UCLA Festival 2009: New Creative Work

Producers Marketplace

Billy Wilder Theater at 7:30 PM on Monday, June 8, 2009

RSVP

Vision Award Recipients: Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks

This highly anticipated annual event features five graduate students in the distinguished UCLA Producers Program, who will present their feature film projects to a panel of top-tier industry judges. These project presentations were vetted by industry professionals throughout the academic year. During the Producers Marketplace, the finalists take the stage to present their projects in five-minunte concept pitches. They then field a battery of questions from the judges about how they plan to get their projects made. The judges will select the most promising proposal and present the winning producer the UCLA Producers Marketplace Award. The audience will also get to select its favorite pitch.

RSVP

Dana Keithly
909-463-8392, dana.keithly@gmail.com

Dana is a southern California native who has received a BA in anthropology from UCLA and a Masters in anthropology from California State University, Fullerton. During her time in the UCLA Producers Program, Dana has produced the 2008 Producers Marketplace and a short, Golden Years for the UCLA/AARP sponsored competition Stolen Dreams. She also serves as a teaching assistant in the UCLA Producers Program. She gained industry experience working with Participant Media and Anonymous Content. When she doesn't have movies on her mind, Dana volunteers her time at the local animal shelter and enjoys spending time with her husband Juan and their corgi Puddinhead.

ONCE UPON A MIDNIGHT DREARY (family)
A struggling young writer's life changes when he meets an immortal Edgar Allan Poe who offers him fame and fortune. But when the writer discovers Poe controls the souls of past famous writers, he teams up with a wise-cracking Raven and the object of his affection to stop Poe from enslaving more souls, including his own.

Sarah DiLeo
(310) 696-9589, sarah@monkeyhillfilms.com

Sarah DiLeo is producing a fully financed feature adaptation of Rudolfo Anaya's award-winning novel Bless Me, Ultima, to be directed by Carl Franklin and co-produced by Mark Johnson and Jesse B. Franklin. She most recently held the position of vice president of development for FilmBank LLC, a film financing entity. Sarah has been selected to participate in the BBC Studios TV production internship and training program in London, the Sundance Institute Independent Producers Conference, the Film Independent Producers Lab, and Women in Film’s Mentorship Program. She received her BFA in Film Production from NYU Tisch School of the Arts.

THE PLACE WE CALL HOME (comic-drama)
When her father dies, a young woman returns home to Ireland for the first time in ten years – and confronts the hilariously eccentric relatives and long-lost love she left behind when her father married her off to a Mormon missionary and sent her to America.

MiQi Huang
(310)210-6397, MiQi.Huang@gmail.com

Born and raised in Canton, China, MiQi was the first Chinese student accepted into UCLA’s undergraduate film program in 2004. She has since directed and produced three award winning short films and complemented her education with internships at Sundance Institute, Paramount Pictures, and Universal Pictures International. Before entering the Producers Program, she associate-produced OCEANS AWAY, a documentary series commissioned and broadcasted by China Central Television. With a background in international film sales and acquisition, MiQi has just started her new internship in the creative department at Twentieth Century Fox, working towards her ultimate goal of producing culturally rich family films that deliver the goods for kids of all ages – even the kids inside grown-ups.

OULU AND THE FARAWAY FOG ISLAND (action / adventure / fantasy)
When their plane crashes onto a uncharted island, two siblings have to find clues from the Chinese mythology told by their grandparents in order to survive in a magical world where they must defeat a power hungry villain and find a way to get back home

Allison Myrick
(646)361-1912, Allison.Myrick@gmail.com

Allison graduated with honors from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts where she won the 2003 Screenplay Festival for her comedy Awesome Assets. After school, Allison worked for several years at MTV Networks where she was promoted from project coordinator at Nickelodeon to manager of brand creative and on-air promotions at The N. As a graduate student, Allison has concentrated on developing both film and TV projects in the UCLA Producers Program and in the Writer-Producer Concentration. Since moving to Los Angeles, Allison has interned at HBO Films and in the writer's office of ABC's Emmy Award-winning show Brothers & Sisters.

SONGS BY DARK (comedy)
Rising pop star Natalie Dark realizes her loser ex-boyfriend's sleep talking provided some of her best lyrics. As her ludicrous schemes fail to win him back, Natalie is forced to rediscover her own voice.

Mischa Pfister
DPN for voice-overs.
(323)610-5654, MProds3000@aol.com
http://www.MISCHADDICTION.com

Mischa graduated from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, in Film and TV, at age 20. He has produced and directed music videos, live theater, concerts, photo shoots, and two full length music albums. As a voice-over actor his credits include features, commercials and video games, and he can be heard as the voice of Disneyland's Matterhorn ride. He is currently developing Steamtown as a graphic novel, in hopes of selling the concept as a cable TV series and/or feature film, and is creating a live show with music based on the material. Additional upcoming projects include music videos for RuPaul and a short film about a cat named George, who is obsessed with frozen yogurt.

STEAMTOWN (film noir)
A visually stylized, feature adaptation of an original graphic novel about a young piano-playing street hustler whose talents land him in an otherworldly underworld of sex, music, blackmail, and murder – where a true love will force him to give up everything he has ever dreamed of in order to save her life. (In the vein of Sin City and V For Vendetta.)

Dana Keithly
909-463-8392, dana.keithly@gmail.com