The Ashland Independent Film Festival announced the 2013 juried and audience award winning films at a gala Awards Celebration. The Rogue Creamery Audience Award for Best Documentary was awarded to Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings. The Forgotten Kingdom won the John C. Schweiger Audience Award for Best Feature. The Retrieval, directed by AIFF alumni Chris Eska received the festival’s jury award for Best Narrative Feature film. God Loves Uganda, directed by Academy Award-winning AIFF alumni Roger Ross Williams took home the Best Feature Length Documentary juried award. Twelve awards were presented to attending filmmakers, honoring their work screened at the 12th annual festival.
The 2013 Rogue Award was presented to AIFF alum and two-time Oscar®-nominated director Lucy Walker, recognizing her ability to capture memorable characters on transformative journeys. Walker’s latest film, The Crash Reel, screened at the Festival, bringing to Ashland audiences the inspiring story of champion snowboarder Kevin Pearce and his ongoing fight to recover from a massive brain injury incurred while training for the 2010 Olympics. Walker also presented a series of short films profiling Olympic athletes from around the world in Going for Gold: Olympic Shorts with Lucy Walker, and moderated a standing-room-only TalkBack panel “Close-Up and Personal,” drawing together documentary filmmakers to explore the creative process behind translating public and private personas to the screen.
2013 Audience Award Winners
The Rogue Creamery Audience Award for Best Documentary was awarded to Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings. The Forgotten Kingdom won the John C. Schweiger Audience Award for Best Feature. Slomo received the Sypko Andreae Volunteer Spirit Audience Award for Best Short Film: Documentary and The Other Side took home the Audience Award for Best Short Film: Narrative. The Audience Family Choice Award went to Floyd the Android.
2013 Juried Award Winners
The Retrieval, directed by AIFF alumni Chris Eska (August Evening, AIFF 2008) received the festival’s jury award for Best Narrative Feature film. God Loves Uganda, directed by Academy Award-winning AIFF alumni Roger Ross Williams (Music By Prudence, 2010) took home the Best Feature Length Documentary juried award.
Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes won jury prize for Best Acting Ensemble and the Gerald Hirschfeld A.S.C. Award Award for Best Cinematography. Hirschfeld was the 2007 A.S.C President’s Award Honoree and Director Photography for films such as Young Frankensteinand My Favorite Year.
Bite of the Tail won the Best Animated Short. Best Short Documentary went to FLO. The juried award for Best Short Film went to The River. Karaoke! received a special jury mention in the Short Film category.