“In France Michelle is a Man’s Name,” the short film by Em Weinstein that we recently cast, has been awarded the 2020 Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Narrative Short at Outfest, the largest and oldest film festival–of any kind–in Los Angeles, and the preeminent and most widely-recognized LGBTQ film festival in the world.
Here’s what the Programming Coordinator said: “I am absolutely delighted to tell you that our U.S. Narrative Shorts jury fell in love with the film and has awarded IN FRANCE MICHELLE IS A MAN’S NAME with the Grand Jury Prize for U.S. Narrative Short. Congratulations!! In addition to the honor itself, this prize officially designates the film as an Academy Award-qualifying title for the category of Best Live Action Short Film.”
A HUGE CONGRATS to the filmmakers, cast and crew!
A full article about Outfest’s 2020 award winners appears in The Advocate. Free The Work also published a great piece about the project.
For more information and updates, please visit the film’s website and follow it on Instagram at @infrancefilm.
“In France Michelle is a Man’s Name” shot in Portland, The Dalles, and surrounding areas last fall. The mostly-Northwest cast included–among others–the talented actors below, who were all hired by our office. BRAVO!
From top Left: Tim Blough, Jerry Carlton, Neil Green, Olga Sanchez & Dan Vhay
Portland’s own Lana Veenker is celebrating 20 years as a casting director! In that time, she’s made a name for herself both here and abroad — having just returned from the Rome Film Festival where she rubbed elbows with Italian film royalty. Lana joined us to look back at the last 20 years of film and TV productions in Oregon. For more information about Lana Veenker, check her out on IMDb.
Many thanks to the team at AM Northwest for helping us celebrate this milestone! We’re so grateful for our community.
With series and features such as Trinkets, Stumptown, Pig, and Sorta Like a Rockstar currently underway, Oregon is abuzz with film and television production this fall.
KGW’s Keely Chalmers and KATU’s Lincoln Graves recently dropped in on Casting Director Lana Veenker to get the inside scoop on what it means for Oregon actors and crew.
Kicking off the summer season with new connections and old friends
Cast Iron Studios hosted an intimate happy hour this week, celebrating a few new members of the Oregon Media and Production Association. This select group was joined by the Cast Iron team, along with a handful of studio friends, to connect, discuss the latest up-and-coming production buzz, and enjoy some delicious bites and bevs!
John Srednicki, Ranielle Gray, Eryn Goodman and Lana Veenker from Cast Iron Studios
There was much to celebrate, as the local production community here in Portland and surrounding areas has been a hotbed of activity. As KGW recently reported, eight television series recently wrapped filming in the state, including Netflix’s “Trinkets” and Freeform’s “Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists,” in addition to feature films and stop-motion animation projects, currently on the rise. Tim Williams, Executive Director of the Oregon Governors Office of Film & Television, quotes an estimated 200 million dollars was spent last year alone. We’re rolling!
Guests of the happy hour with Cast Iron K-9 and fan favorite, Calamity Jane
Lana Veenker, Owner of Cast Iron Studios & Lilly Joynes, Communications Manager at the OMPA
Special shout out to Wine Bridge Imports for sponsoring the event with these three delicious varieties of wine! @winebridgeimports
Thanks to everyone who joined in on the fun and conversation. Cheers to a new season with plenty of exciting, fresh projects barrelling down, or shall we say ‘shooting’ down the local production pipeline!
Word is out that #OregonMade “Zilla and Zoe“–winner of the Best Comedy Film at the Oregon Independent Film Festival–has received a distribution deal with Indican Pictures. We had a great time casting this film, and extend a huge congrats to filmmaker Jessica Scalise, and all of the local cast and crew. See below for all the ways to watch, support and share this gem of a movie.
Z&Z will have a one-week theatrical run in Los Angeles, opening May 17th. Join some of the cast and crew for opening night, or any time that week. The film will run four times a day at the Laemmle Noho Theater, times TBA.
WATCH THE FILM ON VOD, PPV or DVD
Can’t make it to LA? Z&Z comes out on DVD and VOD/PPV in mid-May. Like the project’s Facebook page for updates.
Thanks to TV series like “Portlandia” and “The Librarians,” show business is still booming in Oregon and there are still new projects in our future. Casting Director Lana Veenker stopped by KATU’s Afternoon Live on March 28th to fill in Tra’Rénee on the latest.
After years of filming, TV crews from “Portlandia” and “Grimm” are slowly packing up from the Rose City as their shows come to a close. So what’s next for Portland’s movie and TV show scene?
KATU‘s Lincoln Graves tracked Lana down at the dog park last Thursday to get the scoop in time for the evening news!
While we might not see another Grimm for a while, there are lots of productions coming down the pike in Oregon, from cable series (including The Librarians Season 4), to projects for newer digital platforms (think Hulu, YouTube Red, Amazon and the like), to independent features and commercials.
That’s not even counting the magic happening over at LAIKA and other animation companies, our thriving video game production scene, nor the forays into virtual reality and augmented reality, all taking place right here in Oregon.
In all, we’d say that in terms of the entertainment industry, the future is bright for Portland and the whole state!
‘The Librarians’ will soon be the only series being filmed in Portland.
A mystery worthy of Grimm hung over a discussion of the Oregon film and video industry last Wednesday morning.
To be solved, what is the next major TV series to be shot in Portland after the popular supernatural thriller on NBC wraps up its sixth and final season this year?
Lobbyist Janice Shokrian, executive director of the Oregon Media Production Association, said she has some clues but is sworn to secrecy. Although Shokrian said some new shows are in the works, the next Portland-based one might not be a conventional seasonal network show like Grimm or Portlandia, the cult comedy nearing the end of its run on IFC.
“Traditional series are not something that many companies want to invest in anymore,” said Shokrian, explaining that one-time and short-run series on such subscription-based media platforms as Hulu and YouTube Red are becoming more and more popular.
The question of what follows Grimm and Portlandia in Portland is not merely one about entertainment options. As the Portland Business Alliance learned at its monthly breakfast forum, such productions pump millions of dollars into the state, regional and local economies every year. Film and TV production companies have spent over $350 million on wages, supplies and services in Oregon over the past year and a half, said Shokrian, whose organization was formed in 1982 to advocate for more such productions in the state.
Lana Veenker and Oregon Film Commissioner Tim Williams recently sat down with Mary Loos from KATU to talk about Oregon’s growing film industry. Grimm and Portlandia have ended, but their success, along with Oregon’s reputation and film incentive, make the possibility of higher quality productions in the future probable.
The film centers on two young car valets (Robert Sheehan and Carlito Olivero) who use their business as a front to burglarize the houses of their unsuspecting patrons. Life is good for the petty thieves until they target the wrong house, changing their lives forever.
Cast Iron Studios was responsible for casting around 20 of the supporting roles, and Director Dean Devlin, a longtime fan of shooting in Oregon, couldn’t stop raving to us about the quality of his Northwest cast.
Kudos to all of our actors! We can’t wait to see the finished product.
Thanks to TV shows like “The Librarians” and “Portlandia,” show business is booming in Oregon. Casting Director Lana Veenker stopped by AM Northwest on March 30th to talk to Helen Raptis about what types of productions could be coming to the state soon.
Lana visited Carl Wolfson of XRAY FM’s Carl in the Morning on 11/20 to talk about the Oregon Actor Awards, scheduled for November 23rd, 2015 at Portland Center Stage, and about Oregon’s vibrant film and television production scene. Have a listen:
When TV and film productions come to town, job openings come too! Casting Director Lana Veenker stopped by AM Northwest on Wednesday, June 10, 2015, to fill us in on what’s going on now, and possible job opportunities too!
Sheila Hamilton talks with Lana Veenker of Cast Iron Studios about Oregon film and television, and casting for an increasing number of commercials and major motion pictures.
This segment airs on KINK FM 101.9 on Sunday, February 8th, 2015 at 6:30 AM, and again on KXL FM 101.1 at 7:00 AM.
It will also be part of the morning news cycle on KINK on Wednesday, February 4th, 2015 at 7:30 and 8:30 AM.
If you attended Portland’s Wild cast and crew screening on Wednesday, December 10, 2014 at the Hollywood Theatre, or just want to see fabulous photos from the event, this is the blog post for you! This is just a sampling of photos taken on the night. You can find the full gallery of photos here.
Photo Credits: Nathan Coltrane & amber smith with SpokenRAD
Lights, camera, action at the Hollywood Theatre!
Casting Director Lana Veenker, author Cheryl Strayed, Casting Director Eryn Goodman, and Casting Associate Ranielle Gray.
Actors Jeffree Newman and Robert Alan Barnett.
Actor Randy Schulman with author Cheryl Strayed.
Agent Mary Dangerfield, author Cheryl Strayed, and actress Jeanine Jackson.
Lana dropped by the KATU studios this morning to give Dave Anderson and Helen Raptis an update on all the film and television activity in Oregon in recent months.
From the new TNT series “The Librarians” to the early Oscar buzz on “Wild” (the new film based on Cheryl Strayed’s bestselling memoir), business is booming!
Portland Film Festival
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
5:30 pm-7:00 pm
Mission Theater
1624 NW Glisan St
Portland, OR 97209
Panel moderated by Alexandra Blatt and Amy Conway. This is the monthly meetup for the Women In Film non-profit in Portland, OR. Anyone interested in film should attend and learn from the over 50 years of experience from the panelists. Space is limited. RSVP today.
A peek at what has been happening behind the scenes at Cast Iron Studios, thanks to the Portland Business Journal.
By Erik Siemers
Apr 24, 2014
Lana Veenker has played a role in some of the biggest film and TV productions to work their way through Oregon.
As president of Portland-based Cast Iron Studios, Veenker served as casting director to NBC’s “Grimm” and TNT Network’s “Leverage,” as well as feature films including “Twilight” and “The Road.” More recently she’s working on the film version of the Cheryl Strayed book, “Wild,” that recently wrapped up filming around Oregon and starring Reese Witherspoon, and “The Librarians,” the latest TNT series by “Leverage” producer Dean Devlin.
Now she’s hoping to attract investors to finance projects featuring Oregon writers, actors, crew and locations.
Photo Credit: Cathy Cheney
“I’d like a slate of projects to take advantage of all the benefits that Oregon has: good crews, a good talent base, amazing locations, lower prices,” she said. “I’m trying to find some great, socially progressive stories that we could turn into movies and keep people busy here.”
Veenker spent much of the past year vetting potential screenplays, fielding as many as 150 scripts and coming away impressed at the writing talent in Oregon.
She’s taken strategy meetings in Los Angeles. As one of the only U.S.-based members of the International Casting Directors Network, she’s also hoping to lean on her global contacts.
“To be able to draw on all those things to do projects in Oregon hasn’t been done before,” she said.
Many of those calls have been to assess the types of projects that might spur interest in Oregon.
How much she’ll raise and where it will come from remains an open question.
“Some of the funding will come from Oregon, some from overseas and bigger markets,” she said. “We want to keep as much of it local as possible because that gives us the leverage to keep the projects local.”
Veenker is the subject of the Business Journal’s PBJ Interview, which will appear in this week’s print edition, available to subscribers on Friday.
