2017 Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema Winners: Zachary Raines' ACCIDENTS Wins Top Awards

Left to right: Mia Arfuso, Francesco Calogero, Rankin Hickman, Zachary Raines, John Siciliani, Jermaine Manigault and Erika Citrin. Photo by Patrick Conti.

The 2017 Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema which ran August 4 to 13 in Kew Gardens, Queens, and at the Queens Museum in nearby Flushing Meadows Corona Park announced this year’s winners. Accidents directed Zachary Raines was the big winner, snagging the awards for Best Feature Narrative, Best Director of Raines, and Best Supporting Actor for John Siciliani. Accidents is a comedy which follows James, a 17 year-old who has never known his father. He lives upstate with his mother Kate and her boyfriend Nick. Hoping to strengthen their bond, Nick takes James to NYC to meet his father. When this ill-conceived scheme goes awry, James flees to wander the city alone, pursued by two flawed father-figures.

From a pool of nearly 400 film submissions, the festival presented over 150 remarkable films from 24 countries. Winners for each competitive category were chosen by the festival’s specially selected jury, and received a unique statuette at the Grand Awards Gala on Sunday, Aug. 13 during a dinner ceremony that took place on the rooftop penthouse of the world-famous Terrace on the Park in Flushing Meadows Corona Park.

The jurors who selected the winners were: Rodney Ferrer, director of the critically acclaimed web series “City of Mercy”; actress Marlene Forte (“Fear the Walking Dead,” “Dallas”); Sam Adelman, assistant editor on “Donnie Brasco,” “Practical Magic” and “Desperately Seeking Susan”; Tassos Rigopoulos, award-winning Forest Hills filmmaker and assistant professor at the Borough of Manhattan Community College; Nicole Tsien, associate producer of the PBS multiple Emmy Award-winning documentary series “POV”; and Allan Knee, writer of “Little Women” on Broadway and the film and stage versions of “Finding Neverland.”