EXCLUSIVE: Film Independent has named the 37 filmmakers and 15 projects selected for the 22nd edition of its Fast Track Film Finance Market, which kicked off in-person November 12 and wraps up today.
Through the program, creatives working on both fictional projects and documentaries are connected with established financiers, production companies, agents, managers and other film industry professionals who can move their projects forward.
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Industry participants this year included 3Pas Studios, Independent Artist Group, Bankside Films, Bleecker Street, Bright West, CAA, Chrystie Street Casting, Cinetic Media, Dead Duck Films, First Gen, Giant Leap Media, Giant Pictures, Heidi Levitt Casting, IDA, Impact Partners, Kas Kas Productions, Kindred Spirit, Ley Line Entertainment, Linden Entertainment, Los Angeles Media Fund, Mandalay Pictures, Media Res, Motto Pictures, National Geographic, Oscilloscope Laboratories, Park Pictures, Pastel, Perspective Fund, Pinky Promise, Plan B, Redefine Entertainment, Rhino Films, Rideback Rise, River Road Entertainment, Roadside Attractions, SFFILM, Searchlight Pictures, ShivHans Pictures, Sons of Rigor, Sony Pictures Classics, Sundance Institute, T-Street, Topic Studios, Tribeca Studios, Unapologetic Projects, Universal Pictures Content Group, Unnecessary Pictures, Untitled Entertainment, UTA, Visit Films, Wavelength, Winter Coat Films, Working Films, and XYZ Films.
Get the scoop on who all is involved this year below.
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Today, Film Independent also announced that the $20,000 Sloan Fast Track Grant, supporting the production of a project that explores science and technology themes or characters in engaging and innovative ways, is being awarded to director Gillies MacKinnon and producers Suri Ellerton and Sarit Ben Yair for their project May Savidge Moves Her House.
Stated Dea Vazquez, Associate Director of Fiction Programs, “This year’s Fast Track lineup features a dynamic mix of fiction and nonfiction projects that push creative boundaries and highlight the diverse voices shaping today’s film landscape.”
Daniel Cardone, Manager of Nonfiction Programs, added, “We’re thrilled to connect these visionary filmmakers with key industry players at the finance market, helping them find the resources to bring their unique stories to life.”
FICTION TRACK:
Black Snake
Writer/Director: Naishe Nyamubaya
Producer: Sue-Ellen Chitunya
Logline: In a rural village, a family eager to start a new life is forced to face their cultural identity, when the appearance of a mysterious tree coincides with their arrival in the village.
Burning Well
Writer/Director: MG Evangelista
Producer(s): Simone Ling, Lucas Ford
Logline: In a re-imagining of the Prodigal Son story, on receiving news of his mother’s illness, a young trans man returns home to mend complicated relationships and rediscover what love and family really mean.
Chalino
Writer/Director: Jesus Celaya
Producer(s): Diego Nájera, Harris Kauffman
Logline: The story of Chalino Sanchez, who immigrated from Sinaloa to Los Angeles in the late 1980s and triggered a musical revolution by immortalizing the lives of Mexican outlaws through song.
Cottagecore
Writer/Director: Sonja O’Hara
Producer: Peter Phok
Logline: A group of queer, polyamorous friends at an idyllic intimacy retreat face a sudden disappearance, plunging the weekend into a seductive and violent battle for survival.
Marcy Learns Something New
Writer/Director: Julia Kennelly
Producer: Devon Young
Logline: A widow is drawn to dominatrix classes after discovering her late husband’s infidelity.
May Savidge Moves Her House
Director: Gillies MacKinnon
Producer(s): Suri Ellerton, Sarit Ben Yair
Logline: England 1969. When 60-year-old May Savidge’s medieval house is threatened with demolition by the council, she goes to extreme lengths to save it-deconstructing it and rebuilding it, all by herself.
Rubber Hut
Writer/Director: Hanna Gray Organschi
Producer(s): Tara Sheffer, Elizabeth Woodward
Logline: Rhode Island, 1992. An entrepreneurial ex-Pan Am stewardess opens a drive-thru condom kiosk in her Italian Catholic town and overnight becomes the local lightning rod.
Tell Me A Secret
Writer/Director: Montana Mann
Producer: Steven Snyder
Logline: Thirty-three-year-old Iranian-American, Azi Rahimi, is forced to confront a secret from her adolescence when she receives an update in a long-closed missing persons case.
The Ballad of Tita and the Machines
Writer/Director: Miguel Angel Caballero
Writer/Producer: Luis Antonio Aldana
Producer: Helena Sardinha
Logline: In the near future, Tita, an aging strawberry picker and recent widow, wages a quiet rebellion against the new AI humanoids at work that threaten her livelihood.
Work
Writer/Director: April Maxey
Producer(s): Skylar Andrews, Alexander Stegmaier
Logline: A struggling photographer seeking independence is drawn back to sex work, igniting an intoxicating affair that could unravel her life.
DOCUMENTARY TRACK:
(Untitled) Kramer Brothers Documentary
Director: Brandon Kramer
Producer: Lance Kramer
Logline: An intimately observed story about the complex experience of a family in the aftermath of October 7th.
My NDA
Directors: Juliane Dressner, Miriam Shor
Producers: Juliane Dressner, Miriam Shor, Elizabeth Woodward, Hanna Gray Organschi
Logline: My NDA follows several people as they decide to break their NDAs and, at extreme personal risk, go public with their stories. Through them, we see how a simple intellectual property contract has become a weapon used by those in power to silence, manipulate and control.
Nine
Directors: Jeremy Levine, Rachael DeCruz
Producers: Rajal Pitroda, Rachael DeCruz
Logline: After being sent to prison for life at 18, Gerald—also known as “Nine”—met Henry, who raised him into the man he is today. Using the lessons Henry taught him, Gerald organized his way out of prison. Now, Gerald is on a mission to bring his 83-year-old “Pops” home while there’s still time.
Strip, Strike, Unite!
Director/Producers: Kristina Goolsby, Sarah Skibitzke
Logline: Can a small group of North Hollywood strippers protesting dangerous conditions achieve the unthinkable — transform their workplace into the only unionized strip club in America?
Stallions
Director/Producer: Rita Baghdadi
Producer: Sahar Yousefi
Logline: A crew of stallion riders make dreams come true on the coast of Morocco.