How To Be A Hit In Hollywood

The First Film Foundation run a unique scheme called New Directions which takes first time directors for a week of get-to-know-you meetings in New York and a week of meetings in LA.

In part one of our Hollywood Survival Guide, we speak to the Foundation's Amaka Ugwunkwo about the scheme and director-producer team Justine Leahy and Tinge Krishnan (pictured below) of Disruptive Films who went on last year's course.

Who do you accept on the scheme?
FFF: It's been going about ten years. We take applications from directors who have made a good short film and who have a feature film script that's at first draft stage and ideally treatments for more projects. This is what they will talk about in meetings when they get there. Mostly, our directors already have agents in the UK. We will take people without agents but their films have to be very good. Past participants have been Lynne Ramsay (Ratcatcher) Peter Mullan (Orphans) Asif Kapadia (The Warrior) Jim Gillespie (I Know What You Did Last Summer) Andrej Sekula (photographed Reservoir Dogs/Pulp Fiction) among many others.

What happens?
DISRUPTIVE: They screen the films at the beginning of each week to US development and acquisitions executives and organise a reception afterwards. Then it's up to us to spend the next three days following up the screenings and getting meetings. Before we left the UK there was a briefing in London from people who had been the previous year, and all the films are screened for the UK industry.

FFF: In New York they get a breakfast briefing and overview of the business in the US  last time that was from Colin Vaines at Miramax, Greenstreet and United Artists. We screen their films on the Monday around Tribeca (where all the production companies are) and then in Midtown for the bigger companies on the Tuesday. Then after a week we repeat the process in LA, where we are based around West Hollywood.