SEVERAL CHICAGO FILMMAKERS are heading to the May 13-24 Cannes Film Festival to personally further their films’ fortunes. Husband-and-wife team EP Joe Orlandino and writer/director Lucia Mauro will attend the screening of their first film, “In My Brother’s Shoes,” at the Festival’s Short Film Corner.
Produced by Atlas Media Group, the film centers on Danny, whose younger brother, a Marine, was killed in Iraq. Danny wears his brother’s combat boots on his travels to Rome where he processes his grief through the people he encounters.
From Cannes, Orlandino and Mauro fly to Rome for a showing for servicemen and women to members of the Vatican staff.
Actress/producer Grace McPhillips, leaves this Saturday, May 16 for a week at the festival, where she will appear on a prestigious international panel of women filmmakers, “Cutting Edge Collaborators: Women Achieving in Film,” at the Hotel Majestic on May 19.
McPhillips will join her sales agent in seeking sales and distribution opportunities for her independent film, “The Other One,” at Le Marche, where the heavy buying and selling of films take place.
Ever since Michael Kutza founded the Chicago International Film Festival 51 years ago, he has attended the French festival in search of the latest and greatest international gems for the Chicago showcase. He again is accompanied on the hunt by CIFF programmer Mimi Plauche and consultant David Robinson.
Lakeview Productions’ producer Robert Riley and director Matthew Byori Mann are going to Cannes to promote their independent vampire short. “TwiceBorn,” in which a Special Officer (Blaise Nally) is caught between a war between humans and vampires. DP was Christopher Gearhart.
They also will seek investor/studio interest in their proposed televisions shows.
