Congratulations to filmmaker David Munro and FULL GROWN MEN for winning the 2007 indieWIRE Undiscovered Gems Audience Award yesterday. The bittersweet comedy about a young man (Matt McGrath) who refuses to grow up—which was showcased in the 2007 Florida Film Festival last spring as the only narrative feature in the Florida Sidebar—won a theatrical distribution deal with Emerging Pictures that includes a $50,000 P&A guarantee and a $50,000 license fee for exclusive broadcast on the Sundance Channel. Complete with its satirical barbs at Disney World (or “Diggityland”) and road trip north from Miami to Central Florida with characters along the way ranging from a disgruntled ex-theme park employee to a horny bartending clown to a delusional ex-Weeki Wachi mermaid, this is an often humorous tale of accepting responsibility and acting your age. The supporting cast of Judah Friedlander, Alan Cumming, Amy Sedaris, and Deborah Harry is a joy to watch, and FULL GROWN MEN is truly deserving of whatever kind of theatrical release it finally gets. A very nice way to start the new year…
—Matthew
Still playing catch-up after a few days spent out of touch in the wilds of Northern California and Oregon, and finally read the always-anticipated “25 New Faces of Independent Film” feature in the summer issue of FILMMAKER magazine. While the professional sports world seems to be imploding with scandal (from roids and HR records to star QBs indicted for dogfighting to NBA refs manipulating games for the mob—pro soccer and the NHL suddenly ain’t lookin’ so bad!), I was thrilled to discover that this annual survey of hot new talent on the indie film scene features a number of FFF 2007 alumni:
Moon Molson and his powerful dramatic short, POP FOUL, have been making the festival scene everywhere, and deservedly so. Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky, with their provocative post-Katrina doc short, GOD PROVIDES, and Sophie Barthes, with her off-beat short comedy starring Polish screen legend Elzbieta Czyzewska, HAPPINESS, will hopefully be having an encore performance as part of the Sundance Institute Art House Project shorts program coming in November to Enzian. Calvin Reeder and his twisted family horror piece, LITTLE FARM, made its East Coast Premiere at Midnight preceding Jeremy Saulnier’s MURDER PARTY. And Phillip Van and his clever little slice of android sci-fi, HIGH MAINTENANCE, also had its East Coast Premiere here in March and went on to win the Florida Film Festival Audience Award for Best International Short.
Like other programmers who have championed the work of these extremely talented individuals, there’s a certain feeling of pride in their recognition and continued success. So congratulations to all of you, and keep up the great work!
—Matthew
Congratulations are in order for a number of filmmakers whose work graced this year’s Florida Film Festival a little over a month ago. This past weekend, Arturo Cabanas’ MAN UP (which first stunned me in the video library at the IFP Market last September and ended up preceding ROW HARD NO EXCUSES at the FFF) won the award for Best Short Documentary at the recently completed Hot Docs in Toronto. And the juries at the Independent Film Festival Boston (IFFB) just unloaded a bunch of hardware on some familiar names and faces: Seth Gordon’s THE KING OF KONG won Best Documentary Feature, Moon Molson’s POP FOUL won Best Short Film, David Redmon and Ashley Sabin’s KAMP KATRINA won the Special Jury Prize for Doc Feature, and John Thompson’s SONGBIRD won the Special Jury Prize for Short Film.
Needless to say, you should jump at the opportunity to see any of these brilliant and accomplished films if they come to your town…or if you’re lucky enough to be visiting a city with a festival or theater (in the case of the upcoming release of THE KING OF KONG) with them in the program.
—Matthew
Back from the depths of festival insanity and finally coming up for air. Thanks to all those filmmakers, moviegoers, special guests, jurors, panelists, industry types and cinema lovers who helped make our 16th edition the best, most fun, and most memorable one yet! In case you didn’t catch it in our illustrious daily metropolitan newspaper (I haven’t seen anything yet, have you?) or on-line, here’s our distinguished list of winners for 2007:
Grand Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature: BLACK IRISH, directed by Brad Gann
Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature: BLACK IRISH, directed by Brad Gann
Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary Feature: KNEE DEEP, directed by Michael Chandler
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature: UNSETTLED, directed by Adam Hootnick
Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Short: THE CARESS OF THE CREATURE, directed by Stewart McAlpine
Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary Short: THE TRIBE, directed by Tiffany Shlain
Grand Jury Award for Best Animated Short: EVERYTHING WILL BE OK, directed by Don Hertzfeldt
Audience Award for Best Short Film: TALES OF MERE EXISTENCE, directed by Lev Yilmaz
Special Jury Award for Best Actress: Meagan Moses of PRETTY IN THE FACE, directed by Nate Meyer
Special Jury Award for Innovative Documentary Storytelling: OPERATION HOMECOMING, directed by Richard E. Robbins
Special Jury Award for Best Female Role Model: BITCH, directed by Lilah Vandenburgh
Audience Award for Best International Feature: IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON (UK), directed by David Sington
Audience Award for Best International Short: HIGH MAINTENANCE (Germany), directed by Phillip Van
Congratulations to all the filmmakers. We are honored to present your work and look forward to future projects.
—Matthew
Judy Greer and Jake Kasdan’s THE TV SET. Peter Bogdanovich and an archival print of PAPER MOON. Chazz Palminteri coming in for the Full Sail panel. Samm (Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared) Levine and LIFE IS SHORT. The writers of FACE/OFF and THE MASK, AMERICAN PSYCHO and GO FISH, CRIMES OF PASSION, the CHILD’S PLAY series, and THE AIR I BREATHE all on the same screenwriting panel. The World Premiere of KNEE DEEP, the fascinating new doc feature from Michael Chandler, Oscar-nominated editor of AMADEUS, MISHIMA, and NEVER CRY WOLF. Some of the best shorts programs, both domestic and international, live action and animated, that you will ever get to see.
These are but a few of the highlights in store over the next ten days as the 16th annual Florida Film Festival takes flight on Friday evening. After 8 months of work, these 171 films from 24 countries—including 38 World, North American, and US Premieres—are ready for their close-up. We hope you can join us!
—Matthew
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