Join Film Fatales for an online discussion about how to launch a successful awards campaign. For Your Consideration highlights Gotham Award winning and Spirit Award nominated director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović (Murina), Oscar nominated director Rintu Thomas (Writing With Fire), and Spirit Award-winning and Gotham-nominated producer Mynette Louie (I Carry You With Me). Moderated by Film Fatales member Luchina Fisher (Mama Gloria).
Awards matter in raising the visibility of films for a mainstream audience, introducing new cultural perspectives and ultimately shaping the world in which we live. In the past 94 years, only three women have won an Oscar for Best Director and only seven have been nominated. Come hear from filmmakers who have directed or produced feature films that have been nominated for, or won, Spirit Awards, Gotham Awards, and Academy Awards. Dive into what it takes to launch a successful awards campaign with limited resources. With support from event partners The Gotham, Ghetto Film School, HUSSLUP, PANO, and WrapWomen. With support from event partners Black Film Space, NYWIFT, Women Make Movies, and WrapWomen.
This online event is open to the public and will be accessible with live captioning. The registration link will be shared upon RSVP and a video replay link will be available for 48 hours after. See you soon!
Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović is a writer, director, and producer born in Dubrovnik and based in New York. Her directorial feature debut, Murina - a tense family drama set on an isolated island off the Croatian coast - won Camera D'or for the best first feature film at the 74th Cannes Film Festival. Her short Into the Blue was awarded at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival and was nominated for a Student Academy Award. Antoneta is an alumna of the Residence du Festival of Cinefondation, Jerusalem Film Lab, the Berlinale Talent Lab, Sarajevo Talent Lab, La Femis Producing Atelier and Marcie Bloom Fellowship. She holds an MFA in Directing from Columbia University in New York, a Masters in Producing from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Zagreb, Croatia and is a member of the Academy of The Motion Picture, Arts and Sciences, Oscars.
Mynette Louie is a multiple Spirit Award-winning, Emmy and Critics Choice-nominated producer. Credits include Josef Kubota Wladyka's Tribeca 2021-winning, Spirit and Gotham Award-nominated Catch the Fair One (IFC Films), Heidi Ewing's Sundance 2020-winning, Spirit Award-nominated I Carry You With Me (Sony Pictures Classics); Carlo Mirabella-Davis' Tribeca 2019-winning, Gotham-nominated Swallow (IFC Films); Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour's Black Box (Amazon Studios/Blumhouse); Jennifer Fox's Emmy, Critics Choice, Golden Globe, Gotham, and Spirit Award-nominated The Tale (HBO); Martha Stephens & Aaron Katz's Spirit Award-winning Land Ho! (Sony Pictures Classics); Tze Chun's Children of Invention (Sundance 2009); and Andrew Bujalski's Mutual Appreciation (SXSW 2005). As the first head of Gamechanger Films, Mynette greenlit and oversaw ten films which collectively garnered nine Spirit Award nominations and one win, including Karyn Kusama's The Invitation (Drafthouse/Netflix), Christina Choe's Sundance 2018-winning, Spirit Award-nominated Nancy (Goldwyn), Sarah Adina Smith's Buster's Mal Heart (Well Go/Netflix), So Yong Kim's Spirit Award-nominated Lovesong (Strand/Netflix), and Natalia Garagiola's Venice Critics Week 2017 winner Hunting Season (Netflix). Mynette is also an Assistant Professor of Professional Practice and the Creative Production concentration head at Columbia University's graduate film program. She is on Film Independent's Board of Directors and a member of the executive and diversity committees in the Producers branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She was named one of Business Insider's "12 Movie Producers at the Top of Their Game to Watch in 2020 and Beyond," Ted Hope's "21 Brave Thinkers of Truly Free Film," and Indiewire's "100 Filmmakers to Follow on Twitter." She won the Piaget Producers Award at the 2013 Spirit Awards. A native New Yorker, Mynette graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard University, where she studied Chinese literature and film.
Rintu Thomas is an Academy Award nominated filmmaker whose decade-long body of work sits at the intersection of storytelling as both an art and a conversation. A 2021 IDA Courage Under Fire Award honoree, Rintu is an IDA Logan Elevate grantee and a Sundance Fellow. Her feature documentary, Writing With Fire (2021), described by The Washington Post as "The most inspiring journalism movie – maybe ever" is a double Sundance winner, a New York Times Critics' Pick and a Grierson, IDA and a PGA Awards nominee. Along with winning 35 awards, the film is India's first documentary to be nominated for an Academy Award. In 2009, Rintu co-founded Black Ticket Films, a production company invested in the power of storytelling. With a strong eye on social justice stories, Black Ticket Films' critically acclaimed slate of films are being used as advocacy, impact and education tools by institutions across the world. Rintu's award winning shorts include Dilli (2010) and Timbaktu (2012). She lives between New Delhi and a quaint mountain-town in North India.
Luchina Fisher is an award-winning director, writer and producer who works at the intersection of race, gender and identity. She is the founder and CEO of Little Light Productions. Her feature directorial debut Mama Gloria, about Chicago trans icon activist Gloria Allen, was nominated for a 2022 GLAAD Media Award. The film premiered at the Chicago International Film Festival and BFI Flare London; won numerous jury awards; and made its broadcast debut on World channel and PBS. Her most recent film, the short documentary Team Dream, executive produced by Queen Latifah, won the Audience Choice Award at the 2022 Chicago International Film Festival and screened at the Martha's Vineyard African American Film Festival. Previously, Luchina co-executive produced and co-wrote the critically acclaimed feature documentary Birthright: A War Story, about the war on women's reproductive health. It appeared in more than 70 theaters nationwide, qualified for Oscar consideration and streamed on Hulu. She is the director of two scripted short films, including Danger Word, and has written and produced several nationally broadcast documentaries, including The American Presidency, with Bill Clinton. Her work has appeared on History, A&E, ESPN, ABC and Discovery. Luchina began her career as a journalist and has written for People, the Miami Herald, The New York Times, O, The Oprah Magazine and ABCNews.com. Luchina is a Sisters in Cinema Documentary Fellow and a member of Brown Girl Doc Mafia, the Black Documentary Collective and Film Fatales. She is an inaugural recipient of the Brown Girl Doc Mafia Black Director's Grant and a Spark Fund Award Winner from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Firelight Media. Her work has been supported by Black Public Media, the Field Foundation, Firelight Media and the Queen Collective. Luchina is based in the New York City area.