Irish Director Juanita Wilson Announced as 'Director to Watch' by Variety
The Oscar-nominated Irish director Juanita Wilson (The Door, As If I Am Not There) has been named among Variety's top ten directors to watch for 2011. This is a huge achievement in the international film industry and particularly in the U.S where a special event will be hosted in Palm Springs Festival in January to honour the ten directors from all over the world. Juanita Wilson is the only woman to be nominated this year.
Juanita wrote and directed the critically acclaimed short film THE DOOR, which was based on the true story of a father and his young daughter set in Russia 1986, and was nominated for an Academy Award last year for Best Live Action short.
Produced by Octagon Films, this touching story picked up a host of awards including Best Short Film IFTA, Best Director at the Grand OFF Awards in Warsaw and the Gold Medal Award (Fiction) at the Bilbao International Festival of Documentary and Short Films. The film was financed under the Short Cuts scheme, which is co-funded by the IFB and RTÉ.
Juanita followed this up with her feature directorial debut AS IF I AM NOT THERE which tells the story of a young woman from Sarajevo whose life is shattered the day a young soldier walks into her apartment and tells her to pack her things. Rounded up with the other women from the village and imprisoned in a warehouse in a remote region of Bosnia, she quickly learns the rules of camp life.
The film was produced by Nathalie Lichtenthaler and James Flynn for Octagon Films and recently scooped the prestigious Silver Pyramid Award from the Cairo International Film Festival. It also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this year.
AS IF I AM NOT THERE was co-financed by the IFB/BSÉ, Swedish Film Institute/Film I Vast, Macedonian Film Fund, Eurimages and ContinuPrint.
It will be released in Irish cinemas in 2011 by Element Pictures Distribution.