JULY/AUGUST 2008
Word just in that ARRANGED won the Grand Prize for best feature film at the Skip City International D-Cinema Film Festival in Japan. In addition to a lovely statuette, the award comes with a cash grant of 10,000,000 yen ($93,000), one of the largest cash prizes awarded by any festival. We of course are very grateful to the jury and festival sponsor SONY for selecting our film from among the twelve other excellent films in competition. Past winners have included Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself director Lone Scherfig, Me and You and Everyone We Know director Miranda July, and Climates director Nuri Bilge Ceylan. Read the Variety write-up.
Meanwhile, stateside, post-production on THE HUNGRY GHOSTS progresses well, with picture-lock expected in the coming weeks. Writer/Director Michael Imperioli and editor Erin Greenwell have locked themselves in the edit suite for weeks and their hard work is really paying off.
Over in LA, our Icelandic brother Olaf de Fleur Johannesson just inked a North American distribution deal on the award-winning THE AMAZING TRUTH ABOUT QUEEN RAQUELA, which Stefan produced and acted in. The film will be theatrically released in at least five US markets starting in late September. More details coming soon on this.
Several feature projects continue to move toward production, including FORTH & MULTIPLY, which we intend to shoot late 2008, and the psychological thriller THE HUNTSMEN'S CHORUS, which will be a US-European co-production.
Finally, our TV pilot THE CIRCLEDRAWERS, directed by Olaf, will be making its rounds to potential broadcasters in the weeks ahead. Check out the trailer.
JUNE/JULY 2008
On June 21st we wrapped production on THE HUNGRY GHOSTS, written and directed by Michael Imperioli. The film shot for 25 days in and around NYC. Post-production is already well underway, with an anticipated picture-lock of late summer. The film stars Steve Schirripa, Aunjanue Ellis, Nick Sandow, Sharon Angela, and up-and-comer Emory Cohen.
On other fronts THE CIRCLEDRAWERS, the TV pilot co-created/directed by Icelandic wunderkind Olaf Johannesson, is near completion. We will be pitching it in the coming months. Check out the trailer.
We are currently developing several features, among them a family comedy/drama entitled FORTH & MULTIPLY and a psychological thriller called THE HUNTSMEN'S CHORUS (developed with German screenwriter Christoph Silber).
MAY/JUNE 2008
Lots of news to report. We're currently producing THE HUNGRY GHOSTS (2009), the directorial debut of Michael Imperioli. The film, also written by Imperioli, stars "Sopranos" pals Steve Shirippa and Sharon Angela, and longtime theater collaborators Nick Sandow and Aunjanue Ellis (Ray). Production begins May 19th and goes for five weeks. The film is being shot in and around New York City.
ARRANGED (2007) continues to screen at festival and markets in the US and abroad. Upcoming screenings include Festroia Int'l Film Festival in Portugal, and the Skip City Int'l D-Film Festival in Japan. Our international sales team, Visit Films, is also busy selling territories at the Cannes Film Market. Thus far they have sold rights to HBO Central Europe, Latin America pay TV, Brazil, and Israel. On the domestic side, the film was recently sold to the Sundance Channel, for broadcast in early 2009.
Our Icelandic brother Olaf de Fleur Johannesson's film THE AMAZING TRUTH ABOUT QUEEN RAQUELA (2008), which Stefan co-wrote, produced and acts in, will screen at the upcoming LA Film Festival and New Fest here in NYC. The film won the prestigious Teddy Award for Best Feature Film at the Berlin Int'l Film Festival earlier this year.
Additionally, the film we shot with Olaf in January, entitled CIRCLEDRAWERS, moves toward completion. Olaf recently shot an additional week in Reykjavik, which rounds out the story he and Stefan developed together over numerous years. The project stars Hilmar Snaer Gudnason, Logan Huffman, Benedikt Erlingsson, Ashley Springer, Stefan Schaefer, Sharon Angela and Steve Schirripa.
Finally, our documentary CONTESTED STREETS airs on The Sundance Channel's "The Green" this month. Broadcast dates announced thus far include May 27th, May 30th and June 1st.
ARRANGED
Two young women — one an Orthodox Jew, the other Muslim — meet and become friends as first-year teachers at a public school in Brooklyn.
Buy | Netflix | Blockbuster
CONTESTED STREETS
New York City prides itself as the world's most vibrant and dynamic metropolis. Unfortunately, it is also plagued by gridlock, noise, and exhaust-filled air. The film examines the city's past to reveal how this came to pass, and offers contrasting lessons from three European cities - Paris, London and Copenhagen.
Buy | Netflix
THE AMAZING TRUTH ABOUT QUEEN RAQUELA
Raquela, a transsexual from the Philippines, dreams of escaping the streets of Cebu City for a fairy tale life in Paris.
THE HIGHER FORCE
Set in Reykjavik, Iceland, a low-life debt collector becomes the main man of his gang by pretending to have the inside info on a rival crime boss.
CONFESS
A political thriller that charts the exploits of a disillusioned ex-hacker who captures compromising footage of CEOs, politicians, and members of the power elite. Soon his every action is front-page news, law enforcement has labeled him a new breed of terrorist, and the movement he spawned is spiraling out of control.
Buy | Netflix | Blockbuster
Cicala Filmworks is a full-service film, video, and new-media production company. Headquartered in New York City, the company produces content as varied as documentary programming, industrial videos, TV commercials, web content, and short and feature films.
STEFAN SCHAEFER
A co-founder of the production company Cicala Filmworks, Stefan has worked in independent film for over 12 years. Credits as a writer, director and/or producer include The Hungry Ghosts (2009), The Higher Force (2008), The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela (2008), Arranged (2007), Contested Streets (2006) and Confess (2005).
Awards include: the Teddy Award for Best Feature Film at the Berlin Int'l Film Festival (2008), Best Film at the Brooklyn Int'l Film Festival (2007), Best Screenwriter at the Hamptons Film Festival (2005), Grand Prize in Digital Filmmaking from Panasonic (2004), and the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Screenwriting (2003).
DIANE CRESPO
Diane and Stefan met working in off-off Broadway theatre, where she directed and produced a series of one-act plays he had written. They went on to form the production company Cicala Filmworks, where their initial focus was creating documentaries for clients such as the Guggenheim Museum, the NYC Department of Education, and Roundabout Theatre. As the company grew, she also produced and directed numerous music videos and commercials for clients such as Ben Folds Five, 1-800 Flowers, and 97.9 La Mega.
Recent film credits include producing the documentary Contested Streets (2006), directing/producing the award-winning feature Arranged (2007), and producing a TV pilot entitled Circledrawers (2009) for Icelandic filmmaker Olaf de Fleur Johannesson.