Included in our series of Directors Profiles in this issue are three filmmakers who have won Oscars for their short film work–the husband and wife helming team of Sean and Andrea Fine who won this year’s Best Short Subject Documentary Academy Award for INOCENTE; and Cynthia Wade, who won the Short Subject Documentary Oscar five years ago for Freeheld and was nominated again this year for Mondays at Racine. Plus, there’s a Producer Profile of Mino Jarjoura, EP at Hungry Man’s L.A. office and producer of the Bryan Buckley-directed Asad, nominated for the Best Live Action Short Film Oscar in 2013.
SHOOT gravitated to The Fines, Wade and Jarjoura not only for their filmmaking talent but also for the inherent goodness in their Motion Picture Academy-recognized projects.
INOCENTE introduces us to a homeless teenager who’s an artist. Mondays at Racine introduces us to two beauty salon owners who provide free hair and beauty services for women undergoing cancer treatment. And Asad centers on two boys in a Somalian fishing village.
Asad sprung from Buckley’s desire to do justice to the humanity of the Somalian people. Hungry Man has since helped the two lads in Asad get a formal education–in a short span, they’ve gone from zero grade to the fourth grade in South Africa. And the Oscar nomination means that more people will see the film and become aware of the refugees and what they can accomplish if they just get the opportunity.
Mondays at Racine focuses on the beauty parlor owners–two sisters who lost their mother to breast cancer and are determined to give women who are losing their hair a sense of normalcy and dignity during a traumatic, uncertain time. The story evolves into a poignant, moving look at womanhood, motherhood and marriage.
Backstage after winning the Oscar, Andrea Fine credited her film’s protagonist, a girl named Inocente, with “really giving a face to what’s an invisible population. One in 45 kids in this country is homeless and that doesn’t make sense.” Fine hopes that by raising awareness in the general public and among policy-makers in D.C., there will be a sense of, “Look, maybe we can do something about this.”
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