Local Director, Writer Wraps Up World-Wide Film Screening Tour in El Cerrito

From the ECHS Archiving Project

NANI, a student thesis narrative short film, directed and co-written by Bay Area
native Justin Tipping, completes its year-long competitive screening journey at more than 40 film festivals around the world.

The amazing run started with its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival 2012. Justin wraps up the screening journey by bringing it “home” to El Cerrito as a benefit event for the El Cerrito High School Archiving Project scholarship fund. A special screening will be held on Friday, March 29, 2013 at the El Cerrito High School Performing Arts Center, followed by a Q & A with the filmmaker.

NANI received numerous awards including Grand Jury Prize Best Student Film and Audience Award Best Short—Dallas Int’l Film Festival; Best Student Film—San Diego Latino Film Festival, USA Film Festival, Cinegear Expo; Best Short Film— Cleveland Int’l Film Festival, LA Asian Pacific Film Festival, Brooklyn Film Festival, and Giffoni Film Festival, Italy.

The short 20-minute film is about a teenage graffiti artist and an elderly woman who has dementia and is a resident in a nursing home.

"A bold and emotionally palpable story…through their misadventures they rediscover what it means to be alive." --SF Asian-American Film Festival.

The lead actors are Tsai Chin (Joy Luck Club) and Johnny Ortiz, young newcomer from Los Angeles.

The Student Academy Awards were established by the Academy in 1972. Former Student Academy Award winners have gone on to earn 46 Oscar nominations and have won or shared eight Academy Awards.

Winners had to compete in one of three regional competitions. Each region selected up to three finalists in each of the four categories: animation, alternative, documentary, narrative. The Academy hosted a week long of industry-related activities and social events, including a special dinner with the Board of Governors.

The awards were presented last June at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences headquarters, Beverly Hills.

In addition to the Student Oscar, Justin was also the recipient of the Directors Guild of America Student Filmmaker Award, the prestigious Franklin J. Schaffner Fellow Award and the Richard P. Rogers Spirit of Excellence Award.

Most recently, Lexus and the Weinstein Company partnered to produce a short film series, “Life is Amazing.” Justin was the first director of five, to be selected jointly by Harvey Weinstein, The Weinstein Company, and Lexus to direct and write a short.

Each of the directors represents a different part of the world and genre. Justin represents the United States. The directors were asked to create a six-minute film that captures the essence of the theme, “Life is Amazing.”

Justin’s new short film, Swimming in Air, premiered at the Directors Guild of America Theatre in Los Angeles at a special preview party just days before the Oscars. Weinstein announced that the plan is to have the five shorts screened at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

NANI will be shown at 7:15 and 8:30 p.m., Friday, March 29, 2013 at the El Cerrito High School Performing Arts Center, 540 Ashbury Ave.

Advanced tickets $10.00, students $5.00, $12.00 at the door. All proceeds benefit the ECHS Archiving Project scholarship fund.

For more information or advanced tickets email getnanitickets@gmail.com, call
510-812-5411 or visit http://elcerritogauchos.net/archiving/nani