The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees.
The Black Stallion is a 1979 American adventure film based on the 1941 classic children's novel of the same name by Walter Farley. The film starts in 1946, five years after the book was published. It tells the story of Alec Ramsey, a boy who is shipwrecked on a deserted island with a wild Arabian stallion that he befriends. After being rescued, they are set on entering a race challenging two champion horses.
Conrad Lafcadio Hall, ASC was a French Polynesian-born American cinematographer. Named after writers Joseph Conrad and Lafcadio Hearn, he became widely prominent as a cinematographer earning numerous accolades including three Academy Awards, three BAFTA Awards and five American Society of Cinematographers Awards.
Janusz Zygmunt Kamiński is a Polish cinematographer and director.
Walter Scott Murch is an American film editor, director, writer and sound designer. His work includes THX 1138, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather I, II, and III, American Graffiti, The Conversation, Ghost and The English Patient, with three Academy Award wins.
Zooey Claire Deschanel is an American actress and musician. She made her film debut in Mumford (1999) and had a supporting role in Cameron Crowe's film Almost Famous (2000). Deschanel is known for her deadpan roles in comedy films such as The Good Girl (2002), The New Guy (2002), Elf (2003), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Failure to Launch (2006), Yes Man (2008), 500 Days of Summer (2009), and Our Idiot Brother (2011). She has also ventured into dramatic film territory with Manic (2001), All the Real Girls (2003), Winter Passing (2005), Bridge to Terabithia (2007), The Happening (2008), and The Driftless Area (2015). From 2011 to 2018, she starred as Jess Day on the Fox sitcom New Girl, for which she received nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and three Golden Globe Awards.
Emily Erin Deschanel is an American actress. She played Dr. Temperance "Bones" Brennan in the Fox crime procedural series Bones (2005–2017).
The AFI Conservatory is a private non-profit graduate film school in the Hollywood Hills district of Los Angeles. Students learn from the masters in a collaborative, hands-on production environment with an emphasis on storytelling. The Conservatory is a program of the American Film Institute founded in 1969.
Keir O'Donnell is an Australian–American actor, best known for his roles in the films Wedding Crashers, The Break-Up, Paul Blart: Mall Cop and American Sniper as well as numerous television appearances.
Mary Jo Deschanel is an American actress. She appeared in the film The Right Stuff (1983) and the television series Twin Peaks (1990–1991).
Winter Passing is a 2005 American comedy-drama film directed by playwright Adam Rapp and starring Ed Harris, Zooey Deschanel, Will Ferrell, Amelia Warner, Amy Madigan, and Dallas Roberts. Rapp's directorial debut, the film premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival to mixed reviews and received a limited theatrical release in February 2006. The film was not released in the United Kingdom until 2013, when it was released under the new title Happy Endings.
The Go-Getter is a 2007 American independent road film directed and written by Martin Hynes. The film stars Lou Taylor Pucci, Zooey Deschanel, and Jena Malone. In the film, 19-year-old Mercer (Pucci) steals a stranger's car to embark on a road trip to find his estranged brother and tell him that their mother has died. He communicates with the car's owner, Kate (Deschanel), via her cell phone while he travels.
The rare French surname Deschanel is probably for D'Eschanel, regional variant form of eschamel "stepladder", nickname of a trader. It is supposed to be from the region of Lyon, maybe in the Ain département. Notable people with the surname include:
Matthew Robbins is an American screenwriter and film director best known for his writing work within the American New Wave movement.
Max Handelman is an American sportswriter, producer, and blogger. He co-wrote the book Why Fantasy Football Matters: with Erik Barmack. Handelman is married to actress Elizabeth Banks. Handelman co-founded the production company Brownstone Productions, whose first film, Surrogates, was released in 2009.
Thomas "Tom" Rickman was an American film director, playwright, and screenwriter, known for his work on the 1980 film Coal Miner's Daughter.
Masanobu "Masa" Takayanagi is a Japanese cinematographer whose works include Silver Linings Playbook (2012), Warrior (2011) and The Grey (2011).
Gill Dennis was an American director and screenwriter.
Polly Morgan is a British cinematographer who has worked on the studio feature films Lucy in the Sky (2019), A Quiet Place Part II (2020), Where the Crawdads Sing (2022), and The Woman King (2022). She was also the cinematographer for multiple episodes of the TV series Legion (2017–2019). Morgan is accredited by the British Society of Cinematographers (BSC) and the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC). To date, she is the only woman to be a member of both, and she is the youngest member of ASC.
