Roughly a year after its debut at the SXSW Film Festival, 2015 Ithaca College graduate Leah Galant’s short documentary, “Death Metal Grandma,” took home the award for best documentary at the American Pavilion Emerging Filmmaker Showcase at the Cannes Film Festival. The film follows nonagenarian Holocaust survivor Inge Ginsberg as she turns her poetry into heavy metal music and auditions for “America’s Got Talent.”
The Emerging Filmmaker Showcase provides an opportunity for emerging filmmakers to have their works seen by Cannes attendees. “Death Metal Grandma” was among 29 films screened at the 2019 showcase.
Galant attended the festival along with 2015 IC alumna Stephanie Khoury, an editor and cinematographer on “Death Metal Grandma.”
“We had a great time celebrating at Cannes,” said Galant. “But we wish that Inge, our death metal grandma, could have been there with us.”