UCLA students pitch films to pros at Producers Marketplace competition
"Milk" producers Dan Jinks, Bruce Cohen to receive 2009 Vision Award
By Teri Bond
May 22, 2009
Producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen
Five graduate students in the prestigious Producers Program at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television will present their film ideas to a distinguished panel of judges during the annual Producers Marketplace event on Monday, June 8, at 7:30 p.m. at the Billy Wilder Theater in Westwood. The finalists' projects were vetted by industry professionals throughout the academic year.
During the event, Mark Gordon, vice president of television for the Producers Guild of America, will present the School of Theater, Film and Television and PGA Vision Award to veteran producers Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, who most recently produced the movie "Milk." Directed by Gus Van Sant and starring Sean Penn as the late San Francisco politician and gay rights activist Harvey Milk, the film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including best picture. The Vision Award is given to producers whose careers are distinguished by the highest standards and whose body of work exemplifies quality, persistence and integrity.
Producers Marketplace — part of "UCLA Festival 2009: New Creative Work" — is one of the best examples of the school's commitment to helping its graduates make the transition to the highly competitive professional realm. During the competition, the finalists will get a taste of the high-pressure challenges professional producers face, as they take the stage to deliver five-minute concept pitches before a panel of motion-picture industry judges. They will then field a battery of questions about how they plan to get their projects made.
The winning student will receive the UCLA Producers Program Marketplace Award, which is supported by a generous donation from producer and distinguished alumnus Dan Angel.
The 2009 Producers Marketplace student finalists and their projects are:
Sarah DiLeo: "The Place We Call Home"When her father dies, a young woman returns home to Ireland for the first time in 10 years and confronts the hilariously eccentric relatives and long-lost love she left behind when her father married her off to a Mormon missionary and sent her to America.MiQi Huang: "Oulu and the Faraway Fog Island"When the world in his parents' storybook comes to life, 15-year-old Oulu discovers he's actually the prince of a mythical Chinese island. But before he can succeed to the throne, he must rescue his royal pain of a sister from a power hungry villain and find a way to get back home.Dana Keithly: "Once Upon a Midnight Dreary"
A struggling young writer's life changes when he meets an immortal Edgar Allan Poe who offers him fame and fortune. But when the writer discovers that Poe controls the souls of past famous writers, he teams up with a wisecracking raven and the object of his affection to stop Poe from enslaving more souls, including his own.Allison Myrick: "Songs by Dark"
Rising pop star Natalie Dark realizes her loser ex-boyfriend's sleep talking provided some of her best lyrics. As her ludicrous schemes fail to win him back, Natalie is forced to rediscover her own voice.Mischa Pfister: "Steamtown"
This visually stylized feature adaptation of an original graphic novel tells the story of a young piano-playing street hustler whose talents land him in an otherworldly underworld of sex, music, blackmail and murder, where a true love will force him to give up everything he has ever dreamed of in order to save her life.
Producers Marketplace 2009 will take place at the Billy Wilder Theater at the UCLA Hammer Museum in Westwood Village. Admission is free, but space is limited and reservations are required. For more information and to R.S.V.P., visit www.tft.ucla.edu/festival.
The first film produced through the Jinks/Cohen Company was "American Beauty" (2000), which won a total of five Oscars, including best picture. The pair's second film was the sex comedy "Down With Love," starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor, followed by "Big Fish," which was nominated as best picture for both the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs. Other films have included "The Forgotten," with Julianne Moore, and John August's directing debut, "The Nines," starring Ryan Reynolds and Hope Davis. In television, Jinks and Cohen executive produced the acclaimed ABC series "Pushing Daisies," which won three Emmys in 2008 and was nominated for a Golden Globe as best comedy. They also served as executive producers on the ABC series "Traveler" and the Lifetime network's "Side Order of Life."
In the summer of 2008, they produced "A Timeless Call," a tribute to war veterans that Steven Spielberg directed for the Democratic National Convention.
Prior to the formation of Jinks/Cohen, Dan Jinks produced "Nothing to Lose," starring Martin Lawrence and Tim Robbins, and executive produced "The Bone Collector," with Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie. A graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Jinks began his career working in theater in New York. For the past four years, Jinks, along with Larry Mark, has produced the annual "A Fine Romance" event, which benefits the Motion Picture and Television Fund.
Bruce Cohen produced the "Flintstones" movie and its prequel, "The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas," as well as "Mousehunt." He was executive producer of "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar" and co-producer of "Alive." A graduate of Yale University, Cohen began his film career as a Directors Guild of America trainee on Steven Spielberg's "The Color Purple" and went on to serve as associate producer and first assistant director on "Hook."
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