RODNEY EVANS
Rodney Evans is the writer/director/producer of the feature film Brother To Brother which won the Special Jury Prize in Drama at the Sundance Film Festival. The film had its European premiere at The Berlin International Film Festival 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 narrative 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 and the Sundance Sunset Cinema in Los Angeles. Evans has taught at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Princeton and Swarthmore. His recent documentary short Persistence of Vision screened at BAMcinemaFest and Frameline: The San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival in June 2016. It recently won the Jury Prize at the Ann Arbor International Film Festival in 2017. His latest feature, Vision Portraits, will have its World Premiere at the 2019 SXSW Film Festival in the Documentary Feature Competition.
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
