Best in Animation--
Another Dress, Another Button by Lyn Elliot ofthe USA "a stop-motion animation exploring the plight of the sparebuttons: carefully saved, but never used."
Honorable mention went to The Quiet Life, by USA's Timothy Hittle, a clay-mation film 10 years in themaking.
Best in Experimental--
The Olympian by GeraldPesta, USA, inter-cutting an 1894 Edison film of Eugene Sandow with a 1996video of Dorian Yates, offering insight into the evolution of body-building and the motion picture art form over 102 years."
Best in Documentary--
USA's Chithra Jeyaram's Mijo "an evocative portrayal of a mother and a child's intimate relationship in the midst of life-altering medical events".
Honorable mention: local filmmaker Owen Roth for his documentary "about the growing slack line community in Humboldt County", titled Humboldt Slackers. (The sport was a YouTube sensation after Madonna featured professional slackliner "Slacker Andy" Lewis--founding member of Humboldt Slackers and Valedictorian ofHumboldt State's 2008 graduating class--doing gymnastic stunts on a slackline during her Super Bowl performance.)
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| Madonna Super Bowl 46 Halftime Show Tightrope - Slackliner |
Best in Narrative--
Queen directed by USA's Adam Rose: the story of Nikki Holiday, masterfully acted by Ryan Eggold--whoalso wrote, directed, and produced another finalist in the narrative category--a drag queen cabaret star, who "looks to fill the void in her life. ..after her plans to start a family fall apart".
Honorable mention went to German entry Ab Morgen by Raphael Wallner and Stefan Elsenbruch about a critically ill man who receives the kidney of a living donor and now "fights the circumstances of being responsible for the donor's death".
Best of Fest--
Austrian Peter Bruenner's film In Our Hands, about "a train ride from L.A. to San Diego. . .each passenger has a different story, but they are all headed for the same abruptend."
