AWARDS

Denver Film Festival Award Winners Announced

by Alex Billington
November 19, 2007

If you're not located around Denver, Colorado it's likely you don't give a "hoot" about the Denver Film Festival. It just wrapped up yesterday after 10 days of joyous independent and foreign cinema. What's important is that the award winners were announced, both jury-chosen and audience-chosen awards. If you want to know what indie movies to keep an eye on, this should point you in a general direction. Or at least for those of you who love following indie cinema, it might be worth taking a look at. It's always interesting to see what wins a local fest because it gives you an idea of what most people really like and what indie movies really stand out.

On Closing Night, November 18 at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, SDFF 30 continued its tradition of highlighting the highest level of cinematic achievement with three juried awards: The Emerging Filmmaker Award, The Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary, and The Krzysztof Kieslowski Award for Best Feature Film. The winners were chosen by a panel of jurors including critics, industry, and media professionals.

Emerging Filmmaker Award
OWL AND THE SPARROW, directed by Stephane Gauger

The Maysles Brothers Award for Best Documentary Film
KNEE DEEP, directed by Michael Chandler

Krzysztof Kieslowski Award for Best Feature Film
PERSEPOLIS, directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud

Starz People's Choice Awards
Narrative Film Winner: UNDER THE SAME MOON (LA MISMA LUNA), directed by Patricia Riggen
Documentary Film Winner: A WALK TO BEAUTIFUL, directed by Amy Bucher and Mary Olive Smith
Short Film Winner: MAMITAS, directed by Nicholas Ozeki

For the full list of films that played at the festival, click here. Organizers of the Denver Film Fest reported that over 45K people attending films and events and all 125 screenings were sold out over the 11-day period. Pretty impressive - this fest continues to grow and grow!

I'm quite sad that neither Juno or Teeth, some cult favorites of my own, weren't honored at all. I thought for sure Juno would've continued its reign of awards here, but I guess the Denver folk just didn't pick up on it. However, Persepolis is really sweeping up awards at fests all around the world like crazy. It's the little black and white animated movie that "could" and is being heralded as one of the year's best films and a shoe-in for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars. I'm fully impressed that an animated movie won best feature over everything else live action!

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