Posted by Larry Gleeson
AMERICAN FILM INSTITUTE ANNOUNCES
EMMY® AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKER LUCIA ANIELLO AS
KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT AFI DWW+ SHOWCASE
DWW+ Class of 2025 to Debut New Movies
Alums of the DWW+ Directing Program Embody Lesli Linka Glatter, Siân Heder, Dime Davis, Cicely Tyson, Lee Grant, Gandja Monteiro, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Maya Angelou and Extra
OR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, Los Angeles, CA, March 4, 2025 – In the present day, the American Movie Institute (AFI) introduced that Emmy® Award-winning author/director/producer Lucia Aniello (HACKS, BROAD CITY, ROUGH NIGHT) will ship the keynote tackle on the AFI DWW+ Showcase for the Class of 2025 which can happen on Wednesday, March 5 at 7:00 p.m. on the Administrators Guild of America in Los Angeles.
The DWW+ Showcase is an integral a part of the AFI DWW+ program and gives a chance for the graduating cohort to premiere their brief movies to an viewers of company and studio representatives, in addition to working artists from all through the inventive group.
The presenting administrators from the Class of 2025 embrace Julia Bales, Jahmil Eady, MG Evangelista, Marissa Excessive, Jasmine J. Johnson, Natasha Mynhier, Karina Lomelin Ripper and Ezra Rose. The administrators have been mentored by AFI DWW+ Visitor Inventive Director Hanelle M. Culpepper (STAR WARS: THE ACOLYTE, STAR TREK: PICARD, WESTWORLD) who additionally oversaw the inventive curriculum for the 2024–2025 program.
“Lucia Aniello is an crucial and dynamic voice in at this time’s storytelling panorama, and we’re honored to welcome her as this 12 months’s keynote speaker on the AFI DWW+ Showcase,” stated Susan Ruskin, Dean of the AFI Conservatory and Government Vice President of the American Movie Institute. “We look ahead to bringing the leisure group collectively to have fun the DWW+ Class of 2025 administrators and their daring new movies.”
Emmy® and Golden Globe winner Lucia Aniello is a author, director, producer, performer and one half of the comedy workforce Paulilu along with her accomplice, Paul W. Downs.
Aniello and Downs have achieved crucial acclaim and business success writing, directing, producing and appearing in comedies corresponding to HACKS, BROAD CITY, TIME TRAVELING BONG, NORA FROM QUEENS, THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB and extra.
Aniello is at present writing, directing and government producing the fourth season of Max’s Unique comedy collection, HACKS, starring Jean Sensible, which she additionally co-created alongside Downs and Jen Statsky. HACKS has obtained 48 Emmy® nominations and 9 wins throughout its three seasons, together with wins for Excellent Comedy Collection, Excellent Writing For A Comedy Collection and Excellent Directing For A Comedy Collection in addition to wins for 4 Golden Globe Awards, 4 Writers Guild of America Awards and a Peabody Award; and Aniello has gained two Administrators Guild of America Awards within the class of Excellent Directorial Achievement in Comedy Collection. The collection was honored as one of many Excellent Tv Packages of the Yr on the AFI AWARDS for seasons one, two and three. HACKS has additionally obtained varied award nominations and wins on the Display screen Actors Guild Awards, Critics Alternative Awards, Producers Guild of America Awards and the Gotham Awards, amongst others. Season three of the present premiered on Could 2, 2024, on Max with season 4 premiering within the Spring of 2025.
After the success of HACKS in 2021, Downs and Aniello signed a multiyear total take care of Warner Bros. Tv Group. Most just lately, in November of 2024, HBO landed KANSAS CITY STAR, a half-hour comedy starring and executively produced by Kaley Cuoco, created by the Hacks trio of Aniello, Downs and Statsky.
Aniello additionally served as government producer and director on Comedy Central’s collection AWKWAFINA IS NORA FROM QUEENS and Netflix’s THE BABY-SITTERS CLUB. Aniello beforehand served as a author, government producer and director on Comedy Central’s beloved collection BROAD CITY, which ran for 5 seasons. On the large display screen, Aniello directed Sony’s ROUGH NIGHT starring Scarlett Johansson which she additionally co-wrote and produced with Downs. Different previous initiatives embrace the Comedy Central miniseries TIME TRAVELING BONG, which was created and written by Aniello, together with Downs and Ilana Glazer.
Obtain photograph of Lucia Aniello (photograph credit score: Ryan Pfluger)
RSVPs are required for the AFI DWW+ Showcase on March 5.
As one of many longest-running and preeminent movie and tv workshops nationwide, AFI DWW+ has educated a whole bunch of artists whose directorial work has entertained world audiences and outlined our collective cultural panorama. Distinguished Alums of the AFI DWW+ program embrace Maya Angelou, Anne Bancroft, Neema Barnette, Pippa Bianco, Tessa Blake, Tricia Brock, Ellen Burstyn, Rebecca Cammisa, Dyan Cannon, Dime Davis, Jan Eliasberg, Naomi Foner, Jennifer Getzinger, Lesli Linka Glatter, Lyn Goldfarb, Randa Haines, Siân Heder, Victoria Hochberg, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Matia Karrell, Maggie Kiley, Lynne Littman, Nancy Malone, Gandja Monteiro, Amber Sealey, Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, Becky Smith, Cicely Tyson, Jude Weng and Joanne Woodward. View full checklist of 350+ AFI DWW+ Alums right here.
AFI DWW+ is a part of the AFI Conservatory’s Division of Revolutionary Packages, which additionally consists of the AFI Cinematography Intensive Workshop. By means of a spread of studying alternatives, Revolutionary Packages serves a various group of aspiring visible storytellers to domesticate cutting-edge technological and media-making expertise, bridge entry to skilled networks and place members on an upward profession trajectory.
Study extra at Conservatory.AFI.com/
Concerning the American Movie Institute (AFI)
The American Movie Institute (AFI) is a nonprofit group with a mandate to champion the transferring picture as an artwork kind. Established in 1967, AFI launched the primary complete historical past of American movie and sparked the motion for movie preservation in the USA. In 1969, AFI opened the doorways of the AFI Conservatory, a graduate-level program to coach narrative filmmakers. The Conservatory, which counts Deniese Davis, Affonso Gonçalves, Susannah Grant, Matthew Libatique, David Lynch, Melina Matsoukas and Rachel Morrison as Alumni, is ranked one of many prime movie faculties in America. AFI’s enduring traditions embrace the AFI Life Achievement Award, which honors the masters for work that has stood the check of time; AFI AWARDS, which celebrates the inventive ensembles of essentially the most excellent display screen tales of the 12 months; and scholarly efforts such because the AFI Catalog of Characteristic Movies and the AFI Archive that protect movie historical past for future generations. AFI exhibition packages embrace AFI FEST Offered by Canva and year-round exhibition on the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Middle in Maryland. AFI Film Membership is a vacation spot for film lovers from world wide to have fun and interact with the artwork kind daily. Different pioneering packages embrace workshops geared toward elevating rising storytellers and expertise, together with AFI DWW+ and the AFI Cinematography Intensive Workshop. Examine all of those packages and extra at AFI.com and observe us on social media at Fb.com/
Concerning the AFI Conservatory
The AFI Conservatory opened its doorways in 1969 to an inaugural class that included Terrence Malick, Caleb Deschanel and Paul Schrader. In the present day, the Conservatory gives a two-year MFA diploma in six filmmaking disciplines: Cinematography, Directing, Enhancing, Producing, Manufacturing Design and Screenwriting. In a collaborative manufacturing setting, AFI Fellows be taught to grasp the artwork of storytelling, collectively creating as much as 175 movies a 12 months. Fellows actively take part in your complete life cycle of a movie, from growth by means of manufacturing and exhibition.
Alumni of this elite program, starting from trendy masters to daring new voices defining the cutting-edge kind, embrace Andrea Arnold, Darren Aronofsky, Ari Aster, Deniese Davis, Sam Esmail, Brad Falchuk, Affonso Gonçalves, Susannah Grant, Liz Hannah, Patty Jenkins, Janusz Kamiński, Matthew Libatique, David Lynch, Melina Matsoukas, Polly Morgan, Rachel Morrison and Wally Pfister, amongst others.
Press contact: American Movie Institute
Shari Mesulam, Shari@themesulamgroup.com
Associated