The Borscht Corporation is a

501(c)(3) nonprofit A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...

that creates short films and videos in and about the city of

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. In addition to hosting a quasi-annual film festival that screens their work, Borscht Corp. provides financial and technical support to its commissioned filmmakers. Since receiving a challenge grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in 2010, Borscht Corp. has spearheaded productions by untested moviemakers and provided a creative platform for underrepresented (often Latin American) identities in film.

Reception

Borscht Corp. productions have seen media coverage from sites, television networks, and publications as varied as

Art Papers ''ART PAPERS'' is an Atlanta-based bimonthly art magazine and non-profit organization dedicated to the examination of art and culture in the world today. Its mission is to provide an independent and accessible forum for the exchange of perspectiv ...

, CBS News,

Interview An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" ...

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

and

VICE A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character t ...

. Their work has screened at hundreds of venues worldwide, from the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

and the Guggenheim in New York City to the

AFI AFI may refer to: * ''Address-family identifier'', a 16 bit field of the Routing Information Protocol * Ashton Fletcher Irwin, an Australian drummer * AFI (band), an American rock band ** ''AFI'' (2004 album), a retrospective album by AFI rele ...

, Rotterdam International, Sundance, SXSW, Toronto International,

Tribeca Tribeca (), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Stree ...

, and

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

s. In 2015, Borscht Corp. was the subject of two retrospectives: one at the CERN in Geneva, Switzerland as part of the Cineglobe International Film Festival, and another at the Independent Filmmaker Project's Media Center in Brooklyn, New York. The

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 19 ...

(LACMA) will host a Borscht Corp. retrospective in 2016. Thirteen of Borscht Corp.'s core members and alumni—Bernardo Britto, Lucas Leyva, Jillian Mayer,

Terence Nance Terence Nance (born February 10, 1982) is an American filmmaker, writer, director, actor and musician from Dallas, Texas. He is best known for his directing debut ''An Oversimplification of Her Beauty'', and as the creator of the avant-garde TV p ...

Celia Rowlson-Hall Celia Rowlson-Hall is an American dancer, choreographer, and film director. She has choreographed numerous music videos and commercials, and has directed several short films. Her debut feature film, ''MA'', was released in 2015. Early life Rowls ...

, Marnie Ellen Hertzler,

Barry Jenkins Barry Jenkins (born November 19, 1979) is an American filmmaker. After making his filmmaking debut with the short film ''My Josephine'' (2003), he directed his first feature film '' Medicine for Melancholy'' (2008) for which he received an Inde ...

, Alex Lim Haas, Robin Comisar, Sam Kuhn, Faren Humes, Keisha Rae Witherspoon and Sebastián Silva—have been named to ''Filmmaker'' Magazine's annual list of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film. Three were named to the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

' list of 20 Directors to Watch in 2013—

, and Sebastián Silva.

Accolades

Borscht Corp. has received grants from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation,

Creative Capital Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has commi ...

, and Time Warner OneFifty. Bernardo Britto's animated shorts ''Places Where We Lived'' and ''Yearbook'' were both awarded the Animated Short Grand Jury Prize at the AFI Fest in 2013 and 2014, respectively. His short film ''Glove'' received the Animated Short Grand Jury Award at the 2016 SXSW Film Festival. Britto's animated short ''Yearbook'' received the Short Film Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2014. Jillian Mayer and Lucas Leyva's (collectively Mayer\Leyva) short video ''Scenic Jogging'' was selected by the Guggenheim Museums in New York, Berlin, Bilbao, and Venice to be a part of their YouTube PLAY exhibition in 2010. Mayer\Leyva's short films ''Life & Freaky Times of Uncle Luke'' and ''#PostModem'' were finalists for the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the 2012 and 2013 Sundance Film Festivals. In 2015, Mayer\Leyva's web series ''NO SEASONS''—produced in association with MTV—received a

Webby Award The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories includ ...

for Outstanding Reality Series.

Short films

Borscht Corporation holds open calls asking for project ideas from artists from, living in, or inspired by Miami. They seek out both first-time filmmakers from the community and invite guest filmmakers to collaborate. Twenty short films commissioned by Borscht Corp. have screened at the Sundance Film Festival, with two of them winning Jury Prizes. In each of the 2016 and 2018 editions of Sundance, Borscht had four projects in competition. Fourteen Borscht Corp short films have screened at

SXSW Film Festival South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, T ...

, with three winning jury prizes. Eight Borscht Corporation short films have screened at

AFI Fest The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

, with three winning jury prizes. Ten Borscht Corp short films have been acquired by

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...

and are streaming on

The Criterion Channel The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cine ...

. As of 2018, Borscht Corp shorts have collectively won fifty-one awards at film festivals. At least twenty-one Borscht Corp commissions have been selected as

Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software a ...

Staff Picks.

Borscht Film Festival

Borscht Corp. hosts a quasi-annual film festival in Miami that functions as a venue to share their work. Named one of the 25 Coolest Film Festivals in the World by MovieMaker Magazine, the Borscht Film Festival has simultaneously been hailed as "the weirdest film festival on the planet."

References

{{reflist Film production companies of the United States Companies based in Miami