Page Contents:

• 2012 Winners
• 2012 Schedule
• Films
• Screenplays

Ivy Film Festival 2012 Winners

• Best International Film - Kinderspiel/Child's Play by Lars Kornhoff (Germany)
• Best Undergraduate Drama - The Sketch Artist by Max Newman-Plotnick (Harvard)
• Best Undergraduate Experimental - Ruin Town by Emily A. Needell (Johns Hopkins)
• Best Undergraduate Comedy - Nobody Loves Anna by Shannon Jones and Alexa Reass (UNC)
• Best Undergraduate Documentary - The Tobacco King by Daniel Koehler (Elon)
• Best Undergraduate Animation - Bloom by Brian Kistler and Emily Johnston (San Jose State)
• Best Graduate Film - 2 winners - Underground by Akil DuPont (Florida State) and This is Not an Umbrella by Zoe Wittock (AFI)
• Social Change Award - The Maiden and Princess by Ali Scher (USC)
• Audience Choice Award - Cómodo by Jonah David (Brown)
• Grand Jury Prize - The Maiden and Princess by Ali Scher (USC)

Ivy Film Festival 2012 Schedule (April 9-15)

Films

Block 1

Kinderspiel/Child's Play

Category: International
Filmmaker(s): Lars Kornhoff
School: MHMK Munich
Synopsis: Leon breaks into a chic mansion. He sneaks into the nursery, where he takes a sleeping child from it's crib, leaving only a handwritten note behind...
Country: Germany

Real Talk

Category: Drama
Filmmaker(s): Patrick Ng
School: New York University Tisch School of the Arts
Synopsis: Pax and Iggy are best friends, but their bond is broken when Pax discovers where Iggy's loyalties truly lie.
Country: USA

This Is Not an Umbrella

Category: Graduate
Filmmaker(s): Zoé Wittock (Dir.), Dave Szamet and Steven Berger (Prod.)
School: American Film Institute
Synopsis: "In a world arbitrarily divided between the "Sun" and the "Shade" population, one man finally questions the morality of "The Rule", after a strange encounter with a red man..."
Country: USA

Armor

Category: Graduate
Filmmaker(s): Vanita Shastry
School: UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television
Synopsis: An ice-hocky player suits up, proving that sometimes even the simplest acts take extraordinary courage.
Country: USA

The Minus Touch

Category: Experimental
Filmmaker(s): Rob Sterling
School: University of North Carolina School of Arts
Synopsis: "When John is at the end of his rope and begins to seek answers to a mediocre life, he stumbles upon Kierkegaard's "Either Or," which leads him on an existential path of loss and discovery. Narrated by Garrison Keillor."
Country: USA

Bloom

Category: Animation
Filmmaker(s): Brian Kistler, Emily Johnston
School: San Jose State University
Synopsis: When your only companions are loneliness and despair, sometimes a simple act of kindness can blossom into something much more.
Country: USA

Cómodo

Category: Documentary
Filmmaker(s): Jonah David
School: Brown University
Synopsis: A film about a small hotel in an old fishing village in Nicaragua owned by a Texan, worked by Nicaraguans, and visited by English-speaking foreigners on vacation.
Country: Nicaragua, USA

ZomRomCom: The Musical!

Category: Comedy
Filmmaker(s): Messiah Amaram (Dir.), Music and Lyrics by Vera Herbert
School: University of North Carolina School of Arts
Synopsis: "In the frozen Siberian tundra, scientist Svetlana Zhelobovskaia studies brains of all types to find a cure for the dreaded zombie virus. "
Country: USA

Eden

Category: International
Filmmaker(s): Shinya Isobe
School: Image Forum Institute of the Moving Image
Synopsis: "Massive ruins: once, this place was called "the paradise on clouds" and there were 10,000 people living there. This work attempts to express time in this place."
Country: Japan

Underground

Category: Graduate
Filmmaker(s): Akil DuPont
School: Florida State University
Synopsis: In a story told through song, Bali plans to escape from slavery after learning that his master is going to sell his young daughter, Emala. With house slave Dembi, they strike out in the dead of night, singing Negro spirituals that they hope will protect them on their perilous journey to freedom.
Country: USA

Block 2

Child of the Desert

Category: Graduate
Filmmaker(s): Iliana Sosa
School: UCLA
Synopsis: A military mother, who has just suffered the loss of her son, meets an undocumented immigrant in the West Texas desert and befriends him.
Country: USA

Move

Category: Experimental
Filmmaker(s): Sebastian Jones
School: University of Central Florida
Synopsis: A traveler experiences a narrative of motion. Through the senses we come to understand its nature.
Country: USA

Giddyup Grandma

Category: Comedy
Filmmaker(s): Travis Marlatt (Dir.), Guy Bowen (Prod.)
School: CSU Northridge
Synopsis: A young man gets a job in a retirement home and bands with the residents to help defeat their evil, abusive manager.
Country: USA

The Sketch Artist

Category: Drama
Filmmaker(s): Maxwell Newman-Plotnick
School: Harvard College
Synopsis: After submitting artwork plagiarized from a policeman's son, composite sketch artist and has-been comics artist Reid Freidman, has second thoughts and must retrieve the work before it reaches his agent.
Country: USA

Vanishing

Category: International
Filmmaker(s): Bartosz Kruhlik
School: The Polish National Film, Television and Theater School
Synopsis: A woman takes care of the house during her husband's absence, and tries to connect with her son when he mysteriously vanishes.
Country: Poland

Ballet of Unhatched Chicks

Category: Graduate
Filmmaker(s): Shaun Seong-young Kim
School: University of Southern California
Synopsis: Little cute chicks dance ballet together to celebrate their whimsical birth.
Country: USA

The Shape of Things

Category: Documentary
Filmmaker(s): Katherine Tygielski
School: Harvard College
Synopsis: Lija Gurung finds herself in a strange new world as she starts kindergarten at the Srijana School for the Deaf. Filmed in Lekhnath, Nepal.
Country: Nepal, USA

Children of the Air

Category: Graduate
Filmmaker(s): Damian Horan
School: University of Southern California
Synopsis: Past and present bleed into one in this dark allegory to the original Fairytale version of the Little Mermaid. Pride must suffer pain.
Country: USA

Block 3

Tomorrow's Love

Category: International
Filmmaker(s): Arun Fryer
School: Vancouver Film School
Synopsis: Minutes before committing himself to an enigmatic corporation that promises eternal bliss, a wounded veteran chances upon the possibility of love.
Country: Canada

The Tobacco King

Category: Documentary
Filmmaker(s): Daniel Koehler
School: Elon University
Synopsis: White Zimbabwean farmer George Botha cultivates a new life in Zambia after losing his home. Wrestling with his past, Botha confronts all-too-familiar problems as he and his Zambian workforce clash.
Country: Zambia, USA

Ruin Town

Category: Experimental
Filmmaker(s): Emily A. Needell
School: The Johns Hopkins University
Synopsis: A couple struggles to survive in a post-war city, foraging for food and staying on guard against other competing survivors. However, the two ultimately rediscover the power and importance of human compassion, despite their decaying world.
Country: USA

Nobody Loves Anna

Category: Comedy
Filmmaker(s): Shannon Jones
School: University of North Carolina School of Arts
Synopsis: The story of your normal, everyday, average, possessed teenage girl.
Country: USA

The Maiden and the Princess

Category: Graduate
Filmmaker(s): Ali Scher
School: University of Southern California
Synopsis: LIttle Emmy Adams kisses a girl on the playground and is left feeling isolated and alone. With the help of a fairy godmother and rogue fairytale narrator, Emmy searches for herself amidst this musical fairytale.
Country: USA

Project Hopeful

Category: Documentary
Filmmaker(s): Kelsie Kiley, Grace Johnson
School: The University of Notre Dame
Synopsis: "Three couples from Illinois have chosen to double the size of their families in an inspiring way. Their influence has been seen worldwide, bringing hope to orphans with special needs. "
Country: USA

Diana

Category: Drama
Filmmaker(s): Wen-Cheng Yu
School: Art Center College of Design
Synopsis: Everyone makes bad decisions. Diana makes bad decisions as well. But this time, she does it with determination.
Country: USA

The Good River

Category: Drama
Filmmaker(s): Shannon Lynch (Dir.), Lauren Guerard (Prod.), Kristin Patterson (Prod.)
School: Azusa Pacific University
Synopsis: When confronted with the opportunity to help slaves escape on the Underground Railroad, Jonah has to make some difficult decisions.
Country: USA

¡Una carrerita, doctor!

Category: Graduate
Filmmaker(s): Julio O. Ramos
School: UCLA School of Film, TV, and Digital Media
Synopsis: A doctor, forced by circumstance to also drive a taxi cab, finds himself challenged by a fare that requires more than a lift.
Country: Peru, USA