A filmmaker based in Georgia is heading to the Cannes Film Festival! Sheri Winkelmann’s script, BINGO HEIST, was selected to be presented at Largo.ai’s signature event, “Producers Pitching Their Projects, Powered By AI Insights” at the Cannes Film Festival on May 16, 2024. Largo.ai is a platform that studios, producers, and distributors use to make informed decisions on content creation.
“From improving a film/TV show’s financial and creative potential to Largo clients experiencing triple the industry average in attracting investment, Largo Ai’s Cannes pitch event further elevates our beloved independent filmmaker community, “says Alex Gocke, VP of Sales for Largo ai.
Winkelmann will star in the film, which will be produced by Tiffany FitzHenry, a twenty-five-year film industry veteran with extensive experience in development, packaging, finance, and production, under her FitzHenry Films banner, whose recent credits include the upcoming Signing Day (developed, financed, and produced in Georgia), starring Mira Sorvino, Rob Morgan, Michael Mosley, and Marshawn Lynch. FitzHenry Films also produced Possum Trot, which was filmed in Macon, Atlanta, and other towns in Georgia, and will be released in theaters July 4, 2024. Producing features and series by Georgia-based creatives is a key initiative of FitzHenry Films. This will be the first time Winkelmann and FitzHenry will produce together.
“I am thrilled to be producing Bingo Heist, a true indie gem,” notes FitzHenry. “Sheri is a great writer and seasoned performer whose talent and craft are on point and ready to be showcased on the world stage at Cannes.”
BINGO HEIST is a comedy based on a scrappy Southerner who cooks up a $100,000 Bingo scam to save her motley trailer park community from a corporate buyout masterminded by her controlling ex-husband.
“The character of Eunice originated from a sketch comedy character I created while the diverse cast of characters drew inspiration from different sources: summers spent in rural Wisconsin filled with Bingo games and square-dancing, cross-country drives through cornfields, barber shops, churches on the southside of Chicago, to many immersive experiences in rural communities throughout my travels worldwide,” says Winkelmann. “I like to write soulful and zany stories with fierce and fun female protagonists that also bring social issues to light.”
Winkelmann is an AEA and SAG actress from Chicago and has worked in theater off Broadway, regionally, and internationally for over 25 years. Prominent film and television roles include NBC’s Chicago PD/Fire/Med, comedy series, Play by Play on Roku, and many independent films. She was a featured writer/performer at Chicago’s famous IO Theater with POV Weekly News Show with her original sketch characters. Her play, Love and Madness premiered at Silk Road Rising Theater in Chicago to sold-out audiences. Winkelmann has worked with Tony award winner, Randall Duk Kim, of Classical Productions, with Shakespeare and Co. in MA, and at The Globe Theater in London. She currently lives in Atlanta and says she was blown away when she found out her script was selected: “I’m so excited my script was chosen to pitch at Cannes. To have the opportunity to pitch at the biggest film festival and market in the world is an honor beyond anything I could have dreamed of.”
Largo.ai receives submissions from countries worldwide and selects only 20 scripts for the Cannes Film Festival. This year, Kathryn Hollis Peters, from Female Funded Films, selected Winkelmann’s BINGO HEIST script to submit to the Cannes pitch competition, because it consistently showed superior profitability and the highest ratings in terms of plot and character. Hollis Peters says she was smitten with the script. “I told Sheri I think we should present this to Largo.ai at Cannes, because you really have something great here,” Hollis Peters said.
BINGO HEIST being selected for presentation at Cannes, proves that Georgia’s creative ecosystem of writers, filmmakers, and storytellers, similar to Georgia’ globally recognized production industry, is among the best in the world, adds FitzHenry. BINGO HEIST will be filmed in Georgia.
