'Bye Bye Body' by Current Students Screens at Atlanta Film Festival
Bye Bye Body, written and directed by current student Charlotte Benbeniste and produced by current student Barbara Twist, was selected to screen at the Atlanta Film Festival. The festival was set to take place from April 30 to May 10, but has been pushed to later this year from September 17 to September 27, 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition to its Atlanta selection, the film also won the Vimeo Staff Pick Award at the Aspen Film Shortsfest Film Festival and is as such available to stream online.
Bye Bye Body follows Nina who, when failing to meet her goal at weight loss camp, makes a deal with the devil, only to discover a new understanding of her body. The film celebrated its world premiere at the Austin Film Festival in 2019.
Charlotte Benbeniste is a filmmaker from Los Angeles. She received her BA in Creative Writing from Bard College in 2011. She has worked in the AD Departments on Celeste and Jesse Forever, Before We Go, John Wick 2, and assisted fellow Iranian-American director Ana Lily Amirpour on her second feature film, The Bad Batch. Her first film June starred Mozart in the Jungle and Gone Girl’s Lola Kirke, and her short documentary, Take You Down To, about the Cowgirls of Color, premiered on Nowness in June 2017.
Barbara Twist is a filmmaker based in New York City. She is currently pursuing her MFA in Creative Producing at Columbia University. Her most recent film, Articulate, screened as part of the University of Michigan’s 3C-Screens Bicentennial Celebration. She is the former Managing Director of the Art House Convergence, an international organization for the art house and independent theater community. She was listed on Celluloid Junkie’s Top 50 Women in Global Cinema in 2017, featured in BoxOffice’s “Women in Exhibition and Distribution” in October 2015, and has participated on many festival and conference panels on contemporary exhibition issues and micro distribution strategies. She is on the board of the Ann Arbor Film Festival and Cinema Lamont.
Celebrating its 44th year, the Atlanta Film Festival is the region’s preeminent celebration of cinema. The festival is one of the largest and longest-running in the region. It is also the most distinguished event in its class, recognized as the 'Best Spring Festival' by Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 'Best Film Festival' by Creative Loafing, Sunday Paper, 10Best and Atlanta Magazine, as well as one of the '25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World' and one of '50 Film Festivals Worth the Entry Fee' by MovieMaker Magazine. As one of only two dozen Academy Award-qualifying events in the country, the Atlanta Film Festival showcases nearly 200 films annually to over 27,000 attendees across a ten day event each spring. Each year the Atlanta Film Festival receives over 8,000 submissions from 120+ countries across the globe.
Founded in 1979, Aspen Film seeks to enlighten, enrich, educate, and entertain through film. Throughout its history, Aspen Film has been creating unique and memorable experiences for both the serious cinephile and casual movie lover. With a reach that stretches through the Roaring Fork Valley, Aspen Film organizes a major movie event in every season, offers an extensive education program, and hosts numerous special presentations. Each year, some 30,000 people participate. All of the more than 200 films shown annually are regional debuts, many of which might not otherwise be available to local audiences.