Excellent news about two Florida Film Festival 2006 award winners hit the wire recently, and like proud parents, we couldn’t be happier or more excited about filmmakers Sian Heder and Mike Akel’s success. Sian’s wonderful short film, MOTHER—which is just begging to be made into a feature—followed up its Oscar-qualifying Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Short by getting into competition at the Cannes Film Festival (the first film from her AFI program to do so). She apparently wowed the jury there as well, since MOTHER shared Third Prize in the Cinefondation Awards with Agnes Kocsis’ A VIRUS.
Last week’s announcement of the very impressive Los Angeles Film Festival lineup featured a familiar (and friendly) face amongst all those predominantly World Premieres in the Narrative Feature Competition: CHALK, Mike Akel’s hilarious mockumentary about a year in the life of a small group of Texas high school teachers. Winner of a Special Jury Award for Ensemble Acting at FFF in April, this comedy is so well-crafted and evokes such a great resonse from audiences, that it wouldn’t surprise me if it gets grabbed up soon by some lucky distributor. Truly honest and funny films about the teaching experience are few and far between, and there is an untapped market with vast potential for a gem like this one.
Hearty congratulations go out to three more short filmmakers whose work not only made a profound impact at the recent Florida Film Festival, but continues to make waves on the fest circuit worldwide. At the just completed 49th (!) San Francisco International Film Festival, Karina Epperlein’s PHOENIX DANCE, a beautiful doc about one-legged ballet dancer Homer Avila, won the Golden Gate Award for Bay Area Documentary Short. Also reaping rewards at San Francisco was Christine Spindler from Florida State University for SIRAH, her sensitive portrayal of a young Muslim girl in the US dealing with peer pressure. One of the real gems at the “Best of Brouhaha” program in the FFF, the film won the Golden Gate Award for Work for Kids and Families.
And word from Sian Heder, director of MOTHER—this year’s Grand Jury Award winner for Best Narrative Short—is that the film has been accepted into the “Cinefoundation” competition at the Cannes Film Festival. This terrific short (scheduled to be developed into a feature, hopefully sooner than later) is, according to the filmmaker, the first AFI film to get into this section of Cannes. So congrats again and best wishes to all of you as your films make their mark outside of the Sunshine State.
Finally coming up for air after being submerged in Florida Film Festival mania and wrap-up for the last three weeks, certain highlights and special moments keep popping into my head. The hordes of educators in the audience for the Special Jury Award-winning faux documentary about high school teachers by Mike Akel, CHALK, cracking up from the very first scene. A local priest in attendance at the screening of Joe Cultrera’s HAND OF GOD, a scathing indictment of the Catholic church in Salem, Massachusetts, where the filmmaker’s brother was sexually abused decades ago. While he could not stay for the Q & A, the priest did send Joe an incredibly thoughful letter via e-mail, and Joe in turn agreed to go to Sunday mass before heading back home. In its first screening since Sundance, the wonderfully entertaining crossword puzzle doc, WORDPLAY, had a glorious East Coast Premiere at Enzian, complete with Director Patrick Creadon, Producer Christine O’Malley, and two of its subjects, puzzle constructor Merl Reagle and tournamant finalist Trip Payne (Floridians both), all participating in a spirited and amusing post-film Q & A. And you know how some filmmakers will take a snapshot of the audience during their intro remarks for posterity? Well Steven Kaplan, producer of the Midnight Movie and recent THINKFilm acquisition, FUCK, added a little twist to his request, which the late night audience was more than happy to comply with—a packed house sent their best wishes to director Steve Anderson (who was unable to attend) by shooting him the bird! A Kodak moment if there ever was one.
“Sterling Salutes the Silver Screen” Opening Night Film and Party was a HUGE success! Between the special premiere screening of Kinky Boots, wonderful wines from Sterling Vintner’s Collection, Chef Josh Oakley’s delicious food, the Peterbrooke chocolate fountain (yes, I said CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN), and wild dancing on the patio, the evening was absolutely unforgettable.
Click below to see pictures from this event!!
The patio was PACKED
The most popular lady of the evening
Enzian founder Philip Tiedtke explores Peterbrooke’s famous chocolate fountain
Well…the moment of truth has finally arrived. After over seven months of prep work and previewing nearly 1400 films, the 15th annual Florida Film Festival officially kicks off tomorrow night (Friday the 24th). Somehow it seems fitting that in a year in which Baltimore iconoclast John Waters will be receiving an “American Visionary” award, the Opening Night film is titled KINKY BOOTS—I’m certain he will be as entertaining and crowd-pleasing as this feature film directorial debut from Emmy-nominated Julian Jarrold. The always amazing Portland-based filmmaker, Chel White, has the honor of truly lighting the fuse for the fireworks to follow with his Opening Night short, A PAINFUL GLIMPSE INTO MY CREATIVE PROCESS (IN LESS THAN 60 SECONDS). Though actually a minute and a half, this brilliant piece of animation sets the tone for the ten days of thought-provoking, jaw-dropping, eye-opening, and mind-stretching cinema and film-related fun that are to come.
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