WIFT-T: Networking Events

WIFT International Short Film Showcase
Co-Presented by the National Film Board of Canada

SHORT FILM SHOWCASE LIST:

KYLIE GOLDSTEIN, ALL AMERICAN / 3 minutes
Director: Eva Saks – USA

Film Synopsis : KYLIE GOLDSTEIN, ALL AMERICAN is the story of Kylie, a little girl adopted from China who is now an American Goldstein .

Director bio : Eva Saks has written/directed for SESAME STREET, Nickelodeon, Time Warner Cable, UPN and the Independent Film Channel (currently airing her CONFECTION and COLORFORMS). Her FAMILY VALUES (available on Netflix) won a Student Academy Award, screening at Sundance, Telluride and Tribeca. She has a law degree from Yale and an MFA in Filmmaking from NYU (2005). She is developing "family-friendly" film and television projects.

MOUSTACHE / 13 minutes
Director: Vicki Sugars – AUSTRALIA

Film Synopsis : Sometimes, it doesn’t pay to change your true self for the person you love.

Director bio - Vicki Sugars has worked as an assistant director for a number of years. In 2004 she was the associate producer on the feature film LOOK BOTH WAYS. MOUSTACHE is her first film as a director and writer. She is currently producing a 5 minute claymation on plastic surgery and in pre-production on her second film PAST MIDNIGHT, a half hour drama on psychological violence. She has a feature film in development, about a writer struggling to write her first feature. Vicki has yet to decide if it's comedy or tragedy!

Best Foreign Film: Créteil International Film Festival, France 2005
Audience Award Winner, Palm Springs International Film Festival, USA 2005
Best Film Audience Award, Sao Paulo International Short Film Festival, Brazil 2005
Official Selection Venice Film Festival, 2004

ON THE CLIFFS / 15 minutes
Director: Lisa M. Perry – USA

Film Synopsis : Best friends Penelope and Dora are the producers and stars of a local cable access show devoted to staging classics such as Macbeth and Moby Dick, only the productions are based on the Cliff's Notes version of the novels rather than the classics themselves. Problems rise to the surface when Penelope and Dora attempt their interpretation of George Orwell's Animal Farm. This documentary-style short follows the friends as they deconstruct the plot--and each other.

Director bio: After graduating with honors in directing and acting from Skidmore College, Perry moved to NYC where she began producing plays. In 2001 she moved to Toronto to work on A&E’s Nero Wolf. Once returning to New York she began work on several independent films, including IFC’s IN THE COMPANY OF WOMEN. In 2004, Lisa co-founded Sloane Road Productions with fellow NYWIFT member Jessie Hutcheson.

Winner Best Short Comedy - Ohio Independent Film Festival 2004

MÉNAGE À TROIS / 15 min
Director: Kimberly M. Wetherell - USA

Film Synopsis: The story of a boy… a girl… and her cell phone.

Director bio: Ménage à Trois marks Kimberly M. Wetherell's cinematic debut after ten years in the operatic community as a stage director. She started her film career as an intern with New York Women in Film & Television and is in pre-production two years later on her upcoming feature film, A Pretty Girl (A Sheyne Meydl)

THE SCIENCE OF LOVE / 14 min
Director: J oyce Draganosky – USA

Film Synopsis - This comedy debates the question: “Can you prove love?”

Sydney, a professor, clashes with her boss; Ileana, over Sydney’s research proving that brains scans can measure true love.

Director bio - Draganosky is an Emmy-winning writer/director. She has worked with HBO, Time Warner, ABC, CBS, NBC and others. She received her MFA from the Columbia University Graduate Film School. She was awarded the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Grant for this film and has won numerous awards internationally for her previous films.

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WASP / 23 minutes
Director: Andrea Arnold – United Kingdom

Film Synopsis: When 23 year old single mum Zoe gets asked out on a date, she lies about having four kids and leaves them outside the pub.

Director bio – Currently editing feature RED ROAD for project ADVANCE PARTY produced by ZENTROPA ( Denmark) and SIGMA (UK) and originated by Lars Von Trier. ADVANCE PARTY involves three filmmakers writing a separate feature film using the same nine characters. RED ROAD was developed at the Sundance Screenwriters lab in 2005 and is due for release in 2006. Made 3 shorts. WASP has won 37 International Festival Awards including the Academy Award 2005. DOG won The Jameson Award (UK) and screened at Cannes (Critics Week) in 2002. MILK was also selected for competition in Cannes (Critics Week) in 1998.

WASP's 37 International Awards in 2004 - 2005 include:

ACADEMY AWARD LIVE ACTION SHORT
JURY AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL FILM MAKING - Sundance International Film Festival
GRAND PRIX THE GOLDEN DRAGON - Cracow 44th International Short Film Festival, Poland
BEST LIVE ACTION FICTION FILM - Worldwide Short Film Festival Toronto, Canada
BEST OF FESTIVAL - Palm Springs International Short Film Festival USA
BEST SHORT FILM - Stockholm International Film Festival Sweden

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HAND SUM / 8min, 3 secs
Director: Eva Colmers - Canada

Film Synopsis: - Miro moves through life without much conviction until a magical incident prompts an escape from the routine of her daily life. Miro climbs onto a cloud, listens to the birds and has an adventure. Shot as stunning shadow projection and rich in images, HAND SUM is driven by a compelling rhythm. Miro is the allegorical “everyone”, searching for the meaning of life.

Director bio – Many years ago, Eva Colmers traveled to the islands of Java and Bali and fell in love with shadow theatre. In Hand Sum, she tries to incorporate some of the wayang kulit elements into her screen work . Eva has created a variety of film work which includes short films, film scripts, a documentary with the National Film Board of Canada and a PSA. Her work has been seen at national and international festivals as well as on television. Eva is also very active in her film and theatre community. She loves photography and likes to travel.

This selection is from the National Film Board of Canada

SMUDGE / 12 minutes
Director: Gail Maurice – Canada

Film Synopsis: - Witness how a small group of Aboriginal women celebrate their right to worship in the city their way.

Director bio - Gail Maurice is a Métis producer/writer/director who speaks her language, Cree/Michif. In February 2004, she traveled to Siberia with her first video, Little Indians, which she wrote, directed, and produced. Maurice completed Me+D=AHH in July 2004 and Memory in Bones in 2005. She is working on a feature documentary, to be completed in spring 2006, and has also written a feature drama, "Blood Lines." Smudge is a National Film Board Momentum film

This selection is from WIFT – T, Anita is the 2005 winner of the
KODAK New Vision Fellowship Award

NOT A FISH STORY /
Director: Anita Doron – Canada

Film Synopsis: - Rose, a middle-class suburban housewife is faced with a crisis: her husband of thirty years wants to become a fish. He builds himself a human-sized aquarium in the basement and begins his transformation into an amphibian. Although worried about what the neighbours will say, Rose attempts to calmly maintain a marriage, a household and a man in a huge aquarium. But when she can no longer pretend that everything is normal, Rose finds a simple way to liberate both herself and her husband.

"A touching and evocative film, made with an offbeat humour and tremendous sensitivity." -ATOM EGOYAN

Director Bio Doron graduated with honours from the Film Studies program at Ryerson University in 2001, where she won the Norman Jewison Filmmaker Award a record two years in a row. In 2004 Doron was named one of the top ten Canadian filmmakers to look out for by NOW Magazine. Anita won the 2005 KODAK New Vision Fellowship Award.

Not A Fish Story is her first short film and it had its world premiere at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival. Recently Anita completed her first feature film and is in development on an interactive feature film with the CFC and NFB.