Award winners in each division will receive cash prizes ($500 for first place, $150 for second, and $100 for third). Each first place winner will also receive a pass to the Rhode Island International Film Festival. The “Best of Festival” winner will be awarded an additional $500 and a scholarship to a R.I. International Film Festival “Filmmaker’s Master Class”. Honorable mention winners will receive tickets to the Avon Cinema in Providence or the Brattle Theater in Cambridge, Mass.
Tom Gasek, award-winning animator who has worked on many commercial and feature projects such as Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run, will give a special presentation on Wednesday, April 17, at 7:30 p.m. in Chafee Auditorium.
Screening of the winning entries will follow Gasek’s presentation. Professionals working in the Rhode Island and national film communities selected the winning videos and films. Winners were chosen in five categories — documentary news, commercials, animation, and experimental and an “open” division for films that mix categories or do not readily fit the other categories. A sixth category, “Film and Television Criticism,” recognizes written essays addressing aspects of film or television criticism, history, or theory.
The remaining schedule of festival events follows:
Wednesday, April 17
7:30 p.m. Chafee 271
1st Place Screening and Awards Ceremony.
Presentation by featured guest speaker, animator Tom Gasek, owner Out of Hand Animation, screening of first place winners, awards presented including “Best of Festival.”
Out of 68 entrants, the winners for this years festival are:
Animation
1st Place: Musication 2001, Jennifer Rowinski, Wakefield, (Jennifer is currently studying in Florence, Italy)
2nd Place (Tie): Utopia, Matt Paquin, Wakefield
2nd Place (Tie): Earth: the Final Hour, Richard Brownell.
Honorable Mention Major Tom, Marie Ventura, Warwick
Commercials
1st Place: (Tie) Brewed Awakenings, Vince Johnson, Pawtucket
1st Place: (Tie) Pre-Owned Honda, Timothy Knapp, Yorktown Heights, NY
3rd Place: Lifestyles Condoms, Robert Rife, Ashaway
Documentary
1st Place: Falling Leaves, Dan Riordan, West Kingston
2nd Place: Perceptions of War, Diane Brandt of New Jersey, Erich Schumacher of Scituate, Christina Riccio of North Kingstown, Scott Gleason, Elisabeth Reis and Kevin Hoagland
3rd Place: The Life & Times of Johnny Skilsaw, Robert George, Westerly
Honorable Mention: 34 Davisville, Ryan Marchione, Heidi Porazzo, Narragansett
Experimental
1st Place: White Narcissus, Richard Schwass, North Kingstown
2nd Place: Inverted Motion, Kevin Curtis, North Kingstown
3rd Place: Stab, Jeremy Derbyshire-Myles, Jacob Goldman, Robert George and Richard White.
Honorable Mention: A Tale of Three Cities, Jeremy Derbyshire-Myles
Distant, Jacob Goldman, Narragansett; Falling, Joe Simonetti, Narragansett
Film/TV Criticism Essay
1st Place: “Hidden Erotica: Billy Wilder & The Production Code” by Robert George, Westerly
2nd Place: “Postmodern Pygmalion: The Body as Absence and Existence in Guares Six Degrees of Separation” by Donald Rodrigues
3rd Place (Tie): “Female Exploitation in Heaven and Earth and Good Morning, Vietnam!’” by Dan Riordan, West Kingston and “The Future Is Now: The Coen Brothers as Postmodern Filmmakers” by Kevin Curtis, North Kingstown
Honorable Mention: “Dreams Deferred: Billy Wilders Double Indemnity, Sunset Boulevard, and Stalag 17” by Jennifer Hurtubise, Warwick; “Surrealist Influences in the Films of the Brothers Quay” by Robert George, Westerly
Open
1st Place: A Photograph, Dan Riordan, West Kingston
2nd Place: Commercial for Public Access, Joseph Simonetti, Narragansett
3rd Place: Isis, Matt Paquin, Wakefield
Honorable Mention: Untitled, Tara Cavanaugh, Providence
For information, contact: Mary Conlon, festival director at 874-9016 or cvideofilms.com/festival