AFI Fest 2008 Winners Announced

The American Film Institute has announced the winners of AFI Fest 2008. The festival, now in its 22nd year, offers exposure to the entertainment community while providing audiences with the very best of world movies.

Three juries decided winners for best feature, documentary and short. The Grand Jury Prize for International Feature went to Federico Veiroj’s Acne, International Documentary Grand Jury Prize went to Kief Davidson’s Kassim the Dream and the Shorts Jury Prize went to Michel Lipkes’s The Legless Boy Cannot Dance. All three winners received Fuji film stock.

AFI Fest’s artistic director Rose Kuo notes, “This year, AFI Fest featured an exciting lineup of films in the competitive categories featuring really accomplished and inspired work from a diverse group of talented filmmakers. Our jury had their work cut out for them to single out one film from each group.”

Audience Awards were bestowed upon Daniel Stamm’s A Necessary Death for Best Feature, Davidson’s Kassim the Dream and Patrick Davidson’s The World We Want for Best Documentary and Lagan Sebert and Sandra Sampayo’s Busco Personas: The Faces of Colombia’s War for the Short section.

Overall, the festival showcased 106 features and 48 shorts from 38 countries around the world. Notable screenings included John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt, starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Meryl Streep and Amy Adams, and Edward Zwick’s Defiance, starring Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber. For more information on the American Film Institute and the AFI Fest, visit www.afi.com.