Spotlight on South Film: Uncovering Emerging Talent at the New Orleans Film Festival

The New Orleans Film Festival stands as a pivotal platform for independent cinema, and its annual South Pitch Narrative competition is a key highlight, specifically designed to elevate filmmakers from the Southern United States. For audiences interested in discovering the future voices and stories emerging from the region’s vibrant film scene, the South Pitch offers a valuable glimpse into projects poised to make an impact. This article explores the finalists and winners from recent years, showcasing the diverse narratives and perspectives contributing to the landscape of South Film. The competition provides crucial support, including cash prizes and industry opportunities, helping these filmmakers bring their visions to life. The focus remains firmly on championing storytelling rooted in the unique cultural fabric of the American South.

South Pitch Narrative Finalists 2024

The 14th annual South Pitch Narrative competition took place in-person on October 18, 2024, as part of the 35th New Orleans Film Festival. The event brought together a cohort of talented Southern filmmakers presenting their narrative projects to a panel of industry professionals.

Megan ‘Megz’ Trufant Tillman & Kimiko Matsuda-Lawrence were announced as the winners for their narrative short project, The Birthday Song. They received a significant $10,000 cash prize to support the development or completion of their film. The 2024 finalists represented a range of styles and subject matters:

• MARIGOLD LEAVES HER BODY (Narrative Short)

  • Writer/Director: Adesola Thomas (She/Her), Georgia
  • Logline: After partner abuse isolates her, a Black punk femme returns to the scene, with plans to mosh again.

• FIREWALL (Narrative Short)

  • Writer/Director: Bita Ghassemi (She/Her), Texas
  • Logline: When Ani’s father reappears, Persian mythology collides with her reality in Texas, confronting her deepest fears.
    Headshot of filmmaker Bita Ghassemi, director of the south film short 'Firewall'

• VIOLATION (Narrative Short)

  • Writer/Director/Editor: Sasha Solodukhina (She/Her), Louisiana
  • Logline: Cheryl’s fight over a parking ticket spirals into a Kafkaesque nightmare of bureaucracy.

• THE BIRTHDAY SONG (Narrative Short)

  • Writer/Director: Megan ‘Megz’ Trufant Tillman (She/Her) & Director: Kimiko Matsuda-Lawrence (She/Her), Texas
  • Logline: A Black girl reflects on her 13th birthday, on the eve of Hurricane Katrina.
    Filmmakers Megan Trufant Tillman and Kimiko Matsuda-Lawrence, winners of the 2024 South Pitch Narrative competition for 'The Birthday Song'

• SERENA (Narrative Feature)

  • Writer/Director/Producer: Hansel Porras Garcia (He/Him They/Them) & Writer/Director: Ava (She/Her), Florida
  • Logline: A Cuban trans woman navigates identity and family while pursuing gender affirmation in Miami.
    Headshot of filmmaker Hansel Porras Garcia, co-writer/director of the south film feature 'Serena'

The selection highlights the breadth of stories being told by South Film creatives. For those interested in supporting the filmmakers and the South Pitch program, opportunities are available.

South Pitch Narrative Finalists 2023

The 13th annual South Pitch was held in-person on November 3, 2023, during the 34th New Orleans Film Festival. This year also saw compelling narratives presented by talented Southern storytellers.

Hannah Patterson emerged as the winner with her narrative feature project, Along the Way. Patterson was awarded a $10,000 cash prize, providing significant momentum for her project. The finalists in 2023 included a mix of feature and short films, demonstrating the different formats being explored in Southern cinema. Discussions around distribution and audiences, even for independent projects, often touch on topics from global reach to niche platforms like [filmy4wap2022].

Here are the 2023 finalists:

• ALONG THE WAY (Narrative Feature) | WINNER

  • Writer/Director: Hannah Patterson (She/Her), Georgia
  • Logline: After graduating, a once tightnit friend group embarks on a roadtrip fulfilling a childhood promise.
    Hannah Patterson, winner of the 2023 South Pitch Narrative for her south film feature 'Along the Way'

• DETRÁS DE LA FACHADA (BEHIND THE FAÇADE) (Narrative Short)

  • Writer/Director: Juan Luis Matos (He/Him), Florida
  • Logline: Nadia gets tangled in suspicious businesses while physically mending into the objects she touches.

• IN AN ORDERLY FASHION (Narrative Feature)

  • Writer/Director: Adrian Cardenas (He/Him), Florida
  • Logline: A nurse refuses to comply with her husband’s unwavering wish to end it all.
    Headshot of filmmaker Adrian Cardenas

• IRRESISTIBLE (Narrative Short)

  • Director: Helen Peña (They/Them), Louisiana
  • Logline: A healing seance ensues as a burnt-out activist is visited by Toni Cade Bambara’s spirit.

• PEACE BE UPON YOU (Narrative Feature)

  • Writer/Director: Diffan Sina Norman (He/Him) & Producer: Carolyn Purnell (She/Her), Texas
  • Logline: A Muslim couple moves to East Texas on the eve of the apocalypse.
    Filmmaker Diffan Sina Norman, writer/director of the south film feature 'Peace Be Upon You'

• QUAKE THUNDER CRACK (Narrative Feature)

  • Writer/Director: Mary McDade (She/Her), Louisiana
  • Logline: A pregnant woman visits her partner’s oppressive religious family for the first time.
    Headshot of filmmaker Mary McDade

These projects highlight the diverse range of social, cultural, and personal themes being explored by Southern filmmakers in the south film scene.

South Pitch Narrative Presented by Warner Bros. Discovery Finalists 2022

The 12th annual South Pitch was held in-person on November 4, 2022, during the 33rd New Orleans Film Festival. For this year, Warner Bros. Discovery supported the narrative pitch competition.

Maya Pen won the competition with her narrative feature project, Flammable Water. Pen received an ‘invitation only’ opportunity to apply for an artist grant from Warner Bros. Discovery’s content innovation hub, OneFifty. This grant aimed to help her create elevated pitch materials for pre-development. This kind of industry support is vital for emerging talent in south film.

The 2022 finalists included:

• Boundaries (Narrative Feature)

  • Director: Asad Farooqui
  • Logline: When Faisal, a Pakistani teenage cricket star, is forced to move to the US with his parents, he decides to start a cricket team at his American public high school much to the chagrin of the school teachers and administration.

• Fallen Fruit (Narrative Feature)

  • Director: Chris Molina
  • Logline: After flunking out of college, Alex returns home to misguidedly plot out the next steps of his life, all against the backdrop of Miami, a city slowly sinking into the Atlantic.
    Headshot of director Chris Molina

• Hallelujah Night (Narrative Feature)

  • Director: Ebony Blanding
  • Logline: Forced to celebrate a Halloween alternative by their religious parents, a group of kids attend a lock-in at a church plagued by a supernatural monster.

• Moonbeams (Narrative Short)

  • Director: Elo Santa Maria
  • Logline: When a transgender man imprisoned in a women’s correctional facility is thrown into solitary confinement, he is cut off from his pen pal and lover on the outside. When they lose contact, the two are forced to meet in dreams, and in their dreamscapes they plot escape.
    Filmmaker Elo Santa Maria, director of the south film short 'Moonbeams'

• Tambou (Narrative Feature)

  • Director: Luke Harris
  • Logline: An elderly Black Creole grandfather must make money from street performing or move to Oklahoma with his daughter and grandson.

• Flammable Water (Narrative Feature) | WINNER

  • Director: Maya Pen
  • Logline: When the building of a new factory threatens to displace the residents of Lengua Sagrada, the tight-knit community of Racoons and their cultural legacy hangs in the balance. This surreal, allegorical tale follows one family as they learn the heartbreaking wisdom of surrender.
    Maya Pen, winner of the 2022 South Pitch Narrative for her south film feature 'Flammable Water'

The variety of settings and character-driven narratives in these projects underscores the depth of stories available within south film.

South Pitch Narrative Presented by WarnerMedia Finalists 2021

The 11th annual South Pitch shifted to a virtual format in 2021 due to the circumstances before the start of the 32nd New Orleans Film Festival. This adaptation allowed the program to continue supporting filmmakers despite physical limitations.

Christine Hoang won the competition with her project, Fly Girl. Hoang was also a recipient of an artist grant from WarnerMedia OneFifty. The support from the WarnerMedia OneFifty team was intended to assist in creating a proof-of-concept film, with the aim of packaging materials to pitch across WarnerMedia divisions for further development. All six finalists selected to pitch in the WarnerMedia Narrative South Pitch Open Call received $1000 towards their individual projects, a significant boost for any indie south film project. The film industry is vast, encompassing everything from local productions to major studio releases and international cinema like a [japanese movie].

Here are the 2021 finalists:

• Whistle Down Wind (Narrative Feature)

  • Directors: Andie Morgenlander and Julia Christgau
  • Logline: Told as a chapter-style narrative, Whistle Down Wind is a feature-length film that follows an introverted artist and an outgoing people pleaser as they struggle through a best friendship turned hidden love affair in the suffocating, patriarchal culture of the American South. Shot on-location in Western North Carolina through an ethical indie filmmaking framework, this project is a timely and loving way of physically supporting the LGBT+ community while contributing to the ever-changing media narrative on queer experience.

• Hunger (Narrative Feature)

  • Director: Lorraine Caffery
  • Logline: Unbeknownst to her god-fearing husband and their rural bayou town, an aging housewife makes a deal with the devil for the child she so desperately wants.

• Fly Girl (Narrative Feature) | WINNER

  • Director: Christine Hoang
  • Logline: After being mistaken for a Millennial, Linh Hoang — a 42-year-old, Vietnamese American, recently-divorced mom (size 12 or size 14 depending on carb intake) — gets cast in a hip-hop dance troupe called the Fly Girls. But when she discovers she’s the chubbiest Gen-X single mom in a crew of thin, child-free twenty-somethings, Linh must overcome her insecurities to become the dancer she’s always wanted to be.

• Remote View (Narrative Feature)

  • Director: Paavo Hanninen
  • Logline: In a fading north Mississippi town, a woman’s quest to uncover evidence of extraterrestrial life collides with her search for the truth of her own painful personal history when an apparently psychically gifted stranger introduces her to the practice of remote viewing.

• The Immigration Game (Narrative Feature)

  • Director: Asad Farooqui
  • Logline: After his US visa expires and he decides to overstay, Majeed comes under the influence of a corrupt Imam who finds an illegal way for Majeed to become legal again.

• Bathroom Drama (Narrative Series)

  • Director: Eva Contis
  • Logline: Set in the women’s restroom of an event venue — think dances, reunions and more — Bathroom Drama is an anthology series that traverses genre and era. In each episode, women (and those who identify as) will be thrown together, unapologetic and uncensored, in stories of sisterhood that illustrate the human potential sparked by the bonds that begin amid the stalls.

The 2021 selection reflects a strong focus on character-driven stories and diverse perspectives within the south film narrative.

2020 South Pitch Narrative Finalists

The 10th annual South Pitch, like the following year, was held virtually in 2020 before the start of the 31st New Orleans Film Festival. Despite the virtual format, the competition continued to provide a vital platform.

MJ Eastin and Rebecca Isbill Davis won the competition with their project, E is For: I. They received an unrestricted $2,000 grant from the New Orleans Film Society, along with a substantial $40,000 post-production package from Kyotocolor. This combination of cash and services offers crucial support for emerging south film projects.

Sharon Arteaga was the runner-up with her project, In Tow, receiving an unrestricted $500 grant from NOFS.

The 2020 finalists included:

• Prone to Wander

  • Directors: Maggie Briggs, Amanda Freedman
  • Logline: Told through a collection of seven Sundays in the summer of her eleventh year, Lua Dunn falls hard into adolescence as she navigates her first love with conflicting lessons from her street and her church.

• Shapeless

  • Director: Kelly Murtagh
  • Logline: Ivy, a struggling singer in New Orleans trapped in the hidden underworld of her eating disorder, must face her addiction– or risk becoming a monster.

• Pure

  • Director: Natalie Jasmine Harris
  • Logline: For 17-year-old queer Celeste, senior year in her affluent Black community means following family tradition and becoming a debutante… but she longs for a different kind of coming out.

• In Tow | RUNNER-UP

  • Director: Sharon Arteaga
  • Logline: On the morning of her senior homecoming game, a self-involved high school cheerleader and her overworked single mom wake up to find that their mobile home is being repossessed with them inside of it. The women blame each other as they roll through rural roads in Central Texas, but they must come to an agreement or they will lose more than just their moving home.

• Gator Boots

  • Directors: Mariana Serrano, Mark Pulaski
  • Logline: When ultimately dumped by her estranged daughter in a nursing home, Ann is left to face the reality of growing old. Now, in the all too tranquil confinement of Sunny Ridge, she must come to terms with the fact that her life will soon be over, and that she’s wasted it away.

• E is For: I | WINNER

  • Directors: MJ Eastin, Rebecca Isbill Davis
  • Logline: When a Black Queer Non-Binary 20 something who just moved back to their southern hometown realizes they’ve connected to an alternate version of themselves in another timeline, it brings a whole new meaning the phrase “You’re just talking to yourself.”

The 2020 slate featured compelling, character-driven narratives exploring identity, place, and societal pressures, adding significant depth to the south film landscape.

2019 South Pitch Narrative Finalists

The South Pitch Narrative competition celebrated its 9th year in 2019, continuing its mission to support Southern filmmakers and their projects.

Erica Scoggins won the competition with her project, The Boogeywoman. This selection further highlighted the diversity of genres and themes being explored within south film. The roster of finalists included a variety of projects set across different Southern states and tackling distinct subjects. Stories rooted in regional culture, much like the classic [song of the south], continue to be a cornerstone of the region’s cinematic output.

Here are the 2019 finalists:

• Church

  • Director: Zandashé Brown
  • Logline: The death of an estranged matriarch beckons a terminally ill teenage girl and her grieving parents back to their family’s rural hometown, where a series of eerie events uncovers the true source of the girl’s illness.

• The Conference of the Birds

  • Director: Kevin Contento
  • Logline: A group of Florida boys encounter a traveling mystic on an esoteric quest. Weaving together a handful of Attar’s twelfth-century tales “The Conference of the Birds” evokes the mystical reality of a Southern community living on the margins of American society.

• We Real Cool

  • Director: Ryan Darbonne
  • Logline: Told over the course of one day, Austin’s first POC punk festival provides the backdrop for three intersecting stories featuring a failed musician searching for his lost van, two strangers on an awkward road trip, and a Mexican punk band on the verge of a complete breakdown.

• Contrabanda

  • Director: Alejandro de los Rios
  • Logline: When Luis – a naturalized Latino immigrant – and his American friend are caught at Customs with contraband from Luis’ home country, a no-nonsense Custom’s Agent grills them about the purpose of their trip and forces Luis to reveal the uncomfortable truth about his past.

• Ma Belle, My Beauty

  • Director: Marion Hill
  • Logline: As two recently married musicians adjust to life in France, a beloved ex, who abruptly disappeared from their polyamorous relationship years ago, finally visits.

• The Boogeywoman | WINNER

  • Director: Erica Scoggins
  • Logline: A psycho-sexual Southern Gothic mystery-thriller about a girl, her mother, and the woman who bridges the vast gap between them.

• My Dear God

  • Director: Tara Sheffer
  • Logline: My Dear God follows a woman in Southern Arkansas who must find the strength to spread her little sister’s ashes while navigating the Southern social strata of good Christian folks with an opinion.

These selections demonstrate the unique blend of genre and regional identity often found in south film.

2018 South Pitch Narrative Finalists

The 8th annual South Pitch Narrative competition in 2018 continued the tradition of highlighting promising Southern filmmakers.

Raven Jackson was the winner with her project, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt. This project’s title itself evokes a strong sense of place and experience, characteristic of much of the acclaimed south film. The finalists presented projects ranging from historical narratives to contemporary dramas and genre pieces. Exploring themes of identity and experience through performance is common across global cinema, from [shalini pandey]‘s work to these burgeoning Southern artists.

Here are the 2018 finalists:

• Orphan Country

  • Producer: Robert Colom
  • Logline: With their agency invalidated by their youth, three children of different eras experience exile and emigration over a fifty-year span of the Cuban Revolution.

• Nature Boi

  • Director: Nisa East
  • Logline: A young man’s infatuation with his pet insects descends into a series of erotic and sadomasochistic experiments. Nature Boi is a story of adolescent sexual fantasy, violence and possession, told through an early-summer bug infestation in Southern Florida.

• Love in Gretna

  • Director: Daneeta Loretta Jackson
  • Logline: A 60 something divorcee falls in love with a married man and conspires to have him at all costs. Religion, magic, and bad blood bonds commingle in this black comedy/drama set in Down the Road, Louisiana against the backdrop of climate change and the Trumpocracy.

• All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt | WINNER

  • Director: Raven Jackson
  • Logline: In fluid, non-linear portraits evoking the texture of memories, “all dirt roads taste of salt” viscerally and experientially explores the life of a Black woman in the American South – from youth to her older years.

• Murder Ballads

  • Director: Michael Curtis Johnson
  • Logline: Hank Huckabee and Brandon Tyler killed three men who responded to a fake classified ad they posted on an online job board for a caretaker position. A fourth man managed to escape. Based on true events.

• Distance

  • Director: Najma Nurriddin
  • Logline: An innocent moment while exploring turns into a full blown relationship. Fati, a confident New Orleanian who loves to travels mets the free-spirited Pascal who owns a surf shop in Haiti. While Fati walks the streets of Jacmel, taking in which all the land has to offer that is deeply connected to her home town, she mets the good vibes of Pascal.

• Not For Me

  • Director: Eavvon O’Neal
  • Logline: When their uncle Rafael is found dead, Sasha & Finn head to Memphis to prepare his estate and discover a trove of self-produced, unreleased art, left for the kids as a weird scavenger hunt that points to his killer.

• Comac

  • Director: Aby Rao
  • Logline: A Filipino-American woman and a Kurdish-Iranian refugee teenager face cultural and familial expectations which clash with their passions and life-long dreams. Their mutual love for Taekwondo helps them achieve unimaginable goals.

The 2018 finalists showcased a strong emphasis on identity, place, and the complex realities of life in the Southern US, contributing significantly to the depth and breadth of [beast 2022 american film showtimes] beyond mainstream releases.

Conclusion

The South Pitch Narrative competition at the New Orleans Film Festival consistently highlights compelling, original voices in south film. By providing financial support and industry visibility, the competition plays a crucial role in nurturing the next generation of Southern filmmakers. The projects featured year after year demonstrate a commitment to diverse storytelling, exploring themes deeply rooted in the region while resonating with universal human experiences. This ongoing initiative is a testament to the vibrant and evolving landscape of Southern cinema, offering exciting prospects for the future of independent film.