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Student Films THE RICK BY TIM MCCARTHY

Tim McCarthy wrote and directed The Rick in his production class in 2003. On a lark, McCarthy submitted his film to the Cannes Film Festival?s Cinéfondation. Of the 900 films submitted, a scant 18 were selected to go to Cannes. McCarthy was shocked to find out he was one of them. As he told the UCLA Daily Bruin newspaper, ?"It was my first time submitting anything to a festival," he said. "(The festival) accepted in-progress work, so I had sent them an in-progress edit. I wasn't expecting much, but I received an e-mail saying that they would like to see the completed project."

McCarthy?s approach is to let "the personalities of the characters build the story," he told the Bruin. "It's about how the characters deal with self-worth. The harder (Rick) tries, the further he strays away from what he wants. The way he avoids the bottom ultimately secures the fact that he ends up there."

But McCarthy doesn?t plan on resting on his laurels - "Cannes hasn't changed my interest in film," McCarthy said. "You can't say, 'Oh, I'm going to make a movie for the sole purpose of wanting it to go to Cannes.' It's about forgetting what you've done, so that you can go back to square one and do something else."

The Rick was also selected as a finalist for the Student Academy Award, presented by the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences (The Oscars), and won the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television?s Spotlight Award.

Shot on 35mm in color with a running time of 20 minutes, 45 seconds, The Rick is about a desperate dishwasher becomes enraged when a developmentally challenged co-worker gets promoted above him.

The film stars Ian McConnel, Pam Levin, Roberta Bassin and Warren Sweeney, and was written and directed by Tim McCarthy.