I attended SXSW for the first time for a good reason: I was invited to be part of the festival's Documentary Competition jury, alongside Aisha Harris and Jen Yamato. We saw eight films, all of them good (or better), and had a happily painless deliberation as we selected our top prize, as well as two special jury awards.
Our winner was Shuffle, which opens the door to another reason why you should hate the way this country treats addiction. We also gave shout-outs to The Python Hunt and Remaining Native, two portraits of under-seen sections of America that are illuminating in different ways.
You can read our write-ups here, as well as check out the winners in other section. Thanks for having me, Austin.
I'm very happy to say that I'll be part of the New Auteurs jury at this year's AFI Fest. And I'm especially pleased to be in such good company alongside Alonso Duralde, Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson. It looks like a great slate, as always. Looking forward to seeing what else is added to the festival's program in the next week or so.
On Sunday, the Los Angeles Film Festival revealed this year's prize winners, which included audience awards and jury prizes. (You can see all the winners here.)
I was part of the short film jury with Sandi Tan and David Fenster. Before the festival, I had not met either of them, but I couldn't have asked for better folks to spend a few days watching and debating movies with. We had such a fun time.
As for our picks, we were pretty much in complete agreement, and I'm quite pleased with our choices. Below are the descriptions we wrote for our winners....
Best Animated or Experimental Short
Several
of the animated shorts at this year's festival were inventive and
startling, but our winner was a truly exceptional piece of work. This
humorous, moving and ultimately sublime short tells a story of life,
death, and rebirth with wobbly thighs, vomit, breastfeeding, space
travel and bunny rabbits … all against the backdrop of a nudist colony.
The winner of Best Animated or Experimental Short is Oh Willy...
Best Narrative Short
Great
storytelling comes in many different forms, and like an ancient koan,
our winner is deceptively simple and surprisingly playful. It features
the epic odyssey of one man, seemingly poised against the forces of
modernity as he advances--silently, deliberately--from day to night,
from tiny alleys to towering skyscraper avenues, across the frenetic
city of Hong Kong. At journey's end, we, too, are transformed by the
sweet moment when denial morphs into glee: Walker from Tsai
Ming-Liang.
Best Documentary Short
Documentaries
can expose us to the world's harsh realities, but they can also reveal
the beauty and mystery of the everyday. The latter is very true in the
case of our winner for Best Documentary Short, which is only seven
minutes long
but is filled with character detail and suspense. Consisting of only
one shot, this short introduces us to an unnamed street hustler as he
bets onlookers that they can't find the ball hidden underneath one of
three caps, our winner is filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson's Stone.
I've been a fan of Kevin Jerome Everson's for a while now, so I was glad to see him win the documentary prize from my jury. (However, I was sad to miss his The Island of St. Matthewsduring the festival.) Picking such an unconventional (but striking) narrative entry was not something we did to be provocative -- we simply liked Walker that much. And as for Oh Willy..., it was my favorite short of the entire festival. Directors Emma de Swaef and Marc James Roels have come up with something rather wondrous. I sincerely hope it's in the running for Best Animated Short at next year's Academy Awards. It's good enough to win, easily. Here's a taste:
I was quite flattered to be asked by David Ansen to serve on the shorts jury for this month's Los Angeles Film Festival. In the last few years, one of my favorite annual traditions has been writing about the Oscar-nominated shorts, which gave me a fresh appreciation for condensed, innovative storytelling. So to be on this particular jury is a treat.
I'll be joined on the jury by author/filmmaker Sandi Tan and filmmaker David Fenster. (You can read more about Ms. Tan here and Mr. Fenster here.)
It's going to be a fun time, and I'm much looking forward to it. For the full announcement of all the juries, here you go. And if you're in Los Angeles, seriously, attend the festival. You'll be glad you did.
The annual COLCOA (City of Lights, City of Angels) festival will be taking place in Los Angeles from April 19-25. As the festival says, it's "A Week of French Film Premieres in Hollywood." I'm proud to say I'll be serving on the jury with four fellow LAFCA members, and our screenings start next week. The slate of COLCOA films is here -- in previous years, they've spotlighted such great films as The Secret of the Grain, Seraphine, Roman de Gare and Manon on the Asphalt.
I'm thrilled and honored to be part of COLCOA, and I'm looking forward to discovering a few gems -- as well as finding out what the super-secret "Blind Date" film that's screening during the festival will be.
