“Sweetie” To Screen at Cannes Film Festival

First New Mexico Short Accepted

 “Sweetie” was the “Best Film” winner at the July 2007 48 Hour Film Project/New Mexico competition. It has since gone on to screen at the Leeds International Film Festival in Leeds, UK; the Vine Shorts Fest in Santa Monica, CA; and the Boston Underground Film Festival in Boston, MA.

 “In only seven minutes, ‘Sweetie’ tells a suspenseful story with a gripping ending. The
main character, expertly played by Chad Brummet, is a compelling character in an unusual situation,” said 48 Hour Film Project’s Liz Langston. “The team’s decision to shoot the film in just one location was astute, leaving them time to craft a strong story, told with expert cinematic imagery,” she said.

 In February, “Sweetie” was named 2^nd runner up at the 48 Hour Film Project’s annual Filmapalooza competition at Cinequest in San Jose, CA, beating over 60 other city winners and more than 2,200 total films from around the world. It was the highest placing American film of 2007.

About Trifecta+ Entertainment: 

Trifecta+ Entertainment is an Albuquerque-based production company formed in 2006 by local filmmakers Scott Milder, Mary Holyoke and Corey Weintraub. The trio met and began working together during the 2002 “Flicks on 66” (now Duke City Shootout) filmmaking festival, and collaborated on the DCS Audience Award-winning short film “Something Red” in 2004. The core team has gone on to produce a number of short films, including “The Tea Party” (2006), “A Taste of Rita” (with the Sunday Shooting Club and the 48 Hour Film Project, 2006) and, most recently, the multiple award-winning 48FP/NM film “Sweetie” (2007). The company also staged two live interactive theater events, “Murder House” (October 2006) and “The Tunnel of Love” (February 2007).

Affiliate members Benjamin Walsh and Dusty McGowan joined the company in 2007.

Trifecta+ Entertainment is currently in preproduction on their first feature film. They are in the final stages of production on two independent short films, “Blood Rust” and “Truchas,” and are working with the Central New Mexico Community College’s film technician training program to produce a short entitled “Hide,” which is scheduled for production in April of 2008. Two more short films,” Rex” and “The Shower,” are on the slate for the summer.

About 48 Hour Film Project:

The 48 Hour Film Project is a wild and sleepless weekend in which you and a team make a movie—write, shoot, edit and score it—in just 48 hours. On Friday night, you get a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre, all to include in your movie. 48 hours later, the movie must be complete. Then it will show at a local theater, usually in the next week.

In 2007, some 30,000 filmmakers made films in 55 cities around the world.

Contacts: 

Trifecta+:          Scott Milder     505.660.4941      scotty@trifectaplusentertainment.com

Chad Brummett and Emily Villela in Sweetie (2007) 

Sweetie full credit list

Written and Directed by Scott Milder

Story by Scott Milder, Mary Holyoke, Corey Weintraub and Dusty McGowan

Produced by Scott Milder, Mary Holyoke, Corey Weintraub and Dusty McGowan

Trifecta+ Entertainment and the 2007 48 Hour Film Project

Starring Chad Brummett and Emily Villela

Cinematography by Corey Weintraub

Production Design by Mary Holyoke

Edited by Scott Milder

Sound by John Bustamante

Original Music by Benjamin G. Jones

Post-production Assistance by Josiah O’Neil and Damian Montoya

Bios: 

Scott Milder (writer/director) is a writer and filmmaker from Los Alamos, New Mexico, currently residing in Albuquerque. He graduated from Los Alamos High School in 1996 and received a B.A. in English from Adams State College (Alamosa, CO) in 2000. He went on to earn a B.A. in Media Arts from the University of New Mexico in 2004 and an M.F.A. in Screenwriting from Boston University in 2006. He has written and directed several short films. His film “Something Red” was the Audience Award Winner at the 2004 Duke City Shootout in Albuquerque, and his film “Sweetie” was the Best Film Winner at the 2007 48 Hour Film Project/New Mexico. Both films have gone on to screen at various national and international festivals. He has had feature-length screenplays optioned by production companies in Europe and Los Angeles, and is currently in preproduction on his feature directorial debut. His short fiction has appeared in print and online in such venues as Strangewood Tales, Alternate Realities, Brutarian Quarterly, and The Edge. 

Mary Holyoke (production designer), a Virginia native and Albuquerque resident, has worked as production designer and set decorator on several films produced in New Mexico. She was the production designer on the low-budget feature “Breathing Room” and the award-winning shorts “Something Red” and “Sweetie.” She was set decorator on the features “Thicker than Water” and the SlamDance selection “Mall Cop,” as well as the award-winning short “B.A.B.O.F.” Mary has also directed the short films “Inside the Ladies Room” and (with the Trifecta+ team and the Sunday Shooting Club) “A Taste of Rita,” which was produced as part of the first 48HFP/New Mexico. Rita won the award for Best Art Direction.

Corey Weintraub (cinematographer) is an Albuquerque native who graduated from the University of New Mexico with a double major in Media Arts and History. His photographs have been published in Brown Flathead, an automotive book by Joe Abbin. Corey has been the cinematographer for a dozen short films, including “Something Red” and “Sweetie,” along with other Trifecta + and affiliated projects like “The Tea Party” and “A Taste of Rita.” He is a member of the Cinematographer's Guild of America and is currently working on major motion pictures in the state of New Mexico.

Chad Brummet (star) is an actor, writer and director with Tricklock Company in Albuquerque. A native New Mexican, he graduated magna cum laude from the University of New Mexico with a B.A. in Theatre and was the recipient of the 2001 McRae Award from the College of Fine Arts at UNM. He has trained with Anne Bogart, the Gardzienice Centre for Theatre Practices, Ron Sossi & The Odyssey Theatre Ensemble of Los Angeles, KJ Sanchez & the Civilians of New York, and members of the National Theatre Conservatory. Chad has appeared on the stage and screen numerous times, including the award-winning short films “Something Red” and “Sweetie,” as well as the 2007 feature “3:10 to Yuma.” With Tricklock he has performed in such works as The Glorious & Bloodthirsty Billy the Kid..., Coax, MacBett, Dracula, Fool for Love, and his original one-man show, sickMan. He also directed the smash hit Hip Hop Prophets by Ross Kelly, which appeared as part of the 2003 DC Hip Hop Theatre Festival.

Emily J. Villela (star) is a writer and amateur actor. Born and raised in Chicago, IL, she moved to Albuquerque in 2005 after earning her B.A. in Women's and Gender Studies at DePaul University, where she graduated with highest honors. Emily focused on research and literary analysis before dedicating herself to fiction writing, Her 2001 essay, "Wiping Off the Blood," was published in CORE, the University of Chicago's online humanities journal. She received the Compassionate Inquiry Award in 2005 for her senior thesis, "Reading Between the Lines: Strength and Resilience in Autobiographical Accounts of Childhood Sexual Abuse." She also published a series of poems in Voice, a DePaul literary magazine. Emily became involved with Trifecta+ soon after moving to Albuquerque. She acted in “A Taste of Rita,” which was produced by the Trifecta + team and members of the Sunday Shooting Club for the 2006 48 Hour Film Festival/New Mexico. She returned in 2007 for her silent, starring role in “Sweetie.” She has been accepted into Sarah Lawrence College’s M.F.A. program in Creative Writing and plans to attend in the fall. She and Trifecta+ co-founder Scott Milder recently co-wrote a short screenplay titled “The Shower” (based on her short story of the same name). The film will be produced this summer.

Dusty McGowan (co-producer), an Albuquerque native, is an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. He graduated in 2005 from the University of New Mexico with an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing. His play “Harry the Magnificent” won the Kennedy Center’s prestigious Anchorage Press Theater For Youth award in 2004. As an actor he has appeared onstage in a number of local productions and co-starred in 2006’s “A Taste of Rita.” Dusty joined Trifecta+ Entertainment in 2007 and is currently a Screenwriting student at the College of Santa Fe’s New Mexico Filmmakers Intensive. His short script “Mickey” was one of eight scripts recently selected for production during the current term at the college.

 John Bustamante (sound) is an Albuquerque native whose family has lived in New Mexico for nearly five hundred years. He graduated from Sandia High School in 1995 and received his B.A. in University Studies with an emphasis in History from the University of New Mexico in 2002. John served in the Army National Guard from 1998 to 2004 as a PATRIOT missile operator and has worked as a security police officer at Sandia Laboratory since 2004. Sweetie is his first film production credit. In addition to providing the location and working as the sound recordist, he applied his Combat Lifesavers Course medical training as Chad Brummett’s stand-in handling the rat in the film.