Artistic director, Sky Sitney, and team put together a very sophisticated program this year with lots of challenging and cinematically beautiful nonfiction work on exhibit for local audiences, visiting artists and industry guests in downtown Silver Spring, Maryland.
Late last night, the hardworking juries finished their deliberations and in an intimate and very emotional ceremony this afernoon, the winners of the 7th Annual
AFI Discovery SILVERDOCS Documentary Festival Sterling Awards, with a total of $70,000 in combined cash and in-kind prizes, were announced:
The Cinematic Vision Award given to a feature film that exhibits excellence and innovation in storytelling presented by sponsor,
Alphacine, went to Lee Chung-ryoul's
Old Partner.
The Writers Guild Screenplay Award presented to the writers of a feature-length film demonstrating excellence in screenwriting went to Nicole Opper and her subject, Avery Klein-Cloud, for
Off and Running.
The Witness Award (in memory of Joey R.B. Lozano), awarded to a theatrical doc about human rights violations or social justice issues went to director, Landon Van Soest and producer, Jeremy Levine for
Good Fortune. This was also the film's world premiere.
The Music Documentary Award presented to a nonfiction feature that incorporates music most effectively went to an exuberant Luciano Blotta for festival fave
Riseup. He posed in ferociously proud rock-star fashion with his brand-new guitar donated by Gibson as part of his prize. Even though it was a hard struggle to complete the film--five years shooting in Jamaica--Blotta said that he's now dedicated to making nonfiction: "The best characters and the best stories are already out there." The music jury also awarded an Honorable Mention to Jeffrey Levy-Hinte's
Soul Power for outstanding use of archival footage.
The Sterling Short Film Award also gave an Honorable Mention to Michael Angus' and Murray Fredericks' 28-minute
Salt from Australia, and the first prize went to Danish filmmaker Andreas Koefoed's
12 Notes Down. He's just graduated from film school--a fine start to a promising career.
Jurors Geoffrey Smith, Esther Robinson and Karina Rotenstein bestowed the Sterling World Feature Award to
Mugabe and the White African by Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson.
And finally, jurors Margaret Brown, David Kwok and Cian Smyth gave the Sterling US Feature Award to Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher for their feature début,
October Country.
Audience awards will be announced tomorrow on the last day of the festival.
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posted by Pamela Cohn @ 6/20/2009 07:11:00 PM
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