Aug 28, 2012
Artist Development
The San Francisco Film Society, in partnership with the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, today announced the finalists for the 2013 Djerassi Residency Award / San Francisco Film Society Screenwriting Fellowship, given annually to encourage the career of an emerging or established screenwriter. The fellowship is one of a number of screenwriting initiatives offered by Filmmaker360, the Film Society’s filmmaker services program.
The Djerassi Residency Award/San Francisco Film Society Screenwriting Fellowship provides uninterrupted time for work, reflection and collegial interaction, making this award unique in its capacity to provide a screenwriter with an inspiring and supportive environment in a stunningly beautiful rural location. Located 40 miles south of San Francisco in the Santa Cruz Mountains overlooking the Pacific Ocean, this residency offers living and work-studio accommodations and all meals from August 6 through September 4, 2013, at no cost to the recipient. The finalists were selected from applications submitted in response to an international call for entries.
FINALISTS
Joshua Zeman: Collider
Collider documents the 72 hours after three supercollider physicists believe they might have created a strangelet, a subatomic particle capable of converting all nearby matter into energy. As they struggle to confirm their findings, the scientists must wrestle with issues of responsibility, guilt and the consequences both to science and to the people around them.
Elizabeth Chatelain: Glass Desert
Glass Desert is a feature-length drama about Jenny, a strong-willed teenage girl living in rural North Dakota, who seeks out her estranged mother after the tragic death of her father. As she grows closer to her “new” mother and half-brother, she discovers her father’s involvement in the world of rural methamphetamines and finds herself entangled in the same web.
David Carr Berry: He Who Saw the Deep
A man wakes up in an underground room with no memory of who he is or how he got there. Above ground, civilization has been wiped out. He sets out to find out the truth-struggling against nature, what’s left of humanity and himself-and, in the process, finds love. For more information visit theredtreepicturecompany.com.
Eric Gross: Mother’s Milk
An idealistic owner of an unsuccessful ice cream store inadvertently incites a bizarre food fad when he uses his unsuspecting wife’s breast milk in a batch of his ice cream. For more information visit ericgross.net.
Kate McNaughton: Return to Berlin
Returning to Berlin two decades after the accident that killed his parents and younger sister, Johannes discovers that the past may not have been quite as he remembers it.
Previous recipients of the Djerassi Residency Award are Julie Tosh (2012) for her science fiction-infused family drama Program Rose, Adam Chanzit (2011) for his psychological thriller The 15th Stone and Kathryn Mockler (2010) for her project Weak People Are Fun to Torment.
For more information visit sffs.org/Filmmaker360/Grants or djerassi.org.
Filmmaker360 offers unparalleled assistance and opportunities designed to foster creativity and further the careers of independent filmmakers nationwide and oversees one of the largest film grant programs in the country, which disperses nearly $1 million annually to incubate and support innovative and exceptional films. Other elements of Filmmaker360 include project development consultation, membership discounts and benefits, fiscal sponsorship, grants, residencies and information resources. Additional screenwriting initiatives include the SFFS/Hearst Screenwriting Grant, the SFFS/Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant and Off the Page, a program that provides private script-reading sessions with celebrated actors for filmmakers with screenplays in development. For information visit Filmmaker360.
The Djerassi Residency Award / San Francisco Film Society Screenwriting Fellowship is supported by a gift from Film Society board of directors member Dale Djerassi.