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Randall Okita is a Canadian film director, screenwriter and visual artist [1] known for creating work that involves rich visual language [2] and innovative approaches to storytelling. [3]
His 2014 National Film Board of Canada short film The Weatherman and the Shadowboxer has been described as "a visually stunning tour de force." It won the Best Canadian Short Film award at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. It was named to the festival's year-end Canada's Top Ten list of the year's ten best Canadian shorts. It also won awards for Best Short Film at the Festival du nouveau cinéma in Montreal, Best Experimental Short Film at both the New York Short Film Festival and LA Shorts Fest, and Best Cinematography at the Berlin International Short Film Festival.
Once Right Now Just Then, Okita's 2015 performance, which explored presence, the passing of time and the nature of grieving and expectation, was presented as part of Sunday Drive Art Projects.
Okita's 2016 feature directorial debut, The Lockpicker , which “explores the complexity of adolescence [4] ” and “sustains an evocative and ominous mood that complements its moments of operatic intensity, [5] ” received the Discovery Award at the Canadian Screen Awards. The film won the Grand Jury Award at the San Diego Asian Film Festival 2016, Best First Feature at the 2016 Reel Asian Film Festival, and Best Narrative Feature at the 2016 West Virginia International Film Festival.
In 2016, Be Here Now, an interactive multimedia installation made from feathers, wood, wire, and interactive sound and light, described as “a mirage that feels highly spiritual", [6] was part of "a breathtaking exhibition" [6] of artworks at the Robert Kananaj Gallery, and a part of a group exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario Massive Party.
The Book of Distance , “a lyrical, personal and moving story told with stylized figures in a 360° landscape, [7] ” is a room-scale virtual reality experience written and directed by Okita. It was an official selection at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, 2020 Venice International Film Festival and 2020 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. It won the 2020 Festival du Nouveau Cinema’s FNC Explore Prix Horizon, 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival’s Best in Animation - Virtual/Mixed Reality, 2020 Kaohsiung Film Festival’s VR Golden Fireball Award and 2020 Japan Prize’s Best Work in Digital Media Division. His film See for Me premiered at the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. [8]
In 2021, Randall directed the IFC film See For Me, which screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and the BFI London Festival.
Mina Shum is an independent Canadian filmmaker. She is a writer and director of award-winning feature films, numerous shorts and has created site specific installations and theatre. Her features, Double Happiness and Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity both premiered in the US at the Sundance Film Festival and Double Happiness won the Wolfgang Staudte Prize for Best First Feature at the Berlin Film Festival and the Audience Award at Torino. She was director resident at the Canadian Film Centre in Toronto. She was also a member of an alternative rock band called Playdoh Republic.
Daniel Mulloy is a British artist and filmmaker.
Native New Yorker (2005) is the title of the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival Best Documentary Short by Steve Bilich.
James Cunningham is a New Zealand film director and animator. He has directed twelve award-winning short films. He is based in Auckland, New Zealand.
Emily Carmichael is an American film director, screenwriter, and animator. Her short films have screened in competition at Sundance, Tribeca, SXSW, Slamdance, and other US and International film festivals. Carmichael co-wrote the screenplay for the 2018 science fiction sequel Pacific Rim: Uprising and the 2022 film Jurassic World: Dominion.
Ritesh Batra is an Indian film director and screenwriter. Batra's Hindi-language debut feature film The Lunchbox premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival and won the Rail d’Or. Batra also won the Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best First Feature Film in 2014. The Lunchbox was the highest-grossing foreign film in North America, Europe and Australia for 2014 grossing over US$25 Million. The film was also nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language in 2015.
Trevor Anderson is a Canadian filmmaker and musician. His films have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, and the Toronto International Film Festival.
Lindsey Dryden is a British film director, producer and writer.
Heather Young is a Canadian filmmaker based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
Talya Lavie is an Israeli filmmaker best known for her 2014 debut feature, Zero Motivation.
Jennifer Phang is an American filmmaker, most known for her feature films Advantageous (2015) and Half-Life (2008). Advantageous premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, winning a Special Jury Award for Collaborative Vision, and was based on her award-winning short film of the same name. Half-Life premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival and won "Best Film" awards at a number of film festivals including the Gen Art Film Festival, the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival as well an "Emerging Director Award" at the Asian American International Film Festival.
Andrew Cividino is a Canadian film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his feature film directorial debut Sleeping Giant, which premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and for his frequent work as a director on the Emmy winning comedy Schitt's Creek, for which he won a Primetime Emmy at the 72nd Primetime Emmy Awards.
The Weatherman and the Shadowboxer is a 2014 Canadian short film directed by Randall Okita. Mixing live action with animation, the film depicts two brothers whose shared childhood traumas have led them in very different directions as adults: one, the "weatherman", has become a cautious, careful man who tries to protect himself by obsessively predicting the future, while the other, the "shadowboxer", has become an aggressive, violent man who is constantly fighting the past.
The Lockpicker is a 2016 Canadian drama film, directed by Randall Okita. The film stars Keigian Umi Tang as Hashi, a troubled teen/petty criminal trying to escape a cycle of violence.
Matthew Puccini is an American filmmaker. He is known for his short films that deal with LGBT-related subject matters. These include The Mess He Made (2017), Marquise (2018), Dirty (2020) and Lavender (2019). His films have played at several festivals including Sundance, SXSW, Aspen Shortsfest, Palm Springs ShortsFest, and Outfest Los Angeles. His work has also been featured on Topic and The Huffington Post.
Maman(s) (lit. 'Mom(s)/Mother(s)') is a 2015 French short drama film written and directed by Maïmouna Doucouré. The film stars Sokhna Diallo, Eriq Ebouaney and Maïmouna Gueye in the lead roles. The film's plot centers on Aida, an eight-year-old girl, who is adjusting to the introduction of her father's second wife. The film was inspired by director Maïmouna Doucouré's own experiences with polygamy as a young child. The film was premiered at several international film festivals including the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, 2016 Sundance Film Festival and 2017 César Awards. The film jointly won the César Award for Best Short Film at the 42nd César Awards in February 2017 along with Alice Diop's directorial Towards Tenderness (Vers la tendresse).
Rajee Samarasinghe is a Sri Lankan filmmaker and visual artist. His work explores a wide array of topics including the Sri Lankan Civil War, his family, and the deconstruction of documentary and narrative film.
Elvira Lind is a Danish film director based in New York City.
The Book of Distance is a Canadian virtual reality documentary film, directed by Randall Okita and released in 2020. Made for the National Film Board of Canada, the film is an animated immersive environment placing the viewer inside the context of Okita's grandfather Yonezo Okita's experiences during the internment of Japanese Canadians in World War II.
Jason Lapeyre is a Canadian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his 2012 film I Declare War, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and won the Audience Award at Fantastic Fest. I Declare War was released theatrically in the US by Drafthouse Films.
