Fresh Filmmaker Production Grant

Please join IFP in congratulating the new 2011 Fresh Filmmaker, Alexander Cooney!

Here's the logline for his Fresh Filmmaker-winning script, Lost at the Lake:

A little boy named Daniel loses his "Teddy" just as he and his parents are preparing to leave a vacation lodge on the north shore. Teddy, as it turns out, is a little boy that nobody seems to care about, causing Daniel to re-assess his own reality.

Alexander was born and raised in the western suburbs of Minneapolis, where he developed an enduring interest in film and animation. He studied Cinema and Media at Carleton College's brand new film studies/production program. With classmate Max Silver, he shot a short film called Nova Roma, set in a world where the Roman Empire never fell. Alexander then taught himself how to use the composition and animation software that he needed to complete the special effects for the film.

Alexander works as an educational associate at Carleton College, where he’s completing graphics work on a video game he designed with collaborator Carl Smith called Spocean. Alexander hopes to explore new ways in which cinema can influence the emerging field of interactive digital media, and he hopes to pursue a creative career that encapsulates both disciplines.

“Lost at the Lake is the antithesis of every other film project I've ever endeavored to produce,” says Alexander of his Fresh Filmmaker-winning script. “It takes place in the present day, has a tiny cast, can be shot in easily accessible locations, and, most importantly, tells a meaningful story. As it turns out, my interest in storytelling has grown hand in hand with my interest in magical realism, which, having attended a Spanish-immersion school and having been raised by an Argentine father, has always been a part of my outlook on the world.

“In this particular story, magical realism is used to force the viewer into a child's frame of mind. Literal substitutions of imaginary characters contrast violently with adult reactions that in normal life would seem rational, but here appear to be inhuman, vicious, and strange. Ultimately, the child abandons his pure imagination in favor of maturity and conformity. We all have to at some point. Otherwise, we'd feel insane. That's a tragedy worth expressing.”

 

The purpose of the grant, sponsored by IFP Minnesota, ETS Pictures and the Twin Cities-based production community. is to support beginning narrative filmmakers in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. This grant, the only one of its kind in the region, facilitates the production of one short narrative film directed by a filmmaker who has been making films for no more than five years.

2008 Fresh Filmmaker: Emily Haddad
2009 Fresh Filmmaker: Sarah Jean Kruchowski
2010 Fresh Filmmaker: Amanda Becker

Starting in 2012, the Fresh Filmmakers Production Grant will be a slightly different kind of grant. We're joining up with Screenwriters' Workshop to hold a series of script competitions, from which aspiring directors will select a script to direct for the Fresh Filmmakers grant. Stay tuned for info on how to participate!