Lone Star Film Fest announces competition winners, honorees

by PegNews wire

Nirvana receives the Grand Jury Prize for best feature. (Bliss out, Igor Volshin.)

The second annual Lone Star International Film Festival (LSIFF) will be water under the bridge after tonight's die-hard screenings, and the organizing committee has just revealed the judges' decisions as to the winning films and filmmakers.

courtesy LSIFF

From left to right: Dennis Bishop, festival director; Eric Bricker, dir. of Visual Acoustics; Andrei Zvyagintsev, dir. of The Banishment; Bobbie Wygant, honorary festival chair; Tom Copeland, Lone Star Commitment to Texas honoree; Clay Liford, dir. of My Mom Smokes Weed; Melonie Diaz, Lone Star Rising Star honoree; Alec Jhangiani, programming dir.; and John Storm, managing dir.

Igor Volshin’s Nirvana took the trophy (and a nifty, Remingtonesque-looking one it is - see photo) for Best Narrative Feature, while a Special Jury Prize was awarded to Tom Quinn's The New Year Parade.

Visual Acoustics - The Modernism of Julius Shulman, the documentary by Eric Bricker which we profiled on Friday, won in the documentary category (appropriately enough).

Andrei Zvyagintsev's The Banishment took home the statue for Best Foreign Language Film.

The Shorts Jury Prize went to Clay Liford, for his My Mom Smokes Weed, with a Special Jury Prize going to Alex Beh for Sugar.

The awards ceremony - hosted by the Worthington Hotel - also saw the presentation of the Lone Star Rising Star Award to Melonie Diaz, who was recognized for her work in films such as Cathering Hardwicke's Lords of Dogtown, Dito Montiel's A Guide to Recognizing your Saints, Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind, and Spencer Parson's I'll Come Running - the last of which screened at the festival following the awards ceremony.

Michael Cain, head honcho of AFI Dallas, presented the LSIFF Life Achievement Award to Sidney Lumet, who was unable to attend due to illness. A couple of his classic films - 12 Angry Men and Network - screened during the festival.

The Lone Star Commitment to Texas Award was presented to Tom Copeland, who was recognized by festival director Dennis Bishop for - among other things - his 20+ years working with the Texas Film Commission (including ten years as its director).

Character actor, director and Fort Worth resident Matt Clark introduced honorary festival chair Bobby Wygant, who received a "standing o" from the crowd as she accepted recognition for her years of legendary film criticism and TV broadcast service and her enthusiastic support of the LSIFF.

Said festival director Bishop re. the second annual LSIFF: “The success of the second year of a film festival traditionally is looked upon as a key to how well it will proceed for the coming years. By that standard, and as evidenced by the level of filmmaking talent we enjoyed this year, the enthusiasm of our sponsors, and the strength of our support within the Fort Worth community, the Lone Star International Film Festival will have a long and exciting life ahead of it.”

Here's wishing them all the best for next year's fest.

posted by JM / source: LSIFF