Denver Film Society Announces 38th Denver Film Festival ilms In Competition and Additional Award Recipients

The Denver Film Festival (DFF) announced today the award recipients and films in competition, which totals more than 250 representing 39 countries, at the 38th edition, which runs November 4-15, 2015. The complete lineup of films is available at the newly redesigned denverfilm.org/festival.

The Festival attracts nearly 58,000 film-goers and is widely recognized as the Rocky Mountain Region's premier film event.

In addition to presenting Mia Madre director Nanni Moretti with the Maria & Tommaso Maglione Italian Filmmaker Award and Mia Madre actor John Turturro with the John Cassavetes Award, the Festival will honor Nathaniel Dorsky with the Stan Brakhage Vision Award, Benjamin Dickinson with the Reel Social Club Indie Voice Award andAlex Wolff with the Rising Star Award presented by Rise Above Colorado.

The Denver Film Festival will also welcome Colorado-based writer and director Arnold Grossman with actors Christopher Lloyd and newcomer Tekola Cornetet of Denver for its Special Presentation of The Boat Builder. In this gentle family drama, a grumpy old sailor (Lloyd) wants only to finish building his boat so he can set out to sea. But from local officials to a troubled foster kid, the world keeps intervening to test his determination to make something of his golden years. Friday, November 13, 6:30pm, UA Pavilions

The festival will culminate with the inaugural Denver Film Festival Awards Brunch where attendees will mingle with filmmakers, festival insiders and fellow movie lovers over bottomless mimosas and Bloody Marys for a sit-down affair and presentation. Sunday, November 15, 11:00am, The Curtis Hotel, $55 DFS members / $60 non-members

FILMS IN COMPETITION

 

KRZYSZTOF KIESLOWSKI AWARD FOR BEST FEATURE FILM

  • The Club,directed by Pablo Larraín
  • Embrace of the Serpent,directed by Ciro Guerra
  • Karbala,directed by Krzysztof Lukaszewicz
  • Lamb,directed by Yared Zeleke
  • The Measure of a Man,directed by Stéphane Brizé
  • Rams,directed by Grímur Hákonarson

Juried by: Helen Estabrook, Academy Award-nominated producer; Robb Moss, documentary filmmaker and Chair of Harvard UniversityDepartment of Visual and Environmental StudiesChair; Gary Ungar, Producer/Manager

 

AMERICAN INDEPENDENT NARRATIVE

  • Creative Control,directed by Benjamin Dickinson
  • directed by Rania Attieh, Daniel Garcia
  • Krisha,directed by Trey Edward Shults
  • The Missing Girl,directed by A.D. Calvo
  • Songs My Brothers Taught Me,directed by Chloé Zhao
  • Yosemite,directed by Gabrielle Demeestere

Juried by: Lindsey Bahr, Journalist and Critic at Associated Press; Kerry Bishe, Actress; Stephanie Wilcox, Director of Development and Production for Rumble Films

MAYSLES BROTHERS AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY

  • Help Us Find Sunil Tripathi,directed by Neal Broffman
  • Hitchcock/Truffaut,directed by Kent Jones
  • Once Upon a Crime: The Borrelli-Davis Conspiracy,directed by Sheldon Wilson
  • Sailing a Sinking Sea,directed by Olivia Wyatt
  • The Touch of an Angel,directed by Marek Tomasz Pawlowski
  • War of Lies,directed by Matthias Bittner

Juried by:Davis Coombe, Academy Award-winning Editor; Laura Heberton, Producer; Colin Stanfield,Festival Producer, New York Film Festival at Film Society of Lincoln Center

FIRST LOOK STUDENT COMPETITON

  • Spike Lee Student Filmmaker Award
    • Dixie, directed by Armaan Uplekar
    • From Tonga, directed by Huay-Bing Law
    • Oasis, directed by Niema Jordan, Sara Lafleur-Vetter
    • Out of Order, directed by Nathaniel Shrage
  • Liberty Global International Student Filmmaker Award
    • Disintegration, directed by Álvaro Martín
    • Elegy, directed by Yousef Kargar
    • The Fantastic Love of Beeboy & Flowergirl, directed by Clemens Roth
    • The Holy Cave, directed by Aleix Massot
    • Kafal Pakyo, directed by Niranjan Raj Bhetwal

Juried by: Jenny Bloom, Senior Film Publicist at Prodigy PR; Johnny Simmons, Actor; Randi Kleiner, CEO of SeriesFest

SCREENPLAY COMPETITION

 

Shorts Screenplay Winner

  • Symposiumby Tom Grady

Feature-length Screenplay Winner

  • Memoryby John Benge

Shorts Screenplay Finalists

  • Deviled Eggsby Cody Rea
  • by Assaf Mor
  • Quartersby Peter Nemenoff
  • Supot (Uncircumcised)by Phil Giordano

Feature-length Screenplay Finalists

  • Instead of Godby Tom McCown
  • Mesa Rojaby Mark Williams
  • More Than Loveby Allan Staples
  • The Real Thingby Gar Hoover and Beth Hoover 

Presented by: University of Colorado Denver's Film & Television Program, College of Arts and Media

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