Creo and Sony celebrated its six winners of the second annual Sony Future Filmmaker Awards Thursday night in Los Angeles. The awards program for short films provides a gateway for up-and-coming filmmakers to showcase their talent and make connections in the industry.
The winners, chosen by a panel of judges led by “The Other Boleyn Girl” director Justin Chadwick, include Katie Blair in the fiction category, Olawunmi Hassan and Adaobi Samson in the nonfiction category, Solmund MacPherson in the environment category, Kyle Novak in the animation category, Raheem Razak in the student category and Cristian Daniel in the future format category.
This year’s winners and the wider shortlist took part in a week-long industry immersion program, which provides filmmakers with the opportunity to connect with their peers and leaders in the field, and to gain exclusive behind-the-scenes access. The program comprises workshops led by Sony Pictures executives, covering a range of topics from keynotes by major cinematographers, screenings and Q&A sessions, to insights into working with talent agencies and using cutting-edge technologies and animation, film scoring and music rights. The six winners will also receive a range of cash prizes and Sony camera equipment.
This year’s winners were selected from over 8,400 films by more than 5,000 filmmakers across 148 countries and territories submitted across six categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Environment, Animation, Student, and Future Format. The winners were chosen by Sony Pictures Classics co-founders and co-presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard; “Civil War” and “Ex-Machina” cinematographer Rob Hardy; and “Game of Thrones” cinematographer Kate Reid. The winners were drawn from 30 shortlisted filmmakers selected from a longlist by Australian filmmaker Unjoo Moon and cinematographer Robert Primes. Both stages of the judging process were chaired by Chadwick.