Short Film Competition, Narrative Jury
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Incendiary or poignant, experimental or timeless, funny or tragic: this year’s shorts programs comprise works by both established and emerging filmmakers from around the world.
Mario Batali
Mario Batali believes that olive oil is as precious as gold and food, like most things, is best when left to its own simple beauty. Mario, with business partner Joe Bastianich, creates magic in his 12 hot spots, including the award-winning Greenwich Village flagship, Babbo Ristorante e Enoteca, and Lupa Osteria Romana, Esca, Casa Mono, Bar Jamón, Otto Enoteca Pizzeria, and Del Posto, all in New York City. He also has Osteria Mozza and Pizzeria Mozza in Los Angeles and Carnevino and B&B Ristorante and Enoteca San Marco in Las Vegas. Mario was named “Man of the Year” in the chef category by GQ in 1999. In 2002 he won the James Beard Foundation’s award for best chef in New York City, and in 2005 the Foundation named Mario “Outstanding Chef of the Year.” Mario is also one of the recipients of the 2001 D’Artagnan Cervena Who’s Who of Food & Beverage in America. His new PBS food and travel series, Spain…On the Road Again (with costars Mark Bittman and Gwyneth Paltrow), will air next fall. Mario’s upcoming cookbook is Mario Batali – Italian Grilling, and others include Simple Italian Food, The Babbo Cookbook, and Mario Tailgates NASCAR Style. Mario splits his time between New York City’s Greenwich Village and Northern Michigan with his wife, Susi Cahn of Coach Dairy Goat Farm, and their two sons.
Christine Lahti
Christine Lahti earned her first Oscar® nomination for 1985’s Swing Shift then took the statue home 10 years later as a first-time director for her short film Lieberman in Love. In 1998, after multiple nominations, Lahti won both the Emmy and her second Golden Globe Award (the TV movie No Place Like Home was the first) for her work on Chicago Hope. Her feature directorial debut, My First Mister, opened the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. Lahti recently starred onstage in Wendy Wasserstein’s Third at the Geffen Playhouse. The play marked her third collaboration with the late playwright—the others being The Heidi Chronicles on Broadway in 1989 and An American Daughter for Lifetime in 2000. Additional theater credits include Little Murders, for which she received an Obie Award, and David Mamet’s The Woods at the Public Theater, for which she received a Theater World Award. Her film credits include Sidney Lumet’s Running on Empty (for which she received the 1998 LA Film Critics Award and a Golden Globe nomination), Leaving Normal, The Doctor, Housekeeping, Whose Life is It Anyway? and …And Justice for All. Lahti’s latest role is alongside Chazz Palminteri in Yonkers Joe. Among her numerous TV credits are Jack & Bobby, for which she received both SAG and Golden Globe nominations, and Amerika, which earned her Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.
Zac Posen
Zac Posen debuted his ready-to-wear collection in ’02 in New York City, signaling the presence of a new force within international fashion. Zac Posen is now a global luxury lifestyle brand presenting four ready-to-wear collections per year. Born in 1980, Posen was raised in lower Manhattan. At age 14 he attended the pre-college program at Parson’s School of Design. He was mentored by curator Richard Martin at the Costume Institute of MoMA, and at 18 he was accepted into London’s Central Saint Martins University. In ’01, Posen constructed a gown made entirely of thin leather strips and dressmaker hooks and eyes. The gown was acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum and featured in their Curvaceous exhibit. Returning to New York in ’01, Posen set up an atelier in his parent’s living room. A year later he presentd a capsule collection as part of GenArt’s Fresh Face in Fashion. He then established his design studio in Tribeca. Posen continues to receive awards, most notably the CFDA’s ’04 Swarovski/Perry Ellis Award for ready-to-wear, and his strong, feminine aesthetic has become a favorite of Hollywood style leaders. The Zac Posen line is found in top retailers all over the world.
Molly Shannon
Molly Shannon has become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after talents. She recently starred in the Lifetime movie More of Me and the quirky comedy Year of the Dog, and she next lends her voice to the animated comedy Igor and costars with Selma Blair on the upcoming NBC sitcom Kath and Kim. Shannon’s film credits include Talladega Nights, A Night at the Roxbury, Analyze This, Never Been Kissed, My Boss’s Daughter, and Serendipity. Her independent film credits include Sue Kramer’s Gray Matters, Bruce Leddy’s Shut Up and Sing, Todd Solondz’ Happiness, and Wet Hot American Summer. Among Shannon’s most memorable roles are Betty Lou Who in the blockbuster How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Catholic schoolgirl Mary Katherine Gallagher in the hit comedy Superstar. On television, Shannon has been seen in the offbeat comedy series Cracking Up, 12 Days of Christmas Eve, and The Music Man. Her guest appearances include memorable roles on Will & Grace, Sex and the City, and Seinfeld. Shannon spent six seasons on Saturday Night Live and previously appeared with Rob Muir at Los Angeles’s The Up Front Comedy Theater in The Rob and Molly Show. Born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, Molly earned a BFA in drama from New York University’s prestigious Tisch School of the Arts. She currently lives in New York.
Lili Taylor
Lili Taylor has received praise for her wide range of performances on film, stage, and television. She stars in The Weinstein Co.’s upcoming film, The Promotion, opposite John C. Reilly, Seann William Scott, and Jenna Fischer. Recent films include Starting Out in the Evening opposite Frank Langella, The Secret, The Notorious Bettie Page, and Factotum, earning her best actress at the Copenhagen Film Festival. Other films include A Slipping Down Life, Casa de los Babys, Live from Baghdad, High Fidelity, Pecker, Short Cuts, Ready to Wear, Born on the Fourth of July, Dogfight, Say Anything, Mystic Pizza, Arizona Dream, and The Addiction. Taylor earned an Emmy nomination and a Screen Actors Guild Award for her work on Six Feet Under, a Blockbuster Award for Ransom, an Independent Spirit Award for Household Saints, and the first Special Grand Jury Prize for Acting at Sundance in 1995 for her work in Girls Town, Cold Fever, and I Shot Andy Warhol. Taylor made her Broadway debut in Chekov’s Three Sisters and made her directorial debut with Halcyon Days for her own theater company, Machine Full. She earned a Drama Desk Award nomination for her performance in The Dead Eye Boy. On stage, she has also starred in Landscape of the Body, Aven’ U Boys, and Aunt Dan & Lemon, for which she won both an Obie Award and a Drama League Award.
