May 2, 2012
Festival
San Francisco, CA – This evening the 55th San Francisco International Film Festival, presented by the San Francisco Film Society, announced the juried Golden Gate Award winners, New Directors Prize winner and FIPRESCI Prize winner at a ceremony held at Rasselas Jazz Club and Restaurant in the historic Fillmore district. This year the Festival awarded over $70,000 in prizes to emerging and established filmmakers from nine countries around the globe.
Golden Gate Award Documentary Feature Winners
Documentary Feature: It’s the Earth Not the Moon, Gonçalo Tocha (Portugal 2011)
• Winner receives $20,000 cash prize
Honorable Mention: Meanwhile in Mamelodi, Benjamin Kahlmeyer (Germany/South Africa 2011)
Bay Area Documentary Feature: The Waiting Room, Peter Nicks (USA 2011)
• Winner receives $15,000 cash prize and $2,000 lab services from EFILM Digital Laboratories.
New Directors Prize: Policeman, Nadav Lapid (Israel 2011)
• Winner receives $15,000 cash prize
Honorable Mention: OK, Enough, Goodbye., Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia (Lebanon/UAE 2010)
FIPRESCI Prize: The Exchange, Eran Kolirin (Israel/Germany 2011)
Golden Gate Award Short Film Winners
Narrative Short: Surveillant, Yan Giroux (Canada 2011)
• Winner receives $5,000 cash prize
Documentary Short: I’m Never Afraid!, Willem Baptist (Netherlands 2011)
• Winner receives $5,000 cash prize
Animated Short: Belly, Julia Pott (England 2011)
• Winner receives $2,000 cash prize
Bay Area Short, First Prize: Aquadettes, Zackary Canepari, Drea Cooper (USA 2011)
• Winner receives $2,000 cash prize
Bay Area Short, Second Prize: Workers Leaving the Googleplex, Andrew Norman Wilson (USA 2011)
• Winner receives $1,500 cash prize
New Visions: 20Hz, Ruth Jarman, Joseph Gerhardt (England 2011)
• Winner receives $1,500 cash prize
Family Film: The Storyteller, Nandita Jain (England 2011)
• Winner receives $1,500 cash prize
Family Film Honorable Mention: The Vacuum Kid, Katie Mahalic (USA 2011)
Youth Work: Metro, Eric Brownrout, Nick Escobar (USA 2011)
• Winner receives $1,500 cash prize
Youth Work Honorable Mention: Life as a Collage, Forrest Penrod (USA 2011)
For tickets and information visit festival.sffs.org.
For film stills, go here.
For photos from the Golden Gate Awards event, go here (starting noon 5/3)
55th San Francisco International Film Festival
The 55th San Francisco International Film Festival runs April 19-May 3 at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas, the Castro Theatre, SF Film Society Cinema and SFMOMA in San Francisco and the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley. Held each spring for 15 days, the International is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in one of the country’s most beautiful cities, featuring 200 films and live events, 14 juried awards and $70,000 in cash prizes, upwards of 100 participating filmmaker guests and diverse and engaged audiences with more than 70,000 people in attendance.