Filmmakers win $1 million prize to make film about Chinese/American granny

TRIBECA

Sasie Sealy and Angela Cheng receive their $1-million check from actor Robert De Niro.

GRANDMA was lucky for filmmakers Sasie Sealy and Angela Cheng who were awarded $1 million to make their movie.

Sealy and Chang are the winners of $1 million from AT&T Presents: Untold Stories, an inclusive film program in collaboration with Tribeca, along with the year-round nonprofit Tribeca Film Institute.

The two women impressed the Untold Stories Greenlight Committee, made up of several distinguished film experts with their pitch.

In their winning pitch, Cheng and Sealy featured home videos and clips from their own mothers explaining Chinese concepts. “Lucky Grandma is kind of our homage to these amazing women,” Cheng told The Hollywood Reporter. 

Lucky Grandma is a story about an ornery, chain-smoking Chinese grandmother with a small-time gambling habit. When a local fortune-teller predicts a most auspicious day in her future, Grandma decides to go "all in" and lands herself on the wrong side of luck, and in the middle of a Chinese gang war.

The committee heard pitches for five films,and picked Sealy and Cheng's "Lucky Grandma" as the winner. The win was announced at an event Wednesday (April 11) celebrating inclusivity in storytelling attended by Tribeca Film Festival Founders Robert De Niro.

The Greenlight Committee said: "We were incredibly excited by, and impressed with all five of the filmmakers. We can't wait to see everything that they are going to do and we believe all of these films will be made because there is thirst for original artistic voices that reflect who we are and where we are in the 21st century. 

"The (winning) story has a broad reach demographically and globally. It evokes a uniquely specific world that is universal to us all and has a sheer originality and quality of writing."

Sealy and Cheng will now use the next year to create or finish their film 

Lucky Grandma will premiere at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival and will run across AT&T's video platform.

Additionally, AT&T will give the other four participating filmmakers $10,000 each to achieve their film goals. 

The Tribeca Film Festival, presented by AT&T, runs April 18-29, 2018. 

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