LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--WIF (Women In Film Los Angeles), ReFrame and IMDbPro (http://www.imdbpro.com) today announced the five winning films and seven finalists for the CURBSIDE SHORTS Two-Minute Film Challenge, which invited female and non-binary filmmakers from North America to create and submit for free a short film created entirely in one week and inspired by life while sheltering in place.
More than 500 submissions were received via the submission platform, AudPop – a standout number given the short window of seven days to create the films and also marking the most submissions for a film challenge on AudPop since its launch in 2013. Of those submissions, the first 200 that met eligibility requirements were made available for audience voting and more than 33,500 votes were cast. The top 10 most-voted films and an additional 10 selected by a preliminary jury panel of WIF and ReFrame staff to ensure quality and diversity advanced to the finals round. From those finalists, a jury of ReFrame Ambassadors and established industry professionals selected a grand prize winner, first runner-up and three honorable-mention films. The creators of these five winning films will receive cash prizes and a one-year membership to IMDbPro, the essential resource for entertainment industry professionals, to help filmmakers continue achieving success in their careers. The top 12 finalist films will be featured on the homepage of IMDb, the world's most popular and authoritative source for information on movies, TV shows, and celebrities, and at www.imdb.com/reframe.
Jury members included Maria Bello (actress/”NCIS”), Cara Buono (actress/“Stranger Things”), Marta Cunningham (director, actress), Nisha Ganatra (director/LATE NIGHT), Catherine Hardwicke (director/TWILIGHT), Barbara Kopple (director/AMERICAN DREAM), Col Needham (Founder and CEO of IMDb), Tanya Saracho (writer, director/”Vida”) and Kim Yutani (Director of Programming, Sundance Film Festival).
ReFrame Ambassador and challenge juror Nisha Ganatra said: “Here’s to the storytellers! It was inspiring to see the work you created in such a challenging environment. Constraints often force us to push the boundaries of our creativity, and that was evident in all the CURBSIDE SHORTS submissions. Congrats to the winners and thank you to everyone who shared their talents with us.”
GRAND PRIZE WINNER ($5,000 cash prize)
DAY 74, Director: Courtney Jamison
What rituals ease the chaos boiling in our minds? Day 74 follows an afternoon in the life of a Kenyan woman in quarantine alone as she navigates private and public spaces during a pandemic.
FIRST RUNNER-UP ($2,000 cash prize)
GOING VIRAL, Director: Marcy Stone-Francois
GOING VIRAL is a series created in confinement with Jannus, the cat. In this episode, Jannus interviews the Coronavirus.
HONORABLE MENTIONS ($1,000 cash prize each)
DAILY NONSENSE, Director: Jackie Fang
Daily Nonsense follows a 23-year-old woman's life as she reflects on her experience during a pandemic.
NIGHTTIME THOUGHTS, Beth Triffon
Nighttime Thoughts explores the complex process of reducing anxiety at night, which has only been made worse by a pandemic.
TETHERED, Director: Jaclyn Amor
This film is a shout out to the artists and creatives who sometimes feel uninspired, unmotivated, scared, or like their work isn’t enough. It explores how we stay connected, even at a distance, through art.
ADDITIONAL FINALISTS (Alphabetical Order)
COMING HOME, Director: Emory Parker
THE FAVORITE, Director: Hunter Toro
HATCH HOPE, Director: Radha Mehta
LA NOVELA, Director: Gabriella Ortiz
PLIED, Directors: Jasmine C. Leyva + Jenique Hendrix
SOCIALIZING IN QUARANTINE, Directors: Allie Levitan + Daniel Lui
SPIRAL, Director: Asligul Armagan
Also as part of the challenge, the Motion Picture Association (MPA) contributed $10,000 to two COVID-19 charities: The Actors Fund (https://actorsfund.org/CovidRelief), which has distributed more than $11.5 million in emergency financial assistance to 9,798 people in the industry to help cover food, medications, utilities and other basic living expenses; and SEE-LA (https://seela.org/), which is actively expanding food access during the pandemic by distributing over 23,000 fresh food boxes to vulnerable families in South Los Angeles.
About WIF
Founded in 1973 as Women In Film, Los Angeles, WIF advocates for and advances the careers of women working in the screen industries, to achieve parity and transform culture. We support women and non-binary people in front of and behind the camera and across all levels of experience. We work to change culture through our distinguished pipeline programs; we advocate for gender parity through research, education, and media campaigns; and we build a community centered around these goals. Membership is open to all screen industry professionals, and more information can be found on our website: wif.org. Follow WIF on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
About ReFrame
Founded and led by WIF (Women In Film, Los Angeles) and Sundance Institute, ReFrame is an initiative that employs a unique strategy, a peer-to-peer approach, in which ReFrame Ambassadors engage with senior industry decision-makers at over 50 Partner Companies to implement ReFrame programs. The initiative’s goals are to provide research, support, and a practical framework that can be used by Partner companies to mitigate bias during the creative decision-making and hiring process, celebrate successes, and measure progress toward a more gender-representative industry on all levels. For more information download the ReFrame Culture Change Handbook or visit ReFrameProject.org.
ReFrame is made possible by support from The David and Lura Lovell Foundation; The Harnisch Foundation; Hulu; IMDbPro; Mercer; the Women at Sundance Leadership Council: Ruth Ann Harnisch, Katy Drake Bettner, Barbara Bridges, Abigail Disney, Suzanne Lerner, Cristina Ljungberg, Ann Lovell, Pat Mitchell, Susan Bay Nimoy, Patty Quillin, Brenda Robinson, Kimberly Steward, Lynda Weinman, Jenifer Westphal, and Jacki Zehner; Delta Air Lines; Pritzker Pucker Family Foundation; and an anonymous donor.
About IMDbPro
IMDbPro (http://www.imdbpro.com) is the essential resource for entertainment industry professionals. This membership-based service includes comprehensive information and tools that are designed to help entertainment industry professionals achieve success throughout all stages of their career. IMDbPro offers members the following: detailed contact and representation information; tools to manage and showcase their IMDb profile, including the ability to select their primary images and the credits they are best “known for”; exclusive STARmeter rankings that are determined by page views on IMDb; the IMDbPro app for iPhone and Android; IMDbPro Track, which empowers members using the app to receive personalized entertainment industry news and notifications on the people and film and TV projects they want to follow; and a convenient tool that generates custom digital assets to promote their work on social media and other platforms. Additional IMDbPro services include Box Office Mojo (https://www.boxofficemojo.com/), the leading online source of box-office data. IMDbPro is a division of IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/), the #1 movie website in the world with a combined web and mobile audience of more than 200 million monthly visitors. Follow IMDbPro on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/imdbpro/), Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/imdbpro/) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/imdbpro).
About IMDb
IMDb is the world’s most popular and authoritative source for information on movies, TV shows and celebrities. Products and services to help fans decide what to watch and where to watch it include: the IMDb website for desktop and mobile devices; apps for iOS and Android; and IMDb X-Ray on Fire TV devices. IMDb also offers a free streaming channel, IMDb TV, and produces original video series. For entertainment industry professionals, IMDb provides IMDbPro and Box Office Mojo. IMDb is an Amazon company. For more information, visit www.imdb.com/press and follow @IMDb.
About the Motion Picture Association
The Motion Picture Association, Inc. (MPA) www.motionpictures.org serves as the global voice and advocate of the film, television, and streaming content industry. It works in every corner of the world to advance the creative industry, protect its members’ content across all screens, defend the creative and artistic freedoms of storytellers, and support innovative distribution models that bring an expansion of viewing choices to audiences everywhere and on any screen.
The association’s members are: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures; Netflix, Inc.; Paramount Pictures Corporation; Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc.; Universal City Studios LLC; and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. Charles Rivkin is Chairman and CEO.
About AudPop
AudPop is the video network for brands. We provide brands a way to easily obtain the video they need and increase digital marketing ROI. We offer an engaging video marketing platform powering turn-key video. Brands use AudPop to crowd-source addictive, gorgeous video content at scale from our award-winning diverse global filmmaker collective. Submissions are juried by the brand, entertainment industry, and voted on by the world. We democratize entertainment by connecting our filmmakers to fans and brands and providing opportunities such as cash, prizes, distribution and festival screenings. AudPop has worked with many brands including Southwest Air, GoDaddy, Hilton Worldwide, Better Business Bureau, SONY, KODAK, and DELL. AudPop has a community of 70K global filmmakers, 10K short films on platform, and has operated over 500 online film festivals, video contests, and film challenges.