Oscar winner Geoffrey Fletcher, who became the first African-American to win for Best Adapted Screenplay for his work on the 2009 film “Precious,” has partnered with the Tribeca Film Festival and Bombay Sapphire in an effort to find talented aspiring filmmakers. The project is called the Imagination Series, and will be a competition for filmmakers around the world.
Using a short script supplied by Fletcher (pictured), competitors will direct and produce their own short films. The earliest entries will be accepted May 8, and will be judged by Fletcher himself.
“I’m looking forward to the project; from writing the script, to seeing what people do with it, and judging the submissions. I want to see things that I wouldn’t have imagined; I want to be inspired by the imagination of others.” Fletcher said in the press release.
He added, “It was a very long journey from when I got my first movie camera to going to film school, and then a huge gap between film school and Precious. I took a lot of jobs that had nothing to do with film, but I never stopped studying, writing, and imagining.”
Along with the Tribeca Film Festival, Fletcher will choose five winning entries, and the five filmmakers will go on to direct and produce their own film. These original films will debut in 2013 at an international movie premiere.
In an interview with The Huffington Post, Fletcher again spoke on the goals of the Imagination Series: “There is so much talent out there and not quite as much opportunity. So hopefully we’ll find some fantastic new voices and at the same time we’re excited about people involving more creativity in their everyday lives. And perhaps they’ll make more films or approach their work differently or inspire someone else to create and imagine.”
