We’re pleased to report that it’s been another eventful summer at MPI! Our Rising Filmmaker Program is thriving more than ever despite the mid-year pivot from in-person seminars and workshops to a completely virtual learning environment. But revisiting the drawing board has been wholly beneficial. 

The MPI team took this opportunity to rethink, revise, and reinvigorate our talent development opportunities and charged forward with jam-packed schedules overflowing with personal communications and networking opportunities. We also doubled the number of sessions led by industry masters, which included television showrunners, Oscar and Emmy-nominated writers, post-production professionals, award-winning directors, and more.

MPI Original Films also continues to thrive—winning festival awards, securing an international distribution agreement, and ultimately expanding the audience reach of important films that promote human freedom and flourishing. Here’s a quick update on what we’ve done and what we have slated for the rest of the year and even into 2021:

• The MPI Hollywood Career Launch Program provided summer internships to 13 filmmakers who worked at studios including BRON Studios (Joker, The Way Back), Millennium Entertainment (The Expendables, Olympus Has Fallen, The Hitman’s Bodyguard), and Bold Films (Drive, Vox Lux). Guided by MPI’s talent associate, Hannah Ruth Earl, interns hit the ground running with a crash course in navigating the entertainment industry with sessions led by esteemed animator Colin Brady (Toy Story 2, Astro Boy, TMNT) and the CFO of Bold Films, Rob Mitchell (Whiplash, Drive). The 2020 Intern Summit provided a critical foundation for these filmmakers as they headed into their 12-week internships, and it served as an opportunity to advance their individual career goals by strengthening their filmmaking network. Following the Summit, interns participated in our ten-session (doubled from 2019) series: the Freedom + Film Seminar.
• Nicole Serrato, a 2019 MPI intern, recently had her Academy Gold Spotlight featured in The Hollywood Reporter. The video showcases her experience in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Academy Gold summer internship program, which MPI selected her to participate in last year as a part of her MPI internship at Millennium Films.
• Nine filmmakers completed MPI’s 2020 Directing Workshop which is a part of the 2020 MPI Short Film Creative Development and Production Lab. Participants were hand selected from the Lab’s Screenwriting Workshops, where they worked to develop and craft compelling, pro-freedom scripts on the theme “Standing Up for What You Believe In Even When It’s Unpopular.” Led by MPI filmmaker and award-winning writer/director Toby Fell-Holden, participants learned how to effectively manage a crew, communicate with a cast, and prepare for pre-production, production, and post-production. At the end of the workshop, each director’s final product received critical feedback from Toby and MPI senior vice president Lana Link.
• MPI’s Mindful Editor Workshop is underway, and 15 participants are beginning the second week of our intense, month-long training. Hosted in partnership with Smock Media and led by MPI filmmaker Adam Hawk Jensen, this workshop will provide these filmmakers the opportunity to sharpen their editing skills. They are learning how to craft emotionally powerful stories while also addressing ways to reduce the burnout that comes with an editor’s demanding schedule. They have been broken into teams and given hours of footage that they will pare down to a short video. In the last session each team will present their edited work, and the filmmakers will vote on which team edited the most compelling final product.
• The MPI Original Film A Piece of Cake has been accepted into more than a dozen film festivals including four that are Oscar-qualifying—the Tribeca Film Festival, the Cleveland International Film Festival, the Indy Shorts International Film Festival, and the HollyShorts Film Festival. It was nominated for Best Narrative Short at Tribeca and won Best Comedy and the Audience Choice Award in Comedy at Indy Shorts. It also just won Best Comedy at the Chesapeake Film Festival where it will screen virtually October 1-4. It will enjoy its world premiere LIVE at the Show Me Shorts Film Festival in New Zealand October 1-21, and it will enjoy its television broadcast premiere on ShortsTV in October.
• MPI signed an international distribution agreement for Miss Virginia which will make it available to households in the United Kingdom. This agreement is in addition to the more than 1,000 digital platforms that the film is currently streaming on including Netflix, Apple TV, and Amazon Prime Video.
• Oscar-nominated screenwriter Dianne Houston has completed the initial treatment for the forthcoming MPI Original Film Freedom Hair: The Melony Armstrong Story. She is now writing the script, and we anticipate moving this film into production in 2021.
• MPI Original Films will be producing a new six-episode web series—101 Ways to Be A Better Person. The comedic series will be written and directed by Elvira Ibragimova and follows a millennial couple that is aspiring to “do good” in the world. Despite their best efforts, however, they fail humorously and spectacularly at every turn, often harming the very causes they are trying to help. Elvira participated in MPI’s recent Comedy Workshop, where she initially pitched us on the concept for this series.
• MPI has begun pre-production on three new MPI Original short films, which will be produced in 2021:
  • Infraction is a dramatic short that touches on the themes of criminal justice reform and civil rights. It tells the true story of a corrections officer whose unlikely friendship with a lifer forces him to choose between keeping his job and speaking the truth. The script was written by MPI filmmaker Timothy Blackwood in our 2020 Dramatic Shorts Screenwriting Workshop.
  • Melons is a comedic short about cancel culture and follows a jolly, but meek, grocery manager who learns to stand up for himself after a sexual harassment misunderstanding brands him as public enemy #1.The script was written by MPI filmmaker Matthew MacDonald in our 2020 Comedic Shorts Screenwriting Workshop.
  • Unloaded is a comedic short that touches on the themes of Second Amendment issues, cancel culture, and political correctness. It tells the story of a young man who wants to propose to his girlfriend, but her family—and his own need to be liked—stand in his way. The script was written by MPI filmmaker Claudia Murray in our 2020 Comedic Shorts Screenwriting Workshop. Claudia directed and co-wrote the MPI Original short film Gringa, which screened widely at festivals.
• Last month we announced the theme for the 2021 MPI Short Film Creative Development and Production Lab—“When the Cure Is Worse Than the Disease.” The application deadline isn’t until December 1st, but we have already received more than a dozen applications in just the first 24 hours of registration.

We’re excited for all that lies ahead and couldn’t be more appreciative of the continued support from our dedicated supporters and freedom-loving film enthusiasts. We look forward to premiering the next slate of MPI Original Films in 2021!