by John P. Meyer

It was the last red carpet of the 2009 festival. (Except for the one scheduled for Friday.)

The winners of the various AFI Dallas film competitions were announced while I was processing the images from this evening's (April 2) red carpet shoot at NorthPark, which means I'll have plenty of text to post here as accompaniment to the photo gallery.

This past week has been a lot of fun, and I've met a lot of wonderful people, as usual - a good many of them associated with the AFI Dallas festival organizing team itself.

It's also been a hectic week - and, as the saying goes, "it ain't over 'til it's over," with lots more festivities scheduled for tomorrow's Texas Day celebration.

Courtesy AFI Dallas

James Faust (Director of Programming), Peter Callahan (Director, AGAINST THE CURRENT), Ali Pflaum (Production Coordinator, CRUDE), Jacqueline Lustig (Associate Producer, SUDDENLY LAST WINTER), John Chester (Director, ROCK PROPHECIES), David Lowery (Director, ST. NICK), Sarah Harris (Senior Programmer)

Winning in the Narrative Feature category, and taking home the $25,000 Target Filmmaker Award, was Gigantic.

Prom Night in Mississippi takes the Target Filmmaker Award for Best Documentary Feature, also walking off with $25,000.

St. Nick came out on top for the MPS Studios Texas Filmmaker Award (which confers $20,000 in cash, goods and services).

Crude garnered $10,000 for winning the Current Energy Filmmaker Award

The winners in the Best Short Film, Student Short and Animated Short categories are Princess Margaret Blvd., Hug and Chicken Cowboy, respectively.

• Staff
• Verified User
• Anonymous

Russ Vandeveerdonk, says:

Actor Louis Gossett Jr.at AFI,...his best film was,...THE DEEP, in my opinion.

Verified

10 months, 1 week ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

jtmbls, says:

I don't see how you do it John. I am exhausted and I didn't have any deadlines to meet.

Interesting first time experience. There is a learning curve to the festival and a considerable amount of time spent navigating that curve. Then once you have it all plotted out, new and more exciting information comes along and changes your course completely.

My goal was to provide a fun and interesting networking opportunity for my daughter who is a first year film student. To that end, it was well worth the effort. Some really cool people took the time to share bits of wisdom and now she has some direction (and some names in her virtual rolodex) come time for a summer internship. I think she realized for the first time the true breadth of this industry.

As for me, I didn't get to see any of the films I wanted to except for Haze. Saw a couple I didn’t plan on seeing. But really, what film could beat watching your own child stand and knock at the door of possibility?

Anonymous

10 months, 1 week ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

John Meyer, says:

<p>jtmbls, you have just imparted all the wisdom people need to know about "festing" - go with the flow, and enjoy what you end up experiencing.</p>

<p>Planning ahead (and then actually expecting to stick to one's plan) is a fool's errand.</p>

<p>And I am pooped. It was fun, but I'm glad it's over. (For this year.)</p>

Staff

10 months, 1 week ago
Link to this comment | Suggest removal

What do you think?

If you enter anything in this field your comment will be treated as spam:

Comment: