Slamdance Grand Jury Prize Goes to Chicago Film ‘Waiting for the Light to Change’

A Chicago and Midwest made independent feature has earned one of the most coveted awards on the festival circuit. The Grand Jury Prize for Narrative Feature at the Slamdance Film Festival went to Waiting for the Light to Change. The indie boasts a Chicago cast and crew and filmed in Michigan, led by Director Linh Tran and Executive Producer James Choi.

SCREEN was live at Slamdance for the awards. Here is our exclusive video of director Linh Tran and her team receiving the award with a heartfelt and inspiring acceptance speech…

The Wait Is Over!

In Waiting for the Light to Change, best friends since high school, Kim and Amy haven’t seen each other since Amy moved to the west coast for grad school. Now the two are reunited as they join a group of friends for a trip to a lake house with Kim’s boyfriend, Jay. When Amy had left for the west coast, she was in love with Jay, though she never pursued it due to her insecurities thinking she was too fat and ugly. While she has changed physically, her feelings for Jay haven’t, and the reunion has brought them back to the surface. That maelstrom of emotions within her is poised to reveal itself at any moment as the group’s struggles to find something to do in the empty little beach town turns into an unsuccessful effort by all of them to sort through attractions to each other, as well as suppress old resentments, jealousies and desires before they leave.

Here is your first look at the film, enjoy the newly-minted trailer for Linh Tran’s coming of age feature…

Waiting for the Light to Change features a primarily student production team hailing from Tran’s alma mater DePaul University and the school’s Indie Studio, which producer James Choi founded in 2017. Click here for more from Tran and Choi about their experience collaborating with DePaul for this production.

Click here for the full slate of Slamdance award winners.

The festival journey for Waiting for the Light to Change is just beginning. Check back here at SCREEN for news on this film and others throughout the year.

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