SHOOT’s annual New Directors Showcase has come a long way since relatively modest beginnings 10 years ago when it took place in conjunction with the Clio Awards Festival in Miami. We’ve gone from a small meeting room in a Miami Beach hotel to our long-running, ongoing venue, the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Theater in New York City.
Gaining sponsorship and support from the DGA for our Showcase has been gratifying. The venue audience has increased tenfold over those initial sessions in Miami. But it’s more the similarities than the differences that strike me when reflecting on the event as it’s progressed over the past decade. The Showcase has remained unchanged in its core mission–to give meaningful exposure to promising talent.
While SHOOT has always sought new directorial talent to bring to our readers’ attention, the first official New Directors Search was introduced by our publisher and editorial director Roberta Griefer in January 2003. The Showcase event followed in May as the face-to-face component of the coverage SHOOT Magazine/SHOOTonline provided to bring the directors to the attention of the industry. Griefer commented how gratifying the entire search/Showcase experience is each year and how satisfying it is to follow the work of each director as his or her career progresses.
My personal impetus for the project can be traced back to the first installment of this column, back in November 1997, when I reflected upon the tragic passing of director Fred Stuhr. Just 30 years old, Stuhr died in a car accident on Oct. 26, 1997. Stuhr had been directing spots and music videos via production house U Ground.
I met Stuhr on several occasions and became a fan of his work. He was a stop motion animator and director par excellence. Yet if he were traded on the NYSE during his all-to-brief professional lifetime, he would have been regarded by savvy investors as an undervalued stock.
Perhaps the prime factor in his being undervalued in the marketplace at large was his refusal to play games in interest of career advancement. He was simply a dedicated artist who didn’t have much time for industry politics, gratuitous schmoozing and the like.
Yet whenever he got the opportunity, he turned out stellar work for such clients as Converse, Halls and Trident.
So shortly after Stuhr’s passing, I found myself writing a story about him and his career, and then paying tribute to him in this column, acknowledging a talent who should have received more acknowledgement while he was alive.
From that came a pledge I made to myself and our readership that SHOOT would ramp up its already well established efforts to cover and recognize deserving talent whenever possible. That in turn, at least for me, later manifested itself in our annual New Directors Showcase. Each year the selection process seemingly gets more difficult, with talent of merit not making the final Showcase cut. Yet we invite those artisans to keep us posted on their work so that we can bring their accomplishments to our readers’ attention in the future. This is part of what makes the Showcase’s 10-year anniversary meaningful to us because it represents a continuing commitment to up-and-coming filmmakers.
Utah Leaders and Locals Rally To Keep Sundance Film Festival In The State
With the 2025 Sundance Film Festival underway, Utah leaders, locals and longtime attendees are making a final push — one that could include paying millions of dollars — to keep the world-renowned film festival as its directors consider uprooting.
Thousands of festivalgoers affixed bright yellow stickers to their winter coats that read "Keep Sundance in Utah" in a last-ditch effort to convince festival leadership and state officials to keep it in Park City, its home of 41 years.
Gov. Spencer Cox said previously that Utah would not throw as much money at the festival as other states hoping to lure it away. Now his office is urging the Legislature to carve out $3 million for Sundance in the state budget, weeks before the independent film festival is expected to pick a home for the next decade.
It could retain a small presence in picturesque Park City and center itself in nearby Salt Lake City, or move to another finalist — Cincinnati, Ohio, or Boulder, Colorado — beginning in 2027.
"Sundance is Utah, and Utah is Sundance. You can't really separate those two," Cox said. "This is your home, and we desperately hope it will be your home forever."
Last year's festival generated about $132 million for the state of Utah, according to Sundance's 2024 economic impact report.
Festival Director Eugene Hernandez told reporters last week that they had not made a final decision. An announcement is expected this year by early spring.
Colorado is trying to further sweeten its offer. The state is considering legislation giving up to $34 million in tax incentives to film festivals like Sundance through 2036 — on top of the $1.5 million in funds already approved to lure the Utah festival to its neighboring... Read More