...screenwriting with an edge of romance
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Marc Sandler...Preliminary Judge | |
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... the animation television series Hackland. He’s been a contributing writer for the TBS Network children’s show Feed Your Mind, worked as script analyst for The USA Cable Network’s feature film division, and has taught screenwriting at both the prestigious Maine International Film and Television Workshops and The Grub Street Writers private school in Boston. Both The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Nicholl Fellowships and The Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema have honored Marc for his award-winning screenplay Shadow Glories. In addition, Marc is currently writing his first novel, Sunset Rising, worked as producer on the critically acclaimed and award-winning films The Letter: An American Town and the “Somali Invasion” and Shadow Glories, and is co-owner of Hamzeh Mystique Films.
A veteran actor of over twenty stage productions, Marc wrote, produced and starred in the feature film Shadow Glories. He has received the Critics Choice Award for best performance by an actor by the Los Angeles Dramalogue, and received a runner-up nod as best actor at The Riverrun Film Festival for his work in Shadow Glories. On stage Marc has appeared in the original casts of Dalene Young’s Night Angels and Roxy Ventola’s After The Bomb, as well as the Los Angeles premiere production of The Pixley Caper and the re-staging of Orson Welles’ Moby Dick, Rehearsed. He was an original member of the award-winning Open Fist Theatre in Los Angeles where he acted, directed, taught acting classes and scene study, and served as assistant artistic director. He’s worked as both actor and assistant director with The West Coast Ensemble Company and studied acting and movement with The Philadelphia Company of the Walnut Street Theatre, as well as master classes with Misha Nuchi of The Moscow Art Theatre. Marc has appeared in several independent feature films, including Ziad Hamzeh’s Baal, Tony Spiridakis’ Self Storage, Marek Provost’s The Last Supper, and Jordan Ellis’ When Tomorrow Hits. As a director, he staged Harold Pinter’s The Lover, John Lewis Carlino’s Snow Angel, and the American theatrical premiere of April de Angelis’ Hush, all in Los Angeles. Marc is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Written, produced and starring Marc Sandler, Shadow Glories received rave reviews from The Los Angeles Times, Variety, The Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, Box Office Magazine, and Film Threat Magazine. The screenplay earned praise from Academy Award winning director Sydney Pollack, and was honored as a semi-finalist in the Nicholl Fellowships of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Philadelphia Festival of World Cinema. In addition, the film was the subject of two feature articles in Imagine Magazine. Shadow Glories became the largest independently released feature film in New England history, going up on 45 screens with exhibitors such as Hoyts, General Cinema, Loew’s, Showcase, Flagship, etc. Ranked number-1 at the box office when released in Lewiston and Oxford, Maine; according to Daily Variety, on a per/screen average, Shadow Glories outpaced other powerhouse distributors’ films in release: MGM/UA’s Born Romantic, Paramount Classics’ Bride Of The Wind, Sony Classics’ The Road Home and Jackpot, Artisan Entertainment’s Soul Survivors, and Regent Entertainment’s Sordid Lives.
Among its festival awards, Shadow Glories received:
Marc is one of the producers and a contributing writer of the feature-length documentary The Letter: An American Town And The “Somali Invasion”. The film premiered theatrically in New York City February 2005 to rave reviews from every major NY newspaper, including The New York Times, The New York Post, The New York Sun, The Village Voice, and New York Magazine; as well as Variety, LA Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, and The Christian Science Monitor. The Letter is being called an important film by critics across the United States and continues to be sought out by film festivals -- recently playing at two Amnesty International Film Festival venues: San Francisco and Ashville, North Carolina. The Letter has also been invited to screen in April 2005 at the Belfast Film Festival in Northern Ireland, which will represent its European premiere. As of this writing THE LETTER has and/or will screen at these festivals:
The Letter has had a featured article written about it by The Southern Poverty Law Center and Tolerance.org, was featured on NPR’s Here And Now, was screened in Canada by The Journalists for Human Rights, is being used as a teaching tool by The Human Rights Office of Minneapolis, was the topic of a discussion held by the former Prime Minister of Somalia at a seminar held at St. Thomas University, and was invited to screen at The Society for Cinema and Media Studies 2005 London Conference: The Institute for Education, University of London, the Society’s first transatlantic conference. www.hamzehmystiquefilms.com/theletter
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Best of Festival/Best Feature Film: 2001 Dances With Films Festival, Los Angeles
