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Festival Beat
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CLASSIC FILMS AMIDST ARIZONA’S RED ROCKS • Amidst the sprawling red rocks of Arizona, in a state full of growing production hot spots, the Sedona International Film Festival closed out its 14th annual event on March 2, awarding prizes in the areas of both Directors’ and Audience Choice. Scoring points on both sides was first-time director Nic Balthazar, whose Ben X, based on his novel, was the Best Foreign Feature Film for both the jury and audience.
Over the past decade, the Sedona fest has established itself as a unique event, and its list of prizes proves it, with superlatives like “Most Inspiring” thrown into the mix. For example, Mark Benjamin’s The Music in Me won the fest’s award for Most Inspiring Documentary while Josh Tickell’s Fields of Fuel, about a man on an eco mission, was named Most Compelling Documentary.
The fest offers plenty of classic entertainment, too, and this year included screenings of Casablanca and Sunset Boulevard, hosted by TCM’s Robert Osborne. “What’s so amazing about seeing a film like Casablanca or Sunset Boulevard on the big screen is that you see so many exciting values and elements that you can’t see on television,” says Osborne. “You may have seen Casablanca 10 or 12 times, but there’s nothing like seeing it in a big theater.” For his part, the festival’s executive director Patrick Schweiss couldn’t decide “who’s more excited, [Osborne] or me.”—Jennifer M. Wood
www.sedonafilmfestival.com.
Ashland Independent Film Festival
PACKING IN AUDIENCES IN OREGON • The 7th annual Ashland Independent Film Festival wrapped on April 7th after five days of packed theaters. Of the festival’s 130 films and events, 101 sold out, resulting in 16,000 tickets being distributed. The AIFF presented “Handheld from the Heart,” a talk and clip retrospective of Albert Maysles’ career and featured screenings of Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens and his latest work, The Gates, co-directed with Antonio Ferrera. Maysles was also presented with the fest’s Lifetime Achievement Award, of which he noted, “I have received many honors; none of them have touched me as deeply and soulfully as what I’ve received here. The audience here knows exactly when to laugh and when to cry.”
Other award winners included Helen Hunt, who screened her directorial debut, Then She Found Me, and received the festival’s Rogue Award. The Rogue Creamery Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature was awarded to George and Beth Gage’s American Outrage and Mary Stuart Masterson’s The Cake Eaters, starring Bruce Dern, won the John C. Schweiger Award for Best Narrative Feature. Tom Hines’ Chronic Town won the Gerald Hirschfeld A.S.C. Award Award for Best Cinematography. Hirschfeld, the 2007 A.S.C President’s Award Honoree and director of photography for films such as Young Frankenstein and My Favorite Year, presented the award.—Tom Olbrich
www.ashlandfilm.org
International Family Film Festival
WHERE YOUNG MOVIEMAKERS TRY FOR WORLD PEACE • Worldwide cinema and young moviemakers came together in Hollywood at the International Family Film Festival, where the theme was World Peace Through Filmmaking. As only a family-friendly fest can do, local students were bused in to view movies in the Made For Young People By Young People program and engage in lively Q&As with their peers. “We believe that young people have the ability to bridge generational, racial, religious and cultural gaps, communicating through film to a larger audience and encouraging an honest dialogue between all people,” says program director Patte Dee McKee.
In an effort to promote the creation of films that appeal to audiences of all ages, the festival awarded All Roads Lead Home with its Best Feature Award. According the movie’s director-producer Dennis Fallon, it’s “a family film in the style of Because of Winn-Dixie, Flicka and Dreamer,” which made it perfect “for a film festival that would bring the whole family out to see a movie.”
Conchita Nora Villa, writer-director-producer of Directors Gold Award winner Alondra Smiles, appreciated that “Because this was a family-friendly festival, we were able to invite all our family and friends and that made our world premiere even more special.”—Mallory Potosky
www.iffilmfest.org
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This story was published in the Future of Moviemaking 2008 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Festival Beat
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