June 22, 2003
NINTH ANNUAL IFP LOS ANGELES FILM FESTIVAL
AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCEDPaxton Winters' "Crude"
Winner of the Target Filmmaker Award (for Best Narrative Feature)
-- The award carries with it an unrestricted cash prize of $50,000 funded by Target Stores -
The largest cash prize bestowed by a major U.S. film festival.Tracy Droz Tragos' "Be Good, Smile Pretty"
Winner of the Target Documentary Award (for Best Documentary Feature)
-- The award carries with it an unrestricted cash prize of $25,000 funded by Target Stores --Peter Mullan's "The Magdalene Sisters"
Winner of the Audience Award for Best Narrative FeatureLaura Gabbert's "Sunset Story"
Winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature
LOS ANGELES (June 21, 2003) - Dawn Hudson, Executive Director of IFP/Los Angeles, announced today the winners for the Ninth Annual IFP Los Angeles Film Festival including the winner of the Target Filmmaker Award (for Best Narrative Feature), which went to Paxton Winters for "Crude." The winner of the Target Documentary Award (for Best Documentary Feature) went to Tracy Droz Tragos for "Be Good, Smile Pretty."
The Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to Peter Mullan's "The Magdalene Sisters," which is being released by Miramax. Laura Gabbert's "Sunset Story" won the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.
A total of 206 films including 72 features representing 32 countries screened at the festival. This year the festival received more than 2,000 submissions from filmmakers around the world with the final selections representing several premieres including nine World Premieres, two North American Premieres, and two U.S. Premieres.
The festival kicked-off on Wednesday, June 11 with the Opening Night Gala selection, Lions Gate Films' "The Cooler," co-written/directed by Wayne Kramer. George Hickenlooper's documentary, "Mayor of the Sunset Strip," made its World Premiere as the Centerpiece Premiere at the festival. The Closing Night Gala selection was IFC Films' "Camp," written/directed by Todd Graff. Premier Sponsors In Style, Target Stores, and Gateway, Inc. sponsored the Opening Night Gala, Closing Night Gala, and Centerpiece Premiere respectively.
"It's been a terrific ten days of discovery - of discovering new films and filmmakers, and of new ways of seeing old films," said Hudson. "Attendance was at a record high -- and it's gratifying to see that Los Angelenos have a big appetite for quality independent films and new film experiences."
Paxton Winters' "Crude" takes a satirical look at patriotism, globalism, and media sensationalism.
"The road movie re-imagined as a subtle, insightful, funny critique of America's place in the world," said the jury of the Target Filmmaker Award winner, "Crude." The jury consisted of actress/filmmaker Joan Chen, New York Times film columnist Dave Kehr, and Los Angeles Magazine Senior Writer Amy Wallace.
In "Crude," Bryce and Gabe are contemporary Mutt and Jeffs - slightly dim-witted Ugly Americans backpacking their way through Europe. Trapped in Turkey, short on cash, and reluctant to contact their parents (they've promised not to visit any Islamic countries, although as Bryce points out, "Turkey is Muslim, not Islamic"), the boys hatch a marketable scheme: to find and interview a terrorist in hopes of selling an exclusive to the U.S. media.
"We feel privileged to have seen a truly impressive slate of documentaries in competition. We award the Target Documentary Award to Tracy Droz Tragos' 'Be Good, Smile Pretty' for its brave, highly original approach to a difficult subject, and for the elegance of its craft," said the jury of the Target Documentary Award winner. The jury was comprised of Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker Vince DiPersio, Vogue film critic Sarah Kerr, and Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Freida Lee Mock.
"Be Good, Smile Pretty" is Tracy Droz Tragos' powerfully moving exploration of her grief for the father she never knew, a grief shared by the more than 20,000 Americans whose fathers were killed in Vietnam. Weaving emotionally compelling interviews with home movies, stock footage, and family photos, Tragos travels from Selma, Alabama to the U.S. Senate in search of her father's Naval Academy roommates and war buddies, each of whom has been silently mourning his death and remembering his life in their own way.
The 2003 IFP Los Angeles Film Festival was sponsored by Premier Sponsors - In Style, Target Stores, and Gateway, Inc.; by Principal Sponsors - American Airlines, the Directors Guild of America, Eastman Kodak Company, IFC, and Sofitel Los Angeles; by Platinum Sponsors - 8000 Sunset, American Eagle Outfitters, California Film Commission, and CFI; by Promotional Partner - Los Angeles Times; and by Promotional Supporters - Black Book, Daily Variety, FilmThreat "Truth in Entertainment," Hollywood & Highland, KABC-TV, KCRW 89.9 FM, LA Weekly, and Mother Jones. Special support was provided by the Academy Foundation of the Academy Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and the National Endowment of the Arts.
The Festival Center (including live entertainment, eating areas, box-office, etc.) was located at the 8000 Sunset (outdoor plaza). The festival utilized screening facilities including the Laemmle Sunset 5 Theaters, Directors Guild of America, the John Anson Ford Amphitheater, and the ArcLight Cinerama Dome.Chen Kaige ("Together") served as the Guest Director for the festival. In this role, Kaige hosted a two-day filmmaker retreat, programmed a sidebar of films that inspired his work, and attended the Opening Night festivities.
Kasi Lemmons launched the new "Artist in Residence" series, which made its first bow at this year's festival. The "Artist in Residence" is an established filmmaker of the IFP Board who selects three films which have been an inspiration in that individual's own work as well as host a special evening with an actor or filmmaker involved with one of the films. This year's spotlight included "Brother John," which was followed by a discussion between Lemmons and Sidney Poitier.
The festival also had the popular Coffee Talk series again this year, which included panels with David Fincher, Jodie Foster, Catherine Hardwicke, George Hickenlooper, Kasi Lemmons, Mark & Michael Polish, Penelope Spheeris, and Mike White, amongst others.* * * *
Awards were given out in the following categories:
Target Filmmaker Award (for Best Narrative Feature)
Winner: "Crude," directed by Paxton Winters
Director/Cinematographer: Paxton Winters
Writers: Paxton Winters, Kerimcan Guiertüz, Oliver Perrin
Producer: Mehmet Eryilmaz
Cast: Paul Schneider, David Connolly, and Yigit OzsenerIn Paxton Winters' feature, Bryce and Gabe are contemporary Mutt and Jeffs - slightly dim-witted Ugly Americans backpacking their way through Europe. Trapped in Turkey, short on cash, and reluctant to contact their parents (they've promised not to visit any Islamic countries, although as Bryce points out, "Turkey is Muslim, not Islamic"), the boys hatch a marketable scheme: to find and interview a terrorist in hopes of selling an exclusive to the U.S. media. Enter Ali, a wealth but lonely club-going Turk with an SUV and a village full of "connected" relatives on the Iranian/Syrian borders of Eastern Turkey. After convincing Ali to "kick a road trip," the boys set off across the countryside with their cunningly insane agenda. But when finding an actual evil-doer proves too much trouble, Bryce and Gabe fall back on their extensive experience as filmmakers (P.A. and grip, respectively) and decide to fake, and film, their own kidnapping.
The Target Filmmaker Award carries with it an unrestricted cash prize of $50,000 funded by Target Stores, offering the financial means for filmmakers to transfer their vision to the screen. The largest cash prize bestowed by a major U.S. film festival, the award recognizes the finest American narrative film at the festival.
The award is given to the winning director of the Narrative Feature Competition. A special jury selects the winner. All narrative feature-length films screening in the Narrative Competition section were eligible.The jury consisted of actress/filmmaker Joan Chen, New York Times film columnist
Dave Kehr, and Los Angeles Magazine Senior Writer Amy Wallace.* * * *
Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature
Winner: "The Magdalene Sisters," directed by Peter Mullan
Director/Writer: Peter Mullan
Producer: Frances Higson
Cast: Geraldine McEwan, Anne-Marie Duff, Nora-Jane Noone,
Dorothy Duffy, Eileen Walsh, Mary Murray and Britta Smith
Country: England / Ireland
Distributor: MiramaxPeter Mullan's follow up to his striking feature debut, "Orphans," is a tough, angry exposé of Ireland's Magdalene Laundries, institutions run by Catholic nuns where girls who showed signs of sexual independence were banished, mostly by their own families.
This is awarded to the narrative feature audiences have liked most as voted by a tabulated rating system. Narrative feature-length films screening in the Narrative Competition section, the International Showcase section, Special Screenings and the Spotlight on China sidebar were eligible for the Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature.
* * * *
Target Documentary Award (for Best Documentary Feature)
Winner: "Be Good, Smile Pretty," directed by Tracy Droz Tragos
Director/Writer: Tracy Droz Tragos
Producer: Tracy Droz TragosOn March 16, 2001, Tracy Droz Tragos was surfing the internet, entering family names to see if anyone had become famous yet. What she discovered instead was a first-hand account of her father's death on a U.S. Naval swift boat in the Mekong Delta. At that moment, Tragos decided she needed to know who that 25-year-old stranger was - not as a statistic, tangled in the memory of a war that wounded the nation, but simply, deeply as a man who laughed a lot and had blemishes and fears and wanted more than anything to come home and be her father.
"Be Good, Smile Pretty" is Tracy Droz Tragos' powerfully moving exploration of her grief for the father she never knew, a grief shared by the more than 20,000 Americans whose fathers were killed in Vietnam. Weaving emotionally compelling interviews with home movies, stock footage, and family photos, Tragos travels from Selma, Alabama to the U.S. Senate in search of her father's Naval Academy roommates and war buddies, each of whom has been silently mourning his death and remembering his life in their own way.
The Target Documentary Award for Best Documentary Feature recognizes the finest American documentary feature at the festival and is awarded to the winning director of the Documentary Competition. The award carries with it an unrestricted cash prize of $25,000 funded by Target Stores.
A special jury selects the winner. Documentary features screening in the Documentary Competition section are eligible for the Target Documentary Award.
The jury consisted of Academy Award-nominated documentary filmmaker Vince DiPersio, Vogue film critic Sarah Kerr, and Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Freida Lee Mock.
* * * *
Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature
Winner: "Sunset Story," directed by Laura Gabbert
Director: Laura Gabbert
Producers: Laura Gabbert, Caroline Libresco
Co-Producer: Eden WurmfeldA film about an extraordinary friendship between Irja, 81, and Lucile, 95, both residents of Sunset Hall, a retirement home for political radicals. Others around them at this retirement home for free thinkers show signs of lethargy or dementia, but Irja and Lucile are both quick-witted and intellectually vibrant, still actively participating in life. During days spent demonstrating, discussing the news or complaining about the food in the dining hall, the two provide essential emotional support for each other as they face the difficulties of aging and the continued political injustices of the world around them.
This award is given to the documentary feature audiences have liked most as voted on by a tabulated rating system. Documentary feature-length films screening in the Documentary Competition section, the International Showcase section, Special Screenings, and the Spotlight on China sidebar are eligible for the Audience Award for Best Documentary Feature.
The award includes a full tape-to-film blow-up donated by CFI/Technicolor, and a full one-sheet exploration donated by Samuels Advertising & Design.
* * * *
Audience Award for Best Short Film
Winner: "The Vest," by Paul Gutrecht
Description: Confronted with conformity, a young girl stands her ground.
Awarded to the short film audiences have liked most as voted by a tabulated rating system. Short films screening in the Short Programs or before Narrative Competition, Documentary Competition or International Showcase feature-length screenings are eligible for the Audience Award for Best Short Film.
Best Narrative Short FilmWinner: "five deep breaths," by Seith Mann
Description: Best friends must decide how far they'll go for one another.
"Displaying an assured trust in his talented cast as they explore the depths of friendship and male honor, the winner of the Jury Prize for Best Narrative Short Film is Seith Mann for 'five deep breaths," said the Shorts Competition Jury.
The award includes a Canon XL1 camera donated by Canon USA.
Best Documentary Short FilmWinner: "Foo-Foo Dust," by Gina Levy & Eric Johnson
Description: The documentary observes the unshakable bond between a crack addicted mother and her junkie soon.
"For their unrelenting look at a mother and son coping with addiction that neither glamorizes nor demonizes the subject, the winners of the Jury Prize for Best Documentary Short Film are Gina Levy and Eric Johnson for 'Foo-Foo Dust,'" said the Shorts Competition Jury.
The award includes a Canon XL1 camera donated by Canon USA.
Best Animated Short FilmWinner: "Historia del Desierto (Stories of the Desert)," by Celia Galan Julve
Description: Everyone has a story. This is La Mocha's.
"For her exceptional use of clay-mation to expand on the already outrageous Mexican myth of La Mocha, the winner of the Jury Prize for Best Animated Short Film is Celia Galan Julve for 'Historia del Desierto (Stories of the Desert),'" said the Shorts Competition Jury.
The award includes a Canon XL1 camera donated by Canon USA.
The Short Competition Jury consisted of Susan O'Leary, who currently serves as the Director of Fox Searchlab, the new digital production unit of Fox Searchlight Pictures; filmmaker Carl Seaton; and Diana Williams, producer and founder of Exit 5 Entertainment, a New York-based production company.
Over the past nine years, the Los Angeles Film Festival has evolved into a world-class event, uniting emerging filmmakers with established filmmakers, industry leaders, film critics, and the film-going public. The IFP/Los Angeles took over the festival in 2001, and expanded the festival to include international films and a variety of special events and screenings throughout Los Angeles. Richard Raddon continues as Festival Director. Rachel Rosen was appointed Director of Programming in September 2001.
The festival has grown to more than 40,000 attendees, unveiling such films as "Kissing Jessica Stein," "George Washington," "The Cruise," and "Dead Man," and hosting talents such as Jennifer Aniston, Alfonso Cuarón, Benicio Del Toro, David Fincher, Jodie Foster, Heather Graham, Helen Hunt, Holly Hunter, Ewan McGregor, Sydney Pollock, Bryan Singer, and Forest Whitaker. Last year a total of 153 films including 57 features representing 22 countries screened at the festival.
IFP/Los Angeles is Southern California's largest non-profit organization for independent filmmakers with more than 6,000 active members.
IFP/Los Angeles is dedicated to supporting independent filmmakers, and championing the cause of independent filmmaking. To achieve this purpose, IFP/Los Angeles helps the independent filmmaking community in three ways:
Education: With year-round screenings, seminars, symposia, and educational programs that help members master the art and craft of filmmaking;
Support: Providing professional advice, access to industry leaders, networking opportunities, camera and equipment rentals, and discounts to more than 200 industry-related vendors to help members take their ideas from script to screen;
Building Audiences: Promoting independent film to a wider audience through the Los Angeles Film Festival and the nationally televised IFP Independent Spirit Awards.
In these ways, IFP/Los Angeles encourages diversity, creativity, quality and innovation in filmmaking, and gives voice to filmmakers who embody the independent spirit.
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