Cal Arts Producers' Show

I attended the Cal Arts Producers' Show last night at Academy of Television theater. The program came in a cover cleverly designed to look like a VHS box, and the program itself looked like an actual tape . . . It's unfortunate that we didn't actually get a tape of the 41 films that made the show, because a lot of them were winners that I'd like to watch again. This was probably the fifth producers' show I've seen, and I think it was the strongest. Others there agreed that this was one of the best shows they'd seen. I did hear one experienced recruiter say he thought some of the student work coming from Europe was more impressive, but that may be because the European schools tend to have several students team up on a single film (I know it's that way at Gobelins in Paris). If I had to pick a favorite from last night, it would be Jiwook Kim's Giant's Kitchen, but there were another dozen films that I could just as easily pick. Congrats to all the Cal Arts grads -- and welcome to the harsh reality of the working world. I hope the industry treats you well, and you have a chance to develop the talent so many of you showed last night.