Jordan Ressler First Feature Award

Director Mariama Diallo will be in attendance at the first In-Theater screening to participate in a post-screening Q&A.

In writer-director Mariama Diallo’s debut feature, Master, three women strive to find their place at a prestigious New England university whose frosty elitism may disguise something more sinister.

Professor Gail Bishop (Regina Hall) has recently been promoted to “Master” of a residence hall, the first time at storied Ancaster College that a Black woman has held the post. Determined to breathe new life into a centuries-old tradition, Gail soon finds herself wrapped up in the trials and tribulations of Jasmine Moore (Zoe Renee), an energetic and optimistic Black freshman. Jasmine’s time at Ancaster hits a snag early on when she’s assigned a dorm room that is rumored to be haunted. Things get worse when Jasmine clashes in the classroom with Liv Beckman (Amber Gray), a professor in the middle of her own racially charged tenure review.

As Gail tries to maintain order and fulfill the duties of a Master, the cracks begin to show in Ancaster’s once-immaculate facade. After a career spent fighting to make it into Ancaster’s inner circle, Gail is confronted with the horrifying prospect of what lies beneath, her question ultimately becoming not whether the school is haunted, but by whom.

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Mariama Diallo is a Brooklyn based writer-director. Her debut feature, Master, starring Regina Hall, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in U.S. Competition and will be released by Amazon Studios in 2022. Her short film, Hair Wolf, premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival where it won The Short Film Jury Award and was later released on HBO and the Criterion Channel. Most recently, Diallo co-wrote, co-directed and co-starred in the short film White Devil, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. In 2018, she worked as writer and director on the Peabody award winning HBO series Random Acts Of Flyness, and in 2020 returned for the season two writers room. In 2018, she was selected as one of Filmmaker Magazine's 25 New Faces of Independent Film and most recently, in 2021, she was selected as one of Variety’s 10 Directors to Watch.

Sponsored by Jordan Ressler Foundation and by Alacran Group.

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