2021 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Tatiana Huezo receives Special Mention at Cannes
2021 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Tatiana Huezo, premiered her film Noche de Fuego/Prayers for the Stolen at the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in July, where it received a Special Mention in the Un Certain Regard competition.
The film is Huezo’s fiction debut, based on the novel Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement and set in a small town in the mountains of Mexico. Noche de Fuego/Prayers for the Stolen tells the story of what it is like to be a young woman growing up in a rural town marked by violence, where three girls forge their friendship learning how to hide to survive.
The film will be available at San Sebastian Film Festival, Festival de Cine de Lima, and New York Film Festival.
Congratulations Tatiana!
Post by 2021 Summer Communications Intern Mariana Sanson.
Belly of the Beast Receives Four News and Documentary Emmy® Noms!
Nominations for the 42nd Annual News and Documentary Emmy® Awards were announced today by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS): Project: Hatched 2020 grantee Belly of the Beast received FOUR nominations! Also nominated were two films by Chicken & Egg Award recipients and one produced by our Co-founder & Board President Julie Parker Benello.
Belly of the Beast (Project: Hatched 2020)
dir. Erika Cohn
prods. Nicole Docta, Christen Marquez & Angela Tucker
Nominated for Outstanding Direction: Documentary, Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary, Best Documentary, Outstanding Editing: Documentary
AlumNest Films
The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show
Nominated for Outstanding Arts and Culture Documentary
dir. Yoruba Richen (2016 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient)
prods. Valerie Thomas & Joan Walsh
Tutwiler
Nominated for Outstanding Short Documentary
dir. Elaine McMillion Sheldon (2016 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient)
prod. Alysia Santo
John Lewis: Good Trouble
Nominated by Outstanding Research: Documentary, Outstanding Historical Documentary, Outstanding Lighting Direction and Scenic Design
dir. Dawn Porter (2017 Chicken & Egg Award recipient)
prods. Erika Alexander & Ben Arnon
Special Congratulations
A special congratulations to our Co-Founder & Board President Julie Parker Benello, producer of Athlete A (dirs. Bonni Cohen & Jon Shenk, prods. Serin Marshal, Julie Parker Benello & Jen Say). The film was nominated for Best Documentary and Outstanding Investigative Documentary.
Check out the full nomination list here. The awards for Documentary Categories will be presented on Wednesday, September 29, 2021. Post by 2021 Summer Communications Intern Mariana Sanson.
Chicken & Egg Award Filmmakers receive Emmy® Nominations
The nomination list for the 73rd Primetime Emmy® Awards, was announced on Tuesday, July 13 and includes projects by three Chicken & Egg Award recipients. At Chicken & Egg Pictures, we are celebrating this egg-cellent news and wishing them the best!
Dick Johnson is Dead
dir. Kirsten Johnson
prods. Katy Chevigny & Marilyn Ness
Nominated for Outstanding Cinematography For a Nonfiction Program, Outstanding Directing For A Documentary/Nonfiction Program, and Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking
8:46 – Dave Chappelle
dirs. and prods. Julia Reichert, Steve Bognar & Dave Chappelle*
Nominated for Outstanding Directing For A Variety Special.
American Masters
A special congratulations to 2016 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Yoruba Richen for her direction of How It Feels To Be Free. The film participated in the 35th season of the American Masters series, which was nominated for Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series. American Masters is produced by Julie Sacks.
Check out the full nomination list here. The 73rd annual Emmy® Awards will take place next September 19, 2021.
*Chicken & Egg Pictures supported Julia Reichert through the 2016 Chicken & Egg Award but did not directly support her new project, Dave Chappelle.
Post by 2021 Summer Communications Intern Mariana Sanson.
Celebrating Program Director Lucila Moctezuma’s Academy Invitation!
Today at Chicken & Egg Pictures we are egg-cited and proud to share some big news: our dearest Program Director Lucila Moctezuma has been invited to become a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Lucila oversees the planning and implementation of our organization’s programs in support of women nonfiction filmmakers and has constructed a solid career supporting and producing documentary filmmaking across borders.
We also want to congratulate our Board members Susan Margolin and Brenda Robinson, and Nest-supported filmmaker Angela Tucker (co-director of I am not going to change 400 years in four and producer of Belly of the Beast) for their invitation too!
The Class of 2021 is 46% women, 39% percent underrepresented ethnic/racial communities, and 53% international from 49 countries outside of the United States. Documentary is among the seven branches that invited more women than men, along with Casting Directors, Costume Designers, Executives, Marketing and Public Relations, Music, and Producers.
Congratulations to the Class of 2021!
Post by 2021 Summer Communications Intern Mariana Sanson.
Congratulations to Jessica Kingdon on her two Tribeca Film Festival Awards!
The 2021 Tribeca Film Festival awards were announced last Thursday, June 17, and Chicken & Egg Pictures is proud to celebrate 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab grantee Jessica Kingdon’s two Awards! Her film Ascension received the Award for Best Documentary Feature, and Jessica received the 2021 Albert Maysles Award for Best New Documentary Director. Congratulations Jessica!
Ascension
Dir. Jessica Kingdon
Prod. Kira Simon-Kennedy, Jessica Kingdon, Nathan Truesdell
Ascension examines the contemporary “Chinese Dream” through staggering observations of labor, consumerism and wealth. In cinematically exploring the aspiration that drives today’s People’s Republic of China, the film plunges into universal paradoxes of economic progress.
Post by 2021 Summer Communications Intern Mariana Sanson.
We’re Back to the Cinemas at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival!
The Tribeca Film Festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a return to the cinemas in 2021. The festival runs from Wednesday, June 9 to Sunday, June 20 with programming that can be accessed in person and virtually.
At Chicken & Egg Pictures, we are looking forward to the shared experience of film, as New Yorkers head back to the movies again. Viewers within the US can access Tribeca’s virtual programming through $15 online stream tickets.
We are also thrilled to let you know that films slated to premiere at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, but postponed due to COVID-19, will also screen at this year’s edition. Granted films featured in the festival include four (Egg)celerator Lab grantees from 2018 and 2019, one Project: Hatched grantee, one Chicken & Egg Award recipient film, three films from the AlumNest, and one VR project. Learn more about the films below, and get your tickets here.
Ascension, dir. Jessica Kingdon
Ascension examines the contemporary “Chinese Dream” through staggering observations of labor, consumerism and wealth. In cinematically exploring the aspiration that drives today’s People’s Republic of China, the film plunges into universal paradoxes of economic progress.
World Premiere │ Tribeca Documentary Competition │ 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab
Enemies of the State, dir. Sonia Kennebeck
An American family becomes entangled in a bizarre web of secrets and lies when their hacker son is targeted by the U.S. government, making them all Enemies of the State.
US Premiere │ 2018 (Egg)celerator Lab
Pray Away, dir. Kristine Stolakis
Former leaders of the “pray away the gay” movement contend with the aftermath unleashed by their actions, while a survivor seeks healing and acceptance from more than a decade of trauma.
World Premiere │ 2019 (Egg)celerator Lab
Through the Night, dir. Loira Limbal
To make ends meet, Americans are working longer hours across multiple jobs. This modern reality of nonstop work has resulted in an unexpected phenomenon: the flourishing of 24-hour daycare centers. Through the Night is a verité documentary that explores the personal cost of our modern economy through the stories of two working mothers and a child care provider, whose lives intersect at a 24-hour daycare center in New Rochelle, NY.
New York Premiere │ 2018 (Egg)celerator Lab
Landfall, dir. Cecilia Aldarondo
Through shard-like glimpses of everyday life in post-Hurricane María Puerto Rico, Landfall examines a ruined world at the brink of transformation, spinning a cautionary tale for our times.
Project: Hatched 2020
Stateless, dir. Michèle Stephenson
Through the grassroots campaign of electoral hopeful Rosa Iris, director Michèle Stephenson’s new documentary reveals the depths of racial hatred and institutionalized oppression that divide Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
2016 Chicken & Egg Award
Simple as Water, dir. Megan Mylan
A look at war and displacement through the lens of parenthood from Megan Mylan, Academy-Award winning director of Lost Boys of Sudan and Smile Pinki. This feature documentary unfolds as a sequence of cinematic short stories revolving around Syrian families living in Turkey, Greece, the US, Germany, and Syria. Each chapter is an intimate portrait of parents—often mothers alone—as they work to rebuild their children’s lost sense of security and possibility. It is a story that is both urgent and timeless.
World Premiere │ 2018 Grant
VR Experience
The Changing Same: Episode 1, dirs. Michèle Stephenson, Joe Brewster & Yasmin Elayat
AlumNest Films
The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show, dir. Yoruba Richen (2016 Chicken & Egg Award recipient)
Selected for the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival
Women In Blue, dir. Deirdre Fishel (AlumNest for Care)
Selected for the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival
Untitled Dave Chappelle Documentary, dirs. Julia Reichert (2016 Chicken & Egg Award recipient) and Steve Bognar
Egg-citing news! This world premiere will be Tribeca’s closing night film.
See you at the cinema! Post by 2021 Summer Communications Intern Mariana Sanson.
Nest-supported Filmmakers Nom’d for the NAACP Image Awards!
We were honored to see five Nest-supported filmmakers on the recently announced nominations list for the 52nd annual NAACP Image Awards, which are known for “celebrating outstanding achievement in the areas of film, TV, music and literature—from an African American perspective.”*
Coded Bias — Outstanding Documentary (Film)
Coded Bias, directed by Shalini Kantayya, explores the fallout of MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini’s startling discovery that facial recognition does not see dark-skinned faces accurately, and her subsequent journey to push for the first-ever US legislation to govern against bias in artificial intelligence. The documentary aims to shine a light on the threat artificial intelligence poses to civil rights and democracy. The film participated in Project: Hatched 2020.
Through the Night — Outstanding Breakthrough Creative (Motion Picture)
Loira Limbal and her work on Through the Night are nominated for Outstanding Breakthrough Creative (Motion Picture). Through the Night is a verité documentary that explores the personal cost of our modern economy through the stories of two working mothers and a child care provider, whose lives intersect at a 24-hour daycare center in New Rochelle, NY. The film participated in the 2018 (Egg)celerator Lab.
AlumNest filmmakers nominated include Chicken & Egg Award Recipients Yoruba Richen, Dawn Porter, and Grace Lee:
The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts the Tonight Show by Yoruba Richen — Outstanding Directing in a Documentary (Television or Motion Picture) and Outstanding Writing in a Documentary (Television or Motion Picture)
And She Could Be Next by Grace Lee and Chicken & Egg Pictures Board Member Marjan Safinia — Outstanding Documentary (Television)
John Lewis: Good Trouble by Dawn Porter — Outstanding Documentary (Film)
Congratulations to all the nominees! We will be watching the awards ceremony from our Nest on Saturday, March 27th at 8 pm ET.
*Language courtesy of NAACP Image Awards.
The Nest on the DOC NYC Short List
A special congratulations to the following Nest-supported filmmakers who were selected for DOC NYC’s famous Short Lists for contenders for the documentary short category and contenders for feature documentary category. DOC NYC Film Festival is the largest nonfiction film festival in the US and runs from Wednesday, November 11 to Thursday, November 19.
DOC NYC’s Short Lists are influential for their steady track record of anticipating Academy Award nominees and winners. Check out the Nest-supported films screening at the festival here; the films are available to watch across the US.
DOC NYC Short List: Features
A Thousand Cuts
Directed by Ramona Diaz (2018 Chicken & Egg Award recipient)*
Nowhere is the worldwide erosion of democracy, fueled by social media disinformation campaigns, more starkly evident than in the authoritarian regime of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Journalist Maria Ressa places the tools of the free press—and her freedom—on the line in defense of truth and democracy.
Dick Johnson Is Dead
Directed by Recipient Kirsten Johnson (2017 Chicken & Egg Award recipient)*
With this inventive portrait, a cameraperson seeks a way to keep her 86-year-old father alive forever. Utilizing moviemaking magic and her family’s dark humor, she celebrates Dr. Dick Johnson’s last years by staging fantasies of death and beyond. Together, dad and daughter confront the great inevitability awaiting us all.
Eli Despres.
The Fight, co-directed by Elyse Steinberg, Josh Kriegman, and
Eli Despres (Project: Hatched 2020)
The Fight documents a team of scrappy ACLU lawyers battling Trump’s historic assault on civil liberties.
Congratulations to AlumNest filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering, whose new film On the Record made the DOC NYC Short List: Features and will screen at the fest. Kirby and Amy were supported by Chicken & Egg Pictures for their project The Invisible War.
DOC NYC Short List: Shorts
Congratulations to the following AlumNest filmmakers on their shortlisted short films: Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Geeta Gandbhir for Call Center Blues, Tiffany Hsiung for Sing Me A Lullaby, Alison Klayman for Flower Punk, and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy for A Life Too Short.
In the Winner’s Circle section of DOC NYC, catch The Mole Agent directed by 2020 Chicken & Egg Award Recipient Maite Alberdi.
*These projects were supported by Chicken & Egg Pictures during the filmmakers’ Chicken & Egg Award year.
Laura Nix and Julia Reichert Nominated for 92nd Academy Awards
Egg-citing news! Announced today, filmmakers Laura Nix and Julia Reichert received Oscar nominations for their nonfiction films Walk Run Cha-Cha and American Factory, respectively.
Walk Run Cha-Cha
Directed by Laura Nix (2018 Chicken & Egg Award);
Produced by Colette Sandstedt
Nominated for Documentary Short
American Factory
Directed by Julia Reichert (2016 Chicken & Egg Award) and Steve Bognar; Produced by Julia Reichert, Steve Bognar, Jeff Reichert, and Chicken & Egg Pictures Co-Founder Julie Parker Benello
Nominated for Documentary Feature
We are so proud to have supported Laura and Julia through our Chicken & Egg Award program and wish them the best of luck! You can stream American Factory on Netflix and Walk Run Cha-Cha on New York Times Op-Docs.
The 92nd Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, February 9, 2020. A full list the full list of nominees can be seen here.
American Factory Soars at Cinema Eye Honors!
Congratulations to the American Factory team, including co-director and 2016 Chicken & Egg Award recipient Julia Reichert and Chicken & Egg Pictures Co-Founder Julie Parker Benello, on the accolades they received at the thirteenth annual Cinema Eye Honors at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York on January 6.
American Factory was awarded Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Feature Filmmaking and Outstanding Achievement in Direction.
American Factory is directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert and produced by Steve Bognar, Julia Reichert, Jeff Reichert and Julie Parker Benello.
Plus a special shoutout to AlumNest filmmaker Jehane Noujaim and The Great Hack team for their win in the Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design or Animation category.