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Wed Sep 14, 2016 – 6:30 pm | Hendricks Center for the Arts
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Sat Feb 20, 2016 – 7:30 pm | Bagels & More
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Sun Feb 28, 2016 – 12:00 pm | Bagels & More

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Mon Feb 22, 2016 – 7:30 pm | Domenico’s
Sat Feb 27, 2016 – 12 pm | Bushel & Peck’s

Pony

Directed by Candice Carella

Short Narrative
USA | 31 minutes | 2014

CLAUDIA, a hardworking single mom, has to go out of town on an important last minute business trip, forcing her to leave her 5 year old daughter MIKO with uncle JEFF, a rock musician in his 50’s who is still running on fumes of his glory days.
Spending the weekend looking after a spirited 5 year old, Jeff must suspend his delusions of grandeur and face reality. Miko is the catalyst for him to re-evaluate his life and re-connect with the inspiration that originally led him to music and he is able to gently guide her to a nascent understanding of life’s vicissitudes.

Pony Movie Poster

Candice Carella - PonyCandice Carella
Director, Producer, Writer

After a Southern California childhood revolving around the discipline, form
and rigors of competitive figure skating, Ms. Carella became a painter, studying fine art at UCLA. Her interest in film began when her sculpture teacher screened the German Expressionist film “The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.”which sparked her interest in film. Wanting to expand her cultural horizons, Ms. Carella learned Italian so she could study art and film in Florence, Italy.

In 2001, while still a student, she began her first experiments with video art. Her video short “Bad Angel,” which was influenced by Chris Marker’s “La Jetee,” was the winner of the Quik film and video festival.

Her first professional experience came working as a wardrobe stylist for music videos and commercials and then costume departments on television shows such as “Sons of Anarchy,” “Revenge,” “Luck,” and “Crossbones;” , “Underground” and on films such as “Constantine,” “Fifty First Dates,” “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Haywire” and many more. In the independent film world, Ms. Carella was costume designer for the feature films “The Boys and Girls Guide to Getting Down” and “The House of Usher.”

Years of involvement in the filmmaking process from her art and costume perspectives led to Ms. Carella’s realizing that her varied interests were stepping stones to trying her hand at story telling on a larger scale. Realizing that the only way she’d get the opportunity to direct was if she also wrote, produced and financed her own short, she began to write the screenplay and financially plan for the film she wanted to make. She shadowed television and film directors and used her knowledge of compositional style from her time as an artist to storyboard every scene of the film.

Working with seasoned professionals in virtually every key position granted Ms. Carella the maximum learning experience as she wrote, produced and directed her thirty minute short “PONY” which premiered at the Sarasota film festival taking the audience award for “Best Short Film”. Pony has gone on to win 25 awards in categories such as Best Short/ Featurette, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor, Best Drama, Best Screenplay, Emerging Filmmaker among others and she won the Emerging Filmmaker Award from the Hollywood Film Festival and Global International Film Awards. This successful maiden effort has inspired her to continue moving forward in filmmaking working on two other shorts and a feature screenplay.

Awards

WINNER: Audience Award at the Sarasota Film Festival
(Writer/Director/Producer: Candice Carella, Producer:
MaryAnn Tanedo)
WINNER: Award of Excellence for Best Short Film at the
Best Shorts Competition (Writer/ Director: Candice Carella,
Producer: MaryAnn Tanedo)
WINNER: Award of Excellence for Best Actress- at the
IndieFEST Film Awards (Actress: Miko Nakano)
WINNER: Award of Merit for Best Short at the IndieFEST
Film Awards
(DIrector/Producer: Candice Carella, Producer: MaryAnn
Tanedo)
WINNER: Award of Merit for Best Screenplay at the
IndieFEST Film Awards (Writer: Candice Carella)
WINNER: Award of Merit for Best Original Song “Come
Down Rain”
(writer; Xander Berkeley, Peter Atanasoff)
WINNER: Silver Award for Best Narrative Short at the
International Independent Film Awards (Director/ Producer :
Candice Carella, producer MaryAnn Tanedo)
WINNER: Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the California
International Shorts Festival (Director/ Producer: Candice
Carella, Producer: MaryAnn Tanedo)
WINNER: Best Director at the Global Independent Film
Awards (Director: Candice Carella)
WINNER: Best Featurette at the Global Independent Film
Awards
(DIrector/Producer: Candice Carella, Producer: MaryAnn
Tanedo)
WINNER: Best Drama at the Global Independent Film
Awards
(Director/ Writer: Candice Carella)
WINNER: Best Action Sequence at the Global Independent
Film Awards (Director: Candice Carella)
WINNER: The Emerging Filmmaker Award at the Global
Independent Film Awards (Director/ Writer/ Producer:
Candice Carella)
WINNER: Best Ensemble Cast at the Global Independent
Film Awards (Actor: Xander Berkeley, Actress: Miko
Nakano, Supporting Actress: Suzy Nakamura)
WINNER: Best Actor under 18 at the Global Independent
Film Awards (Actress: MIko Nakano)
WINNER: Best Original Song “Come Down Rain” at the
Global Independent Film Awards (song writers Xander
Berkeley and Peter Atanasoff)
NOMINATED: Best Director at the Milan International Film
NOMINATED: Best Short Film at the Milan International Film
Festival of world cinema (director/writer: Candice Carella,
producer: MaryAnn Tanedo)
WINNER: Jury Prize Best Narrative American Short Film at
the Rome International Film Fest, USA
(Director/producer: Candice Carella, Producer: MaryAnn
Tanedo)
WINNER: Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the 31st Boston
Film Festival
(Director/EP: Candice Carella, Producer:MaryAnn Tanedo)
WINNER: Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the Hollywood
Film Festival.
(Director/EP: Candice Carella, Producer MaryAnn Tanedo).
WINNER: Jury Prize for Emerging Filmmaker Award at the
Hollywood Film Festival. (Director Candice Carella)
NOMINATED: Best Short Film Award at the Long Beach
Indie International Film Festival.
(Director/EP: Candice Carella, Producer:MaryAnn Tanedo)
NOMINATED: Best Short Film at the Cape Cod International
Film Festival. (Director/EP: Candice Carella, Producer:
MaryAnn Tanedo)
WINNER: Outstanding Performance by a male lead actor
from the Cape Cod International Film Festival: Xander
WINNER: Artistic Director’s Choice at the Lady Filmmaker’s
Film Festival (Director: Candice Carella)
WINNER: Best Ladies Kick Butt Award from the Lady
Filmmakers Film Festival. (Director: Candice Carella)
WINNER: Best Short Film at the 18th FirstGlance Film
Festival-Philadelphia (Director: Candice Carella)
WINNER: Best Story at the 18th FirstGlance Film Festival –
Philadelphia (Writer: Candice Carella)
WINNER: Gold Lion Award for Best Screenplay from the
LONDON FILM AWARDS (Writer: Candice Carella)

Film Information

Director: Candice Carella
Country: United States
Year: 2014
Language: English
Runtime: 31 min 10 sec

Credits

Producers: Candice Carella, Samuel Bayer, Xander Berkeley, and MaryAnn Tanedo
Cinematographer/DP: Brad Rushing
Key Cast:  
Xander Berkeley, Miko Nakano, and Suzy Nakamura

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Hashtag: #Pony

Principal Cast

BIFF - Beloit International Film Festival
BIFF | Beloit International Film Festival