It’s Finish Line’s Awards Season!
It’s Award Season! Endless posts across social media by journalists, lists galore, night after night of screenings and for those nominated or hoping to be - selling their wares in various fancy dinners and in hotel press rooms, hoping to be put on a list that will change their career for the better – or at least, in reality, get them a bigger paycheck.
I have been in the Entertainment Industry since I was 19 when I got my first job at The William Morris Agency in NYC. I read script after script and broke them down for agents and I learned, from that job, from the Cinema Studies program at NYU and from the volumes of reading I did at home that I knew what good writing was.
Over the past several years, we at Finish Line have become producers on various projects we’ve found; very specifically and only when we and the writer felt it was appropriate. While most of these projects are in various stages of development, two short films that we found early and helped finance and set up have gotten some major attention AND WE’RE PROUD OF IT!!
In 2020, we stepped into producing a short film for the first time. Having received and loved the short script BIENVENIDOS A LOS ANGELES, written by Lisa Cole, we told her we wanted to get involved. We fought hard to get financing, worked with Lisa on the script and with her at the helm and a predominantly female and BIOPIC crew, the film has now been SHORTLISTED FOR AN ACADEMY AWARD in the Live Action Short category. Woah! Will we make it? Who knows and truly, it is an honor to be nominated to be nominated! Lisa is a true force, turning this true story about the power of women and immigration into a film that touches people’s hearts and souls. It was a pleasure watching her direct. It has also won the Diverse in Cannes Grand Prize which is backed by the great Viola Davis and her production company Juvee Productions.
In 2021, Alex Qin wrote a great screenplay called THIRSTYGIRL. We were the first competition that awarded it a prize (since then PAGE and many others have as well) and we have gone on to work closely with Alex. Looking to direct for the first time, we suggested to her that she create a “proof of concept’, turning the feature into a short film. The process of that; helping get the script in shape, raising money, getting her repped, and supporting the filmmaking as we can, has paid off with it getting into Sundance 2024! It premieres on January 20th and we couldn’t be more proud of Alex and the hard work of everyone involved. This is funny, poignant, sexy and personal story and is the start of something big for her. Sundance has always been her dream and is the place where we hope to find the people we need to make the best feature possible with Alex at the helm. That was always the goal and that’s what we will work towards for our dear writer and friend.
The future is bright, writers. When we believe in you, you can’t shake us and we will go on to help in any way we can, be through important industry introductions, financially and continuing to toot your horn all the way home – no matter what the medium you write in. Since we started selling writer’s work as literary managers and creating Finish Line just 7 years ago, we have been thrilled that the work we represent has gotten the kind of response it has. It feels good to have agents, manager, producers and other creatives know that when Finish Line calls, there is going to be a special piece of writing to read. We are committed to helping writers as we can and helping make your dreams (and ours!) come true.