OSCAR SPOTLIGHT: NATALIE LAUREN ON WHY UNAUTHORISED ABSENCE PUTS NEED BEFORE PUNISHMENT
The producer behind the Oscar-qualified short talks school distress, neurodivergence, the hidden reality facing families and bringing Anna Maxwell Martin on board for her executive producing debut Oscar-qualified short film Unauthorised Absence takes an intensely personal look at a crisis facing families whose children are struggling to attend school, asking what happens when the systems they turn to for support respond not with understanding, but punishment. Developed … Continue reading OSCAR SPOTLIGHT: NATALIE LAUREN ON WHY UNAUTHORISED ABSENCE PUTS NEED BEFORE PUNISHMENT
OSCAR SPOTLIGHT: AMOS SUSSIGAN’S PIGEONS FINDS HUMANITY IN THE AGE OF AI
Narrated by Andy Serkis and created by 45 artists over the course of a year, Amos Sussigan’s Oscar-qualified animated short turns the story of an obsolete carrier pigeon into a timely reflection on technology, creativity and the future of artists. When filmmaker and Academy member Amos Sussigan first began thinking about PIGEONS, the idea came from an unlikely conversation about wartime carrier pigeons. A friend had shared an … Continue reading OSCAR SPOTLIGHT: AMOS SUSSIGAN’S PIGEONS FINDS HUMANITY IN THE AGE OF AI
OSCAR SPOTLIGHT: Alex Lanipekun on ECHOES and the Silence Around Male Trauma
The writer-director behind the Oscar-qualified drama explores male mental health and childhood trauma with an acclaimed British cast led by Ashley Walters and Leo Gregory. Main photo by David Buttle For Alex Lanipekun, ECHOES began with conversations among male friends about something deceptively simple: why men can find it so difficult to say they need help. Those discussions became more personal when Lanipekun spoke to his father about … Continue reading OSCAR SPOTLIGHT: Alex Lanipekun on ECHOES and the Silence Around Male Trauma
OSCAR SPOTLIGHT: Cyrus Neshvad on the Journey From The Red Suitcase to I Will Be Alright
From The Red Suitcase to I Will Be Alright, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker continues to explore freedom, identity and the human connections that can transcend borders Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Cyrus Neshvad returns to the Oscar conversation with I Will Be Alright, a deeply human drama about a 16-year-old Iranian refugee facing the possibility of deportation to the country she fled. The film has qualified for consideration at the 99th Academy Awards after winning Best of … Continue reading OSCAR SPOTLIGHT: Cyrus Neshvad on the Journey From The Red Suitcase to I Will Be Alright
OSCAR SPOTLIGHT: Director Tamás Yvan Topolánszky on Never Give Up!, the Business of Short Film and Why Words Can Outlive the People Who Speak Them
Oscar-qualified filmmaker Tamás Yvan Topolánszky talks independent financing, discovering a remarkable nine-year-old first-time actor, the economics of ambitious short filmmaking and why his latest film asks a deceptively complicated question: who really owns a message? There is a deceptively simple question at the centre of Topolánszky’s Oscar-qualified short Never Give Up!: Do words belong to the person who says them, or to the person who ultimately gives them meaning? Produced by … Continue reading OSCAR SPOTLIGHT: Director Tamás Yvan Topolánszky on Never Give Up!, the Business of Short Film and Why Words Can Outlive the People Who Speak Them
