Ilya Chaiken (born February 10, 1973) is an American

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

. She is best known for her debut feature '' Margarita Happy Hour'', a film about motherhood, which premiered at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

in 2001 and went on to the

Los Angeles Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...

and

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

. Chaiken garnered accolades as a college student for her short films ''The Actress'' and ''Match Flick''. She was awarded a Statue Award for artistic excellence in film from the

Princess Grace Foundation The Princess Grace Foundation – USA is a charity organization named after Princess Grace of Monaco, which supports emerging performers in theater, dance, and film in the form of awards, grants, scholarships, and fellowships. The Foundation hol ...

in 1994. She has worked as an editor on various shorts, music videos, as well as her own films. In 2004, her comedic short ''The 100 Lovers of Jesus Reynolds'' granted her a return to Sundance. That same year she also screened her short ''Blackout'' for the Blackout Film Festival, for the first anniversary of the blackout that occurred in New York in 2003. Chaiken's second feature

Liberty Kid ''Liberty Kid'' is a 2007 low-budget American film directed by Ilya Chaiken. Plot Two friends Derrick and Tico lost their jobs at a concession stand at the Statue of Liberty because of the September 11 attacks. In order to make money, they beco ...

, which deals with post-9/11 life for inner-city youth in Brooklyn, premiered at the 2007

. It won the Best Feature Award at the

New York International Latino Film Festival The New York International Latino Film Festival is a major Hispanic film festival located in New York City. The festival features over sixty films, shorts, and documentaries over the course of six days, along with other events focused on Latino cult ...

and was picked up for broadcasting by

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

. It was produced by such independent film notables as

Mike S. Ryan Mike S. Ryan is an American film producer. He is most known for producing the indie hit feature Junebug (film), Junebug, starring Amy Adams. Adams received a nomination for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting ...

Larry Fessenden Laurence T. Fessenden (born March 23, 1963) is an American actor, producer, writer, director, film editor, and cinematographer. He is the founder of the New York based independent production outfit Glass Eye Pix. His writer/director credits inclu ...

, and Roger E. Kass. It received great reviews from the New York Times and Variety and was released on video by Kino Films on Veteran's Day, 2008. She is a graduate of

SUNY Purchase The State University of New York at Purchase (commonly Purchase College or SUNY Purchase) is a Public college, public Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Purchase, New York. It is one of 13 comprehensive colleges ...

in filmmaking.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Chaiken, Ilya 1973 births American film directors Living people State University of New York at Purchase alumni Princess Grace Awards winners