Back in March 2013, former NYU student Melanie Delloye won the Graduate Film Award at the Fusion Film Festival for her thesis, Anna and Jerome. Shot in Normandy and starring award-winning French actress Elodie Bouchez, the film tells the story of a struggling mother who dreams of starting a new life with her young son. Poignant and atmospheric, Delloye’s film shows a keen sensitivity to nature, the passage of time, and relationships, and wowed the audience at Fusion.
Melanie Delloye directing her actors in Anna and Jerome.
Since winning her award at Fusion, Delloye has found incredible success with her film. Anna and Jerome has been shown in more than thirty film festivals worldwide and won Best Short Film at the Miami International Film Festival, 2nd Graduate Prize at the First Run Festival and Best Short Film at the Eberswalde Film Festival in Germany. Furthermore, Anna and Jerome will air on the French television channel France 3 next year.
Equally impressive, Delloye won 1st prize in the short screenplay competition at the Eure in France (with an accompanying 25,000 Euro grant) for her next short film, Petit Coeur Brise (Little Broken Heart).
Although her work speaks for itself, Delloye accredits much of her good fortune to the Fusion Film Festival: “Personally, Fusion was truly an important moment for me…It was the first prize I won and it gave me the confidence I needed to reach further…Great films, great people, great experience.”
Moreover, Delloye extols Fusion for its collaborative and communal environment, adding, “The wonderful thing about Fusion is that it doesn’t end once all the good films have played and the prizes have been won. You feel like you become part of a family that keeps sharing their work and encouraging each other.”
As Delloye affirms, Fusion provides for an empowering, supportive, and creatively stimulating experience – one uniquely beneficial to young filmmakers.
With the year coming to a close, the deadline for submissions to the Fusion Film Festival looms. Click HERE to learn more, submit your great student films, and try your hand at a meaningful opportunity. Categories for submissions include feature and short screenplay, web series, and doc-in-the-works.
By Ben Eisen