EXCLUSIVE: Emmy nominee Tessa Thompson and her Viva Maude production company are executive producing Brittany Shyne’s Sundance Film Festival-winning documentary Seeds, which has been submitted for Oscar consideration this year. Thompson joins as EP with Viva Maude’s Kishori Rajan.
The documentary, which won Sundance’s U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize this year, is a portrait of Black generational farmers in the American South, following their joys and struggles, and their significance of owning land and the fragility of legacy. In 1910, Black farmers owned 16 million acres of land. Since then, over 90% of that land has been lost.
Walking Productions
“Brittany Shyne’s Seeds is a quietly extraordinary work: clear-eyed and responsive to the textures of an American story too often overlooked. It reminds us that being alive means slowing down enough to notice. At Viva Maude, we look for work that demands presence and expands the aperture of who is in the frame. Seeds is that rare film,” said Thompson.
“We are overjoyed to have Tessa and Viva Maude join the Seeds team. Tessa’s impassioned dedication to uplift and magnify boundary pushing stories and unique perspectives has been incredibly inspiring. As we continue to share this untold and poignant story of generational farmers in the South, we couldn’t ask for more enthusiastic and supportive collaborators to come on board this journey with us,” said Shyne.
Following its world premiere at Sundance, Seeds continued on to play at over 70 festivals, winning over a dozen awards including Grand Jury awards at Full Frame Film Festival, SFFILM Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival. Most recently, it received five Cinema Eye Honors nominations, three IDA Award nominations, and was selected for DOC NYC’s Winner’s Circle.
Seeds has also been nominated for two Critics Choice Awards for Best First Feature Documentary and Best Cinematography, and received the Maysles Documentary Center Albie Award, which recognizes the year’s top contenders for the Oscars. Shyne has been selected for this year’s IDA Emerging Filmmaker Award, to be presented at the IDA Awards ceremony in December. This November, the film will screen at IDFA, LDNDOCS and Torino ahead of its qualifying theatrical release.
The documentary is produced by Sabrina Schmidt Gordon, Danielle Varga and Shyne. Other EPs include Leslie Fields-Cruz and Maida Lynn.
This fall, Thompson starred in the Nia DaCosta-directed period drama Hedda, a reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s renowned stage drama from 1891. Thompson is set to receive the Tribute Award at the Gotham Awards and also is nominated for Outstanding Lead Performance for the Amazon MGM Studios title.
Thompson is repped by CAA, Untitled Entertainment, and Jeff Bernstein at Jackoway Austen Tyerman Wertheimer Mandelbaum Morris Bernstein Trattner Auerbach Hynick Jaime LeVine Sample & Klein. Shyne is repped by Cinetic Media.
