Anthony Onah is a Nigerian-American film director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his debut feature, The Price (2017), which premiered in competition at the 2017 South by Southwest Film Festival.[1]
Anthony Onah | |
|---|---|
 Onah in 2014 | |
| Education | Harvard University (BA) University of California, Los Angeles (MFA) |
| Occupation(s) | film director, screenwriter, producer |
Early life and education edit
Onah was born in Benue State, Nigeria. He grew up moving around with his ambassador father, Adoga Onah. After having lived in the Philippines, United Kingdom, Nigeria, and Togo, his family settled in Arlington, VA and Washington, D.C.[2][3]
Onah studied as an undergraduate at Harvard University, graduating with honors in biochemical sciences and writing a thesis titled A Neural Switch Controlling Phototactic Behavior in Drosophila.[4] He received the Pechet Foundation grant given to biochemistry majors and the Thomas T. Hoopes Prize for outstanding scholarly work.[5][6]
Accepted at Cambridge University for graduate school in genetics, Onah turned down admission, instead working as a scientist during which time he was published in The Journal of Neuroscience,[7][8] and subsequently chose to attend the MFA program in film directing at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he was admitted with a university fellowship.[3][2]
Career edit
Short Films edit
In grad school at UCLA, Onah wrote and directed the short film The Cure, which was recognized by mtvU, won a 2008 Directors Guild of America Award,[9] and was featured in The Los Angeles Times.[10] Onah was subsequently named to Indiewire's list of 10 Exciting New Voices.[11] He was also awarded the Hollywood Foreign Press Award and the Edie and Lew Wasserman Fellowship. His next film True Colors world premiered at the 2011 Woodstock Film Festival. Onah subsequently completed A History of Violence with renowned cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker[12] and Dara Ju, which won him a second student Directors Guild of America Award in 2012.[13][14][15] In 2012, he was also invited as a directing talent to the Berlin Talent Campus.[16] With Dara Ju, Onah went on to win the first Afrinolly Short Film Competition, Africa's most prestigious Short Film Competition awarding a $25,000 cash prize.[17]
After graduating film school, he was named to Filmmaker Magazine's list of 25 New Faces of Independent Film.
Onah's screenplay Goliath was one of 12 projects selected for the 2019 Sundance Screenwriters Lab.[18]
Feature Films edit
The Price edit
Onah made his feature debut with The Price, which he wrote and directed. An expansion of his film school short Dara Ju, the feature was developed with the support of the Sundance Institute, IFP, Ford Foundation, and Film Independent.[19][20]
The Price (2017) premiered in the Narrative Feature Competition at the 2017 South by Southwest Film Festival.[21] Orion Pictures and Samuel Goldwyn Films acquired the film for theatrical distribution shortly thereafter.[22]
The film played numerous festivals including the 2017 Seattle International Film Festival, where is nominated for the FIPRESCI Prize in the New American Cinema Competition.[23] Onah also won the Craig Brewer Emerging Filmmaker Award for the film at the 2017 Indie Memphis Film Festival.[24] Upon its theatrical release, Variety magazine wrote that The Price is "a thoughtfully crafted, elegant-looking indie drama that suggests a bright future for Onah" and "a first feature so assured on nearly all levels."[25]
Filmography edit
Short films edit
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Editor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Keepers | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2008 | The Cure | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2010 | Gimme Grace | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2011 | True Colors | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2012 | Dara Ju | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Feature films edit
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | The Price | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Accolades edit
| Awards | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipients and nominees | Result |
| Directors Guild of America Awards[26] | November 8, 2012 | Student Film Award | Anthony Onah | Won |
| South by Southwest Film Festival[27] | March 14, 2017 | Grand Jury Prize | The Price | Nominated |
| Seattle International Film Festival[28] | June 11, 2017 | FIPRESCI Prize in the New American Cinema Competition | The Price | Nominated |
| Indie Memphis Film Festival[29] | November 5, 2017 | Craig Brewer Emerging Filmmaker Award | Anthony Onah | Won |
References edit
- ^ Darling, Cary (17 March 2017). "The best of the fest at South by Southwest". Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
- ^ a b Ayers, Jake (27 October 2008). "Grad Student honored for meaningful short film". Daily Bruin.
- ^ a b "UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television - Anthony Onah Profile".[permanent dead link]
- ^ "2005 Undergraduate Biochemical Sciences Honors Theses" (PDF).
- ^ Zhou, David (18 May 2005). "Hoopes Prizes Awarded". The Harvard Crimson.
- ^ "Faculty of Arts and Sciences 2004–2005 Student Prize Recipients" (PDF).
- ^ "American Association for the Advancement of Science - EurekAlert".
- ^ Prober, D.A.; Rihel, J.; Onah, A.A.; Sung, R.-J.; Schier, A.F. (December 20, 2006). "Hypocretin/orexin overexpression induces an insomnia-like phenotype in zebrafish". Journal of Neuroscience. 26 (51): 13400–13410. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4332-06.2006. PMC 6675014. PMID 17182791.
- ^ "DGA Announces Winners of 14th Annual Student Filmmakers Awards".
- ^ Brink, Susan (23 October 2008). "Aspiring filmmakers tackle health care woes". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Adelman, Kim (27 March 2009). "Shorts Monthly: Ten Exciting New Voices in Black Cinema". IndieWire.
- ^ "Richard Dawkins Foundation - A History of Violence".
- ^ Handel, Jonathan (13 November 2012). "DGA Honors Diverse Student Filmmakers". The Hollywood Reporter.
- ^ Konstantinides, Anneta (14 November 2012). "Student film projects win DGA kudos". Variety.
- ^ The Deadline Team (14 November 2012). "Directors Guild Announces Student Film Award Winners". Deadline Hollywood.
- ^ "Berlinale Talents - Anthony Onah".
- ^ "2013 Afrinolly Short Film Competition Winners".
- ^ "Sundance Institute Announces 2019 January Screenwriters Lab Fellows". Sundance Institute. 13 December 2019.
- ^ Bernstein, Paula (23 July 2014). "Here's The 133 Films Selected For IFP's 2014 Project Forum at Independent Film Week". IndieWire.
- ^ Obenson, Tambay (10 February 2015). "Film Independent Reveals 6 Directors Selected for 15th Directing Lab (Anthony Onah Made the Cut)". IndieWire.
- ^ Darling, Cary (17 March 2017). "The best of the fest at South by Southwest". Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
- ^ N'Duka, Amanda (2017-07-12). "Anthony Onah's SXSW Film 'The Price' Lands At Orion & Samuel Goldwyn". Deadline. Retrieved 2017-07-12.
- ^ "New American Cinema Competition". Seattle International Film Festival. Archived from the original on April 17, 2018. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
- ^ Beifuss, John (5 November 2017). "Indie Memphis: 2017 Film Festival Award Winners". USA Today.
- ^ "'The Price' Review: An Immigrant's Story". Variety. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
- ^ "18th Annual DGA Student Film Awards in Los Angeles". Directors Guild of America. Retrieved November 8, 2012.
- ^ "The best of the fest at South by Southwest". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Retrieved March 17, 2017.
- ^ "New American Cinema Competition". Seattle International Film Festival. Retrieved November 10, 2017.
- ^ "Indie Memphis: 2017 Film Festival Award Winners". USA Today. Retrieved November 5, 2017.