Everything We Loved Writer Director in Tropfest Lineup

15 August 2014

Everything We Loved Writer Director Rounds Out Tropfest Roughcut NZ Lineup

Max Currie, writer/director of recently released New Zealand feature film Everything We Loved, completes the lineup of presenters for Tropfest Roughcut NZ 2014.

“I’m excited to be participating in Roughcut alongside US digital marketing whizz Sheri Candler and talented Australian writer and actor Tony Briggs,” Currie said.

At Roughcut, Currie will relate his experience in using concept teasers to both finance and shape the development of a feature film. He employed this method with Everything We Loved and is using it again for his new feature project Life in Subtitles, an NZ – German coproduction.

Everything We Loved had its world premiere at the 2014 Palm Springs International Film Festival, playing to sold out audiences. It went on to further major festival success in Europe.

The Hollywood Reporter labeled it a “…confident debut feature,” going on to laud it as “…high end drama that convinces on an emotional level.”

The film had its national premiere at the New Zealand International Film Festival. It was the first film in New Zealand to have a ‘Day and Date’ release on the New Zealand Film Commission’s new On Demand digital platform at the same time that it played in the festival.

Currie started out in the screen industry as a presenter on the gay, lesbian and transgender TV series Queer Nation. He transitioned to screenwriting in New York, working for Cannes Palme d'Or winning producer, Bill Robinson. Following his return to New Zealand, Currie worked on New Zealand's number-one-rated, prime-time serial drama, Shortland Street, and more recently, the comedy-drama Step Dave.

The opportunity for Currie to write and direct his first feature film came with the New Zealand Film Commission’s Escalator micro-budget film initiative, which provided the funding for Everything We Loved.

“People overseas can’t believe we have a government body that provides us with funds to make films,” Currie said. “I feel incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity.”

Tropfest Roughcut NZ is a forum of conversation about creativity in the film industry for emerging filmmakers that will be held on 4 September 2014 from 6PM at Auckland’s Q Theatre.

Event Details:

WHEN: Thursday 4 September 2014
TIME: Half-hour consultations with Sheri Candler 9AM – 4PM
Roughcut Film Symposium 6 – 8PM
Taste of Tropfest 8 – 9PM
Drinks & canapés (included in ticket price) 9 – 9:30PM
WHERE: Q Theatre, 305 Queen Street, Auckland
TICKETS: Roughcut - $30 per Roughcut ticket ($25 early bird), on sale 25 July through Q Theatre www.qtheatre.co.nz
One-on-One Consultations - $50pp

Presenter Profiles

Max Currie
After graduating Victoria University of Wellington with a BA in Political Science, Max got his break as the openly gay host and director of New Zealand's groundbreaking GLBT television show, Queer Nation. He went on to make an award-winning short protesting Proposition 8 in the USA (Some of My Best Friends Are American) then started writing drama series for NZ television. Since 2008, Max has written for Shortland Street, and more recently, the comedy-drama series Step Dave. In 2012 he transitioned into feature film directing, participating in Melbourne Film Festival's director programme, Accelerator, before shooting his first feature, Everything We Loved. Acclaimed by The Hollywood Reporter, Everything We Loved continues its strong 2014 festival run after being nominated three times for best picture by an emerging director at Palm Springs, Transylvania and Munich film festivals. Max is a Berlinale Talent 2014, and the recipient of a 2014 Goethe scholarship to further his love of all things German - including the NZ/German co-production he's currently developing, Life In Subtitles. Max does a lot of his best writing while house-and-dog sitting, and manages the social media and copywriting for three Auckland restaurant brands. Information on his feature film can be found at www.everythingweloved.com

Tony Briggs Profile
Tony Briggs works as an actor in theatre, film and television. He has starred in the acclaimed series The Slap, playing the role of Bilal. His other film and television credits include "Howzat: Kerry Packer's war", where he played the role of cricket legend ‘Clive Lloyd'. He has also appeared in The Circuit, Bran Nue Day, Australian Rules, On the Nose, Joey and The Life of Harry Dare. Tony has most recently completed filming the role of Travis in the Australian feature film Healing.

His theatre credits include The Memory of Water, and The Female of the Species for the State Theatre Company of South Australia; for Black Swan theatre: Jandamarra, and The Female of the Species; for Melbourne Workers Theatre: Yanagai Yanagai, Fever, Who’s Afraid of the Working Class and Up the Ladder. Stolen for Playbox, and Coranderrk: "We will Show the Country" for Ilbijerri. His music Theatre credits include Nathaniel Storm for the NIDA Company; Walkabout for Chamber Made and Corrugation Road for Black Swan. Tony has also been a member of the NYID Physical theatre company of actors for which he has performed in various national and international productions.

Tony's writing credits include the feature film The Sapphires. Released in August 2012, the film had its world premier at the 65th Cannes international film festival and was one of Australia's most popular and successful films of the year.

Tony and his co-writer Keith Thompson were awarded the Major AWGIE Award for the most outstanding script of 2012 and also the AWGIE for Feature Film Adaption for The Sapphires. The Sapphires went on to win 11 AACTA Awards in 2013 including Best Film. Tony won the award for ‘Best adapted Screenplay’ with co-writer Keith Thompson. Tony also received the 2013 Greg Tepper Award for outstanding achievement with The Sapphires.

The Sapphires theatre show enjoyed triumphant seasons at the Melbourne Theatre Company and Company B, winning two Helpmann Awards for Best New Australian Work & Best Play (2005).

Tony is currently developing a new eight part television series with acclaimed director/ producer Robert Connelly of ArenaMedia, called The Athletes. He is also working on his next feature The Grip with the support of Screen Australia.

Sheri Candler Profile
Sheri Candler directs digital marketing strategy for The Film Collaborative (TFC), promoting their work as an educational resource for independent filmmakers, a fiscal sponsor and a nonprofit film sales and distribution company. She also consults with TFC members on using social media to build audiences so that their distribution efforts will be successful as well as working directly with productions to help gather an audience. Film represented by The Film Collaborative include award winning documentaries "The Invisible War" (Oscar nominated 2013), "I Am Divine," "Cesar's Last Fast" and "Valentine Road;" and narrative films "Appropriate Behavior," "Boy Meets Girl," "Red Hook Summer," and "Weekend."

She is the co-author of two books of case studies for filmmakers called "Selling Your Film Without Selling Your Soul" and “Selling Your Film Outside the US” which chronicle the different paths filmmakers are taking to bring their films to audiences around the world.
She regularly writes, speaks and teaches creators about using social media and has presented at industry events including American Film Market, Directors Guild of American East, National Screen Institute of Canada, Binger Film Lab Amsterdam, and was the keynote speaker at the Federation of European Film Directors (FERA) annual meeting & Screen Directors Guild of Ireland annual meeting.

She can be reached on her own website www.shericandler.com, The Film Collaborative’s website www.thefilmcollaborative.org, Twitter: @shericandler, Facebook: Sheri Candler Marketing and Publicity, & her Google+ community http://bit.ly/VzROCj.

About Roughcut
Tropfest Roughcut was launched in Australia in 2012 by Tropfest founder John Polson as a way of nurturing budding and experienced filmmakers through the experiences of others in the industry.

In New Zealand, Roughcut launched together with the inaugural Tropfest NZ Short Film Festival competition in 2013.

About Tropfest
Tropfest began in Sydney 22 years ago when director John Polson showed a six-minute film he made for under $100 at his local café (‘The Tropicana’) in Sydney for 200 friends and family. Today the free Australian event is attended annually by a live audience of around 150,000 film-lovers and hundreds of thousands more watching via its live national TV broadcast and other platforms.

In the past two decades, Tropfest has become recognised as one of the world's most exciting launchpads for emerging filmmakers. Tropfest is also known for securing the support of some of the biggest names in the international film community including Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe, Geoffrey Rush, Liev Schreiber and Tobey Maguire. Tropfest launched last year in New Zealand, Arabia and in the USA with Tropfest Las Vegas and Tropfest New York.

The Tropfest YouTube Channel. Past Finalist films can be viewed at Tropfest’s YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/tropfest. The channel has more than 50,000 subscribers and the films have been viewed over than 25 million times.

The first Tropfest NZ event was held in 2012. In 2013 the Tropfest NZ competition began and was attended by 8,000 people. The winner was a short film called ‘Cappuccino Tango’, directed by Taranaki local Dave Smith. An estimated 8,000 audience turned out in February 2014 to see director Andrew Cooper declared the Tropfest NZ 2014 winner for his short film ‘Help’.

For 2015, Tropfest NZ has added $10,000 in cash to the best film prize of a return trip to meet film executives in Los Angeles, including attendance at the US’s largest industry gathering, the American Film Market.

TROPFEST NZ – The world’s largest short film festival, now in New Zealand – Saturday 14 February 2015, TSB Bowl of Brooklands, New Plymouth, Taranaki

www.tropfest.co.nz
www.facebook.com/tropfestnz

ENDS

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