The 28th Santa Barbara International Film Festival, announced the winners of the 2013 festival competition. The Panavision Spirit Award for Independent Cinema, given to a unique independent feature that has been made outside mainstream Hollywood, went to BABYGIRL, directed by Macdara Vallely. A Puerto Rican girl in the Bronx sets a trap to expose her mother’s boyfriend as the creep she thinks he is.
The other winning films of the 2013 Santa Barbara International Film Festival include
The Best International Film Award went to COMING OF AGE (Anfang 80), directed by Gerhard Ertl and Sabine Hiebler. At age 80, two people prove beyond all doubt that nobody is too old for young love.
The Nueva Vision Award for the best Spanish/Latin American film was awarded to 7 BOXES (7 Cajas), directed by Juan Carlos Maneglia and Tana Schembori. A teenage delivery boy working in a Paraguayan market must dodge thieves, rival gangs and the police when he agrees to transport seven mysterious — and highly sought-after — crates to the edge of town.
Best Documentary Film Award went to MORE THAN HONEY, directed by Markus Imhoof. With dazzling nature photography, Academy Award®-nominated director Markus Imhoof makes a global examination of endangered honeybees — spanning California, Switzerland, China and Australia.
The Bruce Corwin Award for Best Live Action Short Film Under 30 Minutes went to BARRIERS, directed by Golan Rise. Uri and two soldiers are manning a checkpoint in the territories. Two women from the “watch” organization try to interfere. Amidst the women’s screaming, Uri receives an order to close the checkpoint because of a bomb threat.
Bruce Corwin Award for Best Animation Short Film went to SLEIGHT OF HAND, directed by Michael Cusack. Sleight of Hand: techniques used to manipulate objects to deceive. In this stop-motion film about illusions, a man sculpts a clay image of himself.
The Fund for Santa Barbara Social Justice Award Sponsored by The Fund for Santa Barbara for a documentary film that addresses social justice issues also went to REVOLUTION, directed by Rob Stewart and executive produced by Gus Van Sant. This outstanding documentary makes an impassioned, angry and enduringly hopeful call to arms against our destruction of our planet’s precious marine life.
The Audience Choice Award, sponsored by The Santa Barbara Independent, went to SPINNING PLATES, directed by Joseph Levy. This documentary features three restaurants (including French Laundry and Chicago’s Alinea), extraordinary for what they are today as well as for the challenges they have overcome.