SFFILM News

Announcing the 2017 Golden Gate Award Winners

60th San Francisco International Film Festival

Announcing the 2017 Golden Gate Award Winners

60th San Francisco International Film Festival

Golden Gate Awards New Directors Prize winner: Everything Else, Natalia Almada (Mexico/USA/France)

This year we awarded nearly $40,000 in prizes to emerging and established filmmakers.

For 60 years, the Festival’s Golden Gate Awards have honored deserving filmmakers and their projects, heralding unsung excellence and exposing local and international audiences to unique and innovative filmmaking. Among the most significant awards for emerging global film artists in the United States, the Golden Gate Awards embody SFFILM’s commitment to global storytelling and independent filmmaking.

Drum roll please…

GOLDEN GATE NEW DIRECTORS (NARRATIVE FEATURE) PRIZE

Winner: Everything Else, Natalia Almada (Mexico/USA/France)

The Jury Noted: “For its humanism, its consistency of vision, its formal rigor, and its remarkable blend of fiction and non-fiction, we give the New Directors award to Natalia Almada and her film Everything Else.”

MCBAINE DOCUMENTARY FEATURE AWARDS

Winner: Brimstone & Glory, Viktor Jakovleski (USA)

The Jury Noted: “Spectacular and visceral, dangerous and spiritual, this high flying documentary transports us into the ecstatic rituals of a Mexican town.”

McBaine Bay Area Documentary Feature Award: The Force, Peter Nicks (USA)

“For it’s timely and in-depth examination of the relationship between the police and the community, unafraid to show the complex humanity of all sides of this fraught subject, we give this award to Peter Nicks’ gripping and finely crafted documentary.” -Golden Gate Award Jury

Special Jury Prize: School Life (formerly In Loco Parentis), Neasa Ni Chianeáin, David Rane (Ireland/Spain)

The jury noted: “The jury would like to give a special jury prize to a movie that take us into an eccentric and idyllic world with intuitive grace and a richly empathetic vision.”

GOLDEN GATE AWARDS FOR SHORT FILMS

Best Narrative Short: ***Univitellin***, Terence Nance (France)

LEFT: Special Jury Prize: ***A Brief History of Princess X***, Gabriel Abrantes (Portugal/France/UK) RIGHT: Best Documentary Short: ***The Rabbit Hunt***, Patrick X Bresnan (USA)

Best Animated Short: ***Hot Dog Hands***, Matt Reynolds, (USA)

LEFT: Best New Visions Short: ***Turtles Are Always Home***, Rawane Nassif (Qatar/Lebanon/Canada ) RIGHT: Bay Area Short First Prize: ***In the Wake of Ghost Ship***, Jason Blalock (USA)

Bay Area Short Second Prize winner: ***American Paradise***, Joe Talbot, USA.

Best Narrative Short winner: Univitellin, Terence Nance (France)

Special Jury Prize: A Brief History of Princess X, Gabriel Abrantes (Portugal/France/UK)

Best Documentary Short winner: The Rabbit Hunt, Patrick X Bresnan (USA)

Best Animated Short winner: Hot Dog Hands, Matt Reynolds, (USA)

Best New Visions Short winner: Turtles Are Always Home, Rawane Nassif (Qatar/Lebanon/Canada)

Bay Area Short First Prize winner: In the Wake of Ghost Ship, Jason Blalock (USA)

Bay Area Short Second Prize winner: American Paradise, Joe Talbot, USA.

GOLDEN GATE AWARD FOR FAMILY FILM

The Family Film jury consisted of Common Sense Media Editor-in-chief Jill Murphy, author Jim Averbeck, and educator Alexandre Petrakis.

Best Family Film winner: Valley of a Thousand Hills, Jess Colquhoun (South Africa/UK)

The jury noted :“This film is a moving, refreshing, and unexpected portrait of a section of the culture of South Africa, feeling so far away geographically but so easy to relate to emotionally. We were drawn into the ease and dynamics of the kids’ friendships. The authenticity of the storytelling from its young subjects helped create a deeper connection to the audience. It was hopeful, inspiring, reassuring, and visually stunning. We feel audience members of a wide range of ages can walk away with a lasting impression that captures the simplicity of childhood layered with life lessons on focus, respect, and friendship.”

Special Jury Prize: Summer Camp Island, Julia Pott (USA)

The jury noted: “We want to see more of this and wish it could be turned into a series. We love the quirky originality of the story, animation, and characters.”

GOLDEN GATE AWARD FOR YOUTH WORK

The Youth Works jury was comprised of bay area high school students Ethan Bresnick, Shamaurea Sanford, and Melinna Equihua, with adult supervisor Jill Shackleford, Associate Producer of KQED’s Film School Shorts.

Winner: Cycle, Caleb Wild (USA)

The jury noted: “Cycle presented an honest portrait of a young man coming-of-age that examined his character beyond the typical tropes of masculinity, offering viewers an engaging journey that felt personal and surprising with strong cinematography.”

GOOGLE BREAKTHROUGH IN TECHNOLOGY AWARD

The Google Breakthrough in Technology Award jury was comprised of members of Google’s Computer Science in Media and Industry Relations teams, including Courtney McCarthy, Strategist in Computer Science in Media, and Julia Hamilton Trost, Account Executive, Google Media Sales.

Google presents the Breakthrough in Technology Award for the best use or display of technology and innovation. The award honors filmmakers who go the extra mile to highlight the use of technology to solve a problem and make the world a better place, and aspires to promote diversity in tech while disrupting negative stereotypes in STEM fields.

Winner: N.O.VI.S., Arthur Rodger ‘Harley’ Maranan (Philippines)

N.O.VI.S., Arthur Rodger ‘Harley’ Maranan (Philippines)

60th San Francisco International Film Festival
The longest-running film festival in the Americas, the San Francisco International Film Festival (SFFILM Festival) is an extraordinary showcase of cinematic discovery and innovation in one of the country’s most beautiful cities. The 60th edition runs April 5–19 at venues across the Bay Area and features nearly 200 films and live events, 12 juried awards with close to $40,000 in cash prizes, and upwards of 100 participating filmmaker guests.

SFFILM
Presenter of the San Francisco International Film Festival, SFFILM is a year-round nonprofit organization delivering screenings and events to more than 100,000 film lovers and media education programs to more than 10,000 students and teachers annually. In addition to its public programs, SFFILM supports the careers of independent filmmakers from the Bay Area and beyond with grants, residencies, and other creative development services.

For more information visit sffilm.org.

A Statement Regarding the Proposed Elimination of Federal Arts Funding

A STATEMENT REGARDING THE PROPOSED ELIMINATION OF FEDERAL ARTS FUNDING

A budget proposed by the President of the United States has called for the elimination of the National Endowment For The Arts.

A STATEMENT REGARDING THE PROPOSED ELIMINATION OF FEDERAL ARTS FUNDING

A budget proposed by the President of the United States has called for the elimination of the National Endowment For The Arts.

While SFFILM will not be materially affected by any reduction or elimination of the NEA, It will have a profound effect on our many sibling organizations upon whom we rely as programming and marketing partners in the Bay Area, especially those who provide arts learning for young people and access to art and artists in underserved communities. The elimination of cultural funding dramatically undermines the bonds that make our communities strong and must be opposed.

It is also important to note that these proposed cuts are clearly motivated by political animus. That is a terrifying idea. When people in power seek to silence the creative voices that contextualize our sociopolitical life that is an attack on democracy itself.

Furthermore, the stated arguments for the elimination of the NEA are highly troubling. To deny the full potential of a child’s imagination or to suggest that people living in certain communities have less need of cultural sustenance as a direct trade-off against spending on tanks and bombs can only be characterized as morally repugnant.

We join with our peers to oppose this terrible proposal and call for the full funding of the National Endowment For The Arts to be maintained in the coming federal budget.

Noah Cowan
Executive Director
SFFILM — The 60th San Francisco International Film Festival

The Force was With Peter Nicks at the Sundance Film Festival

THE FORCE WAS WITH PETER NICKS @ SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

A Note From The Doc Director

THE FORCE WAS WITH PETER NICKS @ SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

A Note From The Doc Director

*Peter Nicks wins the Directing Award in the Documentary category at Sundance Film Festival*

I remember the first time I went to Sundance. It was 1999. I was a young film student and my head was exploding at all the films taking their first step out into the world: American Movie, On The Ropes, Regret To Inform, Three Seasons, Tumbleweeds. But what really made it special was seeing Jon Else win the filmmaker’s trophy for Sing Faster: A Stagehand’s Ring Cycle. It was in that moment that the seed was planted.

In the intervening years I attended the festival, but never with a film. In 2012 I submitted my first feature documentary THE WAITING ROOM, but didn’t make the cut. I knew many worthy films didn’t make it in, but still, I wondered what it would be like to stand on the stage at the Egyptian or the Temple. When I finally got the call I was in my garden, pulling weeds in between wrestling with a cut of my new film THE FORCE, a film that resisted completion at every turn. Sundance programmers Caroline Libresco and Harry Vaughn were on the phone. I immediately knew I had gotten into Sundance.

There were tears, disbelief…and then excitement. I was finally going to Sundance!

The festival was the culmination of years of work to develop my craft. And it was to a large extent the result of my 5-year collaboration with producer Linda Davis and editor Lawrence Lerew that began with THE WAITING ROOM. They were not just collaborators. They were difference makers. And then there was Dave Eisenberg and Lois Vossen at ITVS and Independent Lens again by my side again as co-producers. And of course it was no accident that Jon Else, who inspired me so many years before — and had become my mentor & friend — was now my executive producer. This is how the film got into Sundance.

The days and nights of the fest were long, and sometimes stressful. A record amount of snow was dumped on this ordinarily sleepy mountain town. I fought off a threatening cold with liberal doses of Dayquil, which seemed to contain magical qualities. My wife Vanna, daughter Karina and son Paolo came for a visit at just the right time, giving me the perspective to understand that we do not do this alone. And then it happened. I was on stage accepting the prize for best director.

These are some of the people and the memories that will sustain me for the remainder of my career. This business of independent filmmaker is brutal, unforgiving and fulfilling beyond description. And as we turn our attention down the road we’re excited to think how special the homecoming will be at the San Francisco Film Festival in April. See you then!

Best,

Pete

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