When I heard that one of my favorite directors, Andrey Zvyagintsev, shot a film in the US, I had to find it. When I read the parameters of the shoot, I was more intrigued. I’ve watched some good and engaging short films from competitions like the 48-hour film contest, so I couldn’t wait to see what Zvyagintsev came up with. It is a synthesis of NYC and Russian evocation. The details of the production and requirements are below. Enjoy, and let me know what you think.
New York, I Love You (2008) is a collection of twelve short films about love, each directed by a different filmmaker. Directors had two days to shoot and a week to edit, with a budget of $150,000 per film. They were limited in film usage and could not cast more than twenty actors.
Directors chose their cinematographers, sound directors, and editors, while producers selected the rest of the crew. Anthony Minghella was set to direct one segment but passed away before filming; another director completed his work.
Andrey Zvyagintsev was invited to participate and filmed his novella in New York on April 22–23, 2008, using a Digital Capture Genesis camera. His segment featured a W. H. Auden poem translated by Joseph Brodsky.
The film premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival with 14 novellas but was later re-edited, cutting Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut and Zvyagintsev’s Apocrypha based on U.S. focus group feedback. The full version was released in Russia and CIS countries in October 2009.
Source: AZ-Film