Welcome back friends, to the festivalPass Stories podcast! This week, Pat Tully sits down with one of the hottest up-and-coming indie filmmakers. So let’s take a deep dive into the independent film circuit with the talented director, Lance Oppenheim. Movies have always been a popular source of entertainment. Although the pandemic has halted the production of many film companies and kept us out of the theater, digital streaming platforms have grown exponentially over the last calendar year. For the indie filmmaker, these platforms are crucial in becoming a household name. Lance utilized sites like Vimeo to showcase his short films, and has six Staff Picks under his belt. After showcasing his hard work, Lance began to get the recognition that he deserved as an artist, and he’s been on a tear ever since. Using the momentum of his short films, Lance decided to take on the biggest challenge of his young career, making his first feature-length film. Lance had an idea for a short film but quickly realized that in order to tell the story the way he wanted to, he needed more screen time, which meant more resources. Lance tells one of the best “never quit” stories that we’ve heard on the podcast to date. After sending countless emails to Darren Aronofsky, (one of the most popular directors in Hollywood) he finally broke through and got the right eyes on his film catalog. After going through meeting after meeting, he eventually got an audience with Darren himself. Darren was so impressed, he decided to join the project as a producer. Lance worked on the film for months and poured everything he had into it. In 2020, “Some Kind of Heaven” premiered at Sundance Film Festival and it was a huge success. It was the first film that was co-produced by The New York Times, and Lance became the youngest filmmaker to contribute to the papers’ “Op-Docs”. The film continued to perform well, and the appreciation from the press and his peers became louder. Lance made the “Power of Young Hollywood” list by Variety in 2020, and Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film”. Lance used the heat the film created from Sundance to get distributing from Magnolia Pictures, who will be distributing the film this year. The Harvard graduate and 2019 Sundance Ignite Fellow winner’s career is just getting started. We’re honored that we got to interview him before the world knows the name, Lance Oppenheim. We’re excited for what the future holds for the film industry, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on Lance’s progression as an artist. “Knowing that there were other films submitted…I thought, ‘ok, it seems that people liked this movie.’ I put that in my quiver and kinda continued on, it just made me want to make more of them.” - Lance Oppenheim Catch the interview on Festival Pass Stories! https://festivalpass.com/stories You can find Lance on: Lance Oppenheim’s Website- https://www.lanceoppenheim.com Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/lanceopp/ Vimeo- https://vimeo.com/lanceoppenheim IMDB- https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4565262/ Connect with Festival Pass! Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/getfestivalpass/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/festival_pass/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/pass_festival Website - https://festivalpass.com/