And The Award Goes To...

Art isn't easy, as the famous song refrain goes. It takes time and dedication.

Sophia Lin, who grew up in Livingston, knows this first-hand having toiled on 25 films and television shows over the span of 15 years. 

Lin worked her way up from student films to television shows and feature films as a production assistant, a production manager/line producer and eventually became a producer. 

Her work on the 2011 drama/thriller "Take Shelter" paid off in recently when she won the Independent Spirit Award's Piaget Producers Award. 

"It's a cliche, but it's absolutely true: it's an honor to be nominated to be considered for the award, much less win it," Lin said. 

Lin said she first became interested in the performing arts at Livingston High School while working behind the scenes on productions of "Damn Yankees," "Anything Goes" and "My Fair Lady." She also served as the stage manager for "Brighton Beach Memoirs" and co-student director on "Oklahoma." 

After graduation, Lin went on to study film and television at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. 

Lin said she switched from theater to film because she enjoyed collaberating on an artistic project.

"I just thought that it would be more interesting than working in the theater," she said. "I thought it had the same intensity, a team effort, trying to put together something that would have an artistic end result, than you can overcome all these challenges."

Her first feature film job - which she had while in college - was working as a script supervisor on "Girls Town," starring Lili Taylor. Other early work credits include "Party Monster," "The Business of Strangers," and  "Strangers With Candy, Season II." 

Lin said her big break came while working on the 2003 drama/romance "All the Real Girls," starring Zooey Deschanel and Paul Schneider.

Lin said she met "incredible collaborators" while working with director David Gordan Green, and those connections helped her gain steady work over the last five years. 

She co-produced director Craig Zobel's 2007 comedy "Great World of Sound," and his second feature film, the drama/thriller "Compliance," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival this year.  

Other producer credits include the drama films "Shadows and Lies" and "Henry May Long."

In an e-mail, director and producer Zobel said he worked with Lin for years on several projects and he praised her skills. 

"She's a great producer in that she both understands the "macro" issues of film—the economics involved in distribution—and the specifics of physical, day-to-day film production," Zobel said. "She does all this with ease, and often tackles even hard issues with a smile."

Last year, Variety listed Lin among "Ten Producers To Watch 2011" and The Wrap's "Ten Producers Who Will Change Hollywood" in connection to her work on "Take Shelter."  

"Take Shelter," which stars Michael Shannon playing young father dealing with apocalyptic visions, was filmed in Ohio during the summer of 2010. 

Lin said the 24-day shooting schedule was very tight and every single day there were challenge, whether it was finding the perfect dog to play the family pet or figuring out how to stage shots featuring Shannon when massive storms are added later in post-production. 

"Thinking back on those days, it was amazing we finished the film," Lin said.  

Lin said that "it was very gratifying" to receive the Independent Spirit Award for her work. The actual award is kept on her desk and bookshelf in her Jersey City home, and she hopes to use part of the $25,000 grant on a future film. 

Another highlight of working on "Take Shelter" was earning her mother's stamp of approval, Lin said. Her family was initially wary about her going into the film industry, but Lin said her mother, Eleanor, went to see "Take Shelter" with about 20 members of her ping pong club and they loved the film.

Lin's next project is the horror film "The Beach House," which she hopes to shoot soon in Cape Cod. The film, coincidentally, also involved another Livington High School graduate: entertainment lawyer and documentary filmmaker Marc Simon. 

"The ocean and the sky create an amazing atmosphere," she said about the Cape Cod scenery. "It can be very enjoying, but in the right hands it can be very frightening." 

Lin's top three favorite films

1. "All the Real Girls"

"I really love "All the Real Girls." Besides the fact that I would literally not be where I am today, it's an incredible story, an amazing observation and portrait of young people and incredibly authentic portrait of falling in love and getting your heart broken. It's just beautiful to me." 

2. "Jerry Maguire"

Lin said she related to the scenes where sports agent Jerry Maguire, played by Tom Cruise, explains the difficulties he experiences representing football player Rod Tidwell, played by Cuba Gooding Jr. 

"I feel like, in a way, it illustrated what kind of burning hoops that I'll jump through, and the exploding mine fields I'll run through for a project," Lin said. 

3. "Amadeus"

"The performances are amazing, so well-crafted, the ultimate pinnacle of all the craft involved in film making," Lin said. "The elements of photography, the editing, it's truly an amazing film."