The Queen of Cactus Cove

Directed by Anna Christopher, QUEEN OF CACTUS COVE stars Alia Shawkat (Arrested Development) as Billie Scott, a teenage chess champ with everything going for her: a winning streak, a great practice partner – her best friend Achak, and a victory at today’s Regional Chess Championship in the bag … or so she thinks.  With genuine humor, charming honesty, and a truly original take on chess, Queen of Cactus Cove is a bittersweet tale about winning, losing and growing up – all at the same time.

ABOUT THE FILMMAKER

Writer, Director - Anna Christopher

ANNA CHRISTOPHER

Anna graduated cum laude from Northwestern University’s Radio/TV/Film program. Her college work won a student Emmy and screened at the Cannes Film Festival and the Chicago International Film Festival. While attending the American Film Institute, Anna directed four short films. Her thesis film, QUEEN OF CACTUS COVE, starring Alia Shawkat (ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT) and Alex Frost (DRILLBIT TAYLOR), has played at over 25 festivals worldwide and won numerous awards.

More recently, Anna adapted the poetry of Carlos Hugo Christensen to create the sexy and surreal TUESDAY IN COPACABANA, and was commissioned by quarterlife.com to write/produce/direct THE BREAK UP, a dark comedy which generated a viral buzz for the site’s launch and was one of eight semi-finalists in NBC Universal’s prestigious Comedy Short Cuts festival.

Currently, Anna is completing THE KITTY LANDERS SHOW pilot, a children’s television show starring Richard Moll (NIGHT COURT), which she directed and produced. She also continues to produce, direct, and write for LILYDIDIT.COM, a first-of-its-kind video eCard website, which Anna co-founded. Anna’s next projects include a documentary about four-time Olympian Casey Puckett and a feature screenplay.

“The Windrider Forum is one of those events that has an unbeatable formula that you wish for as a filmmaker. The magic recipe that Windrider has down to a science goes something like this: excited, smart, appreciative audiences + a staff that oozes love and hospitality + the best of the best short films from new talent + awesome locations that invigorate your spirit + the undeniably positive energy and learning achieved when you put the best up-and-coming filmmakers in the same room together + a community that respects and encourages filmmaking that can change the world = an event you don’t want to miss.”

WATCH THE FILM

Running Time: 21 Minutes

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