FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Peggy McGlone
Tel: +1 212-998-6829
Email: peggy.mcglone@nyu.edu
New York, NY –– June 23, 2023
NYU Production Lab Announces New Slate of Films for 2023
The 10th slate of projects features a roster of international filmmakers and stories of love, self-discovery, and survival.
The NYU Production Lab, a development center supporting NYU alumni and student artists, announced today the addition of three new titles to its slate of feature films. May You Outlive Us from French-Lebanese filmmaker Isabelle Mecattaf, Throuple from director/editor Greyson Horst and writer/actor Michael Doshier, and Tomahawk Springs from Syrian-American filmmaker Ramzi Bashour bring the number of films receiving the NYU Production Lab’s support to 32.
The 2023 slate of projects are in various states of development. They were selected because they tell new and compelling stories, says John Tintori, NYU Production Lab co-founder and academic director.
“We believe in these filmmakers, who are all diving into the complexities of cross-cultural dynamics through nuanced perspectives and tones,” Tintori says. “Through a lengthy application process, we were impressed by the passion that each of them brings to the work. They highlight the mission of the NYU Production Lab to support NYU alumni who are diverse filmmakers, producers, writers and musicians across schools and programs. “
After making its first financial investments in 2014, the NYU Production Lab opened in 2015 as a bridge to help NYU students and recent alumni move from an academic to a professional setting. The lab provides Slate Fellows with in-kind support and financial investment and actively mentors filmmakers until they secure distribution.
In less than a decade, it has built a remarkable track record of success. Early projects include Dead Pigs, written and directed by Cathy Yan (Birds of Prey), who co-founded the lab while a graduate student, and Songs My Brothers Taught Me from Chloe Zhao, who won critical acclaim for Nomadland, winner of six Academy Awards.
More recently, the Lab has supported Starling Girl, a coming-of-age drama from Laurel Parmet. Part of the 2019 slate, it premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival and was theatrically released in the U.S. earlier this year. Invisible, director TJ Parsell’s documentary about gay women in Southern music that was part of the 2018 slate, premiered at Frameline Film Festival and has won 15 audience and jury awards. Another 2019 slate project, Settlers, is a science fiction thriller from director Wyatt Rockefeller that was released in 2021 and is currently streaming on Hulu. Finally, the NYU Production Lab supported Jarreau Carrillo’s short film, The Vacation, winner of the Short Film Special Jury Award for Directing at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. The short is a proof-of-concept for the feature length, Last to Survive in America.
The 2023 Slate
May You Outlive Us
Set in Beirut in 2021, one year after a deadly explosion rocked the city, May You Outlive Us follows four women sharing a house as they try to rebuild their lives and navigate their destroyed city.
The film stars Nathalie Issa, who appeared in the Netflix film, The Swimmers, and Julia Kassar (The Insult). It is co-produced by Tabo Tabo Films and Ezekiel Film Production.
Mecattaf says, “It’s a huge honor to be a part of the slate because of the Lab’s track record of supporting first features out of NYU. More importantly it creates a bridge for us as we’re transitioning out of school. The slate is more than just a list: it’s a program, the continuance of a community and support as we strive to make our films. For my project specifically, which is a Lebanese feature, the validation of being chosen for the slate means that people outside of the Middle East will also pay attention. The slate champions voices from all around the world and gives us both a stamp of approval and a platform – and that tips the scale significantly.”
May You Outlive Us received the Toronto International Film Festival’s’ Every Story People’s Fellowship in 2022. It has been supported by Unifrance and was a 2023 NYU Purple List winner.
Based in New York City, French-Lebanese filmmaker Isabelle Mecattaf earned an MFA in filmmaking from NYU. Previously, she studied English literature and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania, She has filmed in Beirut, New York, Paris, and Los Angeles. Her most recent project, Beity, was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and the Aspen and Hollyshorts festivals before being purchased by The New Yorker, where it is streaming.
Throuple
Michael, a lonely gay musician, is terrified of exploring romantic intimacy and pursuing his dreams of performing on stage. He has gotten comfortable relying on his best friend, Tristan, and her girlfriend, Abby, for support and affection. However, when he meets a newly open married couple, Georgie and Connor, the three men enter into a relationship that is more intimate and vulnerable than any of them ever expected.
The film stars Michael Doshier, who wrote the screenplay, Jess Gabor and Tommy Heleringer. It is produced by Emmi Shockley, Kara Bartek, and Phil Hughes and executive produced by Nahnatchka Khan and Julia Bicknell. Greyson Horst directs.
Doshier says, “Being selected for the 2023 Slate is a game-changer for an indie feature film like Throuple for many, many reasons. First of all, the Production Lab has helped bring to life some truly amazing films at varying stages in their journey. It’s an honor to join that lineage – and have our film be a part of this larger ecosystem of boundary-pushing cinema coming out of NYU. Secondly, as young filmmakers who have made their very first feature, the resources and guidance have been indescribably invaluable. As a team, we now feel confident we can navigate anything that comes our way because the Lab has our back.”
Throuple was invited by the Tribeca Film Festival to participate in its 2023 Creators Market. As a script, Throuple advanced in the 2021 Sundance Development Track, placed among the top of all entries in the 2020 Academy Awards Nicholl Fellowship, was the winner of the 2020 NYU Tisch Institute of Performing Arts Grant, and was a semi-finalist for the 2019 Creative Capital Fund.
Horst is a director and editor from Sacramento whose short film, The Bugs and the Slugs, premiered at Slamdance 2022. Greyson completed two years at Chapman where he studied narrative film and documentary before spending two years at NYU Tisch, where he dove headfirst into experimental and genre filmmaking.
Doshier is a writer, actor, and musician whose work focuses on the often-overlooked intricacies of the queer coming-of-age experience. His screenwriting has won the Missouri Stories Competition and NYU’s Venable Herndon Award. He has written and performed acclaimed Fringe Festival solo shows and sings with Darlin! The Band.
Tomahawk Springs
After Daniel is expelled from school in Indiana, his mother Layal decides it’s best he move to his father’s place in California. Stopping at diners, motels, and hot springs, the mother and son journey the open road and discover themselves along the way.
The film is directed by Ramzi Bashour and produced by Max Walker-Silverman and Jesse Hope.
Tomahawk Springs was part of the 2022 Sundance Institute Screenwriters Intensive 2022 and won a 2022 Flies Collective Feature Film Grant.
Bashour says, “As a Grad Film alum who lives and works in New York, the slate feels like an arts postdoc of sorts where I get to be back on campus. It’s going to enable our project with support, advice, and state-of-the-art facilities that’ll help bring it all to the screen.”
Ramzi Bashour is a Syrian-American filmmaker based in New York. He grew up in Beirut, Lebanon and has worked as a cook, baker, journalist, teacher, and videographer. He studied creative writing and music at Indiana University and earned his MFA from Tisch School of the Arts in 2020. His short film, The Trees, won the International Special Jury Prize at Clermont-Ferrand Film Festival in 2021. He was featured in Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces in Independent Film” in 2021, and was a Sundance Institute Fellow in 2022.
About the NYU Production Lab
The NYU Production Lab is a development center whose mission is to support the next generation of creatives in designing and launching thriving careers in their industries. Building on our early successes in film, we’re begun a new chapter in support of all the creative arts at NYU.