NYC2PARIS – New York City will kick off the 2nd Annual Festival on October 5 – 6, 2019 at the Film Noir Cinema in Brooklyn, followed by screenings in Paris on October 10 – 12, 2019 at the Studio Galande. Tickets can be purchased on the festival’s website.
Each city will host an awards ceremony on the last night of screenings to present the best in the following categories: Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Cinematography, and Best Screenplay.
The NYC2PARIS 2019 Festival will screen 18 official selections – all in competition for awards. The festival’s programming highlights independent films from the USA and France, and select films represent Mexico, Poland, and Switzerland. The festival’s mission is to help indie filmmakers meet their international peers and show their work in different parts of the world. NYC2 Paris focuses on the idea of filming internationally and going over frontiers to create art.
NYC2PARIS Festival producer, Maria Akay, said “It never ceases to amaze me how the indie filmmaking community can span globally. There was no shortage of quality content this year. I’m proud to produce a festival which bridges two major, cultural cities that are so renowned for art and cinema. I am excited to see it grow.”
The Festival, directed by Lucie Guillemot, co-founded with Dennis Cieri, and co-ordinated by producers Maria Akay and Jessica Sroczynski, is proud to present a curatorial team made up of 86% women. Additional curators include Angela Hammer, Sophie Bouteiller, Clara Giruzzi, Caleb Dawdy. Sitting on the international jury this year are Emilie Dubois, Philippe Du Janerand, Kathleen Simmonds – and lead by the festival’s Jury President Joanna Pickering.
Director, Lucie Guillemot stated “It has been a delight to watch the festival grow and attract so many talented indie filmmakers, as well as my wonderful coordinators, curators and jury.”
The full program is listed here for its 2019 Official Selections:
- A TICKET TO THE CINEMA
- BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY
- CARL
- CERULIA
- DORRIS 85
- HORROR, SEX AND HAIR CURLERS
- KEEP IT LIGHT
- LIBERTÉ, OÙ ES-TU CACHÉE ?
- LOST ROADS
- MIDNIGHT TALK
- Ô
- ON THE ROCKS
- ON THE TIP OF THE TONGUE
- SIGNATURE
- THE RETURN OF RICHARD III ON THE 9:24AM TRAIN
- WATER SPORTS
- WE
- WHEN IT’S GOOD
On the selections, Pickering said, “We had women and POC talent make up 50% of the selection. It is exciting to see the impact of fresh perspective in storytelling, and to then have it judged by a jury which is 75% female. I was blessed with a great jury, big thanks to them.”
Pickering also congratulated the filmmakers, “All the submissions were of an incredibly high standard. It was very fun to watch the content, but very hard to make final decisions. I can safely say, if you are on the official selection list, you are on the radar big time. It really was that close…” She added,“I was so impressed by the content and quality, I asked the festival to add an extra award section. That’s how powerful all these films have been.”
Pickering’s jury member Kathleen Simmonds, confirmed “if you were not selected do not be deterred, come to the festival, come say hello, all the work we watched was impressive and impacting.”
The Jury is announced below:
Joanna Pickering is an actress, writer, and activist. Her debut one-act play ‘Beach Break’ was a 2018 top ten finalist for HBO‘s ITV festival’s radio podcast, an official selection for Screencraft stage plays, and aired on British radio in 2019, after selection for Primitive Grace Theater Duende Series in 2018.
Her full length play was awarded a scholarship to work with Margaret Atwood‘s agent Phoebe Larmore with Rohm literary Agency, and is 1 of 8 picked by the Drama Guild Institute. Pickering is the co-writer of ‘Boardwalk‘ and is award nominated for best film and best suspense thriller with NY Web Fest 2019. She is the creator of two series in development with 3 Arts Entertainment.
She moderates on the Imagine This Women’s International Film Festival, Chelsea Film Festival, and is on the Women in Film panel for the New York City Indie Film Festival. Joanna was host and final juror for New York Web Series Festival 2018. She is also a participant speaker at the United Nations for Create 2030. You can find her acting credits on IMDB.
Emilie Dubois is a producer working for Origine Films. She produced over 30 short films. Most recently: “Kapitalist” by Pablo Muñoz Gomez was nominated for Best short film at the 2019 César, and “The Van” by Erenik Beqiri was in The Festival de Cannes 2019 official selection.
French actor and writer, Philippe Du Janerand is one of the famous faces of the contemporary French cinema. You can see him for instance in Nikita (Luc Besson), Ridicule (Patrice Leconte), Taxi (Gérard Pirès), Jeanne d’Arc (Luc Besson), Monsieur Batignole (Gérard Jugnot) and Les Choristes (Christophe Baratier).
Kathleen Simmonds is an Australian actress, producer and reformed corporate lawyer based in New York. She holds a Master’s of Fine Arts from the Actors Studio Drama School and is a Lifetime Member of The Actors Studio. As a filmmaker, Kathleen Simmonds is focused on films which have women’s issues and women’s stories at their center. In 2018, she attended the 90th Oscars with a short film on diversity in Hollywood. Her producer credits also include Line Producer, Associate Producer, and Casting Director for Break Thru Films on documentary features and mini-series for Netflix, HBO, Amazon, and Sundance AMC
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In Conversation with Michael Oblowitz Director of Confidential Informant
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