Thursday, May 08, 2014

SFIFF: Golden Gate Awards

Last night the San Francisco International Film Festival announced the winners of the Golden Gate Awards, given to filmmakers exhibiting at the festival. The juried awards come with cash prizes from $500 to $10,000. Not all the winners were present, but those that were got to deliver an Oscars-style thank you speech to the crowd & have an official picture taken with their award certificate. Filmmaker Sara Dosa was clearly thrilled to win in the Bay Area Documentary Feature. Three local high school students accepted awards in the Youth Works category with poise. The event was held at Rouge | Nick's Crispy Tacos, & I did my best Quentin Crisping by going through the taco line twice.


Golden Gate Awards Winners
New Directors Prize: History of Fear, Benjamín Naishtat
Special Jury Recognition: White Shadow, Noaz Deshe; The Amazing Catfish, Claudia Sainte-Luce
Jury: Filmmaker Magazine Editor-in-Chief Scott Macaulay, Fandor cofounder Jonathan Marlow and writer Ella Taylor.

Golden Gate Award Documentary Feature Winners
Documentary Feature: The Overnighters, Jesse Moss
Bay Area Documentary Feature: The Last Season, Sara Dosa
Special jury recognition: Return to Homs, Talal Derki
Jury: filmmaker Rob Epstein, journalist Nathan Heller, and Film Society of Lincoln Center Co-Executive Director Lesli Klainberg.

Golden Gate Award Short Film Winners
Narrative Short (tie): The Birds' Blessing, Serge Mirzabekiantz; So You've Grown Attached, Kate Tsang
Documentary Short: The High Five, Michael Jacobs
Animated Short: The Missing Scarf, Eion Duffy
Bay Area Short (tie): Santa Cruz del Islote, Luke Lorentzen; No One but Lydia, Rob Richert
New Visions Short: Numbers & Friends, Alexander Carson
Jury: journalist Jonathan Kiefer, author Vendela Vida and filmmaker Diana Williams.

Family Film Winners
Family Film: The Dam Keeper, Robert Kondo, Dice Tsutsumi
Family Film Honorable Mention: The Numberlys, William Joyce, Brandon Oldenburg
Jury: teacher Donna Lee, writer Nicki Richesin and artist Jeena Wolfe.

Youth Works Winners
Youth Work: Epitaph, Charles Blecker
Youth Work Honorable Mention: Bay Area Girls Rock Camp, Lily Yu, Judy Lee, Jeremiah Mellor
Jury: Davis Avila, Sophie Edelhart and Julia Pollak, all local high school students.

§ The 57th Annual San Francisco International Film Festival
Golden Gate Awards Ceremony
Wednesday, May 7, 9p, 2014
Rouge | Nick's Crispy Tacos

5 comments:

Civic Center said...

Way to go, faux Quentin.

Axel Feldheim said...

I met a fellow that hadn't seen any films at the festival, but was using press privileges just to attend all the parties. I have a long way to go yet...

Civic Center said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Civic Center said...

At least Quentin always gave good value as an actual celebrity guest while eating his hosts' peanuts and drinking their champagne, while you give good value with your interesting reports. So unless that fellow is a Celebrity, you should snitch on him immediately or he'll ruin it for us all.

Axel Feldheim said...

Well I only have a first name to go on, but I have no doubt that he provided value to the festival that did not necessitate his having to attend a whole bunch of screenings.