The votes are in, the winners have been announced for this year’s AFI FEST 2015 presented by Audi. This year’s AFI FEST program featured 130 films (77 features, 53 shorts), representing 45 countries.
AFI FEST 2015 Trivia
There were (5) Galas/Tributes, (8)Special Screenings, (9) American Independents, (11) New Auteurs, (29) World Cinema, (3) Midnight, (5) Breakthrough, (5) Cinema’s Legacy, (2) Presentations and (53) Shorts.
There were 38 films directed/co-directed by women: 17 documentaries, 10 official Best Foreign Language Film Oscar® submissions and 10 animated short films.
Honored
The Jury Awards honors works from the New Auteurs section of 11 films from first and second-time feature film directors, and the Shorts section. The Audience Award winners were selected from 54 films in American Independents, Breakthrough, New Auteurs and World Cinema sections.
The New Auteurs Grand Jury Award was presented to LAND AND SHADE, DISORDER received a Special Jury Mention for Direction, and DESDE ALLÁ received a Special Jury Mention for Screenplay.
BOYS received the Grand Jury Award for Live Action Short, and WORLD OF TOMORROW received the Grand Jury Award for Animated Short.
This year’s Audience Award recipients in the New Auteurs, World Cinema and Breakthrough sections included MUSTANG, JAMES WHITE and MA. The full list of winners is below.
NEW AUTEURS AWARDS
This year’s New Auteurs jury was comprised of Inkoo Kang (TheWrap), Sheri Linden (The Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times) and Nigel M. Smith (The Guardian).
New Auteurs Grand Jury Award: LAND AND SHADE (DIR César Augusto Acevedo)
Jury Statement: “For its visual eloquence, formal rigor and emotional power, the New Auteurs Grand Jury Award goes to LAND AND SHADE. Its observations of economic exploitation and environmental degradation are as incisive as its characters are fully realized. Writer/director César Augusto Acevedo’s debut feature is an indelible portrait of a family in rural Colombia, told with unwavering compassion and Bressonian grace.”
Special Jury Mention for Direction: DISORDER (DIR Alice Winocour)
Jury Statement: “For the taut and muscular direction of her viscerally entertaining thriller DISORDER, the jury recognizes writer/director Alice Winocour with a Special Jury Mention. Through precise execution of her material, Winocour subverts expectations commonly associated with genre films to deliver a bracing experience that stuns and surprises.”
Special Jury Mention for Screenplay: DESDE ALLÁ (DIR/SCR Lorenzo Vigas)
Jury Statement: “A tense, sensitive and unpredictable exploration of an improbable but emotionally believable relationship, the screenplay for DESDE ALLÁ merits a Special Jury Mention for its heartbreaking characters and its keen insights into the prejudices, alienation, social divides and desperate need for control that allow love to both bloom and wither.”
GRAND JURY AWARDS, LIVE ACTION AND ANIMATED SHORT
Grand Jury winners in the Shorts categories are eligible for Academy Award® consideration. This year’s Shorts Jury featured filmmaker Janicza Bravo, producer Keith Calder and the British Film Commission’s Tara Halloran.
Grand Jury Award for Live Action Short: BOYS (DIR Isabella Carbonell)
Jury Statement: “This film tackles the abominable with courage, confidence and dignity. It shows us humanity in the places where we would least expect to find it.”
Grand Jury Award for Animated Short: WORLD OF TOMORROW (DIR Don Hertzfeldt)
Jury Statement: “Funny. Scary. Heartbreaking. Original. And beautiful. This film hit us all hard.”
Live Action Short Special Mention for Innovative Storytelling: RATE ME (DIR Fyzal Boulifa)
Jury Statement: “This film pushes the boundaries not only of filmmaking technique but also social convention.”
Live Action Short Special Mention for Nonfiction Filmmaking: The Reagan Shorts — RONALD REAGAN LIGHTS THE LIGHTS, RONALD REAGAN PARDONS A TURKEY, MARYLAND PUBLIC TELEVISION INTERVIEWS THE REAGANS (DIR Pacho Velez)
Jury Statement: “By selecting and editing these gems from years worth of archival footage, these shorts shine a light on the marriage of politics and performance.”
Animated Short Special Jury Mention for Screenwriting: TEETH (DIRS Tom Brown, Daniel Gray)
Jury Statement: “This film has many merits, but we were struck most by its sharp wit, character and spirit.”
Animated Short Special Jury Mention for Creative Vision: MANOMAN (DIR Simon Cartwright)
Jury Statement: “This film creates a world unlike any we’ve seen before. It was a privilege to have been invited in.”
AUDIENCE AWARDS
World Cinema Audience Award: LANDFILL HARMONIC (DIRS Brad Allgood, Graham Townsley, Juliana Penaranda-Loftus)
New Auteurs Audience Award: MUSTANG (DIR Deniz Gamze Ergüven)
American Independents Audience Award: JAMES WHITE (DIR Josh Mond)
Breakthrough Audience Award: MA (DIR Celia Rowlson-Hall)
FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
World Premieres of BY THE SEA (DIR Angelina Jolie Pitt), Centerpiece Gala film CONCUSSION (DIR Peter Landesman) and Closing Night Gala film THE BIG SHORT (DIR Adam McKay); a Tribute to 45 YEARS stars Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay; Conversations with director Ridley Scott (THE MARTIAN), actor Benicio Del Toro (SICARIO), director Sarah Gavron and writer Abi Morgan (SUFFRAGETTE), actor Michael Caine and director Paolo Sorrentino (YOUTH) and director Scott Cooper and star Johnny Depp (BLACK MASS); and the Indie Contenders Roundtable, which included writer/director Ramin Bahrani (99 HOMES), actress Blythe Danner (I’LL SEE YOU IN MY DREAMS), actress Saoirse Ronan (BROOKLYN), actor Jason Segel (THE END OF THE TOUR), actress Sarah Silverman (I SMILE BACK), actress Lily Tomlin (GRANDMA) and actress Olivia Wilde (MEADOWLAND).
International Films
Many international film artists attended the festival this year, including CHEVALIER director Athina Rachel Tsangari; CHRONIC director Michel Franco and star Tim Roth; DHEEPAN director Jacques Audiard; OUR LITTLE SISTER director Hirokazu Kore-eda and actress Kiki Kirin; QUEEN OF THE DESERT director Werner Herzog; as well as many artists representing Oscar® entries, including director Pablo Trapero, producer Matias Mosteirin with actors Guillermo Francella and Peter Lanzani (THE CLAN, Argentina); actor Alejandro Goic (THE CLUB, Chile); director Jayro Bustamante with producers Pilar Peredo and Edgard Tenenbaum (IXCANUL, Guatemala); director Deniz Gamze Ergüven, producer Charles Gillibert, screenwriter Alice Winocour with cast members Günes Sensoy, Doga Zeynep Doguslu, Elit Iscan, Tugba Sunguroglu and Ilayda Akdogan (MUSTANG, France); director Grímur Hákonarson (RAMS, Iceland); director László Nemes, cinematographer Mátyás Erdély and star Géza Röhrig (SON OF SAUL, Hungary); and director Tobias Lindholm, producer Rene Ezra and star Pilou Asbæk (A WAR, Denmark).
About AFI FEST presented by Audi
A program of the American Film Institute, AFI FEST presented by Audi is a celebration of global cinema and today’s Hollywood — a showcase for the best festival films of the year and an opportunity for master filmmakers and emerging artists to come together with audiences in the movie capital of the world. AFI FEST is the only festival of its stature that is free to the public. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognizes AFI FEST as a qualifying festival for the Live Action and Animated Short Film categories for the annual Academy Awards®. AFI FEST will take place November 5–12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings and Galas will be held at the historic TCL Chinese Theatre, the TCL Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt. Additional information about AFI FEST is available at AFI.com/AFIFEST. Connect with AFI FEST at facebook.com/AFIFEST, twitter.com/AFIFEST and youtube.com/AFIFEST.
