winners
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
AFI-Discovery Channel Silverdocs Documentary Festival (held June 21 to 27) announced its distinguished winners. Best Feature directors receive $5,000.
Best US Feature: WO AI NI MOMMY (I LOVE YOU, MOMMY) directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal, which documents eight-year-old Chinese Fang Sui Yong and her adoption by a Jewish couple from Long Island who name her “Faith.” The film follows Faith and her parents’ twist-and-turn journey over a year and a half.
Best World Feature: THE WOMAN WITH THE 5 ELEPHANTS directed by Vadim Jendreyko, which chronicles eighty-five-year-old Svetlana Geier who has dedicated her life to language. Considered the greatest translator of Russian literature into German, Svetlana has just concluded her magnum opus, completing new translations of Dostoyevsky’s five great novels-known as the five elephants.
Special Jury mention: STEAM OF LIFE directed by Joonas Berghäll and Mika Hotakainen, whose film allows the viewer to become a fly on the wall as it listens in on men-naked men-talking to other men in the sanctuary of Finland’s ubiquitous saunas.
The Sterling Award for Best Short Film: THIS CHAIR IS NOT ME directed by Andy Taylor Smith, which documents Alan Martin, whose cerebral palsy confines him to a wheelchair and inhibits his speech, but he refuses to limit himself. When he gains access to technology that enables him to find a voice, his life is transformed. Utilizing stunning visual vocabulary and subtle re-enactment, the film presents a cinematic experience as unique as the subject himself.
A Special Jury Mention: BETWEEN DREAMS directed by Iris Olsson which tells the story of a hundred souls lost in dreams in the dead of night as they cross a Siberian moonscape aboard a battered train.
A second Special Jury Mention: THE POODLE TRAINER directed by Vance Malone, which chronicles Irina Markova, a Russian poodle trainer who has dedicated her life to training her 20 colorfully costumed poodles.
The Cinematic Vision Award: MARWENCOL directed by Jeff Malmberg. The film captures Mark Hogancamp who suffers a savage beating with near-total amnesia and severe physical injuries. With no money for traditional therapy, … Read the rest
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
The LA Film Festival (held June 17-27) announced its winners. The prize for Best Narrative Feature went to Danish director Pernille Fischer Christensen for A Family. The Documentary Award went to J. Clay Tweel for his doc Make Believe. Christensen and Tweel both receive $50,000.
L.A. Film Festival winners (descriptions provided by the festival):
Narrative Award (for Best Narrative Feature): A Family (En Familie) directed by Pernille Fischer Christensen (Denmark).
The conflict between love and duty plays out in this stunning, award-winning saga about a successful Danish family that faces agonizing choices when its charismatic patriarch falls ill.
Documentary Award (for Best Documentary Feature): Make Believe directed by J. Clay Tweel (Japan/South Africa/USA).
Armed with magic hoops, decks of cards and homegrown illusions, six hopefuls from around the world prepare for Las Vegas’ World Magic Seminar, and the chance to win the title of Teen World Premiere.
Best Ensemble Performance in the Narrative Competition: Sabrina Lloyd, James Urbaniak, Lynn Cohen, Harry Chase, Nate Smith and Kamel Boutros in Adam Reid’s “Hello Lonesome.”
With an enchanting mixture of laughter and longing, the worlds of six, eclectic, lonely individuals are woven together as they explore those age-old human desires: to love and be loved.
Best Narrative Short Film: My Invisible Friend by Pablo Larcuen
Best Documentary Short Film: The Lucky Ones by Tomasz Wolski
Best Animated Short Film: Wonder Hospital by Beomsik Shimbe Shim
Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature: Four Lions directed by Christopher Morris
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature: Thunder Soul, directed by Mark Landsman.
Audience Award for Best International Feature: Roberto Hernández and Geoffrey Smith’s Presumed Guilty.
Audience Award for Best Short Film: Dock Ellis & the LSD No-No, directed by James Blagden.
Audience Award for Best Music Video: OK Go’s This Too Shall Pass, directed by James Frost, OK Go, and Syyn Labs.… Read the rest
Friday, March 10th, 2006
Chrysler has announced a competition for up-and-coming filmmakers. Contestants must submit a short film as well as a feature script, which will be judged by a team at IFP, Filmmaker‘s parent company. The winner will receive a full-length feature film production deal.
The deadline is April 20. Details are available here.… Read the rest
Monday, June 27th, 2005
Film Independent (formerly the IFP/Los Angeles) announced the winners of its 2005 Los Angeles Film Festival. Mark Banning won the Target Filmmaker Award for Best Narrative Feature for his Jellysmoke, and the Target Best Doc Award went to Beth Bird for Everyone Their Grain of Sand. The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to Miranda July’s Me and You and Everyone We Know. David Zeiger’s Sir! No Sir! won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature. Luc Jacquet’s March of the Penguins won the Audience Award for Best International Feature.
Catherine Kellner and Ebon Moss-Bachrach of Leslie McCleave’s Road won for Outstanding Performance in the Narrative Competition.
Describing Jellysmoke, the fest writers, “In his feature debut, Jellysmoke, Mark Banning paints the portrait of a young man searching for love and a way to maintain his sanity. Though sweet, handsome, and well-liked, Jacob suffers deeply from bipolar depression. After a stint in the psych ward, he resolves to find normalcy and sees the key to securing it in the love of a beautiful stranger and her young son. Quietly nuanced, Michael Ealy’s performance is a beautiful and apt reminder of how heartbreakingly fragile, yet ultimately hopeful life can be.”
And re the doc winner: “Beth Bird shows a small town’s struggle for survival in the face of corporate greed and how it powerfully demonstrates the downside of globalization and U.S.-Mexico border economics. Since 1988, Mexican community Maclovio Rojas has been fighting for education, electricity, and water owed them by their government, which would rather force thousands of residents off land that developers are drooling over. Community leaders are arrested, lingering in prison without due process, while their families and friends make every effort to obtain justice. Beth Bird’s heartbreaking and intimate feature debut balances these hardships with glimpses of goodness — an elementary school graduation, holiday celebrations — to remind us what they’re fighting for.”
.… Read the rest
