Updated: Feb 09, 2022
Published: Jan 20, 2017
4 Amazing Interviews with Entertainment Project Winners
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For the 2017 AT&T Developer Summit, we held our first AT&T Entertainment Project competition. Professional and student filmmakers submitted their short films for a chance to win $20,000 and an opportunity to meet with AT&T entertainment executives. The finalists showed their shorts at the Summit and after judging by the Audience Network, a professional production company, and Summit attendees, the winning films have been selected. We spoke with the directors of the shorts to learn more about their experience and why they are so passionate about filmmaking. Watch the individual interviews below.
1st Place Winner Dispatch
Meet Caleb Hermann, a filmmaker from Kansas City, MO, who created a thriller/docu-drama that focuses on a rookie 911 dispatcher who receives a bizarre phone call, plunging him into a horrific waiting game. Learn more about Caleb’s experience and watch Dispatch below.
2nd Place Winner Para Mi Mamá – A Letter to My Birth Mother
Director Lexi Hiland turns the camera on herself as she embarks on a journey that leads her to unexpectedly meet the woman who was responsible for saving her life. Spoken in the words that so many adoptees wish they could convey, comes the combination of Lexi’s redemptive story, threaded with her work as a filmmaker. Learn more about Lexi and watch Para Mi Mamá below.
3rd Place Winner Bug Man
LA director Iqbal Ahmed sought out to tell a different kind of story that felt stylized and would transport viewers into a strange cinematic world. He found his subject matter in Steven Kutcher, a man who worked in Hollywood as a bug wrangler which evolved into something new and unexpected. Learn more about Iqbal and watch his intriguing film Bug Man below.
Student Film Winner Five Windows
As noted above, the competition was also open to student filmmakers. Brothers Adam and Daniel Cooper created a short film that follows an assassin on his last kill as he leads his target and the audience down a trail of deception and misdirection. The brothers aimed to make a film that mirrored a magic trick and that questions reality through the lens of an unconventional film experience. Learn more about the Cooper brothers and watch Five Windows below.
AT&T is committed to transforming how people watch their favorite entertainment—anytime, anywhere, on any device. Which is your favorite film? Let us know in the comments below. Learn more about all the finalists and their films.
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