The Long Beach International Film Festival (LBIFF) will celebrate its eighth anniversary from July 31st through August 3rd on Long Island, and will screen an international slate of over 50 films, including feature-length narratives, documentaries, shorts and animated films that will compete for a series Festival Honors and Audience Awards.
After opening remarks from Roger Ross Williams, the first African American director to win an Academy Award, the 19th Woodstock Film Festival Maverick Awards Ceremony was held on Saturday, October 13. Awards were presented to exceptional films and honorees in numerous categories with the Feature Narrative Award going to Paul Starkman for WHEELS, and the Best Documentary Feature was presented to Assia Boundaoui director for THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED.
Tony®, Emmy® and Grammy®-winning, and Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Julie Taymor received the Honorary Maverick Award; and Academy Award®-nominated and Emmy Award®-winning filmmaker Matthew Heineman received the Filmmaker Award of Distinction. for his debut feature narrative, A PRIVATE WAR.
BEST NARRATIVE FEATURE
The Gigantic Pictures’ Feature Narrative Award went to Paul Starkman for WHEELS.
“We chose Wheels because it beautifully explores the powerfully precarious choices that brothers make that impact their lives and all of their relationships forever. Stunningly told and poignantly acted with depth and candor wheels stood out in a thrilling year of Woodstock film selections. It explores the fine line between constructive and instantly destructive decisions and their impact on our lives- in an instant everything changes.”
Honorable Mention went to Brendan Walter for SPELL.
A Special Award for ensemble cast went to John Stimpson for GHOST LIGHT.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
The Best Documentary Feature, sponsored by Films We Like, was presented to Assia Boundaoui director for THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED.
Honorable Mention to director Juliane Dressner and Edwin Martinez for PERSONAL STATEMENT.
Best Narrative Short sponsored by Gigantic Pictures, went to director Leonora Lonsdale for BEAST.
Honorable Mention went to Alexis Gambis for MI HERMANO.
Best Student Short sponsored by Gigantic Pictures, went to director Jisun Jamie Kim for A YEAR.
The Woodstock Film Festival Ultra Indie Award, sponsored by Gray, Krauss, Stratford, Sandler, Des Rochers, LLP and Blackmagic Design, was presented to Alex Moratto for SOCRATES.
Best Animated Short was presented to Mark C. Smith for TWO BALLOONS.
Best Short Documentary, sponsored by Markertek.com, went to Skye Fitzgerald for LIFEBOAT. Honorable mention to Lynne Sachs for CAROLEE, BARBARA & GUNVOR.
“We based our decision on what stories we felt most needed to be told, and what stories we hadn’t seen before. We put special emphasis on films that show underrepresented people (like the older women in Carolee, Barbara & Gunvor). We wanted to cite a local filmmaker for an honorable mention as a nod to the importance of our growing creative community upstate.”
The Haskell Wexler Award for Best Cinematography, sponsored by Panavision, went to Eric Bader for SPELL.
“Choosing a single film in this category was not easy. There’s been an explosion of great cinematography this year, and all of the films considered for the cinematography award stood out.
But the cinematography in this particular film is resonant, drawn with a deft touch. It is consistent and well crafted. The color palette and the choice of shots and lenses allow us a proximity to the characters, which aptly draws us into the drama and plays on our expectations, our emotions as viewers.”
The James Lyons Editing Award For Narrative Feature, sponsored by Technicolor Postworks NY, was presented to Kristina Davies editor for UNLOVABLE.
The James Lyons Editing Award For Documentary Feature, sponsored by Technicolor Postworks NY, was presented to Rabab Haj Yahya editor for THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED. Special mention: WRESTLE.
The World Cinema Award, was presented to Laurie Colbert and Dominique Cardona for KEELY & DU. A special mention to director Roxy Toporowych for JULIA BLUE.
The Carpe Diem Andretta Award, sponsored by The Vincent J. Andretta Memorial Fund and presented to the film that best represents living life to the fullest, was awarded to director William Fichtner for COLD BROOK.
Karl Berger of Karl Berger – Music Mind[/caption]
The fiercely independent 19th Annual Woodstock Film Festival will showcase more than 100 films and open with a live performance by the Karl Berger Band following the screening of the feature documentary Karl Berger – Music Mind, which offers “an inside look into the creative process and unique approach toward music that makes Karl Berger”. Matthew Heineman’s feature narrative debut A Private War, starring Rosamund Pike, Jamie Dornan and Stanley Tucci will close the film festival on the evening of Sunday, October 14th.
There will be a panel discussion after the film screening of Lessons from a School Shooting: Notes from Dunblane, featuring the filmmakers, as well as panelists from the documentary Newtown. In the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that took the lives of twenty first-graders and their teachers, local clergyman Father Bob Weiss receives a letter from a fellow priest in Dunblane, Scotland, whose community suffered an eerily similar fate in 1996. From across the Atlantic, the two priests forge a poignant bond through the shared experience of trauma and healing. Never before seen film clips of the filmmakers’ upcoming documentary about the mass shooting in Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, will be shown during the panel.
Roger Ross Williams is the first African American director to win an Academy Award with his short film Music By Prudence. Williams has directed a wide variety of acclaimed films including God Loves Uganda, which was shortlisted for an Academy Award, and Life, Animated, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 2017. Williams is on the Board of Governors for the Academy of motion pictures, Arts and Sciences, representing the Documentary branch, as well as being on the Diversity Committee for the Academy. This year Williams is our Special Guest Programmer whose selection spotlights some of his favorite contemporary works by filmmakers of color. Williams said, “I am thrilled to be a guest programmer at this year’s Woodstock Film Festival. The three films I have chosen demonstrate the scope, depth and creativity that is possible when we, as black filmmakers, tell our own stories.” These films include Hale County This Morning, This Evening, Shakedown, and Mr. SOUL!.
Younger Days, directed by Paula van der Oest
WRESTLE, directed by Lauren Belfer and Suzannah Herbert
1-0, directed by Nada ElAzhary; 59 Seconds, directed by Mauro Carraro; After Her, directed by Aly Migliori; Antouni (Homeless), directed by Alik Tamar; Are You Still Singing?, directed by Gillian Barnes; A Year, directed by Jisun Jamie Lee; Beast, directed by Leonora Lonsdale; Beautiful Things, directed by Dina Waxman; Black Spirit, directed by Chakib Taleb-Bendiab; Boy Boy Girl Girl, directed by Ross Kauffman; Carolee, Barbara & Gunvor, directed by Lynne Sachs; The Christmas Rabbit, directed by Christophe Lopez-Huici; The Crying Room, directed by Shalom Auslander; Del Rio, directed by Raj Trivedi; Dinner, directed by Anna Gilmore; Edith Piaf (Said It Better Than Me), directed by Joseph Wallace; Ego, directed by Mario Addis; The English Teecher, directed by Andy and Carolyn London; Even Ants Strive for Survival, directed by Ren Xia; Funeral, directed by Leah Shore; Gamble, directed by Chayadol Lomtong; Goose in High Heels, directed by John R. Dilworth; He’s Watching, directed by Arthur Metcalf; Homing In, directed by Parker Hill; Jo, directed by Justine Williams; One Small Step, directed by Andrew Chesworth and Bobby Pontillas; Last Requests, directed by Courtenay Johnson; The Last Seance, directed by Laura Kulik; Lifeboat, directed by Skye Fitzgerald; Lucy, directed by Ruben Gutiérrez; The Magical Mystery of Musigny, directed by Emmett Goodman and John Meyer; Martin, directed by Sholto Crow; Melt Down, directed by Amy Jingyi Xu; Mirror Mirror, directed by Jacob Internicola; Mother, directed by Amanda Palmer; Moved to Tiers, directed by Avery Herzog; The Movie House on Main Street, directed by Teresa Torchiano; My Brother (Mi Hermano), directed by Alexis Gambis; Pour 585, directed by Patrick Smith; Rooster and The Queen, directed by Aaron Weisblatt; Salam, directed by Claire Fowler; Lessons from a School Shooting: Notes from Dunblane, directed by Kim A. Snyder; Shiva Baby, directed by Emma Seligman; Sorceress, directed by Max Blustin; Trump Bites, directed by Bill Plympton; Two Balloons, directed by Mark C. Smith; Unnatural, directed by Amy Wang; The Velvet Underground Played at My High School, directed by Tony Jannelli and Robert Pietri; Vicarious Resilience, directed by Eva Tenuto; Voice, directed by Takeshi Kushida; Welcome to the New World, directed by Jerry Suen & Anni Sultany; The Winds of Downhill, directed by Jedd and Todd Wider; Your Face Global Jam, directed by Ken Mora
Solicitous– Music by Drekoty
Ten narratives have been selected for the 2016 IFP Filmmaker Labs, IFP’s annual yearlong fellowship for first-time feature directors.
The creative teams of the selected films are currently attending the first week’s sessions – The Time Warner Foundation Completion Labs – taking place May 23-27th in New York City.
The IFP Narrative Filmmaker Labs are the only labs that support first-time feature directors with projects in post-production as they complete, market and distribute their films. The Labs provide filmmakers with the technical, creative and strategic tools necessary to launch their films and careers.
Now entering its twelfth year with over 100+ first-feature filmmakers supported, the community of Labs alumni is comprised of some of the most exciting and critically-acclaimed artists working today across film, television, new media and VR; these include multi-hyphenate creators such as Amy Seimetz (“The Girlfriend Experience”), Alex Karpovsky (“Girls”), David Lowery (PETE’S DRAGON), Dee Rees (BESSIE), Andrew Dosunmu (MOTHER OF GEORGE), Tim Sutton (DARK NIGHT), Jennifer Phang (ADVANTAGEOUS), and Terence Nance (AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY).
Recent 2015 IFP Labs Fellows have been already making their mark on the festival circuit. Just this year, THE ARBALEST won SXSW’s Narrative Grand Jury Prize and DONALD CRIED received distribution from The Orchard. Of the ten selected projects, seven have already premiered at top festivals including SXSW, Tribeca, Los Angeles Film Festival, Slamdance and Bentonville and two fellows are shooting new projects this summer.
“To highlight and support diverse stories and storytellers has always been the mission of the IFP Labs and of IFP as a whole,” says Joana Vicente, Executive Director of IFP and the Made in NY Media Center. “This year’s Narrative Lab Fellows are a perfect example of this, and the boundless creativity and diversity in their work is evident in just how wide-ranging these films’ settings are: from Kyiv, Ukraine, to the Alaskan fish canneries, to right here in Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood.”
Under the artistic direction of IFP Head of Programming Amy Dotson and Program Manager and Producer Zach Mandinach, the supervising 2016 Narrative Lab leaders include Jon Reiss, director/producer and author (BOMB IT!; Think Outside the Box Office), Susan Stover, producer (WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE; HIGH ART; HAPPY ACCIDENTS); Pierce Varous, producer (ALWAYS SHINE; H.) and founder of Nice Dissolve; Scott Macaulay, Filmmaker Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief and producer (JULIEN-DONKEY BOY). Individual Workshop Leaders include composer Keegan Dewitt (I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS; QUEEN OF EARTH), film editors Sabine Hoffman (MAGGIE’S PLAN; THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE), Lee Percy (MARIA FULL OF GRACE; BOYS DON’T CRY), Jennifer Ruff (A WOMAN, A PART; GLASS CHIN),) and Marc Vives (MUSEUM HOURS; I USED TO BE DARKER), marketing experts Adam Kersh (Brigade Marketing) and Nick Camacho (Oscilloscope Laboratories), producers Anne Carey (THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE GIRL; THE SAVAGES), Mollye Asher (SONGS MY BROTHERS TAUGHT ME), Jodi Redmond (THE WITCH), and Darren Dean (TANGERINE), festival programmers Tom Hall (Montclair Film Festival) and Dan Nuxoll (Rooftop Films), and fellow filmmakers Ingrid Jungermann (WOMEN WHO KILL), Leah Meyerhoff (I BELIEVE IN UNICORNS), and Takeshi Fukunaga (OUT OF MY HAND).
In addition to lead support from the Time Warner Foundation, additional support for the IFP Filmmaker Labs includes grants from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Ford Foundation, Hollywood Foreign Press Association, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, and SAGIndie. Lab partners include The Adrienne Shelly Foundation, BMI, and Rooftop Films.
The selected narrative projects for the 2016 IFP Filmmaker Labs and their attending Lab Fellows are:
ALASKA IS A DRAG
An aspiring superstar’s diva fabulous dreams are hard fought working at a fish cannery in Alaska. He dreams of escaping the monotony of fish guts and fist fights, but in the meantime, out of necessity he has learned to fight and is scouted by the local boxing coach and a new boy moves to town and wants to be his sparring partner. Shaz Bennett (Director, Writer, Producer), Jean-Pierre Caner (Producer, Consulting Editor). Los Angeles, CA.
A BAD IDEA GONE WRONG
A comedy about two would-be thieves who accidentally arm the alarm system and have to break out of the house they just broke into. When they discover an unexpected housesitter, they suddenly have to deal with a hostage situation, double crosses, and discoveries that make their difficult escape even more dubious. Jason Headley (Director, Writer), Tim Fender (Editor). San Francisco, CA.
COLD NOVEMBER
A 12-year-old girl being raised within a matriarchal household is taken through the right of passage of killing a deer for the first time. Expectations dissolve into chaos, and Florence finds herself alone, relying on instinct and training to follow through with her decisions and pull herself together while simultaneously living through the aftermath of a recent family trauma. Karl Jacob (Director, Writer, Producer), Pete Ohs (Editor). Hibbing, MN.
DAYVEON
Dayveon is a twelve-year-old boy who is coming to terms with the death of his older brother. Torn between a loving sister who has become his sole caretaker and the sense of camaraderie offered by his local gang, he’s forced to make decisions that threaten to rob him of his innocence. Amman Abbasi (Director, Writer, Producer), Steven Reneau (Writer, Producer). Little Rock, AR.
HEARTLOCK
A convict realizes his best shot at escaping is to master the art of “ducking,” a specialized form of prison manipulation in which an inmate befriends a flawed guard for the purposes of blackmail. He targets a tough-as-nails female guard with an underlying vulnerability. However, it doesn’t take long for his plan to hit a snag: he falls in love with her. Jon Kauffman (Director, Writer), Chris Cummings (Writer), Dominic Laperriere (Editor). New York, NY.
JULIA BLUE
Julia, a bright university student, is preparing for a life abroad when she meets English, a damaged soldier returning from the war zone in eastern Ukraine. An unexpected romance sparks between the two, as Julia and English fall deeply for each other. From metropolitan Kyiv to a remote Carpathian village, Julia and English must decide if they are ready to build a future together in a homeland that is slowly being torn apart. Roxy Toporowych (Director, Writer), Nilou Safinya (Producer), Ben Kim (Editor). Brooklyn, NY.
THE MISSING SUN
After a solar flare powers down her remote community, Alma discovers her husband Terry comatose. Pursuing a series of bizarre clues, she soon believes Terry is astral traveling to reunite with his deceased ex-wife. Determined to bring him back, Alma seeks helps from Terry’s estranged, psychedelic son and from the leader of a new-age religion who believes the sun-storm may signal the end-times. Brennan Vance (Director, Writer, Producer, DP, Editor), James Christenson (Producer). Minneapolis, MN.
POOR JANE
Jane and Henry are in a loving marriage. Another man humiliates Henry at a Christmas party and Jane decides she no longer loves him. The following morning Jane tells Henry she’s going to Target, but instead checks into a hotel and stops answering her phone. Jane spends the holidays drinking, having impulsive encounters with men and contemplating whether or not she wants to remain married. Katie Orr (Director, Writer), Alex Orr (Producer), David Swinburne (Co-Producer). Atlanta, GA.
SOLACE
When her father dies, Sole, 17, numbs her emotions with food. She unwillingly lives with her estranged grandmother. Desperate to escape her grandmother’s controlling love and illicit relationship with the pastor, Sole enters a forbidden friendship with the rebellious teenage neighbors. Juggling these relationships spirals Sole out of control with food but it ultimately forces her to confront her pain. Tchaiko Omawale (Director, Writer, Producer), Eileen Cabling (Associate Producer), Amanda Griffin (Editor). Los Angeles, CA.
UNTITLED HASIDIC FILM
Given unprecedented access to New York’s Orthodox Jewish community, the film is a story of faith and fatherhood – performed entirely in Yiddish. Joshua Z Weinstein (Director, Writer, Producer, DP), Daniel Finkelman (Producer), Danelle Eliav (Co-Producer), Royce Brown (Co-Producer). Brooklyn, NY.