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NYFA Alum Issa Rae Wins at 2022 NAACP Image Awards

HBO aired the last episode of the hit-show Insecure on December 26, 2021. In its wake the show left millions of sad (but proud) fans behind and took with it 10 nominations for the 2022 NAACP’s for its superb farewell season. 

The 5-season show was hailed a critical success from the beginning and its final season did not disappoint. Down to the very last episode “everythings gonna be, ok?!”, Issa Rae kept the ball in the air. The show had been a favorite across generations and garnered Issa a huge following since its premiere in October 2016. However, last December fans had to bid adieu to the show, but last week, the NAACP handed Issa some parting gifts: several awards.

Outstanding Comedy Series

“Insecure” — WINNER

Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series

Issa Rae, “Insecure” — WINNER

Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series

Issa Rae – Insecure -“Everything’s Gonna Be, Okay?!”  — WINNER

At this year’s NAACP Image Awards, Rae won Outstanding Actress In A Comedy Series for her landmark series Insecure,  which also won the Outstanding Comedy Series category, beating populars shows like Black-Ish, Harlem, Run The World, and The Upshaws. 

Rae’s performance as Issa Dee won over her co-star Yvonne Orji as well as Tracee Ellis Ross for Black-Ish, Regina Hall for Black Monday, and Loretta Devine for Family Reunion. But it didn’t stop there, Rae also won the Outstanding Writing In A Comedy Series category for the Insecure series finale “everything’s gonna be, okay?!” ⁣⁣

NYFA congratulates Issa Rae for all of her hard work and successes!

NYFA Screenwriting Instructor, Alex Simmons, Featured in the Golden Globe Awards Online Magazine

NYFA Screenwriting instructor Alex Simmons was recently featured in the Golden Globes Awards Online Magazine for his groundbreaking work in the comic industry. Simmons, a comic book creator, and a writer of screenplays and stage plays, has written for Disney Books, Penguin Press, Simon and Schuster, DC Comics, and Archie Comics. However, his most noteworthy work is BlackJack, a comic about the “tales of an African-American soldier of fortune globetrotting during the turbulent 1930s.” 

Simmons shared with Golden Globes Magazine that his love for comics was an extension of his love for cartoons as a child but that he had fleeting dreams of being an actor before having an epiphany. “I reached a point where I realized I can’t just be an actor writing something that I can perform, I have to really accept the responsibility of being a writer, especially if I want my stories to ring true and to be authentic, and to say something.” 

BlackJack was born out of a desire to represent African Americans as multi-dimensional, multifaceted people. In his adolescence, when he was bit by the acting bug, Simmons noticed that Black characters were flat. “It was the 70s and there were two roles for black actors at that time: it was either a lot of films about plantation life and slave life or it was ‘angry black man.” Those roles were not enough for Simmons as a young adolescent pursuing acting and they certainly weren’t enough for a writer who had taken responsibility for the stories he told. Simmons wanted to tell “a good solid story about Black people,” and he had some questions that needed answering, “we had soldiers that died in various countries fighting for this world. Why weren’t they depicted? What was their story? What were the stories of the Black men who went to Europe for World War I and didn’t come back to the United States? Why didn’t they come back?” 

The first BlackJack never saw print. Marketing companies were not interested in publishing and distributing the comic. But that didn’t stop Simmons, “When I drove to [comic] conventions, I sold them out of the trunk of my car. When I took public transportation, or Metro Rail or Amtrak, then it was out of my suitcase.”

Like Alex Simmons, BlackJack didn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. BlackJack refused stereotypes and preserved the history of Black men in an era that wanted to erase them. BlackJack, like Stan Lee’s Falcon, led the way for Black Panther, Miles Morales and the Black Superheroes that will flood the sky in the future.

“I knew the heroes, fictional and otherwise. I also knew — though we were conspicuously absent – that Black people were part of that era and not just as domestics and laborers. So I took what I knew, mixed it with what I imagined … and Blackjack was born.”

MAISA SILVA PRESSES CONTROL + Z IRL ON NETFLIX’S ‘BACK TO 15’

NYFA Acting for Film Teen Camp alum Maisa Silva boasts an impressive 41.2 million followers on Instagram, 11.4 million on Twitter, 14 million on Facebook and 5.79 million subscribers on Youtube. All of whom Maisa refers to as primos (cousins), not only because her last name, Silva, is the most common last name in Brazil but because they’ve watched her grow up in real-time. Maisa Silva is a prodigy; she’s been working in entertainment since she was 3 years old.

Maisa is no stranger to the acclaim that will follow her recent deal with Netflix and today’s premiere of De Volta aos 15 (Back to 15) where she plays a 30 year-old woman who, unhappy with her life, finds a way to travel back in time to when she was 15.

But before we go Back to 15, let’s press CTRL+ Z for one second.

This year, Maisa turned twenty but she has already had an impressive sixteen-year career. In 2005, when she was only 3 years old, she was discovered on a talent show on Programa Raul Gil, a musical and variety TV show. Maisa impressed everyone including legendary host, Raul Gil, with her intelligence and wit. Maisa was quickly hired to work on the show as a singer and stage secretary to Gil. She looks back on this moment fondly, “I remember getting onstage and staring at the cameras, and I was like, ‘Okay, this is a little bit scary, but I’m comfortable somehow.’ I remember the crowd because they were loud and playful. And I felt somehow that this place was my home”, she told Netflix Queue.

Soon after her time on Programa Raul Gil, she was contracted by SBT (Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão), a Brazilian Television network created by television personality and Brazilian icon Silvio Santos. Santos signed Maisa to present children’s shows for the network. Maisa was only 5 at the time. In 2008, she was an invited guest on Silvio Santos’ own show where she would answer questions improvised by him, a segment called Pregunte à Maisa (Ask Maisa). Maisa would continue to host the programs for SBT for thirteen years, during which she starred in films and telenovelas. One of which became an incredibly successful film franchise, Carrossel.

When Maisa was 16 years old, she decided she wanted to expand her training. In 2018, Maisa made the move to New York to study at NYFA in one of our Acting for Film Teen Camps.

The following year Maisa became the host of her very own show Programa de Maisa (2019). However, in October 2020, she tearfully said goodbye to SBT – Maisa had signed with Netflix Brazil.

Though the details of the partnership are not known, Maisa is set to star in original productions at Netflix in the years to come. The first of which was Double Dad, where a young girl’s search for her father finds her with two dads – neither of which she is willing to lose in exchange for the truth.

Thanks to Netflix, the world will definitely be seeing more of Maisa in the years to come.

NYFA congratulates Maisa on all of her hard work and success!

Please note: NYFA does not represent that these are typical or guaranteed career outcomes. The success of our graduates in any chosen professional pathway depends on multiple factors, and the achievements of NYFA alumni are the result of their hard work, perseverance, talent and circumstances.

NYFA Alum Maisa Silva Goes ‘Back to 15’ on Netflix

MAISA SILVA presses Control + Z IRL on Netflix’s ‘Back to 15’

MAISA SILVA presses Control + Z IRL on Netflix’s ‘Back to 15’

NYFA Acting for Film Teen Camp alum Maisa Silva boasts an impressive 41.2 million followers on Instagram, 11.4 million on Twitter, 14 million on Facebook and 5.79 million subscribers on Youtube. All of whom Maisa refers to as primos (cousins), not only because her last name, Silva, is the most common last name in Brazil but because they’ve watched her grow up in real-time. Maisa Silva is a prodigy; she’s been working in entertainment since she was 3 years old.

Maisa is no stranger to the acclaim that will follow her recent deal with Netflix and today’s premiere of De Volta aos 15 (Back to 15) where she plays a 30 year-old woman who, unhappy with her life, finds a way to travel back in time to when she was 15.


But before we go Back to 15, let’s press CTRL+ Z for one second.

This year, Maisa turned twenty but she has already had an impressive sixteen-year career. In 2005, when she was only 3 years old, she was discovered on a talent show on Programa Raul Gil, a musical and variety TV show. Maisa impressed everyone including legendary host, Raul Gil, with her intelligence and wit. Maisa was quickly hired to work on the show as a singer and stage secretary to Gil. She looks back on this moment fondly, “I remember getting onstage and staring at the cameras, and I was like, ‘Okay, this is a little bit scary, but I’m comfortable somehow.’ I remember the crowd because they were loud and playful. And I felt somehow that this place was my home”, she told Netflix Queue.

Soon after her time on Programa Raul Gil, she was contracted by SBT (Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão), a Brazilian Television network created by television personality and Brazilian icon Silvio Santos. Santos signed Maisa to present children’s shows for the network. Maisa was only 5 at the time. In 2008, she was an invited guest on Silvio Santos’ own show where she would answer questions improvised by him, a segment called Pregunte à Maisa (Ask Maisa). Maisa would continue to host the programs for SBT for thirteen years, during which she starred in films and telenovelas. One of which became an incredibly successful film franchise, Carrossel.

When Maisa was 16 years old, she decided she wanted to expand her training. In 2018, Maisa made the move to New York to study at NYFA in one of our Acting for Film Teen Camps.

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

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The following year Maisa became the host of her very own show Programa de Maisa (2019). However, in October 2020, she tearfully said goodbye to SBT – Maisa had signed with Netflix Brazil.

Though the details of the partnership are not known, Maisa is set to star in original productions at Netflix in the years to come. The first of which was Double Dad, where a young girl’s search for her father finds her with two dads – neither of which she is willing to lose in exchange for the truth.


Thanks to Netflix, the world will definitely be seeing more of Maisa in the years to come.

NYFA congratulates Maisa on all of her hard work and success!

NYFA Musical Theatre Alum, Miisha Shimizu, Sings for Disney Japan

Many moons ago, actors made the long-awaited move to New York City right after graduating from conservatories, BFA or MFA programs out of necessity. They’d settle into the pace of the city and in between dance classes and voice lessons, they’d scour through the pages of a printed Backstage magazines for upcoming auditions. They’d hit the ground running, printed headshot in-hand and race to in-person auditions for regional theaters, festivals, films and TV shows. But things have changed. For the most part, the days of printed Backstage magazines, printed headshots and spiraling lines are behind us. They’ve been replaced by online audition notices, digital headshots and self-tapes. NYFA Musical Theater Alum Miisha Shimizu spoke with NYFA and affirmed that with good training and a cellphone, you can get far – halfway across the globe.

Miisha says that instead of shuffling to and from auditions immediately after graduating in 2020, she went back home and made up for lost time “I spent a lot of time with my family for that year while preparing to continue my remaining two more years of my college [but] of course my passion for musical theater never disappeared.” She then got wind of a virtual audition for Vanara: The Musical. “I was chosen among the 17 finalists but I couldn’t make it.” However, while getting back into the swing of things at home, Miisha was not just auditioning – she was building an audience. “I did a lot of singing on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. I sang a lot of famous musical numbers and jazz and of course a lot of Disney songs, too” She gained traction on all three platforms and today she has 413.7k followers on Tik Tok, 67.7k on Instagram and 70.6k Youtube subscribers.

Then one day, Disney called. “Disney Japan was looking for someone to be the theme artist for [a] festival project “Ultimate Princess Celebration”, to sing the Japanese version of  ‘Starting Now’ – It was an honor to be selected. I couldn’t believe it! And when I first listened to the song and the words made me glad I hadn’t quit. “

“I mean [it] wasn’t easy for me. There were ups and downs, but my friends and teachers and [especially] my family was always there for me to get through all the hardships and go on no matter what! Just like the words in this song. It’s like magic!”

When asked about her studies at NYFA, Miisha said “There are tons of things I learned at NYFA which helped me a lot on this project. Even if it’s in Japanese language, I could still apply all the things I have learned at NYFA whether it is acting, singing, or dancing. How to project my voice and being able to express every phrase in the song. I think it’s universal!”

Later that year, things came full circle for Miisha. “ [I] got an offer for the very first time to be cast in a Musical with outstanding and famous musical actors in Japan. One of them, Ikusaburo Yamazaki, who is the lead actor and who actually got to visit NYFA in October 2018 which was my first year at NYFA. We sang together on the stage of NYFA.”

NYFA congratulates Miisha Shimizu on all her success!

Q&A with 10 ARTS Foundation Scholarship Recipient, Lena McKnight

~Made possible by the generous support of the Hilaria & Alec Baldwin Foundation~

Lena McKnight was born in Norfolk, Virginia and raised in Harlem, New York. Lena attended the New York City Public School until 10th grade. After Lena decided to leave high school, she struggled with finding a passion to help her continue her education. She attended the Touro College in New York City where she got certified in audio engineering. It wasn’t until Lena got involved with Abyssinian Development Corporation’s YouthBuild, that she found her balance. Lena worked towards gaining her High School Equivalency Diploma and a construction trade. 

YouthBuild gave Lena the opportunity to serve her community because one of the main components of the program was community work. Lena was able to plan and implement programs and projects that allowed her to give back to the Harlem community and later on start her own projects.

Lena graduated from ADC’s YouthBuild in 2011 and was chosen to travel to Arica, Chile for six weeks to help rebuild homes in the community. When Lena returned she knew that she wanted to do more and be more involved in people’s lives. Lena enrolled in the Borough of Manhattan Community College and graduated from BMCC in 2015. She then transferred to City College of New York, where she became a Theater Major and Sociology Minor. At City College, Lena became a Member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, Epsilon Tau Chapter and served as chapter president. Lena graduated in 2017 with a Bachelors in Theater and a minor in Sociology. 

Lena began working with Youth because she believed they are the ones who will be taking care of us when we get older. She worked with the Harlem Children Zone as a 10th grade Student Advocate. Lena wanted to work with that specific grade because that was the grade she dropped out and she wanted to be able to influence the Youth to do better than she had. Lena enjoys giving back to her community and puts on community projects to help connect people with resources and mental health resources.

After working with the Harlem Children Zone for two years, Lena was given an opportunity to become an Outreach Coordinator for Serviceworks with Abyssinian, where she learned the foundation of putting together community events on a larger scale. Lena has currently done more than 10 projects while working with Serviceworks her focus was feeding those in need, giving out female hygiene products, clothes, games days, spreading mental health awareness and, most importantly, connecting and uniting the Harlem community to come together to stop the violence.

In 2021, Lena decided to relocate to Los Angeles, California. She wanted to focus more on the arts to be able to tell the stories of her community. Lena was able to land a job at Single Room Occupancy Housing where she serves as a case manager for the homeless on Skid Row. Lena enjoys being able to learn the differences between the east coast and the west coast communities. Working with SRO housing has helped Lena learn about the mental health crisis and ways

she would like to give back to the homeless community. While working as a case manager, Lena earned a scholarship from the 10 ARTS Foundation to attend the 15-week online filming program at the New York Film Academy. It wasn’t until she attended the program she knew she made the right choice by moving to the west coast.

 

Lena believes that faith in God, her self-confidence and the support of family and friends helped her accomplish her goals. Lena has started to build her own non-profit in 2018. Who Am EyE To You which focuses on mental health for women and men and bringing resources to those who may need them. Lena is currently holding her 4th annual Women empowerment Event (Women Can Run the World) on Sunday, March 27, 2022, and is launching her Men event in June 2022.  Lena is looking forward to what’s next in her life and feels the sky’s the limit. Lena learned to live by her mantra “You have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable if you really want to grow”.

Lena spoke with NYFA about her journey to NYFA and her dreams for the future. Check out the conversation below: 

New York Film Academy (NYFA): When did you first hear about the New York Film Academy and when did you know you wanted to study here?

Lena McKnight (LM): I heard about NYFA back in 2017 when I was looking up Black Female writers working in television. I looked up different writers and searched what schools they went to. I remember I was watching an episode of Insecure and thinking about who created the show. So I looked up information on Issa Rae and the places she studied at, one of which was NYFA. 

NYFA stood out to me. I liked the fact that things were hands-on and you spend more time with equipment then just learning the fundamentals in a classroom. I also liked that it was a community and offered in three states (New York City, Florida, and California). I like that you students are able to have a sense of community and be near real production studios.

I was graduating from The City College of New York in 2017 and learned the master program was only offered in Los Angeles. I felt defeated for a second, but 4 years later, in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, I was able to move to Los Angeles while working remotely. 

Moving to Los Angeles has been something I have been planning to do for 4 years. I wanted to separate myself from the community service work I was doing in NYC and do something in a different city. I wanted to focus more on being able to bring the story and experience to film. Upon learning of the demands of the NYFA graduate program, I realized I wasn’t going to be able to enroll. But thanks to my advisor Joey Zangardi-Dixon, who stayed in touch with me via email answering all my questions, I was able to look into the workshop programs NYFA offered. That’s what really made me want to attend any NYFA filmmaking program that was being offered. I liked that Joey was working with me, being patient, and giving me resources to help with my enrollment into a workshop program that fit my needs and interests.

NYFA: How was your experience at NYFA?

LM: My experience at NYFA has helped shape what I want to do within film. I can admit I was a bit nervous about the program being online. I learned I am a hands-on learner and work better when I am in person with an instructor. However, the support of the professors and being able to have one-on-one meetings with them has made my experience totally different. I didn’t think I was going to learn as much as I did. But the support of ensuring I had a computer to be able to complete my work was the highlight of it all. I really respect how helpful everyone was within my cohort. No one made anyone feel as if they didn’t belong in the program. I like how open everyone was with sharing their knowledge within film. It was great to have experienced people and people who were new to filmmaking. We were even able to start a Whatsapp group to help each other out and to stay in contact with everyone.  I also enjoyed the examples the professors used to help with understanding our projects. If it wasn’t for the willingness of the professor’s meeting with me inspite of the time difference, I don’t think I would have been able to gain the experience I was hoping for. 

NYFA: How has your perspective changed since attending NYFA?

LM: Now that I completed the 15-week online NYFA program, it makes me want to work on my projects that I have been saying I want to do. I was a theater major and I didn’t think I would fall in love with film until I held my first camera. It made me realize my love for directing and screenwriting. I learned the difference of what you can create on film, that live shows can’t show. I also learned to respect the time that’s put in when it comes to production for film. If I didn’t attend this program, I don’t think I would have had the push and courage to create anything. I now feel confident that I am just getting started and will do well. 

NYFA: Do you hope to continue in the arts?

LM: Yes, my dream is to become a screenwriter, director and actress. I am looking to further my studies in film and plan to create my bibles for the three projects I am passionate about. I want to be able to open a non-profit for inner city families to express themselves through the arts. 

NYFA: What do you hope to do with the knowledge that NYFA provided you? 

LM: NYFA has made me realize my passion and helped me figure out what about filming I enjoy. I was able to understand where my enjoyment was (screenwriting, directing and acting). I made connections and got advice from professors and classmates. I am looking for a master program in film that I am hoping to start by Fall 2022. 

The 10 ARTS Foundation and NYFA are extremely grateful to the Hilaria & Alec Baldwin Foundation for their generous support in making Lena’s dreams come true!

NYFA congratulates Lena McKnight on all that she has accomplished throughout the years and at NYFA! We are excited to see more of her work!

 

NEW YORK FILM ACADEMY (NYFA) WELCOMES PRODUCERS OF “THE LOST DAUGHTER” OSNAT HANDELSMAN-KEREN & TALIA KLEINHENDLER

New York Film Academy (NYFA) had the honor of hosting a live video Q&A with Osnat Handelsman-Keren and Talia Kleinhendler to discuss producing international films and The Lost Daughter with NYFA students and alumni. Tova Laiter, Director of the NYFA Q&A-List Series, curated and moderated the event.

Talia & Osnat are the producing team behind Pie Films, one of Israel’s most prolific and successful production companies. Pie Films produces multiple award-winning films, set up as international co-productions, which have premiered in Cannes, Venice, Telluride, Sundance, Berlin and Toronto. Recent Films include Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut The Lost Daughter starring Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson and Ed Harris. Venice IFF 2021 and Cannes 2021 Jury prize winner Ahed’s Knee by Nadav Lapid. They also produced Nadav Lapid’s film Synonyms, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival 2019. as well as, The Kindergarten Teacher, a remake from their Israeli film by the same name, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and written and directed by Sara Colangelo. The film premiered at Sundance 2018 as part of the US dramatic competition, and won The Best Director award.

The two weren’t always a duo. Keren worked in Israel on the distribution side of films for nine years before she began to feel that “something was missing” and decided to take some time off. During this time, Kleinhendler was co-producing films with her own production company. It was during this hiatus that a mutual friend – who had been trying to connect the two “for years, with no agenda” – managed to get them together for lunch for what would be the beginning of their partnership.

How the duo came to meet and work with Maggie Gyllenhaal is another story about good lunch dates turned partnerships. Kleinhendler jokes, “it is important to have a budget for lunch.”

When Kleinhendler, Handelsman-Keren and Sara Colangelo got together to discuss possible actors to cast, they all wanted Maggie Gyllenhaal. Kleindhelnder says, “she’s an actress that, for years, all of us admired”. They sent Gyllenhaal the script and the previous Israeli movie through her agent and she fell in love. Gyllenhaal met with Colangelo in New York and after hitting it off, it was time for Handelsman-Keren and Kleinhendler to finally meet Gyllenhaal over lunch. The three had an “Incredible connection,” says Handelsman-Keren, “I don’t know how we came to just ask her if she ever thought about directing…she really is such an incredibly smart woman but more than anything she really is an artist…you saw the way she breaks down the script and thinks about all sorts of things that involve the film, it’s the way a filmmaker thinks”.

Responding to their question, after lunch, Gyllenhaal took them to a bookstore in the Lower East Side where she purchased for them copies of Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante. Prior to this, the two producers did not know of Ferrante’s work. This introduction “set the tone for what would follow”. While the three worked together on The Kindergarten Teacher, Handelsman-Keren and Kleinhendler revisited the question of directing. Gyllenhaal said she would want to direct a Ferrante adaptation.

However, adapting a Ferrante novel is almost as difficult as filming in the middle of a pandemic. Elena Ferrante is only the pen name of the beloved Neopolitan author. No one actually knows who Elena Ferrante is and she cannot be contacted directly. Handelsman-Keren and Kleinhendler, asked their network in Italy for leads on who might have the rights to the book they wanted to adapt. Handelsman-Keren sent email after email to the publisher, to no avail. It was July and the Italians were on vacation. Until “one day we just had enough,” says Handelsman-Keren. “[I] called the secretary and said, ‘I was with him on a call and got disconnected; he’s waiting to hear from me, can I just get his cell phone number?’ and somehow she gave it to me.” She called, introduced herself and his response was ‘Oh yes, I know, I know, I’ve gotten your thousand emails but we’re on holiday until September’. They didn’t speak until September 1st and by then the rights to the book they wanted weren’t unavailable. The publisher recommended The Lost Daughter. The three took immediate interest in the book and began negotiations. However, Handelsman-Keren told us, “in order for the publisher to give us the rights to the book, Elena herself has to agree. So, Maggie wrote a beautiful, beautiful letter to Elena Ferrante” explaining why she wanted the book and what she wanted to do with it. Elena agreed to give Gyllenhaal the rights to the film. There was one caveat, the project could only be made if Gyllenhaal directed it. It was non-negotiable.

The road to The Lost Daughter is a lesson in persistence and artistic collaboration.

Laiter closed the conversation by discussing the movie’s appeal to women as it explores the taboo of depicting layered, ambivalent mothers in film. This subject, as well as the film’s ambivalent ending, are at the heart of many groups’ discussion after they see the movie.

New York Film Academy would like to thank Osnat Handelsman-Keren and Talia Kleinhendler for sharing their time and experience with NYFA students and alumni.

To hear the full conversation, watch the video, below:

NEW YORK FILM ACADEMY (NYFA) WELCOMES PRODUCERS OF “THE LOST DAUGHTER” OSNAT HANDELSMAN-KEREN & TALIA KLEINHENDLER

New York Film Academy (NYFA) had the honor of hosting a live video Q&A with Osnat Handelsman-Keren and Talia Kleinhendler to discuss producing international films and The Lost Daughter with NYFA students and alumni. Tova Laiter, Director of the NYFA Q&A-List Series, curated and moderated the event.

NEW YORK FILM ACADEMY (NYFA) WELCOMES PRODUCERS OF “THE LOST DAUGHTER” OSNAT HANDELSMAN-KEREN & TALIA KLEINHENDLER

Talia & Osnat are the producing team behind Pie Films, one of Israel’s most prolific and successful production companies. Pie Films produces multiple award-winning films, set up as international co-productions, which have premiered in Cannes, Venice, Telluride, Sundance, Berlin and Toronto. Recent Films include Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut The Lost Daughter starring Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson and Ed Harris. Venice IFF 2021 and Cannes 2021 Jury prize winner Ahed’s Knee by Nadav Lapid. They also produced Nadav Lapid’s film Synonyms, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival 2019. as well as, The Kindergarten Teacher, a remake from their Israeli film by the same name, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal and written and directed by Sara Colangelo. The film premiered at Sundance 2018 as part of the US dramatic competition, and won The Best Director award.

The two weren’t always a duo. Keren worked in Israel on the distribution side of films for nine years before she began to feel that “something was missing” and decided to take some time off. During this time, Kleinhendler was co-producing films with her own production company. It was during this hiatus that a mutual friend – who had been trying to connect the two “for years, with no agenda” – managed to get them together for lunch for what would be the beginning of their partnership.

How the duo came to meet and work with Maggie Gyllenhaal is another story about good lunch dates turned partnerships. Kleinhendler jokes, “it is important to have a budget for lunch.”

When Kleinhendler, Handelsman-Keren and Sara Colangelo got together to discuss possible actors to cast, they all wanted Maggie Gyllenhaal. Kleindhelnder says, “she’s an actress that, for years, all of us admired”. They sent Gyllenhaal the script and the previous Israeli movie through her agent and she fell in love. Gyllenhaal met with Colangelo in New York and after hitting it off, it was time for Handelsman-Keren and Kleinhendler to finally meet Gyllenhaal over lunch. The three had an “Incredible connection,” says Handelsman-Keren, “I don’t know how we came to just ask her if she ever thought about directing…she really is such an incredibly smart woman but more than anything she really is an artist…you saw the way she breaks down the script and thinks about all sorts of things that involve the film, it’s the way a filmmaker thinks”.

Responding to their question, after lunch, Gyllenhaal took them to a bookstore in the Lower East Side where she purchased for them copies of Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante. Prior to this, the two producers did not know of Ferrante’s work. This introduction “set the tone for what would follow”. While the three worked together on The Kindergarten Teacher, Handelsman-Keren and Kleinhendler revisited the question of directing. Gyllenhaal said she would want to direct a Ferrante adaptation.

However, adapting a Ferrante novel is almost as difficult as filming in the middle of a pandemic. Elena Ferrante is only the pen name of the beloved Neopolitan author. No one actually knows who Elena Ferrante is and she cannot be contacted directly. Handelsman-Keren and Kleinhendler, asked their network in Italy for leads on who might have the rights to the book they wanted to adapt. Handelsman-Keren sent email after email to the publisher, to no avail. It was July and the Italians were on vacation. Until “one day we just had enough,” says Handelsman-Keren. “[I] called the secretary and said, ‘I was with him on a call and got disconnected; he’s waiting to hear from me, can I just get his cell phone number?’ and somehow she gave it to me.” She called, introduced herself and his response was ‘Oh yes, I know, I know, I’ve gotten your thousand emails but we’re on holiday until September’. They didn’t speak until September 1st and by then the rights to the book they wanted weren’t unavailable. The publisher recommended The Lost Daughter. The three took immediate interest in the book and began negotiations. However, Handelsman-Keren told us, “in order for the publisher to give us the rights to the book, Elena herself has to agree. So, Maggie wrote a beautiful, beautiful letter to Elena Ferrante” explaining why she wanted the book and what she wanted to do with it. Elena agreed to give Gyllenhaal the rights to the film. There was one caveat, the project could only be made if Gyllenhaal directed it. It was non-negotiable.

The road to The Lost Daughter is a lesson in persistence and artistic collaboration.

Laiter closed the conversation by discussing the movie’s appeal to women as it explores the taboo of depicting layered, ambivalent mothers in film. This subject, as well as the film’s ambivalent ending, are at the heart of many groups’ discussion after they see the movie.

New York Film Academy would like to thank Osnat Handelsman-Keren and Talia Kleinhendler for sharing their time and experience with NYFA students and alumni.

To hear the full conversation, watch the video, below:

These guests are not faculty and do not teach at NYFA, but they have appeared to share their stories and experience with our students. As guest speakers are scheduled based on their availability, NYFA cannot guarantee whether a guest speaker will visit during a student’s attendance or who that guest speaker may be. This guest speaker forum is not part of any NYFA curriculum and attendance at guest speaker events is purely voluntary. Students should be aware that guest speaker events do not represent a job opportunity nor are they intended to provide industry connections.

NYFA CELEBRATES ALUMNI AT BAFTA 2022 NOMINATIONS

The BAFTA awards boasted a diverse list of nominees and firsts during the live-streamed announcement on Thursday, February 3rd, 2022.

Here are this year’s contenders:

Dune is in first place with 10 BAFTA nominations including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing and Best Visual Effects. NYFA 3D Animation and VFX Alum Francesco Panzieri was the in-house compositor for the adaptation of the Frank Herbert classic. In a Q&A with NYFA about the film, Panzieri told us that he had been tapped for the project long before it began production; the in-house team at Wylie VFX sought his collaboration after Panzieri’s work on Terminator: Dark Fate.

the dune

The Power of the Dog came in second for most nominations at the BAFTA Awards this year. The film’s nominations included Best Picture, Best Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Cinematography making Ari Wegner the first woman to be nominated in the category.

luca poster

Fan-favorite Luca is nominated for Best Animated Film for Pixar Studios. NYFA Alum Raquel Bordin is part of Pixar’s International Editorial Department, where she worked for 11 weeks putting the final touches on the coming-of-age Italian film. More of Bordin’s work is headed to the big screen, she recently confirmed with us that she is now working on the animated sci-fi feature, Lightyear, set to release this summer.

Kenneth Branagh’s, Belfast, comes in third with 6 nominations including Best Film and Best Original Screenplay. Licorice Pizza and No Time to Die tie with 5 nominations each. The former’s nominations include Best Film and Best Actress (Alana Haim). No Time to Die’s nominations include Best British Film and Best Cinematography.

west side story

Also nominated at this year’s BAFTA Awards is NYFA Guest Speaker Steven Spielberg’s revival of the Sondheim classic, West Side Story. The film is nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Mike Faist) and Best Supporting Actress (Ariana DeBose), Best Production Design, Best Sound and Best Casting. NYFA Musical Theatre Alum Ilda Mason was cast as Luz, a member of the sharks in Spielberg’s remake, shortly after her run on Broadway in Ivo van Hove’s Broadway revival of West Side Story in 2020.

Cyrano, Don’t Look Up, Passing and King Richard all collected 4 nominations each for this year’s BAFTA’s. The musical drama Cyrano is up for Best British Film, satirical sci-fi film Don’t Look Up is a contender for Best Film and Best Original Screenplay, the psychological black-and-white drama Passing is also up for Best British Film and Best Actress (Tessa Thompson) and the biographical drama King Richard is nominated for Best Original Screenplay and Best Actor (Will Smith) making it Smith’s first BAFTA nod.

House of Gucci

House of Gucci received some nods as well including Best British Film and Best Actress (Lady Gaga). NYFA Alum Martina Rojas Chaigneau worked on the project as clearance & product placement coordinator in 2021.

lost daughter

And Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, The Lost Daughter, proves itself this award season as the film continues to collect nominations. The film garnered two BAFTA nominations including Best Supporting Actress (Jessie Buckley) and Gyllenhaal is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for her adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s classic of the same title. The film’s producers Osnat Handelsman – Keren and Talia Kleinhendler spoke at length with the Director of the NYFA Q&A-List Series, Tova Laiter, during a Q&A about the process (and difficulty) of securing the rights to adapt an Elena Ferrante novel and filming during a pandemic with closed borders and a mostly international cast and crew. Check out the full interview below:

NYFA Congratulates all the nominees! We can’t wait to hear the winners on March 13th!

Please note: NYFA does not represent that these are typical or guaranteed career outcomes. The success of our graduates in any chosen professional pathway depends on multiple factors, and the achievements of NYFA alumni are the result of their hard work, perseverance, talent and circumstances.