Piaget Producer’s Award: Sophia Lin

Sophia Lin

Writer-director Jeff Nichols and star Michael Shannon may have gotten most of the attention for the hallucinatory Sundance darling “Take Shelter,” but it’s unlikely the pic would have been realized without the efforts of producer Sophia Lin.

“Stretching resources and making the most of our crazy schedule” were the biggest challenges for the practical-minded Lin, who, working in close harmony with Nichols, handled the budgeting, time management and physical aspects of production, allowing the director to realize his complex vision within the project’s limited means.

Lin has toiled in various aspects of film production for 16 years and prefers to collaborate with “practical, yet creative” directors like David Gordon Green whose on-set methodology mirrors her own and who don’t “paint themselves into a corner with their own ambitions.”

Lin’s current project is the horror pic “The Beach House” helmed by Jeff Brown, another in her web of longtime associates, and which is scheduled to shoot in May.

RUNNERS-UP

Josh Mond
“Martha Marcy May Marlene”
Founding the production company Borderline Films, along with directors Sean Durkin and Antonio Campos allows producer Mond to bring uncompromising films to the bigscreen. The critical success of Durkin’s film and a recent distribution deal with Fox Searchlight ensures that Mond’s efforts will continue to get ample exposure.

Chad Burris
“Mosquita y Mari”
An advocate for Native American participation in the arts as well as an accomplished producer, Burris is the president of the Oklahoma Territory Film Council; the director of Yuwita, a nonprofit supporting American Indian media initiatives; and the man behind such celebrated film projects as “Barking Water” and “Mosquita y Mari.”