RODNEY EVANS – WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
RODNEY EVANS
RODNEY EVANS is a fiction and documentary film writer, director and producer. His debut fiction feature BROTHER TO BROTHER won the Special Jury Prize in Drama at the Sundance Film Festival. The film had its European premiere at the Berlinale and garnered four Independent Spirit Award nominations including Best First Film, Best First Screenplay, Best Debut Performance for Anthony Mackie and Best Supporting Male Performance for Roger Robinson.
Evans has received funding from The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, The Ford Foundation’s JustFilms Program, The Creative Capital Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation, The NY State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), The Independent Television Service (ITVS) and Black Public Media (BPM). His second fiction feature,
THE HAPPY SAD, has played at over thirty film festivals throughout the world and had its U.S. theatrical premiere in August 2013 at the IFC Center in NYC an the Sundance Sunset Cinema in Los Angeles. He has taught at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Princeton, Cooper Union and Swarthmore.
His latest feature length film, VISION PORTRAITS, had its World Premiere in the Documentary Feature Competition at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival and won the Jury Award for Best Documentary at Frameline - The San Francisco Int'l. LGBTQ+ Film Festival. It was released theatrically at the Metrograph in NYC in August 2019 and went on to play to universal critical acclaim in major U.S. cities. The film screened virtually at the Whitney Museum for a week in honor of the 30th Anniversary of the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in July 2020. Evans was the recipient of the 2019 Frameline Award for LGTBQ+ representation, a Sundance Momentum Fellowship for 2020 and a Ford/Mellon Disability Futures Fellowship for 2021. He is an NEH/Firelight Media Spark Fund Recipient for 2022. His latest nonfiction short PORTAL is currently touring the film festival circuit. He earned a BFA in Modern Culture and Media from Brown University and an MFA from The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Film/Video Production.
Select Awards
1999/2002/04/11 NY State Council on the Arts Grant (Individual Artists Program)
1999 Jerome Foundation – NYC Film and Video Grant
2000 IFP’s Gordon Parks Award for Screenwriting
2000/2004 Vito Russo Award and Showtime Vanguard Award (NewFest)
2000 MIX Emerging Innovator Award (NY Experimental Gay/Lesbian Festival)
2003/04 Rockefeller Foundation-Media Arts Fellowship
2004 Sundance Film Festival (Special Jury Prize, Dramatic Competition)
2004 Audience Award, Best Fiction Feature
(San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Film Festival)
2004 Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize, Best Feature (Outfest LA)
2004 Nominee for IFP Gotham Award, Breakthrough Director
2004 Nominee for 4 IFP Spirit Awards including Best First Film and Best First Screenplay
2005 NY Foundation for the Arts Fellowship in Film/Video
2005 HBO’s Director To Watch Award, Black Movie Awards
2006 Recipient of development financing from ITVS-Diversity Development Fund
2008 Recipient of research and development funds from NBPC
2008 Creative Capital Foundation Grant
2008 Guggenheim Fellowship
2008 Tribeca All Access Program-Honorable Mention-Creative Promise Award
2008 Winner-NewFest Screenplay Competition
2009 Binger Film Lab Fellowship-Director’s Coaching Programme
2012 Frameline Completion Fund Grant
2012 Philadelphia Independent Film and Video Association Grant
2016 Swarthmore Faculty Research Grant
2017 Recipient of funding from The Ford Foundation-JustFilms Program
2019 Frameline Award for Career Achievement in LGBTQ+ Representation
2019 Frameline-Jury Award for Outstanding Documentary
2019 Outfest-Award for Artistic Achievement
2020 Recipient of The Sundance Institute’s Momentum Fellowship
2020/21 Recipient of the Ford/Mellon Disability Futures Fellowship
2022 Recipient of NEH/Firelight Media Spark Fund Recipient
