Ten IFP Alum Ready to Rock IDFA!

IDFA, the world's largest documentary festival, has just announced its stellar line-up for the 2010 incarnation. IFP is thrilled ten of the 280 films (84 of which are World Premieres), are IFP supported projects!

These are:
Budrus, directed and produced by Julia Bacha and produced by Ronit Avni. An alumnus of IFP'S 2009 Spotlight on Documentaries, it will be showcased in the category "Reflecting Images: Best of Fests." Also in this category, which focuses on "Documentaries that have made an impact on this year's international festival circuit," is a fellow alumnus of 2009 Spotlight on Documentaries, Laura Poitras' widely acclaimed The Oath, also a nominee of the 2010 Gotham Independent Film Awards.

In the category "Reflecting Images: Panorama", which presents "films that are thought-provoking in form and choice of theme", a total of five IFP alum are included: Minustah Steals Goats (Minustah vole kabrit) (fiscally sponsored by IFP); Pushing the Elephant (Spotlight on Documentaries alumnus 2009); Sons of Perdition (Spotlight on Documentaries alumnus 2009); Utopia in Four Movements (Radziwill grant); and Queen of the Sun (Spotlight on Documentaries alumnus 2009). Queen of the Sun also will be shown in the Competitive Green Screen section. According to the website, "Documentaries that focus on the interaction between man and his environment will for the first time compete for a special award in this new competition."

The final IFP alum films are in Competitive Sections of the Festival. First, An Encounter with Simone Weil (An alumnus of the Independent Filmmaker Labs and Spotlight on Docs 2009) will make its World Premiere in the IDFA Competition for First Appearance. iThemba, directed by Elinor Burkett, is also in this competition, which is derived from the original concept/footage as Oscar-winner Music by Prudence, which came through IFP's fiscal sponsorship program and is an alumnus of Spotlight on Docs 2008. Finally, Our Summer in Tehran (2009 Spotlight on Docs alumnus) will compete in the IDFA Competition for Mid-Length Documentary.
We wish all our diverse and talented alumni great luck with their incredible films.

Update (11/18):

Four more IFP alum in the IDFA Forum

Bettie Page Reveals All (Spotlight on Docs 2008)

Diana Vreeland: The Eye has to Travel (Spotlight on Docs 2010)

From Texas to Tehran (Spotlight on Docs 2008)

Versailles (Spotlight on Docs 2010)

Have a great Festival everyone!

Lab & Emerging Narrative directors in Filmmaker's '25 New Faces'

Every year we eagerly anticipate who the Filmmaker Magazine staff will highlight as the current class of hot indie talent in their "25 New Faces" issue. There's always a few surprises, and this year, we're pleased that a few of our own talented alumni have been highlighted-

Rebecca Richman Cohen participated in the 2009 Documentary Independent Filmmaker Labs with her film War Don Don, about the international defense team for, and war crimes conviction of a Sierra Leonean rebel leader. War Don Don has played and won awards at numerous festivals, and will air on HBO in September 29.


Victoria Mahoney and Susan Youssef were both among the powerhouse women directors bringing their features to this year's Narrative Independent Filmmaker Labs.

Victoria Mahoney's Yelling To The Sky, which Scott Macaulay calls a "powerful, emotionally nuanced debut feature about a New York City teenager growing up in a mixed-race family" features Zoe Kravetz, Tim Blake Nelson and Gabourey Sibide.

Habibi Rasak Kharban (Darling, Something's Wrong With Your Head) from Lebanese-Syrian-Brooklyner Susan Youssef is the first film to be shot in Gaza in 15 years. Habibi is based on the ancient Sufi parable of the Majnun Layla, the story of a man so smitten with a nearly unattainable woman he goes insane in his quest for her.

Habibi Rasak Kharban and Yelling to the Sky are both in post-production and are available for meetings with industry at Independent Film Week; industry interested in more information about these projects can register to participate here.

Matt Porterfield, is our fourth in the 25 New Faces. Porterfield came to Independent Film Week's Emerging Narrative program with his script Metal Gods in 2008. The script won our Panasonic camera package grant, but the shoot turned into his acclaimed Putty Hill, a Baltimore-based tour of the friends and family of a recently OD'd young man which debuted in Berlin and was recently picked up by Cinema Guild for a Fall theatrical release.

Congratulations to you all - we knew you when!

News & Documentary Emmy Nominations for IFP alumni

Big Congratulations to all our IFP alumni for their recent News & Documentary Emmy Nominations! Good Luck! We'll be crossing our fingers for you when the winners are announced on September 27.


The Way We Get By (PBS)
OUTSTANDING CONTINUING COVERAGE OF A NEWS STORY--LONG FORM
Aron Gaudet – Director
Gita Pullapilly - Producer
Independent Film Week - Spotlight on Documentaries 2008

Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi (HBO)
OUTSTANDING INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM--LONG FORM
Ian Olds – Director
Nancy Roth - Producer
Independent Film Week – Spotlight on Documentaries 2008
IFP Fiscal Sponsorship

The Good Soldier ("Bill Moyers Journal"; PBS)
OUTSTANDING HISTORICAL PROGRAMMING - LONG FORM
Producer/Directors - Lexy Lovell, Michael Uys
IFP Fiscal Sponsorship

The Mosque in Morgantown ("America at a Crossroads"; PBS)
OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: MUSIC & SOUND
Composer - Kareem Roustom
Brittany Huckabee – Director/Producer
Independent Film Week – Spotlight on Documentaries 2007

IFP Alumni Recieve Documentary Oscar Nominations

Two alumni of Independent Film Week's Spotlight on Documentaries program were honored with Academy Award nominations this morning:

The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers is among the 5 nominees for Documentary Feature. Directors Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith brought the film to Spotlight on Documentaries in 2007. It is currently being distributed by First Run Features; it screens in New York City at Cinema Village, and elsewhere around the country.

Roger Ross Williams' Music By Prudence is a Documentary Short nominee. It is being distributed by HBO Documentary Films, who met with Williams when the film was at Independent Film Week in 2008. HBO2 will broadcast it May 12. Music By Prudence also participates in IFP's Fiscal Sponsorship program.

Other documentary nominees include friends of IFP like Lab mentor Julia Reichert's film The Last Truck.

Congratulations to all the nominees! We wish you all the best - we're voting for you in our Oscar pools!

IFP Alumni Shine Among a Strong Sundance Lineup

At 3:59 pm this afternoon, one of my colleagues yelled out, "Sundance is up." Four of us, sitting in a row, frantically turned to IndieWire, where, although momentarily distracted by the fact that the photo of Howl shows the guy who plays Tripp on Gossip Girl, I perused the line-up in the Competitions of one of the world's most important film festivals. Altogether, a very strong program of lots of non-fiction and narrative indie heavyweights. However, we at IFP are most delighted to see our own alumni make such a strong showing in the line-up.

According to Rose Vincelli, IFP Program Manager and one of our master archivists, they are the following:

In the US Dramatic Competition, Blue Valentine, (Director: Derek Cianfrance; Screenwriters: Derek Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne and Joey Curtis) won our 2006 Chrysler Prize and was previously a 2003 No Borders selection. The Imperialists Are Still Alive!, (Director and screenwriter: Zeina Durra; Producer: Vanessa Hope) is our first IFP Narrative Independent Filmmaker Lab alumni (2009) to be in Sundance competition. While Howl (Directors: Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman; Screenwriters: Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman)—which apparently features the guy who plays Tripp on Gossip Girl and, more importantly, James Franco - was a No Borders selection in 2008. Also in this competition is Night Catches Us, produced by Jason Orans, one of our two producers selected to attend the Rotterdam Lab this year.

In the US Documentary Competition, we have My Perestroika, (Director: Robin Hessman), which won the IFP/Anthony Radziwill documentary development grant in 2005, and
The Oath (Director: Laura Poitras), a selection of Spotlight on Docs in 2008. Finally, A Small Act (Director: Jennifer Arnold), was in Spotlight on Docs this past September.

Indcidentally, 19% of the Sundance US Competition are IFP alumni. Congrats to them all!