Joe Seo wins Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance!!!

HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to our very own Joe Seo for winning the Special Jury Award for Breakthrough Performance as David Cho in Spa Night!!!

Joe is a brave, daring, gentle actor, who put his all in this movie and we could not be happier for him! Hoping that this means many more great roles for him and the beginning of a wonderful career - it was an honor working with you through the laughter and pain and long nights and love. 

Congratulations Joe!!!

Check out the full list of winners on Variety, and Joe on Vulture as one of the "Best Performances of Sundance 2016"! So proud to be among these great films!!!

Reviews of Spa Night out of Sundance!

We are honored and humbled by all the great reviews and mentions that keep coming in, so we decided to share some of our favorite ones here. For the latest news and press, please follow our SPA NIGHT FACEBOOK PAGE and TWITTER, where we will keep you posted in real time!

Here is the first review of our film, that we woke up to the morning after the premiere, on Rogertebert.com, by Nick Allen:

"A new and necessary voice in indie cinema, he is a gay Korean-American filmmaker, two aspects of identity that inspire an anxious, shattering search for peace of place and identity within this incredible movie competing in Sundance’s U.S. Dramatic Competition."

On Twitch Film, by Jeremy O. Harris:

"Much like its lead, articulation has failed me in the days since watching and processing Andrew Ahn's glorious Spa Night. The film presents itself with such ease and confidence that its easy to miss its complexities at first glance. A friend of mine who saw the movie with me said it in another way, "It's like a masterpiece painting that you could miss in a museum if you weren't looking close enough. It's not showy in it's honesty." 

On IonCinema, by Nicholas Bell:

"...we can’t escape Ahn’s accomplished and beautifully human portrait of a family forced to flounder from one dream deferred to another."

On the Hollywood Reporter, by Boyd van Hoeij:

"...for those willing to fully invest themselves, Spa Night offers a carefully considered story about identity or rather identities, with David having to figure out a way to accommodate his orientation and his position as the only child of Korean immigrants in L.A."

On Variety, by Peter Debruge:

“Spa Night” serves as an homage to the sacrifices first-generation immigrants made in order that their children could achieve their full potential in the States, expanding the concept of “pride” far beyond its protagonist’s gay identity.

Spa Night receives EFILM|COMPANY 3 Post-Production grant

We can finally announce that Spa Night received a finishing grant from EFILM|COMPANY 3 and Film Independent that allowed us to finish the film and make it so beautiful. Thank you so so much!!!

Special thanks to our AMAZING colorist Marjolaine Mispelaere, who worked her magic and with Ki Jin Kim brought out all the gorgeous colors in the film that make it look like a Hanbok (Korean traditional dress for weddings and Dols).

Read the Press Release HERE.

Ki Jin Kim at the EFILM|Company 3 event at Sundance 2016.

Sundance Channel acquires international TV rights for Spa Night

Excited to announce that Sundance Channel has acquired TV rights for Spa Night out of Sundance for the following territories: Dutch Benelux, Central and Eastern Europe, Iberia and Latin America.

See the press release on Variety and follow us on Facebook for updates on domestic distribution, other sales, and upcoming festival screenings!

Our producer Giulia Caruso selected for Project Involve!

Film Independent announces today the 30 fellows of the 2016 class of Project Involve - see the full list on Indiewire.

Congratulations to our very own Giulia Caruso who was selected in the producing track and will be producing Terence Nance's new short film as part of the program!

Spa Night Premiere at Sundance!

Spa Night premiered on January 24th, 2016 at the Library Theatre in Park City to a full house. It was a beautiful, moving, overwhelming, exciting, stressful, exciting, amazing moment to share the film for the first time with an audience. To hear them laugh, see them tear up.

To all the Sundance programmers who believed in our movie: THANK YOU!!! (Special thanks to Kim Yutani who introduced the Premiere!)

Sundance programmer Kim Yutani and director Andrew Ahn at the premiere of Spa Night.

To everybody who was there in the audience, thank you for being part of this moment. To all of our cast & crew who made it all the way to Park City and through the snow: we could not have done this without you, your talent, your hard hard work.

Special thanks to Kickstarter for hosting our crazy Karaoke party, to Dan, Jessica, Alex, Brady and the whole staff who made this THE BEST PARTY EVER. 
See the full calendar of their events at the Kickstarter lounge HERE.

Here are some photos!!!

L-R: Joe Seo (David Cho), Haerry Kim (Soyoung Cho), director Andrew Ahn

And party-time!!!

Cast&Crew of Spa Night at our Premiere Karaoke Party at the Kickstarter lounge!

Andrew (and many friends) singing the night away!!! So much fun!!!

Elijah Wood shaking it off at our Karaoke party!!! 

Deer Flower by Kangmin Kim premieres at Sundance 2016!

The Sundance shorts lineup was released today and we are thrilled to announce that Deer Flower, the latest short film by super-talented director Kangmin Kim, who recently joined our director roster at Nonetheless, will premiere at the festival!!!

Honored to have been part of the creation of this gorgeous, haunting, moving animated short film. Watch the trailer HERE. We can't wait to work together on Kangmin next project!!!

Full Short Films Lineup - 72 shorts selected from more than 8,000 submissions!
DEER FLOWER BOTTOM LEFT.

See the full lineup HERE.

SPA NIGHT TO PREMIERE AT SUNDANCE 2016!!!

We are beyond excited to announce that our film Spa Night, Andrew Ahn's debut feature that we produced and shot last June, will premiere at Sundance in January in U.S. DRAMATIC COMPETITION!!!

With the risk of sounding repetitive, we would like to thank once more all the people out there who made this possible, who believed in us. Our amazing cast, our hardworking super-talented crew, our investors, our Kickstarter backers, the places that donated food, opened their house for us to shoot in, let us borrow their cars... THANK YOU, to each one of you.

A special thank you to our director, Andrew Ahn, who decided to go on this journey with us, and the producing team: Giulia Caruso, Ki Jin Kim, David Ariniello and Kelly Thomas - for never giving up. We have been working on this film for a long time now, since it was just an idea... we laughed, we cried, we laughed, we yelled, we sweated... Sometimes it was fun, sometimes it was tough, sometimes it was brutal, something exhilarating. We can't say how proud and humbled we are to be taking Spa Night to Sundance and we can't wait to share the movie with you all!!!

See the Sundance press release HERE.

For any inquiries related to Spa Night, please email us at: giulia.caruso@nonethelessproductions.com

Screening of Myrna the Monster at WME

OMG!!! We had a wonderful screening of our short, Myrna the Monster, last night at William Morris Endeavor - a huge thank you to everybody who made it to the screening and a very special thank you to our sponsors:

SOVEREIGN BRANDS for their delicious wine, rose and champagne, BLUE ICE for the wonderful vodka ...that together with REED'S amazing ginger beer made for some outstanding Moscow Mules!!!

Here is to many more of these events!

Myrna and producer Giulia Caruso at last night's screening - what's so funny?

Myrna takes over the MTV Snapchat

Follow her today on Snapchat @MTV and see what happens when she meets Morgan Evans..!!!

Myrna on the @MTV Snapchat today!!!

Interview with our director Andrew Ahn on NPR!

While we are deep in editing Andrew's first feature Spa Night, check out this interview that Andrew did with NPR!!!

"These are the challenges of being a queer Korean-American filmmaker, trying to make a queer Korean-American film. I understand why there are so many films about straight white people."

Nonetheless October/ November Screenings

Myrna has a busy schedule for October and November!
Excited to be part of all these amazing Festivals' lineups!!! If you're around, we hope you'll come see our film and meet Myrna!!!

CMG SHORT FILM FESTIVAL
FESTIVAL DU NOUVEAU CINEMA (Canada)
SANTA FE INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL
SHORTS THAT ARE NOT PANTS (Canada)
TACOMA FILM FESTIVAL
MARFA FILM FESTIVAL
THE LOFT FILM FESTIVAL
DENVER FILM FESTIVAL
ITHACA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
TWIN CITIES FILM FESTIVAL
OUT ON FILM
SEATTLE LESBIAN & GAY FILM FESTIVAL
HAMPTONS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
SIDE BY SIDE LGBT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (Russia)
ST. LOUIS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
LEEDS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (United Kingdom)
PHILADELPHIA FILM FESTIVAL
 

More coming up... For full list of screenings & festivals of Myrna the Monster please email Giulia at: giulia.caruso@nonethelessproductions.com

Also:

Norbert Shieh's short film FRANK AND KASS, that we co-produced with Norbert as part of the Visual Communications Armed with a Camera Fellowship, has new screenings!!

Cast&Crew at the premiere of Frank&Kass at LA Asian Pacific Film Festival in June 2015!

Catch Frank&Kass at this year's Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival and at San Diego Asian Film Festival.

Reel Asian - "Lucky Town" Program
AGO Jackman Hall
Tuesday November 10, 2015 @ 1:00 pm

SDAFF - "SHORTS: DEARLY DEPARTING" Program
UltraStar Mission Valley
Wednesday, November 11, 2015 @ 6:40 pm

Ian Samuels's work at the South Arts - Southern Circuit

Southern Circuit is a great initiative by South Arts that "brings the best of independent film to communities across the South." With the goal of supporting and enhancing the artist community in Southern states, this screening series has brought over 200 films and engaged filmmakers and audiences in post-screening discussions in more than 50 communities across the Southern United States. According to their mission: "The tour takes the audience away from their televisions and computers to connect them with independent filmmakers. Southern Circuit transforms watching independent films from a solitary experience into a communal one."

We are honored that Ian is part of this screening series with four events entirely dedicated to his work -- including our short Myrna the Monster and his previous, beautiful short films: Caterwaul, The Eyes and the Ice, Nancy and the Dappertoad. 

Ian will be at the screenings, so if you are around, check them out!!! For more info about Ian's work, see his website HERE.

Schedule:

September 15, 2015: Carolina Theatre of Greensboro, Greensboro, NC

September 16, 2015: Contemporary Arts Center (CAC), New Orleans, LA

September 17, 2015: Challenger Learning Center, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL

September 18, 2015: South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, Cutler Bay, FL

Myrna at her screening. Looking good!

And some comments from the staff after our last screening in South Miami:

September screenings of Myrna the Monster - European tour!

This September, Myrna is going all over - all the way to Europe and Canada!

Unfortunately we can't be at all these amazing screenings, so if you happen to be in one of these places, we hope you'll go see the film and like it - take a photo and share it with us!

BASEL FILM FESTIVAL (Swiss)

JEROME FILM & MUSIC FESTIVAL

NEVADA CITY FILM FESTIVAL

MILANO FILM FESTIVAL (Italy) - that's where our producer Giulia is from! 

DC SHORTS

BEST OF FESTIVAL (France)

ATHENS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (Greece)

CALGARY INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

CRESTED BUTTE FILM FESTIVAL

LE LONG WEEKEND DU CORT (Canada)

SAN DIEGO FILM FESTIVAL

And check this out: Ian will be touring with Myrna all over the Southern States as part of the Southern Circuit Tour by South Arts! You can see Myrna, but also all his previous shorts (which are great!!): CHECK OUT THE SCHEDULE!

How the Labs made Spa Night possible - Interview with Film Independent

Check out this article about our director Andrew Ahn and the making of Spa Night on the Film Independent Blog: "5 Ways Directing Labs Can Set the Scene for your First Feature"

And if you are thinking of applying to their Artist Development Programs, check out their Guidelines and Deadlines HERE.

8/12/2015 - Creator Hangout: a conversation with Andrew Ahn about our Kickstarter campaign!

Ok, so running our Kickstarter campaign was tough. Extremely satisfying, exciting, depressing, exciting - a pure rollercoaster of emotions. So much work and passion went into it and so many of you were amazing and pushed us to the goal and beyond to have an AMAZINGLY SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN -- and again, THANK YOU FOR THAT!!!

Check out this Creator Hangout with director Andrew Ahn, talking about Spa Night and the campaign and more!

PS: the story about the Good-Karma yell-outs and the crying at the Griffith Observatory is very true...

Myrna the Monster in The Wrap's Shortlist Film Festival!

Myrna has been traveling a lot since we premiered in January... It's hard to keep up to her, but we are thrilled to announce that you can FINALLY see the FULL SHORT ONLINE as part of The Wrap's Shortlist! 

ONLY FOR LIMITED TIME - until August 18th!

Watch the short HERE, love, share, vote!

And check out this great article on The Wrap: 'Myrna the Monster proves that all humans feel like aliens sometimes'

Watch the full short and vote for Myrna!

25 NEW FACES

Congratulations to our director Ian Samuels, who is one of the 2015 25 NEW FACES of Independent Film according to Filmmaker Magazine!!!

“I moved to L.A. a few years ago,” recalls filmmaker and animator Ian Samuels, “and it was a transition. Being in your twenties, navigating your social life, career, relationships — I made a lot of mistakes. And I wound up giving that baggage to Myrna.”

Ian Samuels - one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 NEW FACES of Independent Film

So proud to be Ian's producers, so looking forward to what's next.. We'll keep you posted!

For more, and to see the other super-talented filmmakers on the list, check out the article HERE - and in print on the newsstands!

Myrna on American Cinematographer

Amazing cinematographer Ben Kitchens talks about shooting Myrna the Monster to American Cinematographer! No digital version yet - but Myrna made it to the news stand and bought a physical copy!

Check out Ben's work and get in touch with him HERE!

THAT'S A WRAP ON SPA NIGHT!!!

After 3 weeks on set we are proud to announce that we just wrapped production on Andrew Ahn's debut feature Spa Night.

What a ride.

Before we pass out for a couple of weeks, we want to thank all of you who made this possible and wonderful: our amazing cast (some of whom came all the way from Korea), our hard-working talented crew who endured the hardships of independent filmmaking with us and poured their passion into this project, all the extras, location owners, grocery stores, everybody who let use their place, donated food to our production, came all the way to set at 1am to be an extra in a scene at the Korean Spa... THANK YOU.

Thank you to our investors, all the organizations that supported us through this journey (Sundance Institute, Film Independent, Cinereach, Panavision, CAAM, Visual Communication, Pacific Arts Movement) and our Kickstarter backers. Each and every one of you who believe in us. This would not be happening without you and we could not be more grateful: YOU ARE MAKING OUR DREAMS WITH US. It doesn't get more special than that.

We have so many stories to share with you all, and most of all cannot wait to share the finished movie.. but for the time being follow us on our Facebook PAGE for all updates!!!