New Orleans Film Society

Wednesday 2/29/2012

Louisiana Entertainment, a division of Louisiana Economic Development, has announced the winners of the Louisiana Filmmakers Grant Program. The program, designed to support Louisiana’s indigenous independent filmmakers, attracted many talented applicants from diverse backgrounds. The state of Louisiana awarded over $138,500 to the top eight contenders.

The highest honor went to Valerie Holiday for her project titled “Survivor,” a tale depicting a woman’s endurance and resiliency upon the death of her husband. As part of Louisiana’s Filmmakers Grant Program, Holiday, a film professor at Baton Rouge Community College, will give back to the community by conducting lectures on film production, theory, history and screenwriting to local filmmaker enthusiasts.

Filmmaker Grant Awards were also given to the following individuals:

- Matthew Byrne for “The End of the Rainbow” – Connie Castille for Horseplay (Another of her films, King Crawfish, recently played as part of the 2011 New Orleans Film Festival.) – Ji Un Choi for “Madchen” (Also a 2011 NOFF alum: her films “Holding His Rabbits” and “hush now” were both festival selections.) – Zack Godshall for The Wetlands (His most recent film, Lord Byron, also screened at the 2011 NOFF.) – Lily Keber for Bayou Maharajah – Matthew Redondo for Steve Chong Finds Out That Suicide is a Bad Idea – John Sharp for Acadian Club to Wild Cherry: Dancehalls of South Louisiana

Congratulations to all eight Louisiana filmmakers! We are certainly looking forward to seeing their future projects.