First Time Fest: Inaugural Fest For New Filmmakers

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Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Friday, 08 February 2013 22:00

Written by Matt Oakes

Every great filmmaker had a first film which could have easily slipped under the radar, from Christopher Nolan’s Memento to Darren Aronofsky’s Pi to Wes Anderson’s Bottle Rocket.

The inaugural First Time Fest -- taking place from March 1 - 4, 2013, at the Players Club -- hopes to discover the great talents of the next generation before they achieve commercial success. 

Hosted in NYC’s Gramercy Park, the Festival is also set to showcase first-time filmmakers in retrospect with a film series entitled First Exposure which will feature Aronosky's Pi , John Huston's The Maltese Falcon, Todd Haynes' Poision, Jack Goes Boating by Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Hal Hartley's The Unbelievable Truth, True Love made by Nancy Savoca and Stanley Kubrick's first film Killer's Kiss. Many stars and filmmakers are expected to attend such as Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Ryan, Chris Chase and Hal Hartley.

The festival will also award Aronofsky with the John Huston Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Cinema.

Prizes will be awarded to filmmakers including a grand prize that will hopefully launch one or several first time filmmakers into the spotlight as their film(s) will be picked up for limited theatrical distribution.

Films from 12 different countries will be competing for the grand prize, including:

Blumenthal
Written and directed by Seth Fisher
starring Fisher, Brian Cox, Mark Blum, Laila Robins, Mei Melançon
Manhattan neuroses gets a fresh, bracing new twist in Fisher’s delightfully acerbic debut. The death of playwright Harold Blumenthal (Cox) sets in motion a tangled web of family and relationship drama in a polished film distinguished by Zak Mulligan’s crystalline cinematography, a strong ensemble cast, and multi-talented Seth Fisher’s razor-sharp script.

Headfirst
Written and directed by Amélie van Elmbt
starring Alice de Lencquesaing, David Murgia, Jacques Doillon
Two attractive teens meet while hitchhiking across Belgium. Deceptively simple and beautifully made, van Elmbt’s quietly and deeply observed coming-of-age road movie, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, will linger long after it is seen, thanks to its remarkable lead performances.  Rising star Alice de Lencquesaing (familiar from films by Olivier Assayas and Mia Hansen-Løve) won Best Actress at Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema for this role, and Murgia won the Belgian Magritte award for Most Promising Actor.

Horizon Sky
Written and directed by Dmitry Martin, Andrey Kureychik
starring Leonid Pashkovsky, Tatyana Bovkalova, Viktor Rybchinsky, Anna Sirotina
An exciting discovery from an unlikely corner of the world, Horizon Sky is the first independent feature film from Belarus in a decade. Its theme — the generational battle between rebellion and oppression, played out in the arena of sex and rock music – is universal. Horizon Sky tells a keenly dramatized story about a young musician stricken with AIDS who battles discrimination and addiction.

I Love You All (Los Quiero A Todos) 
Written, directed, and produced by Luciano Quillici
starring Ramiro Aguero, Santiago Gobemori, Diego Jalfen, Valeria Louis, Leticia Mazur, Margarita Molfino, Alan Sabbagh
Imagine some combination of Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill and François Truffaut’s Day For Night, and you’ll have some idea of the exceptional nature of Quillici’s lyrical and contemplative film. A group of 30-something friends reunite for a trip to the country where they mull over lost opportunities and their disaffection with the present, in this accomplished film that offers further proof that Argentina is one of the most exciting hotbeds in world cinema today.

Junction
Written and directed by Tony Glazer
starring Tom Pelphrey, Neal Bledsoe, Harris Doran, Summer Crockett Moore, Anthony Rapp, David Zayas, Michael O’Keefe

A group of junkies get more than they bargained for when they rob the house of a man who turns out to be a pedophile. Gritty urban drama? No… the intense action in Glazer’s riveting drama, with a dynamite ensemble cast including Rent star Rapp and Smash actor Bledsoe, takes place in the idyllic upscale neighborhood of Verterra Hill, a community full of manicured lawns and sprawling colonials. Along the way, hard choices must be made, and the only certainty is that all decisions come with a price.

Mongolian Bling
Directed by Benj Binks
In an ancient country undergoing a 21st-century identity crisis, hip-hop music is at the center of a thriving music scene in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. Beyond the customary bling of babes, cars, and jewels lie the remnants of a dying culture. Binks’ lively documentary looks at the fascinating tension between Mongolia’s rich musical history and modern-day beats and rhymes.


Sal
Written and directed by Diego Rougier
With Fele Martínez, Patricio Contreras, Sergio Hernández, Javiera Contador

A Spanish film director obsessed with making a western in Chile travels south to find a story that will salvage his screenplay; a case of mistaken identity makes him a marked man. This gorgeous widescreen film pays loving homage to Sergio Leone while playfully subverting the western genre.  

Submerge
Directed by Sophie O’Connor
With Lily Hall, Christina Hallett, Kevin Dee, Georgia Bolton
In O’Connor’s absorbing, sensual drama, an ambitious, beautiful and tightly wound history student – who is also an Olympics-bound swimmer – falls in love with the girlfriend of her thesis advisor. The protagonist is surprisingly drawn into a sexual underworld and is submerged in feelings that she doesn’t understand. Hall’s performance powerfully captures the transformation in this memorable “Generation Y” love story.

Summertime 
Written and directed by Max Weissberg
starring Lethia Nall, Eric Garcia, Rob Hollander, H.R. Britton, James Eason, Jenny Grace, Olivia Horton, Michele Cesari

Two actresses are unknowingly cast in the same role; and that is just the starting point for one of the most enchanting and witty romantic New York roundelays in recent memory. Talented debut writer/director Max Weissberg follows furtive attempts at friendship, love, and sex among eight people including Julia, an actress who lands the role of Anya, daughter of a Russian arms dealer and an unconventional director who thinks she must truly become Anya. This graceful, multilayered film knowingly examines the nature of performance in our “real” lives.


Uprising 
Directed by Fredrik Stanton
With the element of historical context and thoughtful analysis, Uprising is a vivid documentary that captures the drama, chaos, and complexity of a revolution in the making. Produced by an extraordinary Academy Award-winning team including the executive producer of Taxi To The Dark Side and the editor of Inside Job, Uprising looks at the inside story of the Egyptian revolution from the perspective of its principal leaders and organizers, including four Nobel Peace Prize nominees.
 


Urban Tale
Written and directed by Eliav Lilti
starring Barak Friedman, Noa Friedman, Esti Yerushalmi, Zohar Shtrauss, Ohad Knoller, Michal Shtamler

After the death of their mother, an incestuous brother and sister search for their father who abandoned them as infants. Lilti’s startling, audacious, and surprisingly polished micro-budget feature film could seem unbelievable — if it wasn’t based on a true story. A series of to-the-camera dialogues and explicit sex scenes, with a dry sense of humor and captivating performances, this film heralds the emergence of an important new director, and perhaps a new direction for Israeli cinema.


Zipper
Directed by Amy Nicholson

The eternal showdown between old-fashioned urban tradition and modern commercial development is played out on an unlikely battlefield—the beloved Zipper ride at Coney Island — in Nicholson’s thoroughly entertaining and engaging new documentary. In 2007, a real estate mogul and the Bloomberg administration begin rezoning the amusement park within an inch of its life. Nicholson paints an intriguing portrait of one of New York City's last cultural enclaves on the cusp of gentrification.

For more information on the First Time Festival visit: https://firsttimefest.squarespace.com/

First Time Fest
March 1 - 4, 2013

The Players
16 Gramercy Park South
New York, NY 10003
646-580-1FTF (1383)

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