLL FELLOWSHIP, BLUECAT, FINAL DRAFT Big Break and PAGE International screenplay competitions. Three of his screenplays were optioned and under development with production companies. Mike is a graduate of Providence College and Boston College High School. He resides in Medfield, MA with his wife Michele. He spends summers on the beaches of Cape Cod and winters roaming the aisles of Home Depot.
TILLIE by David Hal Chester
David Chester is an American screenwriter and prize-winning short filmmaker based in Tokyo. His genre is female-driven dramas focusing on dysfunctional families. To date, he has written five commissioned feature screenplays, four produced, two currently on Amazon Prime. His original screenplays have been multi-finalists in U.S. screenwriting competitions and his short film “The Lesson” won both the Tokyo Rainbow Reel “Grand Prix” and the Torino GLBT Film Festival “Best Short Film.” David’s writing has benefitted greatly from participation in Roadmap Writers’ Top Tier group and mentoring by writer/producer Ellen Sandler (“Everybody Loves Raymond”). www.davidchester.com
WHOSE NAMES ARE UNKNOWN by Joanne Dearcopp
Joanne Dearcopp has had an eclectic career including book publishing, sports marketing, and motor racing photographer, and is currently a writer’s coach and developmental editor. She collaborated with Zachary Haynes, formerly a Script Coordinator and Writer on shows at Warner Brothers Television Studio, on the screenplay Whose Names Are Unknown. Joanne continues to promote the work of Sanora Babb, the author of the Dust Bowl novel from which her screenplay is adapted, and lives in Old Greenwich, CT.
THE BIG O by Rebecca Gant
Rebecca Gant is an LA-based writer and production coordinator, born and raised in the comically suburban town of Thousand Oaks, California. In need of something more metropolitan, she fled to the Amish enclave of Lancaster, PA where she majored in Film & Media Studies at Franklin & Marshall College. While in school, Rebecca interned at production companies, a Youtube channel, and a documentary film festival before landing her current position at a visual effects company. Developing her passion for writing along the way, Rebecca typically pens half-hour pilots and comedy features. Self-taught and admittedly still learning as she goes, she is driven by a desire to tell funny and relatable female stories, as well as an almost pathological need to reference Lord of the Rings in her work.
MINOR MODIFICATIONS by Shia Labeouf
Shia LaBeouf is an American actor, artist, filmmaker, and writer. He most recently wrote and starred in HONEY BOY (2019), which Amazon Prime released to rave reviews. He also co-starred in THE PEANUT BUTTER FALCON (2019), which was the highest-grossing independent film of 2019.
MISEKAKERU (PRETEND by Diana Ly
Diana Ly is a Vietnamese-American screenwriter and playwright based in Los Angeles. Born in Oklahoma, where her parents settled as refugees, she grew up as an ex-pat in the Philippines. Ly moved to Silicon Valley to study at Stanford University, and after earning BS and MS degrees in Computer Science, worked at Google for eight years, including a stint at the YouTube Space LA. A drama and theatre student for much of her life, she attended UCLA’s Professional Programs in Screenwriting and TV Writing. She was a 2017 Project Involve Fellow at Film Independent, a writer on Season 2 of GodComplX, a web series funded by Google’s CS in Media initiative, and she’ll be a 2020 Ragdale Artist Resident. She recently worked as a features assistant to showrunner Karin Gist. Diana writes stories about immigrants, nerds, and women who defy stereotypes.
THE TERRIBLE CHILD by Becca Pecaut
Becca Pecaut is a proud Canadian from Toronto. She completed her undergrad at NYU’s Gallatin School for Individualized Study with a self-titled degree in “Storytelling” and received her MFA from USC’s John Wells Division of Writing for Screen and Television program. Becca’s writing explores the fascinating worlds of girlhood, coming-of-age, and queer cinema. Becca is a published poet who enjoys photography, experimental super-8 filmmaking, and being a bookseller at Book Soup in West Hollywood.
THOSE WE LEAVE BEHIND by Will Stewart
Will Stewart grew up in a tiny town in Mississippi called Okolona, population 3000. He graduated from Tupelo High School and attended the University of Mississippi, but after 19 years of living closeted in the South, He decided to drop out of college, pack up his car and move west to Los Angeles to follow his dream of working in the entertainment industry. Because of his encyclopedic knowledge of actors, Will was nicknamed “The Walking IMDB” so casting felt like a natural fit. In July 2003, he began a long and fruitful partnership with Linda Lowy, casting many hit TV shows including the Shonda Rhimes trio of Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice and Scandal, plus Friday Night Lights and numerous other pilots and movies. However, after several years of directing actors into winning roles, Will still had a persistent dream to tell stories of his own, and so in 2018 he left casting and wrote, produced and directed his first film, the award-winning All We Are, a drama about two men who embark on an anonymous fantasy-motivated fling and the repercussions that come when they develop real feelings for one another. He is currently creating an LGBTQ-focused anthology series using the All We Are storyline as the basis for the first season’s story arc. Those We Leave Behind is Will’s first feature script. He lives in Silver Lake, California with his loving husband, Steven.
HOLD WEST by Mack Velle
Mack Velle is an actor, screenwriter and playwright from New York City. A recent graduate from the Stella Adler Conservatory of Acting, Mack is working on both sides of the camera to bring the world he sees to light. At 22 years old, he put pen to paper for the first time and won the first place prize at the Manhattan Repertory Short Play competition with EXPRESS, in which he also starred.
SUNNY LOS ANGELES by Steve Young
For 25 years, Steve Young wrote for David Letterman's Late Night and Late Show programs. He has also written for The Simpsons and wrote the Matt Groening-produced animated Christmas special, Olive the Other Reindeer. Most recent credits: NBC's Maya & Marty variety show, Harry Connick Jr.'s show Harry, and HBO’s Night of Too Many Stars. He is the co-author of "Everything's Coming Up Profits: The Golden Age of Industrial Musicals,” and is the main subject of the award-winning comedy music feature documentary Bathtubs Over Broadway.
#NFF2020 Showtime's Tony Cox Episodic Screenplay FINALISTS Announced!
/Read more below about our 30 min & 60 min episodic screenplay finalists AND their scripts!
THE FUCK UP by Dasha Fayvinova
Young Liv failed to fulfill an ancient prophecy of defeating the evil Overlord Dave. Now she's 24, hated by everyone, and desperate to make amends.
Dasha Fayvinova is a comedy writer and producer. A first-generation immigrant from Russia, Dasha’s work champions outsiders and oddballs, usually through the lens of a bad-ass female protagonist. While working in development, she has helped set up television and TV movie projects at Netflix, HBO, and Freeform. You can read her work on premier digital platforms such as HelloGiggles and Bustle, or via Twitter @dashafayvinova
DRYWALL by Rob Eckard
A deeply-closeted family man inherits his father’s construction company, only to discover that the business served as a cover for his father’s true passion: murder.
Rob Eckard is a Los Angeles-based screenwriter and educator, originally from the sweet tea-coated suburbs of Dallas, Texas. He holds degrees in theatre education and screenwriting from NYU and Emerson College, where he now teaches screenwriting as an affiliated faculty member. As a graduate student, he was selected for the Television Academy’s internship program and worked on the 20th Century Fox lot, including time at Modern Family and Fresh Off the Boat. His writing is heavily influenced by his Southern roots, queer identity, and unresolved daddy issues.
BACK IN THE DAY by Bruce Leddy
When two guys recall their "almost famous" lives as interns at an '80s music-video channel, their warped imaginations place them into legendary moments in rock.
Bruce Leddy is a comedy director whose credits include Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Cougar Town, How High 2, and MadTV. He is also a contributing humor writer for The New Yorker online. Bruce graduated from Williams College where theater success left him with the mistaken impression that an acting career was a good idea. He was rescued from a soul-crushing stint of auditions in New York City by a Writer/Producer job at MTV. After a 7-year run, working on everything from documentaries to live music to stand-up comedy and awards shows, he moved to LA to pursue comedy directing and has been stranded there ever since. His indie film The Wedding Weekend (f/k/a Shut Up & Sing), starring David Harbour, Molly Shannon, Mark Feuerstein, and Rosemarie DeWitt won multiple festival awards including the Audience Award/Best Feature at the Aspen Comedy Festival. This is his first beard.
NO MAN’S LAND by Sydney Brey
In 1867, after murdering her abusive husband, Birdie races off in search of the mythical No Man’s Land, a western town controlled entirely by women.
Sydney Brey is a drawing-designing-antiquing-creating-storytelling-figure skating-stereoscopic photo-taking screenwriter whose passions lie in crafting a good story and abusing the thesaurus. A graduate of the animation department at the School of Visual Arts, Sydney has spent the last year working on her senior thesis project, a historical western TV show named No Man’s Land. When not writing, Sydney can be found collecting 19th-century tintypes, archiving her View-Master collection, or teaching kids how to stand up on shoe-knives (colloquially known as the “ice skate”). Creative inspiration can come from anywhere, so she believes in having a varied and ever-expanding skill set (at least that’s the excuse she uses for taking up so many strange hobbies). No matter what she’s doing (like say, writing a brief bio), she is always on the lookout for ways to entertain and captivate an audience. To find out more about Sydney’s work, visit sydneybrey.com.
BEING SEEN by Andi Delott
When a marketing exec ages out of the industry and becomes invisible in society, she reclaims her strength by starting a high-end male escort service.
Andi Delott writes grounded dramas with female leads. Much of her inspiration comes from her career in entertainment advertising. As ABC’s agency of record for almost two decades, she led that account and helped successfully brand, launch and sustain multi year marketing campaigns for classics including Lost, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy, Dancing with the Stars, and Modern Family to name a few. Now, in addition to ABC, her clients also include Apple, Netflix, Amazon and Disney Academy. Andi recently completed a fellowship with the 2019-2020 NBC Writers On The Verge program. Her writing accomplishments also include a 2018 PAGE Awards Fellowship/Stowe Story Labs; 2017 New York Women in Film and Television Writers Lab; 2019 Finalist in The Blacklist/Women in Film Episodic Lab and 2019 Semifinalist at the Austin Film Festival, among other contest placements. She graduated in 2019 from UCLA’s Professional Program for TV Screenwriting.
FIX by Jeff Bower
A narcissist with the ability to manipulate time tires of changing aspects of his own life and begins to "help" others. Think DEXTER meets QUANTUM LEAP.
Jeff Bower is a former teacher, professional mascot, and assembly line summer intern, he brings his blue-collar background and work ethic into all of his creative work. He earned a Bachelor’s in Mathematics from Binghamton University and an MFA in Theatre from Florida Atlantic University where he received death threats for performing the lead role in Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi. After moving to LA Jeff completed the Advanced Studies UCB improv program and performed over three years on the mainstage at iO West, while also avoiding being mugged by jumping into the middle of Franklin Avenue his first month in town. He has a play published by Samuel French, won/placed in over a dozen script competitions, and primarily writes dark hour-long dramas even though he still hopes to one day grow up to be a Muppet. He is repped by Paul Weitzman at Culture Creative Entertainment and Alex Creasia at Pathfinder.
