2019 Sundance Festival Winners
A huge congratulations to Chicken & Egg Pictures-supported films and filmmakers who won big at Sundance this year:
One Child Nation
Dirs. Nanfu Wang & Jialing Zhang
Grand Jury Prize – US Documentary Competition
Always in Season
Dir. Jacqueline Olive
Special Jury Award for Moral Urgency – US Documentary Competition
American Factory
Dir. Julia Reichert & Steven Bognar
Directing – US Documentary Competition
It was a big weekend for these incredible filmmakers in more ways than one, with Amazon acquiring One Child Nation and Netflix acquiring American Factory. And a special congratulations to former Nest grantees Rachel Lears (dir. of Knock Down the House – US Documentary Competition Audience Award), Alma Har’el (dir. of Honey Boy – US Dramatic CompetitionSpecial Jury Award for Vision and Craft); and Laura Nix (executive producer of Sea of Shadows – World Cinema Documentary Audience Award).
We couldn’t be prouder of our Nest friends. Learn more about American Factory, Always in Season, and One Child Nation—and the amazing women that made them—through these reads:
‘One Child Nation’: How Nanfu Wang Defied China to Expose Its Dark Side – Indiewire
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Nanfu Wang – “One Child Nation”– Women and Hollywood
Sundance 2019 Women Directors: Meet Jacqueline Olive – “Always in Season”– Women and Hollywood
Sundance 2019: Always in Season an exceptional documentary on communities of memory, history of lynchings – The Utah Review
‘American Factory’: Sundance Review – Screen Daily
Sundance: Netflix Nabs ‘American Factory’ Doc for $3 Million – The Hollywood Reporter
Nest-supported Filmmakers Take Home Three News and Documentary Emmy® Awards
Winners of the 39th Annual News and Documentary Emmy®
Awards were announced last night at a ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York City. We were thrilled to see three Chicken & Egg Pictures-supported filmmakers receive Emmys for their powerful documentary projects.
Solitary, directed by 2016 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award recipient Kristi Jacobson, received the Outstanding Investigative Documentary award (HBO Documentary Films).
Solitary investigates an invisible part of the American justice system: the use of isolation and segregation in US prisons, commonly known as solitary confinement. With unprecedented access inside a prison tackling the issue head on, the film explores this divisive issue through the experiences of those on both sides of the bars.
Heroin(e), directed by 2016 Breakthrough Filmmaker Award recipient Elaine McMillion Sheldon, received the Outstanding Short Documentary award (Netflix).
“Once a bustling industrial town, Huntington, West Virginia has become the epicenter of America’s modern opioid epidemic, with an overdose rate 10 times the national average. This flood of heroin now threatens this Appalachian city with a cycle of generational addiction, lawlessness, and poverty. But within this distressed landscape, Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Elaine McMillion Sheldon (Hollow) shows a different side of the fight against drugs—one of hope.”*
Chicken & Egg Pictures did not directly support Heroin(e), but supported Elaine during her Breakthrough year. Check out Elaine’s newest film on the subject, Recovery Boys (also on Netflix streaming).
The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick received the Outstanding Research award (PBS).
“Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s ten-part, 18-hour documentary series, The Vietnam War, tells the epic story of one of the most consequential, divisive, and controversial events in American history as it has never before been told on film.”**
Chicken & Egg Pictures did not support The Vietnam War: A Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick but is supporting Lynn Novick’s project College Behind Bars: The Bard Prison Initiative, currently in production.
We would also like to congratulate all of our friends at PBS, who received a whopping seven Emmy awards last night, as well as all of the incredible nominees and winners at the News and Documentary Emmy® Awards.
*Synopsis from the Recovery Boys website.
**Synopsis courtesy of PBS.
Nest-supported Nominees for The Grierson Awards
The Grierson Trust commemorates the pioneering Scottish documentary maker John Grierson. Each year, the trust celebrates documentary filmmaking from the UK and around the world with the British Documentary Awards, more fondly known as The Griersons.
We are honored to announce that Chicken & Egg-supported projects Kingdom of Us and Strong Island were nominated this year.
Kingdom of Us, directed by Lucy Cohen, was nominated for Best Single Documentary – Domestic and Best Cinema Documentary.
Kingdom of Us is a film about memory, identity, and growing up told through the eyes of seven siblings and their mother. Five of the children are on the autistic spectrum and as they move through adolescence, an event of the past keeps drawing them back. Combining observational footage with a rich archive of home movies and songs, the film is both a detective story and coming-of-age tale, exploring universal themes of memory, family, and love.
Strong Island, directed by Yance Ford, was nominated for Best Single Documentary – International.
Set in the suburbs of the black middle class, Strong Island seeks to uncover how—in the year of the Rodney King trial and the Los Angeles riots—the murder of the filmmaker’s older brother went unpunished. The film is an unflinching look at homicide, racial injustice, and the corrosive impact of grief over time.
The Griersons will take place on the evening of Monday, November 5 at The Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. In the meantime, both Kingdom of Us and Strong Island are available to stream on Netflix.
Congratulations Yance and Lucy and good luck!
Netflix acquires Hot Girls Wanted
Netflix has acquired the rights Hot Girls Wanted on the heels of the film’s world premiere at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
When announcing the acquisition, Netflix VP of Global Independent Content Erik Barmack said, “Jill and Ronna have exposed a shocking world of hope and heartbreak. The filmmakers gained unprecedented access into a world never documented until now, and we are proud to bring their unflinching work to a global audience.”
Netflix will premiere the film later this year. Jill and Ronna’s previous collaboration, Sexy Baby (also supported by Chicken & Egg Pictures), is currently available on Netflix.