Award at PCFMF

To Rest in Peace won at the Park City Film Music Festival, placing third in the short film category. Congratulations to our composer, Leah Curtis, and the talented team she brought on board.

The picture above is Leah (on the right) with festival director Leslie Harlow.

You can listen to two pieces from To Rest in Peace below, including Salamun Salam, which won 'best world song' at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards in 2010.

Park City Film Music Festival

To Rest in Peace is screening at the Park City Film Music Festival, on Tuesday, May 29th at 12:15pm, and Saturday, June 2nd at 3:15pm. You can purchase tickets online on their Festival Genius page.

Congrats to Leah Curtis, and the artists who brought her score to life! You can listen to the To Rest in Peace soundtrack online.

Leah was also recently nominated for two categories at the Hollywood Music in Media Awards, for her Exitus Roma song, 'Animal Vagula,' with vocalist Lisbeth Scott. Their previous collaboration, 'Salamun Salam' from the To Rest in Peace soundtrack, won 'Best World Song' in 2010. The award ceremony will be held on November 15th.

Awards at the DGA

To Rest in Peace screened at the Directors Guild of America yesterday, with a showcase of USC films.

We took home the Fotokem bronze award, and the First Look audience award. Congrats to the cast and crew!

Congrats also to John Dion, our 1st A.D., whose thesis film Cupid won the faculty award for best screenwriting.

And thanks to everyone who came out and made it such a special night.

Goldilocks at the IAWTV Awards

Here's a Mingling Media TV interview with Majek Pictures' Michael Koerbel & Anna Elizabeth James, writer-producer-directors of Goldilocks the mobile series, and me, editor of eight episodes, including episode 5, which was nominated for Best Editing at the IAWTV Awards. We had a grand time!

Goldilocks nomination for Best Editing at IAWTV

In other project news, I've been nominated for Best Editing at the first annual International Academy of Web Television! Watch the nominated episode of Goldilocks above.

The award ceremony is this Thursday, January 12th, at International CES. You can watch it live-streamed on the IAWTV YouTube page.

Congratulations to Majek Pictures on their continued success!

Goldilocks is a mobile series shot entirely on the iPhone. It's been featured in the New York Times and CNet as a "sign of things to come." In 2010, I edited eight of nine episodes of Goldilocks, the last of which was cut entirely on the iPad 2. That was an all-nighter! But it was fun, and it became the first professional video to be edited on the iPad 2.

It's one of the most exciting projects I've ever worked on. And I hear there are more exciting things to come from team Majek...

BFF Best Short Film!

To Rest in Peace won Best Short Film at the Brantford Film Festival! Congrats to the cast & crew.

This was a particularly significant award for us, since it was our Canadian premiere.

Jason Teakle of Brant News interviewed producer Josh Clavir and I for an article about To Rest in Peace, which he called "a story of inner strength."

We had a great time in Brantford. The people were warm, the city was lovely, and the films were good. There is nothing better you can ask for in a film festival. I look forward to returning in future years, whether or not I have a film playing there.

SoCal Best Student Short!

To Rest in Peace won best student short at the SoCal Independent Film Fest! Congrats to the cast & crew.

The picture above is of me and Mir Waiss Najibi at the screening. Mir played one of the dead men that Malek buries in To Rest in Peace.  We were so grateful for his involvement, and for Ralph Lopez. They were both on set for several days, early in the morning, getting into dead man make-up, and always cheerful.

One of my fondest memories of set was a blooper that Mir and Ralph created. We were filming a close-up of the two dead bodies, and before I yelled 'cut,' the bodies came to life, looked around in a daze, and decided to leave. The whole crew had a good laugh.

Our festival run continues. More news to come.

Magical Porsche

The challenge was to create a Porsche commercial with the theme of "My Daily Magic." What better team to pull it off than Michael Koerbel and Anna Elizabeth James of Majek Pictures?

Their entry into the Porsche competition is called It's a Magical Life, and portrays the stages of life as seen from the car's trunk. Falling in love, going off to school, coming of age — Each vignette is full of nuanced emotion. I found the ending, between a father and his son, so touching, that I had to give my dad a call and say hi.

If you have a moment, please watch the video, and if you like it half as much as I do, please vote. They are currently number one, and we would like to keep it that way until the voting closes on September 21st. You can vote once a day. Michael Koerbel. It's a Magical Life. 

CENFLO Best Student Short!

To Rest in Peace won the Paul Leder award for Best Student Project at the Central Florida Film Festival! Congrats to our cast & crew. 

NYCIFF Best Student Short!

To Rest in Peace won best student short at the New York City International Film Festival! Congrats to our cast & crew.

Action/Cut Short Film Competition

To Rest in Peace is a finalist at the Action/Cut Short Film Competition! We are one of eight shorts selected for the fiction category. Winners will be announced September 1st.

Congrats also to Anthony Bushman, whose thesis film Found (edited by yours truly) was a semi-finalist in the student film category.

PAGE Awards Semi Finals

Shining Path is now a semi-finalist at the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards!

At this stage of the competition, the scripts are narrowed down to the top 25 in each category. Shining Path is an espionage thriller based on a true story, so it made it into the historical film category.

The picture above is of Abimael Guzmán, the leader of Shining Path. Our screenplay follows a peruvian detective and a rogue CIA agent as they try to bring down Guzmán, who at the time was considered the most dangerous terrorist in the world.

I say 'our' because I'm developing this screenplay for producer Brian Zager. He came to me with the story after he saw To Rest in Peace. We are still in development, working on the next draft. And we have started research on our next project, which will utilize my skills as a historian, but takes place instead in the near future.

Congrats also to semi-finalists Nate Ruegger, and Kristin Ellerman! I had the good fortune of working with both of them while at USC, and will be cheering them on in the next stages. Nate has Furious Angels in the action/adventure category, and Kristin has Riding Pine in the family film category.

Finalists will be announced on September 15th.

CENFLO Paul Leder Award

To Rest in Peace is a finalist for the Paul Leder Award (Best Student Film) at the Central Florida Film Festival! We are representing the University of Southern California, in a group that includes Florida State, Brigham Young, Dodge College and the NY Film Academy.

There will be two screenings during the festival. Friday, September 2nd at 11:10 AM, and Monday, September 4th at 12:15 PM.

Wish us luck!

In other news, our press page is now live. More articles will be posted there as we collect URLs.

Congrats Katie Byron!

Congratulations to our production designer, Katie Byron, for the success of her feature film Like Crazy. It won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, and also won Best Actress for Felicity Jones. The film opens in theaters October 28th.

The Variety review praises Katie's work:

Production designer Katie Byron adeptly adorns Anna's and Jacob's respective apartments down to the finest detail, from half-empty bottles of dish soap in the sink to student-loan letters from Sallie Mae in the mailbox.

There's another great review on Entertainment Weekly.

One of my favourite aspects of screening To Rest in Peace, is the shock people express when they find out we filmed most of it in California. They are immersed in the world of Kuwait, and believe we filmed it there. So much of that movie magic is Katie Byron's work.

After one screening in Kuwait, someone insisted "But the house was filmed here, right?" "No, nothing with actors was filmed in Kuwait. It was just me and the cinematographer here." "But how did you find a house that looks like that in California?" "Production design!"

Congrats Katie! And best wishes for your continued success.

Vote on Kuwait's Got Talent

Student Talk magazine is running a "Who is the Most Talented?" contest, based on their Kuwait's Got Talent series.

You can vote for To Rest in Peace director, Fawaz Al-Matrouk... that is... me :^) through this link. Voting is open for the month of August.

Real to Reel Award

I'm honoured to announce that To Rest in Peace won "Best Amateur Short" at the Real to Reel International Film Festival!

The festival is held in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, and presented by the Cleveland County Arts Council. Congratulations to our team, and to all the other winners!

PAGE Awards Quarter Finals

In other-project news, my feature screenplay Shining Path is a quarter-finalist at the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards!

Shining Path is an espionage thriller set in Peru in the early 1990s. It is based on the true story of a rogue CIA agent and a small time detective who brought down the world's most dangerous terrorist organization. I wrote it for producer Brian Zager, who came to me with the story after he saw To Rest in Peace. He thought that I would love the idea, and he was right. It shares a theme that runs through most of my work, and is very dear to me: the story of someone trying to do a little bit of right, in a world of wrong.

I have a bit of a history with the PAGE Awards now. To Rest in Peace won the silver prize in 2009, and News from Kuwait, the feature length version, was a semi-finalist.

World Cup Champions!

We won the World Cup Film Awards!

Congrats to the whole team.

Congrats also to the feature film world champions, Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football.

This competition has been tremendous fun. It's a nice change of pace from the usual film events, conjuring up a sportsing atmosphere. Several members of our crew are big soccer fans. This past World Cup, we watched games together when we could, and exchanged celebratory (or consolatory) texts when we couldn't. So there's an extra pleasure in celebrating this win.

Now there are three more years until Brazil 2014...

The World Cup Final

To Rest in Peace won its semi-final match! We'll be facing Thailand's Unfaithfully Yours in the final.

Over in the feature film category, the final is between America's Fordson: Faith, Fasting, Football and Sweden's The Referee.

The champions will be announced May 29th. You can cheer us on the World Cup Film Awards Facebook Page.

The World Cup Semi-finals

To Rest in Peace won its quarter-finals match at the World Cup Film Awards! We now face Sweet Sweet Baby in the semi-finals. In the other bracket is a match between Unfaithfully Yours from Thailand and Heaven Garden from Brazil.

You can cheer us on at the World Cup Film Awards facebook page. The finalists will be announced May 26th.